Rudolf Kelber
Encyclopedia
Rudolf Kelber is a German organist
, harpsichordist
, conductor
and church musician
.
and Kurt Eichhorn
(conducting).
Rudolf Kelber worked as a theatre conductor in Gelsenkirchen (1974–1976) and in Heidelberg (1976–1982). At the same time he played chamber music extensively and attended authentic performance practice classes
with Alan Curtis
, Gustav Leonhardt
and Nikolaus Harnoncourt
.
In 1982 Rudolf Kelber succeeded Heinz Wunderlich as cantor
and organist
at the Hauptkirche St. Jacobi in Hamburg
.
Kelber initiated the fundamental restoration of the Arp Schnitger organ
, the largest sounding baroque organ in existence, in the Hauptkirche St. Jacobi, which was completed in 1993. The second organ of St. Jacobi (Kemper 1960/1968) was also repaired on his initiative in 2008.
in 1985, 1994 and 2000 have been the highlights of Kelber’s appearances as a concert organist.
Kelber has performed as organ soloist in the U.S., Japan, Israel, and almost all European countries with a wide repertoire: in addition to composers in the North German tradition
(determined by the historic Schnitger organ) he also plays the music of Liszt, Reger and Messiaen, as well as arrangements of symphonies or parts from operas, tango and blues. He has frequently accompanied silent films with organ improvisations.
Staged performances of operas and oratorios by Cavalieri, Monteverdi, Stradella, Purcell, Handel, Gluck and Mozart have developed under his direction in both Heidelberg and Hamburg
In 2005 the rock opera
Jesus Christ Superstar
by Andrew Lloyd Webber
was produced in St. Jacobi.
From 2005 to 2009 Kelber conducted five baroque operas from the repertoire of the Hamburg Gänsemarkt opera in concert performances at the Bucerius Kunst Forum
for the ZEIT-Stiftung
.
.
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek / Deutsches Musikarchiv:
Concert programs, CDs and the German newspaper "Hamburger Abendblatt" (with about 240 entries for "Rudolf Kelber" in the "Online-Archiv"):
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
, 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...
, 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...
and church musician
Church musician (Germany)
Church musician is a music profession in Germany.At present there are about 3600 main job and 25000 second job church musicians in the Protestant and Catholic Church in Germany....
.
Biography
Rudolf Kelber began his musical education at high school in Nuremberg State Conservatory and received instruction in piano, organ, cello and music theory. From 1967 to 1974 he studied church music, conducting and organ (master class) at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Among his teachers were Karl Richter and Franz Lehrndorfer (organ), Maria Landes-Hindemith and Erik Then-Bergh (piano), as well as Jan KoetsierJan Koetsier
Jan Koetsier was a Dutch composer and conductor.In 1950, Koetsier became the first Kapellmeister of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. As a composer, he wrote chamber music, and orchestral and choral works, as well as the opera Frans Hals...
and Kurt Eichhorn
Kurt Eichhorn
Kurt Peter Eichhorn , was a German conductor.Eichhorn was born in Munich, the son of a painter. He studied music at the conservatory in Würzburg with Hermann Zilcher. His conducting debut was in 1932 as a conductor and choral conductor in Bielefeld...
(conducting).
Rudolf Kelber worked as a theatre conductor in Gelsenkirchen (1974–1976) and in Heidelberg (1976–1982). At the same time he played chamber music extensively and attended authentic performance practice classes
Historically informed performance
Historically informed performance is an approach in the performance of music and theater. Within this approach, the performance adheres to state-of-the-art knowledge of the aesthetic criteria of the period in which the music or theatre work was conceived...
with Alan Curtis
Alan Curtis (harpsichordist)
Alan Curtis is a noted American harpsichordist, musicologist, and conductor of baroque opera. After graduate studies at the University of Illinois , where he wrote his dissertation on the keyboard music of Sweelinck, he studied in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, with whom he subsequently recorded...
, Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt
Gustav Leonhardt is a highly renowned Dutch keyboard player, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. Leonhardt has been a leading figure in the movement to perform music on period instruments...
and Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an Austrian conductor, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the Classical era and earlier. Starting out as a classical cellist, he founded his own period instrument ensemble in the 1950s, and became a pioneer of the Early Music movement...
.
In 1982 Rudolf Kelber succeeded Heinz Wunderlich as cantor
Cantor (church)
A cantor is the chief singer employed in a church with responsibilities for the ecclesiastical choir; also called the precentor....
and organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
at the Hauptkirche St. Jacobi in Hamburg
St. Jacobi, Hamburg
The St. Jacobi church is one of the five principal Lutheran churches of Hamburg, Germany. The church is located directly in the city center, has a 125 m tall tower and features a famous organ by Arp Schnitger from 1693. It is dedicated to St James the Greater and often incorrectly known in English...
.
Kelber initiated the fundamental restoration of the Arp Schnitger organ
Schnitger organ (Hamburg)
The Arp Schnitger organ in St. Jacobi Church, Hamburg, , one of the five Hauptkirchen of Hamburg, is a world-famous monument of North-German organ building, and the largest surviving baroque organ in Northern Europe....
, the largest sounding baroque organ in existence, in the Hauptkirche St. Jacobi, which was completed in 1993. The second organ of St. Jacobi (Kemper 1960/1968) was also repaired on his initiative in 2008.
Organist
Three performances of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian BachJohann 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...
in 1985, 1994 and 2000 have been the highlights of Kelber’s appearances as a concert organist.
Kelber has performed as organ soloist in the U.S., Japan, Israel, and almost all European countries with a wide repertoire: in addition to composers in the North German tradition
German organ schools
The 17th century organ composers of Germany can be divided into two primary schools: the north German school and the south German school...
(determined by the historic Schnitger organ) he also plays the music of Liszt, Reger and Messiaen, as well as arrangements of symphonies or parts from operas, tango and blues. He has frequently accompanied silent films with organ improvisations.
Conductor
Rudolf Kelber has conducted the great Passions, oratorios and requiems as well as a lot of baroque, classical, romantic and modern symphonic works.Staged performances of operas and oratorios by Cavalieri, Monteverdi, Stradella, Purcell, Handel, Gluck and Mozart have developed under his direction in both Heidelberg and Hamburg
In 2005 the rock opera
Rock opera
A rock opera is a work of rock music that presents a storyline told over multiple parts, songs or sections in the manner of opera. A rock opera differs from a conventional rock album, which usually includes songs that are not unified by a common theme or narrative. More recent developments include...
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
was produced in St. Jacobi.
From 2005 to 2009 Kelber conducted five baroque operas from the repertoire of the Hamburg Gänsemarkt opera in concert performances at the Bucerius Kunst Forum
Bucerius Kunst Forum
-External links:* . Retrieved on 2009-10-08....
for the ZEIT-Stiftung
ZEIT-Stiftung
The Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius was founded in 1971 by Gerd Bucerius . The name refers to the founder, his second wife Gertrud Ebel whose nickname was Ebelin, and to the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, which was founded by Gerd Bucerius. The foundation is registered in Hamburg...
.
Premieres
- Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
: Requiem (North German premiere 1987) - Ernst-Ulrich von Kameke: Moabiter Requiem "In Tyrannos" (premieres in Hamburg (1999, Hauptkirche St. Michaelis) and in Hannover at the Expo 2000Expo 2000Expo 2000 was a World's Fair held in Hanover, Germany from Thursday, June 1 to Tuesday, October 31, 2000. It was located on the Hanover fairground , which is famous for hosting CeBIT...
) - Edward ElgarEdward ElgarSir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
: The Apostles (Hamburg premiere 2005) - Olivier MessiaenOlivier MessiaenOlivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
: La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-ChristLa Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-ChristLa Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ is a work written between 1965 and 1969 by Olivier Messiaen. It is based on the Jesus transfiguring on a mountain according to the report of the Synoptic Gospels. The writing is on a very large scale; the work requires around 200 performers...
(Hamburg premiere 2008, Bremen premiere 2008)
Compositions
- Missa super Cantus Lennonenses McCartnesque (mixed choir a cappella / 2001)
- Cantata in honorem Henrici Sagittarii (soprano, vibraphone, mixed choir / 2006)
- Paul-Gerhardt-cantata (mezzo-soprano solo, choir, brass / 2007)
Reconstructions and compilations
- Claudio Monteverdi: Arianna (1997)
- Johann Sebastian Bach: St Mark PassionSt Mark Passion (Bach)The St Mark Passion , BWV 247, is a lost Passion setting by Johann Sebastian Bach, first performed in Leipzig on Good Friday, 23 March 1731 and again on Good Friday 1744 in a revised version...
(1998) - Claudio Monteverdi: Vespro secondo (1999, compilation)
- Modest Mussorgsky: Glagolitic Mass (2005)
Teaching
Since 2003 Rudolf Kelber has been teaching organ playing at the University of the Arts BremenUniversity of the Arts Bremen
The University of the Arts Bremen is a publicly funded university in Bremen, Germany and one of the most successful ones whose roots in music, arts and design date back to 1873...
.
Discography
- Norddeutsche Orgelmeister und Bach – Arp Schnitger organ (1993)
- Europäische Orgelmusik des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts - Arp Schnitger organ (1993)
- Johann Sebastian Bach - Arp Schnitger organ (1997)
- Nu ward veel dusend Lichter hell - Low German Christmas carols (1998)
- J. S. Bach, Markus-Passion BWV 247 in the reconstruction of Rudolf Kelber (1999)
- Monteverdi: Vespro secondo (new compilation of psalms / 1999)
- Organ improvisations on theme sketches by Hans Henny Jahnn (2000)
- Fremde Vögel - Missa Super Cantus Lennonenses McCartnesques for choir a cappella, Tangos, Blues, Ragtimes for organ and harpsichord (2003)
- Gott loben, das ist unser Amt - Kantorei St. Jacobi Hamburg 1958 - 2008 - concert recordings (2008)
Sources
- Hauptkirche St. Jacobi zu Hamburg
- http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Kelber-Rudolf.htm
Deutsche Nationalbibliothek / Deutsches Musikarchiv:
- http://d-nb.info/gnd/104030240
- http://d-nb.info/gnd/134424069
- http://d-nb.info/97073221X
Concert programs, CDs and the German newspaper "Hamburger Abendblatt" (with about 240 entries for "Rudolf Kelber" in the "Online-Archiv"):
- http://www.abendblatt.de/
- http://suche.abendblatt.de/ashao/search.do?method=search