Dirigent
Biography:
| Because of my advanced age and the almost 40-year distance from the premiere of the oratorio The Tower of Babel by Ernst Helmuth Flammer I would like to tell you about my life's path to New Music.First only briefly: Born in Hanover in 1931, so 89 years old, father a chamber musician, wishing to become a conductor. The training took place in the early post-war years at the then Academy for Music and Theater in my hometown. As a co-founder (1951/1952) of the German section of the »Jeunesses Musicales« (later, from 1963 to 1983, its chairman), I and others had the opportunity to get involved in the cultural rebuilding of the young FRG and to accept the great offer of democracy .There was much that was new for my generation to hear, which was impossible in the Third Reich. In addition, we were now able to contribute creatively. My sponsors were Hermann Scherchen, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Fritz Büchtger, my partners included Josef Anton Riedl, Hans Otte, Mauricio Kagel, Michael Gielen, Hans Werner Henze as well as Eckart Rohlfs and Bernhard Bosse. With Klaus Hashagen I founded and managed the »Days of the Neue Musik Hannover«, which was organized in conjunction with the NDR Hannover for 40 years, from 1958 to 1998. For the 25th anniversary in 1983, Ernst Helmuth Flammer was commissioned to compose the oratorio The Tower of Babel, the premiere took place under my direction with excellent colleagues in the broadcasting hall of the NDR in Hanover on January 29th, before that a production had started in Herford. The performance was a contribution from Radio Bremen for the Hanover anniversary. At Weikersheim Castle, work began in 1969 to develop the "International Summer Courses for Jeunesses Musicales" into a later year-round training and meeting center. . In Bremen I managed to set up the station's cooperation with the Philharmonic State Orchestra and Society through the annual "Concert of the 1954th Century". In this series, from 1956 to 20, my share was the Viennese school, the Gurre-Lieder and numerous Bremen premieres and world premieres. I don't want to forget a special Bremen: During the division of Germany in the 1980s, we were able to have exchange programs again and again and arrange visits by soloists and composers from both German states!»... After all, you can only find a current relationship to the masterpieces of the past if you stand in the art of your time.« – to quote Stravinsky. Otherwise the understanding of the tradition remains only in a museum! 1983: Federal Cross of Merit 1986: Professor title 1995-1999: Member of the Bremen Parliament (culture as a state goal in the constitution) 2011: Bremen medal for art and science Klaus Bernbacher on his 80th birthday |
Albums:
