Rudolf Wagner-Régeny

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wagner-Régeny (left) 1955 next to Fritz Wisten , Slatan Dudow and Johannes R. Becher (from left to right)

Rudolf Wagner-Régeny (born August 28, 1903 in Sächsisch Regen , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary , † September 18, 1969 in East Berlin ) was a German composer and professor of Transylvanian-Saxon origin.

biography

Commemorative plaque on house Adlergestell 253, in Berlin-Adlershof

Wagner-Régeny was born in 1903 as the son of a businessman in the Transylvanian Saxon Regen . He attended high school in Sighișoara (Schässburg). His musical talent showed up early on. As a child he played the piano very well .

He began his studies in 1919 at the Leipzig Conservatory with Robert Teichmüller , Stephan Krehl and Otto Lohse and continued from 1920 to 1923 at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin-Charlottenburg with Franz Schreker , Siegfried Ochs , Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek , Rudolf Krasselt and Friedrich Ernst Koch away. From 1923 he was married to the painter and sculptor Léli Duperrex . From 1923 to 1925 he worked as a répétiteur at the Volksoper Berlin . From 1925 to 1926 he worked as a member of the musical advisory board for talkies and from 1926 to 1929 he traveled as composer and conductor of the ballet group of the Hungarian dancer and choreographer Rudolf von Laban through Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria. In 1930 he took on German citizenship , having had Hungarian since birth and Romanian since 1919. From 1930 to 1945 he lived as a freelance composer and gave composition and theory lessons.

In 1929 he got to know the set designer and librettist Caspar Neher , with whom he worked on friendly terms until his death in 1962. With him he wrote several great operas , such as Der Favorling (after Maria Tudor by Victor Hugo , translated by Georg Büchner ), which was premiered on February 20, 1935 at the Semperoper in Dresden under the direction of Karl Böhm with Marta Fuchs as Maria Tudor . This opera was his greatest public success and performed on 100 stages by 1942. This was followed by Die Bürger von Calais , first performed on January 28, 1939 at the Berlin State Opera under Herbert von Karajan and Johanna Balk , first performed on April 4, 1941 at the Vienna State Opera . In 1943 he was drafted into military service.

From 1947 to 1950 Wagner-Régeny was rector of the Rostock University of Music , which later became the Rostock University of Music and Theater . The Rostock Conservatory Rudolf Wagner-Régeny was later named after him. He then became professor of composition at the newly founded Hochschule für Musik Berlin and head of a master class at the Academy of Arts of the GDR , of which he was a member. The Academy of Arts Berlin (West) and the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts also counted him among their members. During his time in Berlin he wrote three other great operas, such as Das Bergwerk zu Falun based on Hugo von Hofmannsthal , which premiered in 1961 at the Salzburg Festival . He also wrote impressive cantatas such as Genesis and the scenic oratorio Prometheus (based on Aeschylus and Goethe), which premiered on September 12, 1959 at the opening of the new Kassel Opera House .

Gravestone in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin

His grave is in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin, where Paul Dessau , Hanns Eisler and many other prominent artists found their final resting place.

meaning

The style and habitus of his music-dramatic works are based on the tradition of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill . The focus of his compositional work is the opera. Wagner-Régeny is concerned with effect and achieves it through the use of a wide variety of musical means. Together with Boris Blacher , Hans Werner Henze , Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Paul Dessau he wrote Die Jüdische Chronik , which is available in a record production under Herbert Kegel . At times he has also dealt with the twelve-tone technique . As a university professor, he trained several generations of composers.

Awards

Works (selection)

Stage works
  • Moschopuls , 1928 Gera
  • The Naked King , 1928 Gera
  • Sganarelle or Appearances are deceiving , 1929 Essen
  • La Sainte Courtisane , 1930 Gera
  • The favorite , 1935 Dresden
  • The citizens of Calais , 1939 Berlin
  • Johanna Balk , 1941 Vienna
  • The victim , 1941 Sibiu
  • Prometheus , 1959 Kassel
  • The mine in Falun , 1961 Salzburg
  • Persian episode , 1963 Rostock
Instrumental music
  • Midsummer Night's Dream Music, 1935
  • Orchestral music with piano, 1935
  • String Quartet, 1948
  • Two dances for Palucca, 1950
  • Three Orchestral Pieces Mythological Figurines, 1951
  • Three orchestral movements, 1952
  • Seven Fugues, 1953
  • Introduction and ode for symphonic orchestra, 1967
Vocal music
  • 10 songs based on texts by Brecht, 1950
  • Cantata “Genesis”, 1956
  • Jewish Chronicle, 1961
  • Hermann Hesse songs “Songs of Farewell”, 1968/69
  • Three Fontane songs, 1969
Autobiographical
  • Encounters. Edited by Tilo Medek , 1968
  • Memories and Notes (1943–65). [From the archive of the Academy of Arts]. In: Sinn und Form 1/2010, pp. 92–121

Student (selection)

literature

  • Max Becker: Rudolf Wagner-Régeny . In: Contemporary Composers (KDG). Edition Text & Criticism, Munich 1996, ISBN 978-3-86916-164-8 .
  • Wagner-Régeny, Rudolf. In: Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon. CD-ROM. Directmedia Publishing, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89853-438-3 , p. 11188 f.
  • Dieter Härtwig : Rudolf Wagner-Régeny. In: Dietrich Brennecke, Hannelore Gerlach, Mathias Hansen (eds.): Musicians in our time. Members of the music section of the GDR Academy of the Arts. Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1979, p. 72 ff.
  • Christoph Schwandt : Servant of two dictatorships - the composer Rudolf Wagner-Régeny. I: n The power of sounds - music as a means of establishing political identity in the 20th century. Ed. Von Tillmann Bendikowski u. a. Münster 2003, pp. 98-104.
  • Torsten Musial:  Wagner-Régeny, Rudolf . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Fabian Zerhau: “The citizens of Calais” and the willingness to sacrifice. In: Claudia Maurer Zenck (ed.): New operas in the “Third Reich”. Successes and failures. Waxmann, Münster 2016, pp. 208-252.

Documents

Letters from Rudolf Wagner-Régeny are in the holdings of the Leipzig music publisher CF Peters in the Leipzig State Archives .

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Wagner-Regeny  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wagner-Régeny, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German composer of Romanian origin
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Saxon Rain , Kingdom of Hungary , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH 18th September 1969
Place of death East Berlin