Hans Richter-Haaser
Encyclopedia
Hans Richter-Haaser was a noted German classical pianist, who was known for his interpretations of Beethoven
, Schubert
and Schumann
. He was also a teacher, a conductor, and a composer.
Hans Richter-Haaser was born in Dresden
in 1912, and studied at the Dresden Conservatory. He made his debut in 1928, aged 16. During World War II, while fighting with an anti-aircraft unit, he had no opportunity to play for years on end, and his technique slipped; however, he regained it after the war. He conducted the Detmold Orchestra from 1945 to 1947. He was Professor of piano at the North-West German Music Academy from 1947 to 1962. He then made a number of international tours, including to the United Kingdom, North and South America, and Australia. His American debut in 1959 was hailed as "one of the biggest keyboard talents to hit Manhattan in years". He appeared at the Salzburg Festival
in 1963.
He played under over 200 conductors, including Sir John Barbirolli
, Ferenc Fricsay
, Eugen Jochum
, Rudolf Kempe
, Wolfgang Sawallisch
, Joseph Keilberth
, Herbert von Karajan
, Carlo Maria Giulini
, István Kertész, Karl Böhm
, Kurt Sanderling
and Erich Leinsdorf
.
Hans Richter-Haaser composed a symphony, piano concertos and other works.
He died Braunschweig
in 1980, aged 68.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. He was also a teacher, a conductor, and a composer.
Hans Richter-Haaser was born in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
in 1912, and studied at the Dresden Conservatory. He made his debut in 1928, aged 16. During World War II, while fighting with an anti-aircraft unit, he had no opportunity to play for years on end, and his technique slipped; however, he regained it after the war. He conducted the Detmold Orchestra from 1945 to 1947. He was Professor of piano at the North-West German Music Academy from 1947 to 1962. He then made a number of international tours, including to the United Kingdom, North and South America, and Australia. His American debut in 1959 was hailed as "one of the biggest keyboard talents to hit Manhattan in years". He appeared at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
in 1963.
He played under over 200 conductors, including Sir John Barbirolli
John Barbirolli
Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
, Ferenc Fricsay
Ferenc Fricsay
Ferenc Fricsay was a Hungarian conductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen.Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, Ernst von Dohnányi, and Leo Weiner. Fricsay had a meteoric rise to fame, making his first appearance as a...
, Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum
Eugen Jochum was an eminent German conductor.Born in Babenhausen, near Augsburg, Germany, Jochum studied the piano and organ in Augsburg until 1922. He then studied conducting in Munich...
, Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :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 of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
, Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch is a retired German conductor and pianist.-Biography:Sawallisch was born in Munich, and studied composition and pianoforte there privately: at the conclusion of the war, in 1946 he continued his studies at the Munich High School for Music and passed his final examination for...
, Joseph Keilberth
Joseph Keilberth
Joseph Keilberth was a German conductor who specialized in opera.He started his career in the State Theatre of his native city, Karlsruhe. In 1940 he became director of the German Philharmonic Orchestra of Prague. Near the end of World War II he became principal conductor of the Dresden...
, Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
, Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
, István Kertész, Karl Böhm
Karl Böhm
Karl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...
, Kurt Sanderling
Kurt Sanderling
Kurt Sanderling, CBE was a German conductor.-Biography:Kurt Sanderling was born in Arys, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire to Jewish parents. After early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he left for the Soviet Union in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra...
and Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
.
Hans Richter-Haaser composed a symphony, piano concertos and other works.
He died Braunschweig
Braunschweig
Braunschweig , is a city of 247,400 people, located in the federal-state of Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located north of the Harz mountains at the farthest navigable point of the Oker river, which connects to the North Sea via the rivers Aller and Weser....
in 1980, aged 68.
Discography
Hans Richter-Haaser's recordings include:- BeethovenLudwig van BeethovenLudwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 4 & 5, with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Carlo Maria GiuliniCarlo Maria GiuliniCarlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
(No. 3) and István Kertész (Nos. 4 & 5) (1963/60, EMI) - Beethoven, Choral Fantasy, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Karl BöhmKarl BöhmKarl August Leopold Böhm was an Austrian conductor. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century.- Education :...
(1956, Philips) - Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 14, 21, 23, 24, 28 (Philips)
- Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 2, 3, 16, 17, 18, 22, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31 & 32, Diabelli Variations, Rondos Op. 51, Fantasy Op. 77 (1959-64, EMI)
- BrahmsJohannes BrahmsJohannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Piano Concerto No. 1 and Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5, with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kurt SanderlingKurt SanderlingKurt Sanderling, CBE was a German conductor.-Biography:Kurt Sanderling was born in Arys, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire to Jewish parents. After early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he left for the Soviet Union in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra...
(Kontrapunkt) - Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 2, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von KarajanHerbert von KarajanHerbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
(their only recording together) (1958, EMI) - GriegEdvard GriegEdvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
and SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, Piano Concertos, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Rudolf MoraltRudolf MoraltRudolf Moralt was a German conductor, particularly associated with Mozart and the German repertory....
(1958, Philips) - MozartWolfgang Amadeus MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, Piano Concertos Nos. 17 & 26, with the Philharmonia Orchestra under István Kertész (1961, EMI) - Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 27, under Erich LeinsdorfErich LeinsdorfErich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
- with Ludwig Hoelscher, cello
- Beethoven, Cello Sonatas, Op. 5
- PfitznerHans PfitznerHans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...
, Cello Sonata in F sharp minor, Op. 1 - FrescobaldiGirolamo FrescobaldiGirolamo Frescobaldi was a musician from Ferrara, one of the most important composers of keyboard music in the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. A child prodigy, Frescobaldi studied under Luzzasco Luzzaschi in Ferrara, but was influenced by a large number of composers, including Ascanio...
, Toccata for cello and basso continuo - DvořákAntonín DvorákAntonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
, Adagio in D, Rondo in G minor - HindemithPaul HindemithPaul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, Cello Sonata, Op. 11, No. 3 - MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
, Cello Sonata No. 2 in D, Op. 58.
- with Henryk SzeryngHenryk SzeryngHenryk Szeryng was a Polish violinist.-Early years:He was born in Żelazowa Wola, Poland on 22 September 1918 into a wealthy family....
, violin- Violin sonatas by Beethoven, Brahms and Mozart.