Usuario:Friera/Taller1
Rudolf Kempe (14 de junio 1910 – 12 de mayo 1976) was a German conductor.
Biography editar
Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra at Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929. In addition to oboe, he played the piano regularly, as a soloist, in chamber music or accompanying, as a result of which, in 1933, the new Director of the Leipzig Opera invited Kempe to become a répétiteur, and later a conductor, for the opera.[1]
During the Second World War Kempe was conscripted into the army, but instead of active service was directed into musical activities, playing for the troops and later taking over the chief conductorship of the Chemnitz opera house.[1]
Career editar
Opera editar
Kempe directed the Dresden Opera and the Dresden Staatskapelle from 1949 to 1952, making his first records, including Der Rosenkavalier, Die Meistersinger and Der Freischütz. ‘He obtains some superlative playing from the Dresden orchestra,’ commented The Record Guide.[2] He maintained a relationship with the Dresden orchestra for the rest of his life, making some of his best-known records with them during the stereo era.
His international career began with engagements at the Vienna State Opera in the 1951 season, for which he conducted Die Zauberflöte, Simon Boccanegra, and Capriccio.[1]
He was invited to succeed Georg Solti as chief conductor of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich from 1952 to 1954, and was permitted by the East German authorities to do so without severing his ties with Dresden.[1] In 1953 Kempe appeared with the Munich company at the Royal Opera House in London, where the General Administrator, Sir David Webster, quickly decided that Kempe would be an ideal Musical Director for the Covent Garden company. Kempe resisted the appointment, and did not accept the top job at any opera house after leaving Munich in 1954. He nonetheless conducted frequently at Covent Garden and was immensely popular there,[1] conducting among other works, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, the Ring, Un Ballo in Maschera and Madama Butterfly, of which the critic Andrew Porter compared Kempe’s conducting favourably with that of Arturo Toscanini and Victor de Sabata.[3] As a guest conductor, Kempe frequently revisited Munich conducting mostly the Italian repertory.
Kempe’s début at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus was in 1960. The Ring cycle he conducted there in that year was notable for multiple casting, with the role of Wotan split between Hermann Uhde and Jerome Hines, and Brünnhilde between Astrid Varnay and Birgit Nilsson.
Orchestral editar
In 1960, Kempe became Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic (RPO), chosen by the orchestra's founder, Sir Thomas Beecham.[4] From 1961 to 1962 he was Principal Conductor of the RPO, and from 1963 to 1975, their Artistic Director. Kempe had been associated with the orchestra since 1955. A member of the RPO later said of Kempe, “He was a wonderful controller of the orchestra, and a very great accompanist...Kempe was like someone driving a racing-car, following the piano round the bends.”[5] Kempe abolished Beecham's 'male-only' rule, introducing women into the RPO: an orchestra without them, he said, ‘always reminds me of the army.”[1] In 1970, the RPO named him Conductor for Life, but in 1975, he resigned his post with the orchestra.[6]
From 1965 to 1972 Kempe worked with Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, and from 1967 to his death conducted the Munich Philharmonic, with whom he made international tours and recorded the first quadraphonic set of the Beethoven symphonies.
In the final months of his life, Kempe was the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The opening concert of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on 16 July 1976, in which he was to have conducted his BBC forces in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, became a memorial concert for him following Kempe's death in Zürich aged 65.[7]
References editar
- ↑ a b c d e f Alan Blyth (February 1974). «Rudolf Kempe interview and profile». The Gramophone. pp. 1,547.
- ↑ Sackville-West, Edward; Shawe-Taylor, Desmond (1955). The Record Guide. London: Collins. p. p. 746. OCLC 59019008.
- ↑ Haltrecht, Montague (1975). The Quiet Showman. London: Collins. pp. p. 186, 189. ISBN 0002111632.
- ↑ R.E. (1976). «Rudolf Kempe: Obituary». The Musical Times. vol. 117 (no. 1601): pp. 596.
- ↑ Previn, André (ed) (1979). Orchestra. London: Macdonald and Jane's. pp. p. 164. ISBN 0354044206.
- ↑ Forbes, Elizabeth (August de 1979). «Views of Kempe review of Rudolf Kempe: Pictures of a Life by Cordula Kempe-Oettinger». The Musical Times. vol. 120 (no. 1638): pp. 653-654. doi:10.2307/962474.
- ↑ Cox, David (1980). The Henry Wood Proms. London: BBC. pp. p. 242. ISBN 0563176970.
External links editar
| Predecesor: Georg Solti |
General Music Director, Bavarian State Opera 1952-1954 |
Sucesor: Ferenc Fricsay |
El Cuarteto Borodín es un cuarteto de cuerda que fue fundado en 1945 en Moscú, en la antigua Unión Soviética. Es uno de los cuartetos de cuerda más longevos del mundo.
El cuarteto fue uno de los más conocidos en Occidente durante la guerra fría, de entre los cuartetos de origen soviético, gracias a sus muchas giras por Europa y Estados Unidos y a sus excelentes grabaciones.[1].
El cuarteto tuvo en sus inicios una relación personal muy estrecha con el compositor Dmitri Shostakóvich, quien les consultaba frecuentemente sobre aspectos técnicos relacionados con el cuarteto de cuerda, que tenía en cuenta cuando componía para este tipo de formación. También tocaron frecuentemente con el pianista Sviatoslav Richter.
Han grabado una gran cantidad de obras de muy distintos compositores, con los sellos discográficos Melodiya, Teldec, Virgin Records y Chandos Records. Han grabado la integral de los cuartetos de cuerda de Shostakóvich y de Beethoven.
El sonido del Cuarteto Borodín origina, fue descrito como dotado de un volumen casi sinfónico y una inclasificable habilidad para frasear sin perder la cohesión del grupo.
Historia editar
The quartet was formed as the Moscow Conservatoire Quartet with Valentin Berlinsky on cello, Rostislav Dubinsky and Nina Barshai on first and second violins and Rudolf Barshai on viola, all members of a class taken by Mikhail Terian, the viola player of the Comitas Quartet. Originally Mstislav Rostropovich was the cellist but he withdrew after a few weeks in favour of Berlinsky[2][1].
The quartet first met Dmitri Shostakovich in 1946 and became his interpreter. In due course they became known for their performances of all the quartets in the Shostakovich quartet cycle (eventually 15 quartets) at concert halls around the world[2].
As one of the most revered groups during the Communist era, the quartet performed at the funerals of both Joseph Stalin and Sergei Prokofiev, who both died on the same day in 1953[1].
In 1955 the quartet was renamed after Alexander Borodin, one of the founders of Russian chamber music[1][2].
In the Soviet era their concert engagements and repertoire were directed by the state concert organisation, Gosconcert on the basis of maximum revenue. This was irksome to the performers and to Western concert organisers[2].
After 20 years with the same line-up difficult times followed in the 1970s: Dubinsky defected to the West and the second violinist, Jaroslav Alexandrov, retired through ill-health. Having recruited replacements, Berlinsky insisted that the ensemble spend two years out of sight until the Borodin sound had been fully recreated[2].
In his 1989 book Stormy Applause, Dubinsky suggested disharmony, power struggles and betrayal to the authorities by Berlinsky, who admitted being a Communist Party member. Berlinsky dismissed the book as “full of half truths”[2]. Whatever the truth of these stories, it cannot be denied that Berlinsky’s record in serving for 62 years in one of the world’s very best string quartets was an awe-inspiring achievement, possibly unique in the history of the genre.
The quartet continues to this day.
References editar
- ↑ a b c d Fox, Margalit. "Valentin Berlinsky, Mainstay Cellist of the Borodin Quartet, Dies at 83 ", The New York Times, December 25, 2008. Accessed January 14, 2009.
- ↑ a b c d e f Obituary of Valentin Berlinsky, The Daily Telegraph, December 23, 2008, Accessed December 23, 2008
External links editar
- The Borodin Quartet Official Website
- The Borodin Quartet at The Voice of Russia