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Wilhelm Backhaus, 1907

Wilhelm Backhaus ('Bachaus' on some record labels) (March 26, 1884 – July 5, 1969)^[1] was a German pianist and pedagogue. He was particularly well known for his interpretations of Beethoven and romantic music such as that by Brahms. He was also much admired as a chamber musician. One of the reasons for his unique sound is his choice of a Bösendorfer piano for his performances and recordings, as opposed to the more common use of Steinway pianos.

Biography[link]

Born in Leipzig, Backhaus studied at the conservatoire there with Alois Reckendorf until 1899, later taking private piano lessons with Eugen d'Albert in Frankfurt. As a boy of 9 or 10 he was taken to hear both of the Brahms piano concertos performed by d'Albert — and conducted by Brahms himself.

He made his first concert tour at the age of sixteen. In 1905 he won the Anton Rubinstein Competition with Béla Bartók taking second place. He toured widely throughout his life - in 1921 he gave seventeen concerts in Buenos Aires in less than three weeks. Backhaus made his U.S. debut on January 5, 1912, as soloist in Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto with Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra.^[1] In 1930 he moved to Lugano and became a citizen of Switzerland. He died in Villach in Austria where he was to play in a concert. His last recital a few days earlier in Ossiach was recorded.

Recordings[link]

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According to some critics,^{[citation needed]} Backhaus was one of the first modern artists of the keyboard (see Alfred Cortot for his antithesis) and played with a clean, spare, and objective style. In spite of this analytic approach, his performances are full of feeling. One of the first pianists to leave recordings, he had a long career on the concert stage and in the studio and left us a great legacy. He recorded virtually the complete works of Beethoven and a large quantity of Mozart and Brahms, and he was also the first to record the Chopin etudes, in 1928; this is still widely regarded as one of the best recordings (Pearl 9902 and others). Backhaus plays them smoothly and softly, overcoming their technical challenges without apparent effort. A live recording from 1953 includes seven of the Études, Op. 25 and shows the changes that occurred in his playing style over the years (Aura 119). His technical command is the same, but he is more relaxed and confident and more willing to let the music speak for itself.

His January 27, 1936 recording of Brahms's Waltzes, Op. 39, runs just over thirteen minutes. His studio recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas, made in the 1960s, display exceptional technique for a man in his seventies (Decca 433882), as do the two Brahms concertos from about the same time (Decca 433895). His live Beethoven recordings are in some ways even better, freer and more vivid (Orfeo 300921).

His chamber music recordings include Brahms's cello sonatas, with Pierre Fournier, and Franz Schubert's Trout Quintet with the International Quartet and Claude Hobday.^[2]

The Times praised Backhaus in its 1969 obituary for having upheld the classical German music tradition of the Leipzig Conservatory. His phenomenal transposing powers spawned many anecdotes: finding the piano a semitone too low at a rehearsal of Grieg's A minor Concerto, he simply played in B flat minor — and then in A minor at the concert, after the instrument had been correctly tuned.^[3]

Backhaus was quick to recognize the importance of the gramophone. His July 15, 1909 somewhat abridged recording of the Grieg Concerto was not only the first recording of that work, but the first time any concerto had ever been recorded. Later, on January 5, 1928, he made the first complete set of recordings of the Chopin études. At his death, Backhaus was just completing his second complete Beethoven sonata cycle. All that was missing was the Hammerklavier Sonata — when, according to the Beethoven specialist Stephen Kovacevich, Wilhelm Backhaus was the only pianist to have really understood it. (Excerpts from the book/guide to the “Great Pianists of the 20th Century”, published and © in 1998 by the Philips Music Group).

References[link]

External links[link]

Recordings[link]

• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)
• Recordings and discography (Youngrok Lee's Classical Music page)

This article may be expanded with text translated from the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia. (May 2010) Don't speak German? Click here to read a machine-translated version of the German article. Click [show] on the right to review important translation instructions before translating. Google's machine translation is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. After translating, {{Translated|de|Karl Böhm}} must be added to the talk page to ensure copyright compliance. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Do not confuse with: Carl Bohm.

Karl August Leopold Böhm (August 28, 1894, Graz – August 14, 1981, Salzburg) was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.

Biography[link]

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Education[link]

The son of a lawyer, Karl Böhm studied law and earned a doctorate on this subject before entering the music conservatory in his home town of Graz, Austria. (His father was originally German-speaking Bohemian from Egerland, while his mother was from Alsace.) He later enrolled at the Vienna Conservatory, where he studied under Eusebius Mandyczewski, a friend of Johannes Brahms.

Munich, Darmstadt, Hamburg[link]

In 1917 Karl Böhm became a rehearsal assistant in his home town, in 1919 the assistant director of music, and in 1920 the senior director of music. On the recommendation of Karl Muck, Bruno Walter engaged him at Munich's Bavarian State Opera in 1921. In 1927 he was appointed as chief musical director in Darmstadt. From 1931 to 1934 he fulfilled the same function at the Hamburg opera company and was appointed professor.

Vienna, Dresden, Salzburg[link]

In 1933 he conducted in Vienna for the first time, in "Tristan and Isolde" by Wagner. He succeeded Fritz Busch, who had gone into exile, as head of Dresden's Semper Opera in 1934, a position he held until 1942. This was an important period for him, in which he conducted first performances of works by Richard Strauss: Die schweigsame Frau (1935) and Daphne (1938), which is dedicated to him. He also conducted the first performances of "Romeo und Julia" (1940) and "Die Zauberinsel" (1942) by Heinrich Sutermeister, and Strauss's Horn Concerto No. 2 (1943).

In 1938 he took part in the Salzburg Festival for the first time, conducting "Don Giovanni," and thereafter he became a permanent guest. He secured a top post at the Vienna State Opera in 1943, eventually becoming music director. On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Richard Strauss, in 1944, he conducted the Salzburg Festival performance of "Ariadne auf Naxos."

After World War Two[link]

After he had completed a two-year post-war denazification ban, Böhm led "Don Giovanni" at Milan's Teatro alla Scala (1948) and gave a guest performance in Paris with the Vienna State Opera company (1949). From 1950 to 1953 he directed the German season at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and he conducted the first Spanish performance of the opera "Wozzeck" by Alban Berg, translated into Spanish for the occasion. In 1953 he was responsible for the first performance of Gottfried von Einem's work "Der Prozess." From 1954 to 1956 he directed the Vienna State Opera at its reconstructed home. He additionally resumed ties post-war in Dresden, at the Staatskapelle.

Success in New York[link]

In 1957 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, conducting Don Giovanni, and quickly became one of the favorite conductors of the Rudolf Bing era, leading, all told, 262 performances, including the house premieres of Wozzeck, Ariadne auf Naxos and Die Frau ohne Schatten, which was the first major success in the new house at Lincoln Center. Böhm led many other major new productions in New York, such as Fidelio for the Beethoven bicentennial, Tristan und Isolde (including the house debut performance of Birgit Nilsson in 1959), Lohengrin, Otello, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, and Elektra. His repertoire there also included Le nozze di Figaro,Parsifal, Der Fliegende Holländer, Die Walkűre, and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Bayreuth and Wagner[link]

Böhm made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in 1962 with "Tristan and Isolde," which he conducted until 1970. In 1964 he led Wagner's "Mastersingers of Nuremberg" there, and from 1965 to 1967 the composer's Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle, which was the last production by Wieland Wagner. These appearances resulted in critically acclaimed recordings of the "Ring" and "Tristan." In 1965 Böhm conducted "Fidelio" in Tokyo. In 1971 he gave performances in Moscow and led Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" at Bayreuth.

Indian Summer in London[link]

Late in life, he began a guest-conducting relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in a 1973 appearance at the Salzburg Festival.^[1] Several recordings were made with the orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon. Böhm was given the title of LSO President, which he held until his death. During the 1970s, the conductor led performances at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Death, Family, Legacy[link]

Böhm died in Salzburg. His son, actor Karlheinz Böhm, is known for his roles as Beethoven in the Walt Disney film The Magnificent Rebel, as the young Emperor Franz Joseph in the three Sissi movies, and for playing Jacob Grimm opposite Laurence Harvey's Wilhelm Grimm in the 1962 MGM-Cinerama spectacular The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Perhaps Böhm's greatest contribution to music lay in bringing to life the operas of his close colleague Richard Strauss. Böhm led the premieres of Strauss's late works Die schweigsame Frau (1935) and Daphne (1938), of which he is the dedicatee, recorded all of the major operas (often making cuts to the scores), and regularly revived Strauss's operas with strong casts during his tenures in Vienna and Dresden, as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

Böhm was praised for his rhythmically robust interpretations of the operas and symphonies of Mozart, and in the 1960s he was entrusted with recording a full cycle of the symphonies with the Berlin Philharmonic. Böhm's brisk and plain way with Wagner won adherents, as did his readings of the symphonies of Brahms, Bruckner and Schubert. His 1971 recorded cycle of Beethoven's symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic likewise drew high regard. On a less common front, Böhm championed and made recordings of Alban Berg's operas Wozzeck and Lulu before they gained a position in the repertory.

He received numerous honours, among them first Austrian Generalmusikdirektor in 1964. He was widely feted on his 80th birthday, ten years later; his colleague Herbert von Karajan presented him with a clock to mark that occasion. Karl Böhm's unyielding harshness and youthful spirit, his sensitivity, authority, and total commitment to the music characterized this conductor, who always receded behind the works he conducted. He owed his worldwide success to his diligent life style.

Nazi Taint[link]

Although suspected by some of being an early sympathizer of the Nazi party, Böhm never became a member. According to British music journalist Norman Lebrecht, in November 1923 Böhm stopped a rehearsal in the Munich opera house in order, reportedly, to watch Adolf Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.^[2] In 1930 he is said to have become angry when his wife was accused by Nazi brownshirts of being Jewish during the premiere of Arnold Schoenberg's opera Von heute auf morgen and to have stated that he would "tell Hitler about this".^[2] In the wake of the Nazi annexation of Austria he gave the Hitler salute during a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic, ironically violating Nazi rules about places where the greeting was appropriate.^[2] After the referendum controlled by the Nazis to justify the annexation, or Anschluss, the conductor allegedly declared that "anyone who does not approve this act of our Führer with a hundred-per-cent YES does not deserve to bear the honourable name of a German!"^[2] Lebrecht, in making these charges, fails to provide documentary evidence for them. While music director in Dresden, Böhm allegedly "poured forth rhetoric glorifying the Nazi regime and its cultural aims".^[3] In 1939 he contributed to the Newspapers of the Comradeship of German Artists special congratulatory edition on the occasion of Hitler's 50th birthday. "The path of today's music in the sphere of symphonic works... has been marked and paved by the ideology of National Socialism..." ^[4] On the other hand, Böhm's programming of modern works was disliked by the Nazis, and his collaborations with anti-Nazi directors and designers "could have been interpreted by enemies of the Nazi regime as a brave attempt to preserve the principle of artistic freedom",^[5] and Böhm, apparently preparing for eventual flight and exile, sent his son Karlheinz to Switzerland.^[6] According to historian Michael H. Kater, Böhm belongs in that group of artists of whom "we also find conflicting elements of resistance, accommodation, and service to the regime, so that in the end they cannot be definitively painted as either Nazis or non-Nazis."^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Karl Böhm at Allmusic
• Karl Böhm at the Internet Movie Database

v t e Vienna Staatsoper General Directors Franz von Dingelstedt (1867) Johann von Herbeck (1870) Franz von Jauner (1875) Wilhelm Jahn (1881) Gustav Mahler (1897) Felix Weingartner (1908) Hans Gregor (1911) Richard Strauss / Franz Schalk (1919) Franz Schalk (1924) Clemens Krauss (1929) Felix Weingartner (1935) Heinrich Karl Strohm (1940) Lothar Müthel (1941) Karl Böhm (1943) Franz Salmhofer (1945) Karl Böhm (1954) Herbert von Karajan (1956) Egon Hilbert (1964) Heinrich Reif-Gintl (1968) Rudolf Gamsjäger (1972) Egon Seefehlner (1976) Lorin Maazel (1982) Egon Seefehlner (1984) Claus Helmut Drese (1986) Eberhard Wächter / Ioan Holender (1991) Ioan Holender (1992)

Günter Wand (January 7, 1912 in Elberfeld, Germany – February 14, 2002 in Ulmiz near Bern, Switzerland) was a German orchestra conductor and composer. Wand studied in Wuppertal, Allenstein and Detmold. At the Cologne conservatory, he was a composition student with Philipp Jarnach and a piano student with Paul Baumgartner.^[1] He was a conducting pupil of Franz von Hoesslin in Munich, but was otherwise largely self-taught as a conductor.^[2] During his 65 years long career as a conductor, he was honoured with many significant awards, including the German Record Award and the internationally important Diapason d'Or.

Career[link]

Cologne[link]

Wand started his career in Cologne, where he was to stay for several decades, as a conductor of the Cologne Opera in 1939. After World War II his position in Cologne was consolidated as he became Generalmusikdirektor in charge of both the opera and the Gürzenich Orchestra, which he conducted until 1974.

In 1948, he also started teaching conducting at a music school in Cologne. From the early 1950s he guest-conducted a number of orchestras, making his London debut in 1951 with the London Symphony Orchestra. Other orchestras who invited him included the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.

After several recordings of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven with the Gürzenich for a French subscription collection in the mid 1950s, he made no studio recordings for nearly two decades with the exception of an appearance with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on Decca Records, accompanying Wilhelm Backhaus in Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto (his only recording with that orchestra). In the 1970s he recorded the complete symphonies of Franz Schubert and Anton Bruckner with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne.

Hamburg and late years[link]

In 1982, Wand became chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra. With the latter ensemble, he was able to record the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms as well as works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Schubert and Schumann. He also remade Bruckner's symphonies 3 to 9.

In January 1982, Wand conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the first time,^[3] and was appointed principal guest conductor of the orchestra that same year. Wand was noted for demanding considerable rehearsal time, a minimum of 5 to 8 rehearsals, for his London concerts.^[1][3] For his first appearance with a US orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989, he asked for and received 11 hours of rehearsal time.^[2] Wand subsequently recorded the Brahms Symphony No. 1, part of that first U.S. program, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The highlights of Wand's late career were his annual guest appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, which he conducted in Schubert's "Unfinished" and "Great" symphonies (1995) and Bruckner's Fifth (1996), Fourth (1998), Ninth (1998), Seventh (1999) and Eighth (2001) symphonies.

As a conductor, Wand was a deep believer in the originality of music, aiming to perform works exactly as they were meant to be played. However, he did not take the last step to historically informed performance. Also in other respects his art was marked by strictness.

Repertoire[link]

In his late years, Wand restricted his repertoire almost exclusively to the symphonies of Anton Bruckner (which he had never conducted until he was over 60), Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart. Earlier in his career, however, he was a devoted interpreter of the contemporary music of such composers as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Olivier Messiaen, Frank Martin, György Ligeti, and Edgard Varèse.

Wand regarded Bruckner as the "most important symphonist after Beethoven". Wand's biographer Wolfgang Seifert believes that "it is no exaggeration to say that Günter Wand has made an indispensable contribution toward the understanding of Bruckner in our time."

Compositions[link]

Wand also composed music, mostly songs with orchestral accompaniment and music for ballet. One composition was his concertino "Odi et amo", for soprano and chamber orchestra, which Wand wrote for his wife, the soprano Anita Westhoff.^[3] Anita Wand (Westhoff) died on December 29, 2009 at Ulmiz (CH) at the age of 89 years.

Awards[link]

During his over 65-year-long career as conductor, Günter Wand received several important prizes, including German Record Award, the German Record Critic's Prize, the Echo Award and twice the internationally significant Diapason d'Or, which he received for his Schubert and Bruckner recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1996 Wand received the rarely-awarded Hans von Bülow Medal.

Discography[link]

• With NDR-Sinfonieorchester:
  • Bruckner Sinfonie Nr. 4. 2 CD 74321930412
  • Schubert Sinfonie Nr. 5

• With NDR-Sinfonieorchester:
  • Beethoven:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 3 & Leonoren Ouvertüre Nr. 3 CD RD60755 (03/1991)
  • Sinfonien Nr. 5 & 6 CD 09026 61930 2 (10/1993)
  • Sinfonien Nr. 1 & 2 CD 74321 66458 2 (04/2001)
  • Sinfonie Nr.4 Nr.74321897172(01/2002)
  • Sinfonie Nr.1& Nr.6 Nr.74321891082(11/2001)
  • Sinfonie Nr.2 & Nr.7 Nr.74321891072(11/2001)
  • Sinfonie Nr.3 & Nr.8 Nr.74321891062(11/2001)
  • Sinfonie Nr.4 & Nr.5 Nr.74321891052(11/2001)
  • Sinfonie Nr.9 Nr.74321891042 (11/2001)
  • Sinfonien Nr. 1-9 74321891092 (11/2001)

• • Brahms:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 1 CD 09026 68889 2 (02/1998)
  • Sinfonien Nr. 2 & 3 CD 09026 68888 2 (02/1998)
  • Sinfonien Nr. 1-4 3CD 09026 63348 2 (01/1999)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 4 CD 09026 63244 2 (01/1999)
  • Sinfonien Nr.1 & Nr.3 Nr.74321891022 (11/2001)
  • Sinfonien Nr.2 & Nr.4 Nr.74321891012 (11/2001)
  • Sinfonien Nr.1-4 Nr.74321891032 (11/2001)

• • Bruckner:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 5 (Originalfassung) CD RD60361 (06/90)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 4 „Romantische“ CD RD60784 (04/1991)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 7 (Originalfassung) CD 09026 61398 2 (03/1993)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 9 (Originalfassung) CD 09026 62650 2 (06/1994)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 8 2CD 09026 68047 2 (04/1995)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 6 (Originalfassung) CD 09026 68452 2 (06/1996)

• • Debussy:
  • Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien; CD 74321 75583 (05/2000)

• • Mussorgsky:
  • Bilder einer Ausstellung

• • Fortner:
  • Bluthochzeit – Zwischenspiele für Orchester; CD RD60827 (12/1991)

• • Martin:
  • Petite Symphonie concertante;

• • Strawinsky:
  • Concerto in Es (Dumbarton Oaks);

• • Webern:
  • 5 Stücke für Orchester, op.10

• • Mozart:
  • Sinfonien Nr. 39 & 41 „Jupiter“ CD RD60714 (12/1990)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 40;
  • Posthornserenade Nr.74321897172

• • Tschaikowsky:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 5 CD 09026 68032 2 (11/1994)

• • Mozart:
  • Sinfonie Nr.40

• • Schubert:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 8 „Unvollendete“; CD RD60826 (12/91)

• • Schumann:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 4

• • Schubert:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 9 „Große C-Dur“ CD RD60978 (12/1991)

• • Strawinsky:
  • Pulcinella Suite; CD 09026 61190 2 (10/92)

• • Tschaikowsky:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 6 „Pathétique“

• • NDR Live-Recordings 1989-1995:
  • Beethoven, Bruckner, Mozart, Tschaikowsky, Schubert 17 CD Box 74321 34162 2 (09/1996)

• • With Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester:
  • Bruckner:
  • The 9 Symphonies 10CD 09026639302 (08/1989)
  • Symphony No. 1 (Wiener Fassung) CD 09026639312 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 2 CD 09026639322 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 3 CD 09026639332 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 4 „Romantische“ CD 09026639342 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 5 CD 09026639352 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 6 CD 09026639362 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 7 CD 09026639372 (12/1989)
  • Symphony No. 8 & 9 CD 09026639382 (12/1989)

• • Schubert:
  • The Complete Symphonies 5CD 09026639402 (08/1989)
  • Symphony No. 1 & 2 CD 09026639412
  • Symphony No. 3 & 6 CD 09026639422
  • Symphony No 4 & 8 CD 09026639432
  • Symphony No 5 (Selections from Rosamunde) CD 09026639442
  • Symphony No. 9 CD 09026639452

• • With Berliner Philharmoniker:
  • Bruckner:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 5 (Originalfassung)CD 09026 68503 2 (12/1996)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 4 „Romantische“ (Haas-Fassung) CD 09026 68839 2 (08/1998)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 9 (Originalfassung) CD 74321 63244 2 (08/1999)
  • Sinfonie Nr. 7 CD 74321 68716 2 (10/2000)
  • Sinfonie Nr.8 CD Nr.743218 28662 (11/2001)

• • Schubert:
  • Sinfonie Nr. 8 „Unvollendete“ & 9 „Große C-Dur“; 2CD 09026 68314 2 (08/1995)

Literature[link]

• Wolfgang Seifert: Günter Wand: so und nicht anders. Gedanken und Erinnerungen. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-455-11154-8

References[link]

External links[link]

• Günter Wand's website (German)
• Günter Wand on Naxos
• Complete Stereophonic Discography on Wiener Philharmoniker