Gunter Wand

Günter Wand was a German conductor, born in Wuppertal, Germany, on January 7, 1912 and died in Ulmiz, Switzerland, on February 14, 2002.

Career

He began his training at the Cologne Conservatory where he was taught composition by Philip Jarnach and Paul Baumgartner on piano. He continued his studies in Munich where he also received conducting lessons from Franz von Hösslin, although Wand can be considered a consummate self-taught, with his own technique very different from other conductors of his generation. After graduating from his musical studies, Wand worked for a year as a repeater in Wuppertal (Erbelfeld) and made his directorial debut there with the performance of an operetta by Robert Stolz. Later Wand also worked as a repeater and conductor for four years at the Allenstein Opera House, then in Prussia and now the Polish enclave of Olsztyn. There he conducted more than 600 operatic performances and concerts, with which he gained a wealth of experience as well as an extensive repertoire.

After a brief stint as a conductor in Detmold, in 1939 Wand was appointed second conductor of the Cologne Opera, the city where he spent the dramatic years of World War II while conducting the occasional concert in Germany. Promoted to the post of first director at that institution, Wand was forced to leave office in 1944 as a result of the building being destroyed by Allied bombing. From there he left for Salzburg as director of the Mozarteum Orchestra, to return to Cologne after the end of the war and once again take charge of conducting the opera until 1948. Wand was also appointed director of the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, the same formation as the opera orchestra although it acts under that name as a concert orchestra. Little by little he was introduced to symphonic music and leaving operatic work aside.

In Cologne Günter Wand carried out a great work in favor of contemporary music, with premieres of works by Honegger, Messiaen and Hindemith among other authors. His relationship with the Gürzenich Orchestra continued until 1974, alternating this work with teaching work taught at the conservatory and with extensive activity as a guest conductor throughout Europe (for example, he was the first German conductor to being invited to direct in the USSR after the Second World War, in 1959). In 1951 he conducted Beethoven's comprehensive symphony at the head of the London Symphony Orchestra at Covent Garden , obtaining an overwhelming triumph, and he also made regular appearances in Munich as guest conductor of the Philharmonic.. During the 1950s and 1960s, Wand did a lot of work in the recording studios with the Gürzenich Orchestra, which was highly appreciated in France, England and the US for its low-cost marketing. cost.

In 1974 Wand left the Gürzenich Orchestra and moved to Switzerland to take charge of the Bern Symphony Orchestra for eight years. Apart from carrying out a brilliant international career as a guest conductor, Wand did not cut his ties with Cologne and from 1977 he began to record with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra some symphonic cycles by Schubert and Bruckner that were very well received by critics. highlighting Anton Bruckner's 5th symphony. That recording was so well received that it has become a reference.

In 1982 Wand was appointed conductor of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra (Hamburg), a formation with which he made, among other things, highly regarded recordings of the symphonic music of Beethoven and Brahms, as well as a new symphonic cycle by Bruckner, generally based on live takes, which became one of the interpretive references of those years, along with the brilliant and contrasting versions of Karajan and replacing the classic versions of Eugen Jochum.

Wand earned a great reputation as a conductor even though his excessive request for pre-concert rehearsals made some orchestras reluctant to hire him as a guest conductor. From 1982 until his death, he collaborated with the London BBC Symphony Orchestra, of which he became its principal guest conductor. In 1989 he made his debut in the United States, with the Chicago Symphony with great critical and public success that strengthened his international prestige as a conductor. From then on, Wand collaborated closely with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, also making a good number of recordings with it. Having directed a memorable series on Bruckner at the Edinburgh Festival, Wand conducted his last concert in Hamburg in October 2001 before passing away near Bern on February 14, 2002 at the age of ninety.

In addition to being a conductor, he composed music for ballet and songs with orchestral accompaniment.

Musical style

Wand was particularly devoted to the music of Schubert and Bruckner, as well as contemporary composers such as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Wolfgang Fortner and Olivier Messiaen. He liked to work the works in depth with the orchestra before presenting them to the public, so when he was invited to conduct an orchestra other than the one he was the head of, he required five rehearsal sessions for the program. His relationship with the musicians in the orchestra was very close and he considered them to be on his own level. In rehearsals, more than correcting them, he suggested his vision of the score to show them how he wanted them to play it.

Günter Wand was one of the clearest representatives of the German school of conducting. Cultivated in his career in second-level and radio orchestras, he always fled from the prominence of other figures of his generation and understood orchestral conducting as an art in which you have to work discreetly. His directing technique was based on working exhaustively during rehearsals until reaching the right point of interpretive intensity. An admirer of Furtwängler, Wand knew how to synthesize his subjective vision in his versions with a deep fidelity and rigor to the score, which is not easy and which he achieved, especially in his last years, by offering highly appreciated versions of the romantic and post-romantic repertoire. German.

In his later years, Wand was a regular at recording studios and bequeathed to us many alternative readings to those considered classical and that, in many aspects, have nothing to envy from the latter. His executions are highly appreciated for their precise attention to detail and exquisite care in terms of stylistic correctness. Not considered one of the greatest figures of his time due to his late consecration, Wand offered the best of himself at the end of his career coinciding with his peak period.

Discography

With the NDR-Sinfonieorchester

With the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

With the Berliner Philharmoniker

Owners