Armin Jordan
Armin Jordan ( born April 9, 1932 in Lucerne, † 20 September 2006 Zurich ) was a Swiss conductor. He was considered the greatest conductor of his country since Ernest Ansermet. Like him, he was for a long time, from 1985 to 1997, music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
Life
In Freiburg ( Switzerland ) studied Jordan jurisprudence, literature and theology, before finally turning to music. He studied at the conservatories of Fribourg and Lausanne, and finally at Maroussia Le Marc'Hadour in Geneva. After he had founded in 1949 in Freiburg, a small orchestra, Jordan initially worked on Städtebundtheater Biel -Solothurn in Biel, where he became music director in 1963. This was followed by a position as chief conductor of the Zurich Opera House. After that, he was from 1968 to 1971 the musical director of the Stadttheater St. Gallen. Under the aegis of the Basel theater director Werner Düggelin Jordan 1969 first Kapellmeister in 1973 and eventually music director of the opera at the Theater Basel, a position he held until 1989. He also took over from 1973 to 1985, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, which he made from scratch renewed and one of the best ensembles in Switzerland. From 1985 to 1997 Jordan launched as the successor to Horst Stein, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande ( OSR), with whom he so undertook numerous tours around Japan, Belgium, the UK and South Korea. From 1986 to 1992 he was principal guest conductor of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris. The Honorary Conductor of the Basel Symphony Orchestra led Jordan in the 2006/07 season to Basel back. He was also a frequent guest conductor with several European orchestras.
Armin Jordan died on September 20, 2006 in Zurich, after he ( The Love for Three Oranges ) had collapsed on 15 September 2006 in the orchestra pit of the Basel Theatre at the premiere of Prokofiev's opera L' amour des trois oranges.
Jordan was in 1974 married to the dancer Käthe Herkner, with whom he has two children: the son of Philippe Jordan ( born 1974, also conductor) and the daughter Pascale ( born 1977, actress).
Work
Focus of his work was on the one hand the Swiss-French school ( Arthur Honegger, Othmar Schoeck, Frank Martin, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy ) and secondly the opera: he was regarded as one of the most profound Wagner conductors of our time (especially Parsifal ). Other preferences were applied to the Viennese classical music and the ballets of Stravinsky.
Jordan was responsible for numerous premieres, so 1982 Psyché by Jean Françaix, 1984 Requies by Luciano Berio, 1981 Mendiant du ciel bleu and 1988 for Diotima's love songs (both Norbert Moret ), 1989 for La Solitude by Julien- François Zbinden and 1993 for Two songs on poems by Georg Trakl by Heinz Holliger.
He has recorded many records, among others, the OSR, but also with the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre National de l' Opéra de Monte- Carlo or the Orchestre National de France. Many of his recordings were released under the label Erato.
In addition, Jordan had 1982 not only the Conducted by Hans -Jürgen Syberberg " Parsifal " movie, but played in this also Amfortas (vocals: Wolfgang Schöne ).
Jordan has received numerous awards for his work. In 2000 he was appointed by the French ambassador in Switzerland as a member of the French Legion of Honour.