Karl Ristenpart
Encyclopedia
Karl Ristenpart was a German
conductor
.
Born in Kiel
, Germany, he studied at the Stern Conservatory
in Berlin
and in Vienna
. He was heavily involved in creating three orchestras
in his lifetime, most notably the Chamber Orchestra of the Saar. With this group he created one of the recorded
collections of Bach
's orchestral music
. These recordings were made originally between 1954 and 1967 as Les Discophiles Français, Erato
and Club Français du Disque releases
in France
and appeared then under license
with various American
labels
(notably Nonesuch
) on both LP
and cassette
.
Following an out-of-print
period, in 2000 the French Accord label (Universal) released a six-CD
set comprising the entire set of Ristenpart recordings of Bach orchestral works. The conductor and his colleagues from Saarbrücken
have also recorded performances of works by Mozart
and Haydn
, among others. The lasting fame he received for these interpretations of Baroque
and early Classical
music overshadowed the fact that with his Saar
orchestra he actually recorded works
by approximately 230 composers
, at least half of them belonging to the 20th century, for the Saar radio
. A possible influence in this direction was Hermann Scherchen
, with whom Ristenpart's mother was acquainted before 1914 and to whom she was married between 1919 and 1920. (Hermann Scherchen was a politically active conductor responsible for the premiere
performances of what were at the time controversial
pieces
by composers such as Berg
and Xenakis
.)
In 1932 Ristenpart became the conductor of a little string
ensemble
in Berlin
, whose core was composed of women friends of his wife, the pianist
and harpsichordist
Ruth Christensen. This ensemble came to be known as the Karl Ristenpart Chamber Orchestra
and often played
for the Berlin radio
and the Deutschlandsender
, mostly for exhausting live
night
broadcasts
abroad
. But Ristenpart's career
as a promising young conductor in Germany was hobbled by his refusal to join the Nazis.
Following World War II
, Ristenpart returned to devastated Berlin and put works by Gustav Mahler (his favorite composer) on the program of his first public concert in the Summer of 1945. With Berlin divided into several foreign sectors
, his unblemished political record allowed him to be named conductor for the "Radio in the American Sector" of Berlin (RIAS)
. In 1946 he thus started to record music, from Monteverdi
to Stravinsky
, with the forces of his former Karl Ristenpart Chamber Orchestra, supplemented by vocal
soloists
and top musicians
from other Berlin orchestras, under the label "RIAS-Choir and Chamber Orchestra". This constituted the second of his important periods of orchestra development and the beginning of his breakthrough to international fame as a conductor, which was mostly built on his ambitious J.S. Bach concert
cycle from March 1947 to December 1952. From this period dates the legendary Archiv production featuring baritone
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
and Hermann Töttcher playing oboe
and oboe da caccia
in Bach's Cantata
s Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 and Ich habe genug, BWV 82. But the worsening of the post-war
political situation in Germany in the early 1950s, particularly in Berlin where circulating between the various sectors became increasingly difficult, also created financial problems for radio broadcasting
. When it became clear at the end of 1952 that the RIAS could not go on subsidizing
all its orchestras, Ristenpart accepted an offer to create a new chamber orchestra for the Saar radio, with which he was also to produce
LPs for Les Discophiles français (an unusual arrangement linked to the fact that the "autonomous" Saar region was still under French administration
at the time).
Ritenpart began working in the Summer of 1953 as conductor of the Saar Chamber Orchestra, which, out of an initial 16, included 10 young musicians who had come along with him from Berlin. Among them were the Hendel Quartet, whose leader, Georg Friedrich Hendel, became the orchestra's first violin
soloist. The ensuing collaboration
with top French instrumental
soloists was especially fruitful, leading to many tours, recordings and partnerships with soloists such as flautist
Jean-Pierre Rampal
and the members of his wind ensemble Le Quintette à vent Français. Some 170 LP-records featuring Ristenpart and his Saar Chamber Orchestra have been marketed under license by various record companies all over the world. These include two complete sets of the Brandenburg concertos
, the Orchestral Suites
and The Art of Fugue
, several albums of Bach vocal cantatas, many Telemann
, Vivaldi
, many Mozart and Haydn works, but also award-winning records of Britten
, Roussel
and Hindemith
pieces.
In December 1967, Ristenpart suffered a heart attack
while on tour in Portugal
with the chamber orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation
and died in a Lisbon
hospital
on Christmas Eve
. The Chamber Orchestra of the Saar was unable to survive long the dimming of its guiding light. After four years under the baton
of the reputable cellist Antonio Janigro
, and the death in a car accident of its core musicians, first-violin Georg Friedrich Hendel and his wife Betty Hindrichs-Hendel, first-cellist, it merged with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra http://www.sr-online.de/rso/98/ in 1973.
Karl Ristenpart left :
- only one LP of his production with his Chamber Orchestra in Berlin (Archiv 14004 with Bach cantatas 56 and 82 interpreted by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Töttcher);
- 169 LPs with the Saar Chamber Orchestra, of which 2 were made in Germany (Archiv and Elektrola
) and 167 in France (2 Lumen, 4 Club National du Disque, 1 Harmonia Mundi
, 95 Discophiles Français, 24 Erato, 42 Club Français du Disque);
- 4 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart
(Checkmate, USA).
Reissues as CDs :
- Archiv 14004 with cantatas 56 and 82 was reissued by Polydor International/DG Classics
in 1997 and again since.
- several LPs of Club Français du Disque, Musidisc and Erato with Bach, Mozart and Haydn works were reissued as CDs in the 1980s and 1990s under the labels Accord or Erato (see www.amazon.fr);
- ACCORD/UNIVERSAL issued a 6-CD set with Bach orchestral works (including the Brandenburgs, the Suites and The Art of Fugue) in 2000; a 4-CD set entitled "L'art de Teresa Stich-Randall
" which includes sacred
compositions by Bach, Handel, Mozart and Schubert
in which the soprano
is accompanied
by Ristenpart’s Saar Orchestra, in 2005; a double-CD set with cantatas 56, 82, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169, Coffee Cantata, and 212 in 2006.
- a wide selection of Ristenpart recordings which had been issued as LPs by Nonesuch can be ordered as CDs in the USA
from www.rediscovery.us;
- the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal has started reissuing most of the early Saar radio tapes (1954-1957) with Ristenpart’s orchestra and French soloists as CD sets under its label Premiers Horizons Disques (www.jprampal.com).
http://univ-metz.academia.edu/CharlesScheel/Papers/766156/GUSTAV_MAHLER
_in_der_Korrespondenz_in_the_correspondence_dans_la_correspondance
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
.
Born in Kiel
Kiel
Kiel is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 238,049 .Kiel is approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the north of Germany, the southeast of the Jutland peninsula, and the southwestern shore of the...
, Germany, he studied at the Stern Conservatory
Stern conservatory
The Stern Conservatory was a private music school in Berlin with many notable tutors and alumni.-History:It was originally founded in 1850 as the Berliner Musikschule by Julius Stern, Theodor Kullak and Adolf Bernhard Marx. Kullak withdrew from the conservatory in 1855 in order to create a new...
in Berlin
Berlin
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 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He was heavily involved in creating three orchestras
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
in his lifetime, most notably the Chamber Orchestra of the Saar. With this group he created one of the recorded
Sound recording and reproduction
Sound recording and reproduction is an electrical or mechanical inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recording technology are analog recording and digital recording...
collections of 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...
's orchestral music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. These recordings were made originally between 1954 and 1967 as Les Discophiles Français, Erato
Erato Records
Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 to promote French classical music. In 1992 it became part of Warner Bros. Records. In 1999 Erato launched a subsidiary Detour Records....
and Club Français du Disque releases
Release (music)
In the music industry, a release is usually a term referring to the creative output from an artist available for sale or distribution; a broad term covering the many different formats music can be released in, and different forms of pieces .The word can also refer to the event at which an album or...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and appeared then under license
License
The verb license or grant licence means to give permission. The noun license or licence refers to that permission as well as to the document recording that permission.A license may be granted by a party to another party as an element of an agreement...
with various American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
labels
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
(notably Nonesuch
Nonesuch Records
Nonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to produce "fine records at the same price as a trade paperback", which would be half the price of a normal LP...
) on both LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
and cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...
.
Following an out-of-print
Out of print
Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....
period, in 2000 the French Accord label (Universal) released a six-CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
set comprising the entire set of Ristenpart recordings of Bach orchestral works. The conductor and his colleagues from Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken is the capital of the state of Saarland in Germany. The city is situated at the heart of a metropolitan area that borders on the west on Dillingen and to the north-east on Neunkirchen, where most of the people of the Saarland live....
have also recorded performances of works by Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang 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...
and Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
, among others. The lasting fame he received for these interpretations of Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
and early Classical
Classical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
music overshadowed the fact that with his Saar
Saarland
Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...
orchestra he actually recorded works
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
by approximately 230 composers
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, at least half of them belonging to the 20th century, for the Saar radio
Saarländischer Rundfunk
Saarländischer Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster for the German Bundesland of Saarland, with its headquarters in the Broadcasting House Halberg in Saarbrücken. SR is a member of the ARD.- Finances :...
. A possible influence in this direction was Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen was a German conductor.-Life:Scherchen was originally a violist and played among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in his teens...
, with whom Ristenpart's mother was acquainted before 1914 and to whom she was married between 1919 and 1920. (Hermann Scherchen was a politically active conductor responsible for the premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
performances of what were at the time controversial
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
pieces
Musical composition
Musical composition can refer to an original piece of music, the structure of a musical piece, or the process of creating a new piece of music. People who practice composition are called composers.- Musical compositions :...
by composers such as Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
and Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
.)
In 1932 Ristenpart became the conductor of a little string
String instrument
A string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones...
ensemble
Musical ensemble
A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...
in Berlin
Berlin
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...
, whose core was composed of women friends of his wife, the pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
and harpsichordist
Harpsichordist
A harpsichordist is a person who plays the harpsichord.Many baroque composers played the harpsichord, including Johann Sebastian Bach, Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel, François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau...
Ruth Christensen. This ensemble came to be known as the Karl Ristenpart Chamber Orchestra
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and often played
Play (activity)
Play is a term employed in ethology and psychology to describe to a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with pleasure and enjoyment...
for the Berlin radio
Radio industry
The "radio industry" is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the broadcast of radio stations or ancillary services.Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups:...
and the Deutschlandsender
Deutschlandsender
Deutschlandsender is one of the longest-established radio station names in German. It was used between 1926 and the end of 1993 to denote a number of powerful stations designed to achieve all-Germany coverage .-1926—1945:The first Deutschlandsender, broadcasting from a powerful transmitter...
, mostly for exhausting live
Live radio
Live radio is radio broadcast without delay. Before the days of television, audiences listened to live dramas, comedies, quiz shows, and concerts on the radio much the same way that they now do on TV. Most talk radio is live radio where people can speak about their opinions/lives....
night
Night
Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day...
broadcasts
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
abroad
International broadcasting
International broadcasting is broadcasting that is deliberately aimed at a foreign, rather than a domestic, audience. It usually is broadcast by means of longwave, mediumwave, or shortwave radio, but in recent years has also used direct satellite broadcasting and the Internet as means of reaching...
. But Ristenpart's career
Career
Career is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
as a promising young conductor in Germany was hobbled by his refusal to join the Nazis.
Following 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...
, Ristenpart returned to devastated Berlin and put works by Gustav Mahler (his favorite composer) on the program of his first public concert in the Summer of 1945. With Berlin divided into several foreign sectors
Allied Occupation Zones in Germany
The Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during 1945–49. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, US forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed boundaries for the...
, his unblemished political record allowed him to be named conductor for the "Radio in the American Sector" of Berlin (RIAS)
Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor
RIAS was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in and around Berlin with news and political reporting and was initially only broadcast on...
. In 1946 he thus started to record music, from Monteverdi
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, gambist, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the Renaissance style of music to that of the Baroque period. He developed two individual styles of composition – the...
to Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
, with the forces of his former Karl Ristenpart Chamber Orchestra, supplemented by vocal
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
soloists
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
and top musicians
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
from other Berlin orchestras, under the label "RIAS-Choir and Chamber Orchestra". This constituted the second of his important periods of orchestra development and the beginning of his breakthrough to international fame as a conductor, which was mostly built on his ambitious J.S. Bach concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
cycle from March 1947 to December 1952. From this period dates the legendary Archiv production featuring baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
and Hermann Töttcher playing oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
and oboe da caccia
Oboe da caccia
The oboe da caccia is a double reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family, pitched a fifth below the oboe and used primarily in the Baroque period of European classical music...
in Bach's Cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, BWV 56 and Ich habe genug, BWV 82. But the worsening of the post-war
Post-war
A post-war period or postwar period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
political situation in Germany in the early 1950s, particularly in Berlin where circulating between the various sectors became increasingly difficult, also created financial problems for radio broadcasting
Radio industry
The "radio industry" is a generic term for any companies or public service providers who are involved with the broadcast of radio stations or ancillary services.Radio broadcasters can be broken into at least two different groups:...
. When it became clear at the end of 1952 that the RIAS could not go on subsidizing
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
all its orchestras, Ristenpart accepted an offer to create a new chamber orchestra for the Saar radio, with which he was also to produce
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
LPs for Les Discophiles français (an unusual arrangement linked to the fact that the "autonomous" Saar region was still under French administration
Administration (government)
The term administration, as used in the context of government, differs according to jurisdiction.-United States:In United States usage, the term refers to the executive branch under a specific president , for example: the "Barack Obama administration." It can also mean an executive branch agency...
at the time).
Ritenpart began working in the Summer of 1953 as conductor of the Saar Chamber Orchestra, which, out of an initial 16, included 10 young musicians who had come along with him from Berlin. Among them were the Hendel Quartet, whose leader, Georg Friedrich Hendel, became the orchestra's first violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
soloist. The ensuing collaboration
Collaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
with top French instrumental
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
soloists was especially fruitful, leading to many tours, recordings and partnerships with soloists such as flautist
Flautist
A flautist or flutist is a musician who plays an instrument in the flute family. See List of flautists.The choice of "flautist" versus "flutist" is the source of dispute among players of the instrument...
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
and the members of his wind ensemble Le Quintette à vent Français. Some 170 LP-records featuring Ristenpart and his Saar Chamber Orchestra have been marketed under license by various record companies all over the world. These include two complete sets of the Brandenburg concertos
Brandenburg concertos
The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...
, the Orchestral Suites
Orchestral suites (Bach)
The four Orchestral Suites or Ouvertures BWV 1066–1069 are a set of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach, probably composed between 1725 and 1739 in Leipzig...
and The Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue
The Art of Fugue , BWV 1080, is an incomplete work by Johann Sebastian Bach . It was most likely started at the beginning of the 1740s, if not earlier. The first known surviving version, which contained 12 fugues and 2 canons, was copied by the composer in 1745...
, several albums of Bach vocal cantatas, many Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann
Georg Philipp Telemann was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hildesheim, Telemann entered the University of Leipzig to study law, but eventually...
, Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
, many Mozart and Haydn works, but also award-winning records of Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Roussel
Albert Roussel
Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...
and Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul 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...
pieces.
In December 1967, Ristenpart suffered a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
while on tour in Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
with the chamber orchestra of the Gulbenkian Foundation
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a Portuguese private foundation of public utility whose statutory aims are in the fields of arts, charity, education, and science...
and died in a Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
. The Chamber Orchestra of the Saar was unable to survive long the dimming of its guiding light. After four years under the baton
Baton (conducting)
A baton is a stick that is used by conductors primarily to exaggerate and enhance the manual and bodily movements associated with directing an ensemble of musicians. They are generally made of a light wood, fiberglass or carbon fiber which is tapered to a grip shaped like a pear, drop, cylinder...
of the reputable cellist Antonio Janigro
Antonio Janigro
Antonio Janigro was an Italian cellist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Milan, he began studying piano when he was six and cello when he was eight. Initially taught by Giovanni Berti, Janigro enrolled in the Verdi Conservatory of Milan, where he was instructed by Gilberto Crepax...
, and the death in a car accident of its core musicians, first-violin Georg Friedrich Hendel and his wife Betty Hindrichs-Hendel, first-cellist, it merged with the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra http://www.sr-online.de/rso/98/ in 1973.
Discography
Original recordings published as LPsKarl Ristenpart left :
- only one LP of his production with his Chamber Orchestra in Berlin (Archiv 14004 with Bach cantatas 56 and 82 interpreted by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Hermann Töttcher);
- 169 LPs with the Saar Chamber Orchestra, of which 2 were made in Germany (Archiv and Elektrola
Electrola
Electrola was a record label founded in Berlin in 1925 by the Gramophone Company. In March 1931 Electrola, along with its parent label and Carl Lindström Company parent Columbia Graphophone Company, merged to form the Electric & Musical Industries Ltd. . The German EMI unit was first called...
) and 167 in France (2 Lumen, 4 Club National du Disque, 1 Harmonia Mundi
Harmonia Mundi
Harmonia Mundi is an independent music record label founded in 1958 by Bernard Coutaz in Arles . The Latin phrase means "world harmony"....
, 95 Discophiles Français, 24 Erato, 42 Club Français du Disque);
- 4 with the Radio Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart
Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany. The ensemble was founded in 1945 by American occupation authorities as the orchestra for Radio Stuttgart, under the name Sinfonieorchester von Radio Stuttgart...
(Checkmate, USA).
Reissues as CDs :
- Archiv 14004 with cantatas 56 and 82 was reissued by Polydor International/DG Classics
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
in 1997 and again since.
- several LPs of Club Français du Disque, Musidisc and Erato with Bach, Mozart and Haydn works were reissued as CDs in the 1980s and 1990s under the labels Accord or Erato (see www.amazon.fr);
- ACCORD/UNIVERSAL issued a 6-CD set with Bach orchestral works (including the Brandenburgs, the Suites and The Art of Fugue) in 2000; a 4-CD set entitled "L'art de Teresa Stich-Randall
Teresa Stich-Randall
Teresa Stich-Randall was a European-based American soprano opera singer.-Biography:Teresa Stich-Randall was born in New Hartford, Connecticut in 1927 and studied at The Hartt School in West Hartford....
" which includes sacred
Religious music
Religious music is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.A lot of music has been composed to complement religion, and many composers have derived inspiration from their own religion. Many forms of traditional music have been adapted to fit religions'...
compositions by Bach, Handel, Mozart and 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...
in which the soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
is accompanied
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
by Ristenpart’s Saar Orchestra, in 2005; a double-CD set with cantatas 56, 82, Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 140, Gott soll allein mein Herze haben, BWV 169, Coffee Cantata, and 212 in 2006.
- a wide selection of Ristenpart recordings which had been issued as LPs by Nonesuch can be ordered as CDs in the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from www.rediscovery.us;
- the Association Jean-Pierre Rampal has started reissuing most of the early Saar radio tapes (1954-1957) with Ristenpart’s orchestra and French soloists as CD sets under its label Premiers Horizons Disques (www.jprampal.com).
Sources
- Charles W. Scheel. Karl Ristenpart: Die Werkstätten des Dirigenten: Berlin, Paris, Saarbrücken. Saarbrücken, SDVSDVSDV may stand for: Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business*SDV is a trade mark of swissco photographic supplies in singapore.* Fuji-Servetto. SDV is the pro cycling team's former UCI 3-letter code, which was derived from its former names "Saunier Duval-Prodir" and "Saunier Duval-Scott". This...
, 1999 (www.amazon.de). This biography contains many photos, detailed charts of Ristenpart’s productions and a CD with 4 recordings of the Saar Chamber Orchestra under Ristenpart (Mozart, Sinfonia concertante for 4 winds and orchestraSinfonia concertanteSinfonia concertante is a musical form that emerged during the Classical period of Western music. It is essentially a mixture of the symphony and the concerto genres: a concerto in that one or more soloists are on prominent display, and a symphony in that the soloists are nonetheless discernibly a...
(Pierre Pierlot, oboe; Jacques LancelotJacques LancelotJacques Lancelot born in Rouen France in 1920He studied at the conservatory of Caen with Fernand Blachet, and at the Paris conservatory with Auguste Périer et Fernand Oubradous were he graduated in 1939, and is considered an exponent of the traditional French Clarinet School with a clear and...
, clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
; Gilbert Coursier, hornHorn (instrument)The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
; Paul Hongne, bassoonBassoonThe bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
), 1954; Albert RousselAlbert RousselAlbert Charles Paul Marie Roussel was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period...
, Concert pour petit orchestre, op. 34, 1955; André JolivetAndré JolivetAndré Jolivet was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and musical thought, Jolivet's music draws on his interest in acoustics and atonality as well as both ancient and modern influences in music, particularly on instruments used in ancient times...
, Concerto for flute and string orchestra (Jean-Pierre RampalJean-Pierre RampalJean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. He has been personally "credited with returning to the flute the popularity as a solo classical instrument it had not held since the 18th century."-Early years:...
, fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
), 1960; J.S. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 [Georg Friedrich Hendel, violin; Kurt Cromm and Holger Ristenpart, flutes], 1967). - Charles W. Scheel and Damien Ehrhardt (ed.). Karl Ristenpart und das Saarländische Kammerorchester (1953-1967) = Karl Ristenpart et l’Orchestre de chambre de la Sarre (1953-1967). Bern and New York, Peter Lang (“Convergences” Series; 291 p., 20 illus.), 1999.
- Richard Freed. "The Aristocratic Ristenpart", London, Classic Record CollectorClassic Record CollectorClassical Recordings Quarterly is a quarterly British magazine devoted to vintage recordings of classical music, across the range of instrumental recordings, chamber music, orchestral, vocal and opera....
, Spring 2006, pp. 10-17. - Charles W. Scheel(ed.). "Gustav Mahler in the correspondence between Karl Ristenpart and Richard Freed in 1967", special trilingual issue of the Cahiers de l’Amefa, Saarbrucken, 2007. Texts edited and translated in German, French and English by Charles W. Scheel (72 p + CD with a 1959 recording of the Adagietto from Mahlers 5th Symphony, by the Saar Chamber Orchestra under Karl Ristenpart). See under:
http://univ-metz.academia.edu/CharlesScheel/Papers/766156/GUSTAV_MAHLER
_in_der_Korrespondenz_in_the_correspondence_dans_la_correspondance