Wilhelm Kufferath

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Friedrich Wilhelm Kufferath (born April 6, 1853 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , † March 2, 1936 in Oldenburg ) was a German cellist and court concertmaster of the Oldenburg orchestra .

Live and act

Wilhelm Kufferath was born into a family of musicians in Mülheim an der Ruhr. His father, the music teacher and cellist Hermann Kufferath, and his six brothers were known as artists beyond the country's borders and their contemporaries referred to them as the musical seven stars.

After graduating from secondary school in Mülheim , Kufferath studied music at the Cologne Conservatory . He found his first engagement as principal cellist with Benjamin Bilse in the so-called Bilse'schen Kapelle , the forerunner of the Berlin Philharmonic . The musicians held their legendary Bilse concerts in the Berlin Konzerthaus, immortalized in an oil painting by Adolph Menzel (1871). Extensive concert tours have taken the orchestra across Europe, including to St. Petersburg, Riga, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Vienna.

Further stations in Wilhelm Kufferath's musical career were the Meininger Hofkapelle and Bremen, where he signed up as solo cellist for one year each. On January 1, 1878, Kufferath moved to the Grand Ducal Court Orchestra in Oldenburg as solo cellist on the initiative of the Oldenburg court music director Albert Dietrichs . He worked there until his death, was active in several nationally known chamber music ensembles and worked with composers and conductors such as Richard Wagner , Johannes Brahms , Hans von Bülow , Hans Pfitzner , Leo Blech and Siegmund von Hausegger .

In 1901 Kufferath received the title of court concert master. In addition to his work as an orchestral musician, Kufferath was a sought-after soloist at concerts by other ensembles - for example in Bremen under Hans von Bülow. As a conductor and choir director, he was in charge of various choral societies in Oldenburg. He retired in 1928.

family

Since October 19, 1886, Kufferath was married to the singing teacher Karoline Emmy Marie Merzdorf (1865–1886), the daughter of the Oldenburg court librarian and freemason Theodor Merzdorf (1812–1877). His son and student Johann Georg Ludwig Kufferath (* 1895 in Oldenburg) also worked as a cellist at the Oldenburg State Orchestra from 1919.

Honors

  • Title of court concert master (awarded by Grand Duke Peter)
  • various grand ducal orders (including Friedrich-August-Kreuz, honor cross 1st class)
  • Honorary member of the Landesorchester u. of the State Theater (1923)

literature

  • CAJ Bastiaenen: De familie Kufferath, een muzikaal geslacht van Europees format. In: Spiegel der Historie, 1967, vol. 2, no. 10, pp. 613–622.
  • Günter Ochs: Studies on the development of public musical life in Mülheim ad Ruhr ; in: Contributions to Rhenish Music History, Issue 71, Arno Volk Verlag, Cologne 1968.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Kufferath. In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg . Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , p. 398 f. ( online ).
  • Jens Roepstorff: The Kufferath family of musicians from Mülheim an der Ruhr. In: Mülheimer Jahrbuch 2016, pp. 134–139.

Web links

Other sources

  • Mülheimer Zeitung from March 5, 1936
  • City archive Mülheim an der Ruhr, holdings 1550 a. 1440

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Egbert Koolman: Merzdorf, Johann Friedrich Ludwig Theodor In: Hans Friedl u. a. (Ed.): Biographical manual for the history of the state of Oldenburg. Edited on behalf of the Oldenburg landscape. Isensee, Oldenburg 1992, ISBN 3-89442-135-5 , pp. 453-455 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Kufferath, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kufferath, Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cellist
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Mülheim an der Ruhr
DATE OF DEATH March 2, 1936
Place of death Oldenburg