Stefan Anton Reck
Encyclopedia
Stefan Anton Reck is a German orchestra conductor. He was born on 26 April 1960 in Baden-Baden
, Germany.
and Leonard Bernstein
.
In the following years, he collaborated with some well-known Italian Orchestras (Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo, Orchestra Regionale del Lazio). In 1999 he was then appointed as Music Director of the Teatro Massimo and held this title until 2003.
During these years, his collaboration with M° Claudio Abbado
resulted in Wozzeck
at Salzburger Ostfestspiele
.
In 1998 M° Reck conducted his first Der Ring des Nibelungen
at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.
He then began his collaboration with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, in opera productions such as “Falstaff
”, and concerts during its European tour, with works of Shostakovich, Bartók
, Mahler, Scrjabin.
In the meanwhile he opened the 2001 season of Teatro Massimo in Palermo with Lulu
by Alban Berg
.
This production has been recorded live and released in a cd by OehmsClassic.
The following months counted many collaborations with Orchestre National de France
, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova.
At the end of the same year, he ended his first ring in Trieste with Götterdämmerung
.
In 2002, after having conducted Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach
, M° Reck conducted a spectacular production, in memory of the survivors of the Holocaust “La Memoria dell’Offesa”, which featured, among others, Der Kaiser von Atlantis
by Viktor Ullmann and A Survivor from Warsaw
by Arnold Schönberg, with Harvey Keitel
.
In these year an intense activity followed, both in the contemporary and traditional repertoire:
Worth mentioning are Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher by Arthur Honegger
in Palermo, Salomè by Richard Strauss
in Genoa, Norma in Tokyo and Der Freischutz
in Leipzig, and collaborations with Orchestre National de France
, Orchestre Nationale de Montpellier, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, and Maggio Musicale.
In 2004 he debuted in three major venues: Semperoper Dresden, with Aida, Bayerischer Staatsoper, with Lulu by Alban Berg and Los Angeles Opera
with Le Nozze di Figaro.
Moreover he conducted Daphne by Richard Strauss in the renewed Teatro La Fenice in Venice: a cd of the performance has been released by Dynamic.
In 2005 Reck was invited to conduct two new productions at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Alban Berg’s Lulu and Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
.
An intense concert and opera activity followed. Particularly noteworthy among all performances: the first European performance of the opera Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie at the Semperoper Dresden, Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
at the Teatro Reggio di Torino, Der Ring des Nibelungen at the reopened Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Debuts at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Oper Frankfurt; concerts with: the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Turin, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Edinburgh Festival), the orchestras Gran Teatro la
Fenice, Venice, of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
M°Reck is mostly renowned world-wide for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler
’s work, as well as of the Second Viennese School
’s (Berg, Schoenberg and Webern) and for his interest and support of contemporary music.
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden is a spa town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe...
, Germany.
Biography
After having won 1st International Arturo Toscanini competition for conducting in 1985, and subsequently the first prize in the International Gino Marinuzzi competition in conducting, he received a scholarship from the Tanglewood Music Festival, where he could study with Seiji OzawaSeiji Ozawa
is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
and Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
.
In the following years, he collaborated with some well-known Italian Orchestras (Orchestra Sinfonica di San Remo, Orchestra Regionale del Lazio). In 1999 he was then appointed as Music Director of the Teatro Massimo and held this title until 2003.
During these years, his collaboration with M° Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
resulted in Wozzeck
Wozzeck
Wozzeck is the first opera by the Austrian composer Alban Berg. It was composed between 1914 and 1922 and first performed in 1925. The opera is based on the drama Woyzeck left incomplete by the German playwright Georg Büchner at his death. Berg attended the first production in Vienna of Büchner's...
at Salzburger Ostfestspiele
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 1998 M° Reck conducted his first 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...
at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste.
He then began his collaboration with the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, in opera productions such as “Falstaff
Falstaff
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare. In the two Henry IV plays, he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V. A fat, vain, boastful, and cowardly knight, Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is...
”, and concerts during its European tour, with works of Shostakovich, Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
, Mahler, Scrjabin.
In the meanwhile he opened the 2001 season of Teatro Massimo in Palermo with Lulu
Lulu (opera)
Lulu is an opera by the composer Alban Berg. The libretto was adapted by Berg himself from Frank Wedekind's plays Erdgeist and Die Büchse der Pandora .-Composition history:...
by Alban 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...
.
This production has been recorded live and released in a cd by OehmsClassic.
The following months counted many collaborations with Orchestre National de France
Orchestre National de France
The Orchestre national de France is a symphony orchestra run by Radio France. It has also been known as the Orchestre national de la Radiodiffusion française and Orchestre national de l'Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française .Since 1944, the orchestra has been based in the Théâtre...
, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino is an annual opera festival which was founded in April 1933 by conductor Vittorio Gui with the aim of presenting contemporary and forgotten operas in visually dramatic productions. It was the first music festival in Italy. The first opera presented was Verdi's early...
, Teatro Comunale of Bologna, and Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova.
At the end of the same year, he ended his first ring in Trieste with Götterdämmerung
Götterdämmerung
is the last in Richard Wagner's cycle of four operas titled Der Ring des Nibelungen...
.
In 2002, after having conducted Les Contes d’Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
, M° Reck conducted a spectacular production, in memory of the survivors of the Holocaust “La Memoria dell’Offesa”, which featured, among others, Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Der Kaiser von Atlantis
Der Kaiser von Atlantis, oder Die Tod-Verweigerung is a one-act opera by Viktor Ullmann with a libretto by Peter Kien. Both Ullmann and Kien were inmates at the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt , where they collaborated on the opera, around 1943...
by Viktor Ullmann and A Survivor from Warsaw
A Survivor from Warsaw
A Survivor from Warsaw, Op. 46, is a work for narrator, men's chorus, and orchestra written by the Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg in 1947. The initial inspiration for the work was a suggestion from the Russian émigrée dancer Corinne Chochem for a work to pay tribute to the Holocaust victims of...
by Arnold Schönberg, with Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
.
In these year an intense activity followed, both in the contemporary and traditional repertoire:
Worth mentioning are Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher by Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
in Palermo, Salomè by Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
in Genoa, Norma in Tokyo and Der Freischutz
Der Freischütz
Der Freischütz is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Friedrich Kind. It premiered on 18 June 1821 at the Schauspielhaus Berlin...
in Leipzig, and collaborations with Orchestre National de France
Orchestre National de France
The Orchestre national de France is a symphony orchestra run by Radio France. It has also been known as the Orchestre national de la Radiodiffusion française and Orchestre national de l'Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française .Since 1944, the orchestra has been based in the Théâtre...
, Orchestre Nationale de Montpellier, Orchestra of Santa Cecilia, and Maggio Musicale.
In 2004 he debuted in three major venues: Semperoper Dresden, with Aida, Bayerischer Staatsoper, with Lulu by Alban Berg and Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
with Le Nozze di Figaro.
Moreover he conducted Daphne by Richard Strauss in the renewed Teatro La Fenice in Venice: a cd of the performance has been released by Dynamic.
In 2005 Reck was invited to conduct two new productions at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Alban Berg’s Lulu and Richard Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. It is among the longest operas still commonly performed today, usually taking around four and a half hours. It was first performed at the Königliches Hof- und National-Theater in Munich, on June 21,...
.
An intense concert and opera activity followed. Particularly noteworthy among all performances: the first European performance of the opera Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie at the Semperoper Dresden, Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde
Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Straßburg. It was composed between 1857 and 1859 and premiered in Munich on 10 June 1865 with Hans von Bülow conducting...
at the Teatro Reggio di Torino, Der Ring des Nibelungen at the reopened Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Debuts at the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Oper Frankfurt; concerts with: the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Turin, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (Edinburgh Festival), the orchestras Gran Teatro la
Fenice, Venice, of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra.
M°Reck is mostly renowned world-wide for his interpretations of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
’s work, as well as of the Second Viennese School
Second Viennese School
The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
’s (Berg, Schoenberg and Webern) and for his interest and support of contemporary music.
Discography
- R. Strauss, Daphne, Gran Teatro La Fenice, Dynamic , CD et DVD
- Berg, Lulu, Teatro Massimo di Palermo, OehmsClassics
- Wagner Portrait, Albert Dohmen, Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Arte Nova Classics
- Schostakowitsch, Symphonie n° 1, op. 10 ; Skrjabin, Le Poème de l’Extase, op. 54, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Edition Zeitklang
- Schönberg, Erwartung (Anja Silja) ; Poulenc, La voix humaine (Raina Kabaivanska), Orchestra del Teatro Massimo di Palermo
- Mahler, Symphonie n° 7', Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Preiser Records
- Mahler, Symphonie n° 10, Adagio ; Wagner, Wotans Abschied und Feuerzauber ; Bartók, Der wunderbare Mandarin, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Preiser Records
- Tutino, Riccardo III, Orchestre del Teatro Sociale di Rovigo, Ermitage
Press
- Opéra international 255, mars 2001, Berg, Lulu
- Die Opernwelt, März 2001, Berg, Lulu
- FAZ Nr. 261, 9. 11. 2001, Lulu CD
- Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr. 245, 24. 10. 2001, Lulu CD
- Stuttgarter Zeitung, 13. 2. 2002, Lulu CD
- FAZ Nr. 114, 18. 5. 2002, Schönberg, Moses und Aron
- Midi libre, 14. 12. 2003, Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique
- Anaclase, 29. 4. 2005, Berg, Violin Concerto, Mahler, Symphony n° 6
- Die Opernwelt, November 2005, Wagner, Meistersinger von Nürnberg
- Münchner Merkur, 1. 10. 2005, Wagner, Meistersinger von Nürnberg
- The Scotsman, 16. 8. 2006, Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde
- The Herald, 16. 8. 2006, Mahler, Das Lied von der Erde
- Seen and heard international opera reviews, 18. 10. 2008, Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos
- Wanderer’s Blog, 10/2009, Beethoven, Egmont, Eroica
- L’Hérault du jour, 10. 11. 2009, Mahler, Symphony n° 6
- Midi libre, 10. 11. 2009, Mahler, Symphony n° 6