R.I.P. Gerd Albrecht

[Superhorn]

   More sad news .  German conductor Gerd Albrecht,78, has passed away .  He was a tireless champion of off-beat repertoire
and contemporary music .  Though never a glamorous high profile conductor , he had a long and distinguished career ,
heading  such top orchestras as the Zurich Tonhalle, the Czech Philharmonic , where he was the orchestra's first non-czech
music director and  the Danish R.S.O among others and a regular at  leading opera houses all over Euroipe .
  It's our loss that he appeared only rarely in the U.S. , where he led the U.S. premiere of Aribert Reimann's daunting opera
"Lear " in San Francisco as well as touring the U.S. with the Tonhalle orchestra including Carnegie hall .
He led the world premiere of  Lear in Munich in 1978 with the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in the formidable title role .
This was recorded live by DG .
    Albrecht made numerous recordings of interesting off -beat operatic repertoire , including  Der Corgeidor  by Hugo Wolf,
Scherker's Der Ferne Klang , Dvorak's Dimitrij, Vanda , and Armida ,  Hindemith's  Sancta Susanna ,  Busoni's Arlecchino
and  Turandot ,  and the other Wozzeck by Manfred Gurlitt , to name only some .
    Curiously , there are not too many orchestral recordings by Albrecht for some reason . 
    He leaves opera fans who are curious to hear off -beat repertoire everywhere in his debt . He will be missed .   

[Brian]

Not just the thrift-store jacket and the open-necked shirt, but the minimal manner of conducting, the very antithesis of grandstanding.  There were moments when he stood motionless, arms by his sides, as the music went on as if without him - and yet somehow he drew from that orchestra a performance of tremendous power and coherence.  One of the most remarkable and effective demonstrations I've seen of less-is-more conducting, that stays with me still.

Antoni Wit is very much like this. I saw him conduct Mahler's Third and when he was gesticulating at all, it was merely to keep time. And yet the orchestra knew exactly what was expected of it, and responded as one full living breathing organism. A breathtaking thing to witness, one I'm especially thrilled to see - and a dying kind of genius, I'm afraid. 

[pjme]

Next wednesday (feb. 12th) he was to conduct the following program at La Monnaie/De Munt:

Bedřich Smetana
Vltava (La Moldau) extr. de Má vlast (Ma Patrie), T.111 (1874-1880)

Antonín Dvořák
Cello Concerto in B minor, op.104 (1894-1895) - Christian Poltéra

Leoš Janácek
Taras Bulba, Rhapsody after Gogol, JW VI/15 (1915-1918)


Antonio Méndez now gets a chance...

We'll miss Gerd Albrecht however!
I cherish "Sancta Susanna".

Peter

[The new erato]

We'll miss Gerd Albrecht however!
I cherish "Sancta Susanna".

Peter

I think I'll give that one a spin tonight!