Walter Goehr

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Goehr (born May 28, 1903 in Berlin , † December 4, 1960 in Sheffield ) was a German conductor and composer who emigrated to England.

Life

Walter Goehr first studied with Ernst Krenek and was then from 1925 to 1928 master class with Arnold Schönberg at the Prussian Academy in Berlin . At the same time, he was already working as a conductor for the Berlin radio from 1925 . In 1932 Goehr lost this job because of his Jewish origins. He then received the post of music director at the Gramophone Company (later EMI ) and moved to London in 1933 .

In England Goehr also worked for radio and conducted concerts in London's Wigmore Hall . From 1945 to 1948 he directed the BBC theater orchestra . As a conductor he preferred contemporary music, for example Benjamin Britten or Michael Tippett . Among other things, he conducted the world premiere of Tippett's oratorio A Child of Our Time in 1944 and the first English performance of Mahler's 6th Symphony in 1950 and the world premiere of Hanns Eisler's German Symphony on April 24, 1959 at the State Opera in East Berlin. The English composer and conductor Angela Morley was one of his conducting students .

Goehr died on December 4, 1960 in Sheffield City Hall, immediately after conducting a performance of Handel's Messiah .

His son Alexander Goehr is a composer living in England.

plant

Goehr's catalog of works, which focused on conducting, is relatively narrow. His musical language ties in with Hindemith , Ravel and their friend Weill . His radio opera Malpopita was successfully broadcast in 1931 (the work was first staged in 2004 in Berlin). In addition, he wrote symphonic and chamber music works as well as occasional compositions for film and theater.

Goehr also created new editions of Monteverdi's Vespers to Mary and L'incoronazione di Poppea as well as an orchestral version of the pictures at an exhibition by Mussorgsky .

Goehr was also active as a composer for film music. His first work in this area was The King of Paris from 1930. He was also involved in film productions while in exile, such as Secret Lives in 1937 . He was last involved in betrayals in 1954 .

literature

  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 196 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Goehr, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1960
Place of death Sheffield