Conductor
Biography:
| Due to my advanced age and the nearly 40-year distance from the premiere of the oratorio Der Turmbau zu Babel by Ernst Helmuth Flammer, I would like to recount my life’s journey in New Music. Briefly to begin: I was born in Hanover in 1931, making me 89 years old. My father was a chamber musician, and my career aspiration was to become a conductor. My training took place in the early post-war years at the then Academy of Music and Theatre 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 participate in the cultural reconstruction of the young Federal Republic of Germany and to embrace the broad opportunities offered by democracy. For my generation, there was much new music to hear, which had been impossible under the Third Reich. Beyond that, we were now able to contribute creatively. My mentors included 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. Together with Klaus Hashagen, I founded and directed the »Tage der Neuen Musik Hannover«, which were held in collaboration with NDR Hannover for 40 years, from 1958 to 1998. For the 25th anniversary in 1983, Ernst Helmuth Flammer received the commission to compose the oratorio Der Turmbau zu Babel, whose premiere I conducted with excellent colleagues in the NDR Hannover broadcast hall on 29 January, following a prior recording in Herford. The performance was a contribution by Radio Bremen for Hanover’s anniversary, where I had assumed musical responsibility since 1969. My work as a conductor has taken me across Europe since 1954. Beginning in 1956 at Schloss Weikersheim, we developed the »International Summer Courses of the Jeunesses Musicales« into a later full-year training and meeting centre. 20 years (1980–2000), I directed the support project »Concert of the German Music Council« with a focus on »New Music«. In Bremen, I succeeded in establishing the collaboration between the broadcaster and the Philharmonic State Orchestra and Society through the annual »Concert of the 20th Century«. In this series, from 1976 to 1990, my contributions included the Second Viennese School, the Gurre-Lieder, and numerous Bremen premieres and first performances. A particular Bremen experience I do not want to forget: During Germany’s division, in the 1980s, we repeatedly arranged exchange programmes and visits by soloists and composers from both German states! »… Ultimately, one can only find a contemporary relationship to the masterpieces of the past if one stands in the art of one’s own time.« – to quote Stravinsky. Otherwise, the understanding of tradition remains merely museal. 1983: Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1986: Title of Professor 1995–1999: Member of the Bremen Parliament (introducing culture as a constitutional objective) 2011: Bremen Medal for Art and Science on my 80th birthday Klaus Bernbacher |
Albums:
