Franz Wüllner

Franz Wüllner ( born January 28, 1832 in Münster, † September 7, 1902 in New Braunfels ) was a German composer, conductor and professor.

Life

His father was the same philologist and teacher Franz Wüllner. During his childhood in Dusseldorf, he received an early violin and piano lessons. One of his teachers at this time was Anton Felix Schindler, who had a formative influence on him.

In the period 1850-1854 Wüllner undertook extensive concert tours as a pianist, simultaneously alongside studies in Cologne, Brussels, Berlin and Leipzig. Main content of his lectures here were the piano sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven. On this occasion he met Johannes Brahms, with whom he henceforth shared a lifelong friendship. Important suggestions owed ​​Wüllner also the contact to Joseph Joachim, Ignaz Moscheles, Otto Jahn, David Ferdinand and Moritz Hauptmann.

After a first job as a music teacher in Munich Wüllner joined in 1858 as a municipal director of music for the theater in Aachen, where he directed until 1865, the Aachen Symphony Orchestra. Then he returned to Munich to take over the management of the Royal Chapel vowel. At the request of Ludwig II and against the will of Richard Wagner conducted Wüllner 1869/70 world premieres of works Das Rheingold and Die Walküre at the National Theatre in Munich and was then appointed to the First Court Kapellmeister.

From 1874 to 1892 Wüllner was, together with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger, inspector of the Royal Bavarian School of Music, where he established choral and orchestral classes. His " choir exercises of the Munich School of Music " appeared until well into the 20th century.

From 1877 he worked in Dresden as a professor, director of the conservatory and court music. Hampered by intrigues in his work, he moved to Berlin. There he conducted the Philharmonic concerts and was - as before him Meyerbeer, Lortzingstraße and other well-known artists - chorister in the Sing-Akademie. In 1884 he took on the recommendation of Brahms the line of the Cologne Conservatory as the successor of Ferdinand Hiller. He was responsible for the conversion of the Gürzenich Orchestra responsible in a municipal orchestra and shaped the musical life of the next two decades much. Between 1864 and 1898 was seven times Wüllner responsible festival director of the Lower Rhine Music Festivals in Aachen, Dusseldorf and Cologne.

1900 founded Franz Wüllner together with musicologist Hermann Kretzschmar and the owner of the publishing house Breitkopf & Härtel Oskar von Hase and Martin Blumner, Siegfried Ochs, Joseph Joachim and the choirmaster Gustav Schreck the New Bach Society.

As a composer Franz Wüllner created piano and chamber music as well as many vocal works. He is regarded as representatives of the German High Romanticism and as a promoter of many young composers, here is representative called Richard Strauss. Strauss dedicated Wüllner 1884 setting of Goethe poem Wanderer's Storm Song for chorus and orchestra.

Franz Wüllner was the father of the singer, actor and reciter Wüllner Ludwig ( 1858-1938 ).

Works

Instrumental works

• Variations on an old German folk song op.24 (1862 ) for piano four hands
• Violin Sonata in E minor op.30 (1871 )
• Variations on a Theme of Franz Schubert op.39 for cello and piano (1875 )

Choral works

• Mass No.1 op.20 gem for 4 voices. Choir and four solo voices (1865 )
• Miserere op.26 for double choir and solo a capella (1867 )
• Mass No.2 op.29 gem for 4 voices. Choir and four solo voices (1868 )
• Three motets gem for use in Concert and Church op.42 for 4 voices. Choir (1889 /90)
• Stabat Mater op.45 gem for 8 voices. Choir (1886 )
• Three Motets ( graduals ) for the use in church and concert op.47 gem for 4-5 voices. Choir (1887? )
• Evening song op.52 gem for 6 voices. Choir or 6- voice male choir ( 1892)
• Te Deum op.50 for 4-8 voices gem. Chorus and large orchestra ( 1888)

Media

• Violin Sonata in E minor, Op 30 ( Suyoen Kim, Violin, Tobias Bredohl, piano); Variations on an old German folk song, Op 24 ( Alina Kabanova and Tobias Bredohl, piano); Variations on a Theme of Franz Schubert, Op 39 ( Constantine Manaev, cello, Ekatherina Titova, piano). Dohr DCD020 (Cologne 2003)