Lothar Zagrosek
Encyclopedia
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...
. As a youth, he sang in the Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
Cathedral choir, including performances as the First Boy in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
at the 1954 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...
. From 1962 to 1967, Zagrosek studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky
Hans Swarowsky
Hans Swarowsky was an Austrian conductor of Hungarian birth and Jewish descent.Swarowsky was born in Budapest, Hungary. He studied the art of conducting under Felix Weingartner and Richard Strauss...
, István Kertész, Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna
Bruno Maderna was an Italian conductor and composer. For the last ten years of his life he lived in Germany and eventually became a citizen of that country.-Biography:...
and 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...
.
Zagrosek was chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra of the Austrian national broadcaster Österreichischer Rundfunk . Founded in 1969 with the name of the ORF-Symphonieorchester , it is the only radio orchestra in the country...
from 1982 to 1986. He was principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...
from 1985 to 1988. Between 1990 and 1992, he conducted regularly at the Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
Opera. In 1995, he became principal guest conductor of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. From 1997 to 2006, he was chief conductor at the Württemberg opera house in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. From 2006 to 2011, he was chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the former Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester).
Selected recordings
Among Zagrosek's commercial recordings are several issues in Decca's Entartete MusikDegenerate music
Degenerate music was a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazi government in Germany to certain forms of music that it considered to be harmful or decadent. The Nazi government's concern for degenerate music was a part of its larger and more well-known campaign against degenerate art...
series, including the following works:
- Walter BraunfelsWalter Braunfels-Life:Walter Braunfels was born in Frankfurt am Main. His first music teacher was his mother, the great-niece of the composer Louis Spohr . He continued his piano studies in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory with James Kwast....
: Die VögelDie Vögel (opera)Die Vögel , Op. 30 is an opera in a prologue and two acts by Walter Braunfels. The libretto, written by the composer, is a free adaptation of Aristophanes' comedy The Birds which was performed at the Dionysos Theatre in Athens in 414 BC.... - Hanns EislerHanns EislerHanns Eisler was an Austrian composer.-Family background:Eisler was born in Leipzig where his Jewish father, Rudolf Eisler, was a professor of philosophy...
: Deutsche Sinfonie - Berthold GoldschmidtBerthold GoldschmidtBerthold Goldschmidt was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England...
: Der gewaltige Hahnrei - Paul 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...
: Der Dämon - Hans KrásaHans KrásaHans Krása was a Czech composer who was killed in the Holocaust at Auschwitz. He helped to organize cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp.-Life:...
: Verlobung im Träum - Ernst KrenekErnst KrenekErnst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
: Symphony No. 2, Jonny spielt auf - Franz SchrekerFranz SchrekerFranz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
: Die GezeichnetenDie GezeichnetenDie Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
, Der Geburtstag der Infantin - Erwin SchulhoffErwin SchulhoffErwin Schulhoff was a Czech composer and pianist.-Life:Born in Prague of Jewish-German origin, Schulhoff was one of the brightest figures in a generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany...
: Die Mondsüchtige - Viktor UllmannViktor UllmannViktor Ullmann was a Silesia-born Austrian, later Czech composer, conductor and pianist of Jewish origin.- Biography :...
: Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Zagrosek conducted and recorded Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
with the Stuttgart State Opera on the Naxos
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
label (NXS 8660170). In addition, Zagrosek has recorded contemporary music, including works of Michael Torke
Michael Torke
Michael Torke is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most postminimal piece is Four Proverbs, in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works...
.