Fritz Werner
Encyclopedia
Fritz Werner was a German choral conductor, church music director, conductor, organist and composer. He founded the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn in 1947 and conducted it until 1973.
and at the Preußische Akademie der Künste. His teachers were Wolfgang Reimann, Arthur Egidi, Fritz Heitmann, Richard Münnich, Carl Stumpf and Georg Schumann (composition, organ), Kurt Schubert (piano), Max Seiffert and Johannes Wolf (history of music), Richard Hagel (conducting). In 1935 he became organist at the Bethlehemskirche in Potsdam-Babelsberg
and a school teacher. In 1936 he became organist and cantor at the St. Nikolaikirche in Potsdam
, promoted to Kirchenmusikdirektor (director of church music) in 1938. In 1939 he became music director at Radio Paris. After World War II
he was organist and cantor at the Kilianskirche
in Heilbronn
from 1946 until 1964. In 1966 he left his collection of music to the town of Heilbronn.
and made it known in Heilbronn and the region. Later they recorded numerous works of Johann Sebastian Bach
, his passions, oratorios, motets and especially more than 50 of his cantatas
. Vocal soloists have included Agnes Giebel
, Edith Selig
, Claudia Hellmann
, Barbara Scherler
, Hertha Töpper
, Theo Altmeyer
, Kurt Huber
, Helmut Krebs
, Jakob Stämpfli
, Barry McDaniel
, Bruce Abel
and Franz Kelch
, instrumental soloists Maurice André
(trumpet), Hermann Baumann (horn), Marie-Claire Alain
(organ) and György Terebesi (violin). Orchestras for the recordings have included the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
, the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
and the Südwestfunk Orchester
. Werner's Bach recordings were compared to those of his contemporary Karl Richter. A reviewer wrote about his cantata recordings: "... this wise, discerning and humane Bach conductor has much to teach us, even (perhaps especially) in an age when we are so used to performances of Bach in period style and by small or smallish forces. But the other thing that listening to all these performances has reinforced for me is how endlessly inventive, how eloquent and how moving is the music of Bach. I suspect that Fritz Werner would regard that as the best possible testament to his work." The same reviewer stated about a recording of the St Matthew Passion with Helmut Krebs
as the Evangelist
: "Werner's pacing of the whole work and his vision of it is compelling. The drama moves inexorably forward and the entire story is most movingly related."
In 1998 the choir celebrated his 100th birthday with a performance of his motets Die Botschaft on Bible
words for mixed choir a cappella
with soprano, baritone and oboe soloists in the Nikolaikirche Heilbronn, conducted by Michael Böttcher.
Trauermusik (1935), Apfelkantate (1939), Symphonie in d (1954), Suite Concertante (1969), Psalmen-Triptychon (1972), a collection of motets Die Botschaft (1973), and concertos for trumpet, horn, piano and violin. His cantata Jesus Christus herrscht als König for choir, brass and timpani was published as well as a piano concerto, Konzertante Musik für Flöte, Oboe und Horn, Symphonische Musik für Streichorchester (music for string orchestra), and the cantata Von der Eitelkeit der Welt (Of the vanity of the world). In 1964 he wrote as his op. 44 an oratorio
for Pentecost Veni, sancte spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit) on the sequence Veni sancte spiritus
. The Oratorium nach Worten der Heiligen Schrift (oratorio after Bible
words) for mixed choir, two solo voices and orchestra was first performed on 16 May 1971. It was published by the Carus-Verlag under the title Veni Sancte Spiritus. The music for string orchestra was premiered by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn on 31 January 1968. His Suite Concertante for high trumpet, string orchestra and percussion op. 48 was recorded right after its premiere on 23 September 1971 with Maurice André and the same chamber orchestra. His Trumpet and Organ Duo op. 53 was recorded several times, for example with Michael Feldner and Petra Morath-Pusinelli or with Malte Burba and Johannes von Erdmann.
Fritz Werner contributed to a revitalisation of church music in Germany in the 20th century, in a row with Rudolf Mauersberger
, Günther Ramin
and Johann Nepomuk David
.
Biography
Fritz Werner studied at the Berliner Akademie für Kirchen- und Schulmusik, the University in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
and at the Preußische Akademie der Künste. His teachers were Wolfgang Reimann, Arthur Egidi, Fritz Heitmann, Richard Münnich, Carl Stumpf and Georg Schumann (composition, organ), Kurt Schubert (piano), Max Seiffert and Johannes Wolf (history of music), Richard Hagel (conducting). In 1935 he became organist at the Bethlehemskirche in Potsdam-Babelsberg
Potsdam-Babelsberg
Babelsberg is the largest district of the Brandenburg capital Potsdam in Germany. The affluent neighbourhood named after a small hill on the Havel river is famous for Babelsberg Palace and Park, part of the Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as for Studio...
and a school teacher. In 1936 he became organist and cantor at the St. Nikolaikirche in Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
, promoted to Kirchenmusikdirektor (director of church music) in 1938. In 1939 he became music director at Radio Paris. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was organist and cantor at the Kilianskirche
Kilianskirche (Heilbronn)
The Kilianskirche in Heilbronn is a Gothic hall church with origins going back to the 11th century.-External links:...
in Heilbronn
Heilbronn
Heilbronn is a city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is completely surrounded by Heilbronn County and with approximately 123.000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state....
from 1946 until 1964. In 1966 he left his collection of music to the town of Heilbronn.
Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn
Fritz Werner founded the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn in 1947 and conducted it until 1973. First they concentrated on the music of Heinrich SchützHeinrich Schütz
Heinrich Schütz was a German composer and organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and often considered to be one of the most important composers of the 17th century along with Claudio Monteverdi...
and made it known in Heilbronn and the region. Later they recorded numerous works of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, his passions, oratorios, motets and especially more than 50 of his cantatas
Bach cantata
Bach cantata became a term for a cantata of the German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach who was a prolific writer of the genre. Although many of his works are lost, around 200 cantatas survived....
. Vocal soloists have included Agnes Giebel
Agnes Giebel
Agnes Giebel is a German soprano. She was born in Heerlen, in the Netherlands, where she lived the first years of her life. She studied at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen and made her first public appearance as a singer in 1947. Her career lasted until the 1990s during which she established a...
, Edith Selig
Edith Selig
Edith Selig is a French classical soprano in concert, opera and Lied, known for singing music of Johann Sebastian Bach and French composers. She has been teaching at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.- Professional career :...
, Claudia Hellmann
Claudia Hellmann
Claudia Hellmann is a German contralto singer in opera and concert.- Biography :Claudia Hellmann studied voice in Berlin with Erika Garski....
, Barbara Scherler
Barbara Scherler
Barbara Scherler is a German classical mezzo-soprano and contralto singer in opera and concert. She was a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin and active in performances and recordings of operas of the 20th century....
, Hertha Töpper
Hertha Töpper
Hertha Töpper is an Austrian contralto opera singer.Töpper, the daughter of a music teacher, began her singing studies at the Graz Conservatorium while still at high school. In 1954, she began her career at the Graz Opera in the role of Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera...
, Theo Altmeyer
Theo Altmeyer
Theo Altmeyer was a German classical tenor. Although he was a successful opera singer, he is chiefly remembered for his work as an oratorio soloist...
, Kurt Huber
Kurt Huber (tenor)
Kurt Huber is a Swiss tenor for concert and Lieder.- Biography :Kurt Huber studied voice in Vienna with Anton Dermota....
, Helmut Krebs
Helmut Krebs
Helmut Krebs was a distinguished German tenor in opera and concert, who sang a wide range of roles from Baroque to contemporary works.-Professional career:...
, Jakob Stämpfli
Jakob Stämpfli (bass)
Jakob Stämpfli is a Swiss bass concert singer and an influential academic teacher and director of the conservatory in Bern, also a teacher in Saarbrücken.-Biography:...
, Barry McDaniel
Barry McDaniel
Barry McDaniel is an American operatic baritone who spent his career almost exclusively in Germany. He was also a celebrated concert singer and recitalist.- Biography and development :...
, Bruce Abel
Bruce Abel
-Biography:Abel studied singing at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City under Hans Heinz, where he excelled in studies of French art songs and German lieder. He won a Fulbright Fellowship in 1962 which enabled him to pursue further studies in the lieder and oratorio repertoire in...
and Franz Kelch
Franz Kelch
Franz Kelch is a German bass-baritone lied and oratorio singer. His discography includes works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, George Frederick Handel and Claudio Monteverdi.- Biography :...
, instrumental soloists Maurice André
Maurice André
Maurice André is a French trumpeter, active in the classical music field.-Biography:He is a classical virtuoso trumpeter, born in Alès, France in the Cévennes into a mining family. His father was an amateur musician....
(trumpet), Hermann Baumann (horn), Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Alain
Marie-Claire Alain is a French organist and organ teacher best known for her prolific recording career. She is particularly known for her ability to perform substantial works entirely from memory.-Background and education:...
(organ) and György Terebesi (violin). Orchestras for the recordings have included the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra
Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra, full German name: Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, full English name South West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim, is an internationally known German chamber orchestra based in Pforzheim.- History :...
, the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn
The Wurttemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn is one of the renowned German Chamber Orchestras, located in Heilbronn .The Orchestra was founded by Prof...
and the Südwestfunk Orchester
Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra is a radio orchestra located in the German cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg...
. Werner's Bach recordings were compared to those of his contemporary Karl Richter. A reviewer wrote about his cantata recordings: "... this wise, discerning and humane Bach conductor has much to teach us, even (perhaps especially) in an age when we are so used to performances of Bach in period style and by small or smallish forces. But the other thing that listening to all these performances has reinforced for me is how endlessly inventive, how eloquent and how moving is the music of Bach. I suspect that Fritz Werner would regard that as the best possible testament to his work." The same reviewer stated about a recording of the St Matthew Passion with Helmut Krebs
Helmut Krebs
Helmut Krebs was a distinguished German tenor in opera and concert, who sang a wide range of roles from Baroque to contemporary works.-Professional career:...
as the Evangelist
Evangelist (Bach)
The Evangelist in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach is the tenor part in his oratorios and Passions who narrates the exact words of the Bible, translated by Martin Luther, in recitative, namely in the works St John Passion, St Matthew Passion, and the Christmas Oratorio, also in the St Mark...
: "Werner's pacing of the whole work and his vision of it is compelling. The drama moves inexorably forward and the entire story is most movingly related."
In 1998 the choir celebrated his 100th birthday with a performance of his motets Die Botschaft on Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
words for mixed choir a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
with soprano, baritone and oboe soloists in the Nikolaikirche Heilbronn, conducted by Michael Böttcher.
Composer
His compositions of more than 50 opus-numbers have included the cantataCantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
Trauermusik (1935), Apfelkantate (1939), Symphonie in d (1954), Suite Concertante (1969), Psalmen-Triptychon (1972), a collection of motets Die Botschaft (1973), and concertos for trumpet, horn, piano and violin. His cantata Jesus Christus herrscht als König for choir, brass and timpani was published as well as a piano concerto, Konzertante Musik für Flöte, Oboe und Horn, Symphonische Musik für Streichorchester (music for string orchestra), and the cantata Von der Eitelkeit der Welt (Of the vanity of the world). In 1964 he wrote as his op. 44 an oratorio
Oratorio
An oratorio is a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. Like an opera, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias...
for Pentecost Veni, sancte spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit) on the sequence Veni sancte spiritus
Veni Sancte Spiritus
Veni Sancte Spiritus, sometimes called the "Golden Sequence," is a sequence prescribed in the Roman Liturgy for the Masses of Pentecost and its octave, exclusive of the following Sunday...
. The Oratorium nach Worten der Heiligen Schrift (oratorio after Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
words) for mixed choir, two solo voices and orchestra was first performed on 16 May 1971. It was published by the Carus-Verlag under the title Veni Sancte Spiritus. The music for string orchestra was premiered by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn on 31 January 1968. His Suite Concertante for high trumpet, string orchestra and percussion op. 48 was recorded right after its premiere on 23 September 1971 with Maurice André and the same chamber orchestra. His Trumpet and Organ Duo op. 53 was recorded several times, for example with Michael Feldner and Petra Morath-Pusinelli or with Malte Burba and Johannes von Erdmann.
Fritz Werner contributed to a revitalisation of church music in Germany in the 20th century, in a row with Rudolf Mauersberger
Rudolf Mauersberger
Rudolf Mauersberger was a German choral conductor and composer.-Professional career:...
, Günther Ramin
Günther Ramin
Günther Werner Hans Ramín was an influential German organist, conductor, composer and pedagogue in the first half of the 20th century....
and Johann Nepomuk David
Johann Nepomuk David
Johann Nepomuk David was an Austrian composer.He began his musical career in the monastery of Sankt Florian, and was a composition student of Joseph Marx....
.
Awards
- 1973 Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Klasse
- 1974 Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des LettresOrdre des Arts et des LettresThe Ordre des Arts et des Lettres is an Order of France, established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture, and confirmed as part of the Ordre national du Mérite by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963...
Literature
- Christhard Schrenk: Ein Künstlerleben im 20. Jahrhundert – Fritz Werner (1898–1977). In: Heilbronner Köpfe II. Stadtarchiv Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1999, ISBN 3-928990-70-5 (Kleine Schriftenreihe des Archivs der Stadt Heilbronn. Band 45), p. 191–200 (in German)
External links
- Heinrich-Schütz-Chor-Heilbronn
- Entries for Bach recordings of Fritz Werner on WorldCatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...
- Entries for musical scores of Fritz Werner on WorldCatWorldCatWorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...