Woldemar Nelsson

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Woldemar Nelsson (born April 4, 1938 in Klinzy , Central Russia ; † November 7, 2006 in Munich ) was a Russian conductor who worked in West Germany and numerous other countries from 1976.

life and work

Woldemar Nelsson comes from a Jewish family of musicians, his father was a conductor and composer. The family lived in Kiev before the war , then in Oryol . Initially trained as a violinist, Nelsson played in the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra for 15 years . Later Nelsson completed a conducting degree at the Music Academy in Novosibirsk and at the master schools in Moscow and Leningrad .

After he had won the 2nd prize in the 3rd Moscow All-Union Competition in 1971 after completing his conducting exams, chief conductor Kirill Kondrashin engaged him as assistant and conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic for three years. From now on Nelsson worked with numerous large Soviet orchestras and musicians such as David Oistrach , Mstislaw Rostropowitsch , Leonid Kogan , Gidon Kremer , Natalia Gutman , Elisso Wirsaladse and Oleg Kagan , with composers Arvo Pärt and Alfred Schnittke .

In 1976 Nelsson decided to travel to the west with his family. In Rome he received the invitation to take on a tour of the Hamburg NDR Symphony Orchestra at short notice . After the success of this tour, Nelsson continued his work in Germany and found his second home here.

He made music with pianists like Annie Fischer , Krystian Zimerman , Andrej Hoteev and Nelson Freire , with string soloists like Nathan Milstein , Henryk Szeryng , Pinchas Zukerman , Salvatore Accardo and Yuri Baschmet . He worked in close friendship with composers such as Krzysztof Penderecki and Hans Werner Henze as well as with directors such as Wolfgang Wagner , Harry Kupfer , Götz Friedrich and Pier Luigi Pizzi . In 1980 Wolfgang Wagner brought him to Bayreuth for the Richard Wagner Festival . Until 1985 Nelsson conducted the operas Lohengrin and The Flying Dutchman in Bayreuth . Both productions were recorded for radio, television, video and CD.

From 1980 to 1987 Nelsson was general music director at the Staatstheater Kassel , where, in addition to an extensive repertoire, he also rehearsed the complete Ring des Nibelungen . In 1986 Herbert von Karajan brought him to the Salzburg Festival , where Nelsson directed the world premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's opera The Black Mask . Nelsson also conducted the first performance of the work at the Vienna State Opera . At the same time he worked as a permanent guest conductor at the Württembergisches Staatstheater Stuttgart , where he directed the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze's ballet Orpheus in March 1979, followed by guest performances in the USA, including at the New York Metropolitan Opera .

From 1987 to 1994 Nelsson worked as general music director at the Opera Forum in the Netherlands and as chief conductor of the Royal Copenhagen Opera . In 1996 Nelsson was appointed chief conductor of the Teatro Verdi in Trieste , where he studied Verdi's Don Carlos and Wagner's Rheingold . The gala concert he directed for the reopening of the Teatro Verdi was broadcast live on radio and television by the RAI .

Since 2000, due to his serious illness, Nelsson lived mainly in Italy, where he was the first guest conductor of the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana from 2004 to 2006 . He co-founded the International Oleg Kagan Music Festival in Wildbad Kreuth , as artistic director where he was at the beginning (with Natalia Gutman), and where he also his last concert with the 14th Symphony of Shostakovich conducted in July of 2006.

Opera and concerts

Nelsson has performed with over 100 symphony orchestras around the world. He has conducted the Berlin , Vienna and Munich Philharmonic , the London Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestra , the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Radio Symphony Orchestras in Berlin , Stuttgart and Cologne . He has worked with the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Symphony , the Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras , the Stockholm and Helsinki Philharmonic, the Orchester de Paris , the Bamberg and Vienna Symphony , the Orchester symphonique de Montréal and the Orchester de la Suisse Romande , the symphony orchestras of the Italian RAI in Turin, Milan, Rome and Naples, with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, New Japan Philharmonic Tokyo, with the Orchestra of Jeunesses Musicales with a subsequent tour through Korea and Southeast Asia, and with many other orchestras.

In addition to the Vienna State Opera , the opera houses at which Nelsson has made guest appearances include the Hamburg State Opera , Opéra de Lyon , Welsh National Opera , Teatro Comunale di Firenze , Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, Opéra-Comique and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris , Opéra national du Rhin in Strasbourg , Grand Théâtre de Genève , as well as various opera houses in New York , Philadelphia , Washington , Toulouse , Mannheim , Bonn , etc. Nelsson appeared as a guest at many music festivals in the USA, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc. .

Awards

Appreciation

“I remember Woldemar not only as a genuine and wonderful musician. To me he always was a real and warmhearted friend whose advice (in music and in life) often helped us to find the right solution. Woldemar and Music - as well as Woldemar and Gala - remain partnerships we still can hold onto searching for love and ideals. "

- Gidon Kremer

literature

  • Alain Pâris: Classical Music in the 20th Century (= dtv 32501). 2nd Edition. dtv, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-423-32501-1 , p. 557.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The usual indication of the place of birth Kiev is historically and administratively incorrect. According to his widow Galina Nelsson (November 24, 2012), Klinzy is recorded in his passport because he was born there on a tour, but probably grew up in Kiev and later Oryol.
  2. ^ FRM Orchestra , accessed December 5, 2018.
  3. ↑ “I don't just remember Waldemar as an independent and wonderful musician. For me he has always been a real and warm-hearted friend whose advice (as far as music and life is concerned) have often been helpful in finding the right solution. Waldemar and the music - and Waldemar and Gala - remain partners to whom we can stick in the search for love and ideals. "
personal data
SURNAME Nelsson, Woldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian conductor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Klinzy , Central Russia
DATE OF DEATH November 7, 2006
Place of death Munich