Rudolf Krasselt

Rudolf Krasselt (ca.1903)

Rudolf Krasselt (born January 1, 1879 in Baden-Baden ; † April 12, 1954 in Andernach ) was a German cellist , conductor and director of the Hanover Opera House during the Weimar Republic and during the National Socialist era .

Life

Rudolf Krasselt grew up as the son of the concert master of the Baden-Baden Symphony Orchestra Georg Krasselt . His brother was the violin virtuoso, concertmaster and conductor Alfred Krasselt (1872–1908). Rudolf Krasselt has played the cello since he was 9 years old. He was principal cellist of the Vienna Court Opera Orchestra (and the Vienna Philharmonic ) under Gustav Mahler , principal cellist of the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch and from 1903 to 1904 principal cellist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra .

From 1911 to 1913 he was the first conductor of the opera house in Kiel and in 1913 took over the management of the German opera house in Berlin-Charlottenburg as the first conductor. There he also led a Kapellmeister class as a professor at the Staatl. Music college. On April 1, 1924, he became general music director at the Hanover Opera House and at the beginning of the new 1924/1925 season he was opera director and in 1934 opera director. At the instigation of the Nazi regime, he went into (pre-) retirement on July 11, 1943. In the final phase of the Second World War , Adolf Hitler added him to the God-gifted list of the most important conductors in August 1944 , which saved Krasselt from being deployed in the war, including on the home front .

Act

Coming from orchestral practice, Krasselt combined conducting brilliance with accuracy, a sense of responsibility and authority in the best sense of the word; Things that he also passed on to his students. Others have Kurt Weill , Ernst Krenek , Berthold Goldschmidt , Günter Raphael , John pupil , Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and Mark Lothar learned the conducting at the Berlin Music Academy with him.

In Hanover he built together with the senior game manager Dr. Hans Winckelmann , the chief set designer Kurt Söhnlein, the concertmaster Max Ladscheck, who had followed him from Berlin, and the two band masters Arno Grau and Johannes Schüler put together a management team in such a way that the Hanover City Opera was one of the five best opera houses in Germany in just a few years. The approaching modern dance was represented by the ballet greats Yvonne Georgi and Harald Kreutzberg , whom Krasselt knew how to skillfully tie to the house. This was joined by a world-famous singer ensemble, in which Tiana Lemnitz , Emmy Sack, Carl Hauss, Peter Anders , Josef Correck, Willy Schöneweiss, Wilhelm Patsche and Otto Köhler sang. Mindful of the constant expansion of the repertoire, Krasselt has brought all the essentials onto the program, whereby the systematic maintenance of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's complete oeuvre brought the Hanoverian opera house sensational successes. When a smear campaign against the concertmaster Max Ladscheck (1889-1970) for alleged anti-Nazi statements was started, Krasselt stood up for him and made himself forever unpopular with the Nazis. Although he was equally valued at home and abroad, he was retired in July 1943, although shortly before he had conducted Wagner's " Ring des Nibelungen " as the first German - French joint production at the Paris Opera . After Krasselt had said goodbye in Hanover - showered with ovations that lasted for hours - with Richard Wagner's “ Walküre ”, the “fire magic” became a symbol: just a few days later, the Hanover Opera House sank to rubble and ashes in a bomb attack. Krasselt's successor in office, the staunch National Socialist Gustav Rudolf Sellner and his general music director Mathieu Lange , stood in front of the smoking ruins of the once proud opera house with its acclaimed acoustics when taking office.

Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Sellner and Lange voluntarily resigned from their contracts. Krasselt was rehabilitated immediately and was available as a guest at the Hanover Opera House until 1951.

literature

• Hannoversche Zeitung. July 12, 1943, p. 4
• The Lower Saxony State Orchestra Hanover 1636–1986. Schlütersche Verlagbuchhandlung, 1986, ISBN 3-87706-041-2 .
• Heiko Bockstiegel: Gentlemen, do you know the piece? Memories of German-speaking conductors of the 20th century and their work in opera and concert life in Germany. Wolfratshausen, Grimm 1996, ISBN 3-9802695-2-3 , pp. 133-136.
• Claus Harms: Standards for Hanover's opera. HAZ from 30./31. December 1979
• Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Dieter Brosius: History of the city of Hanover. Volume 2. Schlütersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Hanover 1994, ISBN 3-87706-364-0 ( limited preview in the Google book search).

Web links

• Rudolf Krasselt in the Bavarian Musicians' Lexicon Online (BMLO)
• Entry in the personal database of the Baden-Württemberg State Bibliography

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Oliver Rathkolb : Loyal to the Führer and God-Grace. Artist elite in the Third Reich . Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-215-07490-7 , p. 176.