Kurt Wöss

Kurt Woss ( born May 2, 1914 in Linz, † December 4, 1987 in Dresden) was an Austrian conductor.

Life

Kurt Woss grew up in Zeillern, visited in Graz high school and studied until 1938 at the Vienna Academy of Music composition with Max Springer and Joseph Marx, violin at Ernst Moravec and as a private student conducting with Felix Weingartner and musicology at the University of Vienna at the Bruckner - researchers Robert Haas, Robert Lach, Alfred Orel and Egon Wellesz.

From 1936 he conducted the orchestra of the Deutsche art community in Vienna, from 1938 the Nazi Chamber Orchestra. 1938 Woss was also director of a branch of the School of Music of the City of Vienna. In 1939 he was a student leader at the Empire School of Music, led the Gaustudenten orchestra and took over in 1941, the subject " celebration design ". 1942 drafted into the army, he was on duty as a commissioned officer aviator training regiment Ranked # 24 in Olomouc. After 1945 Woss was because of his membership in the NSDAP, which he had joined on 1 May 1938, be released from all functions ( membership number 6.12336 million ).

1948-51 he was chief conductor of the Lower Austrian Tonkünstlerorchester and also reintroduced the popular Sunday afternoon concerts. 1950/51 he produced with Marcel Prawy recordings for the American record company Remington. As director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra ( 1951-54 ) and teacher at the Academy of Music in Tokyo, he was a pioneer of European music performances in Japan. 1956-60 he conducted the Victorian Symphony Orchestra in Melbourne and the Australian National Opera. 1961-68 was Woess opera director at the State Theatre in Linz and 1967-74 chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz. Woss acquired in 1964 Lichtenhag castle ruins. From 1974, he headed the Fujiwara Opera in Tokyo and was artistic director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Tokyo. Since 1978, he also conducted the Johann Strauss Orchestra. As a guest conductor Woess worked internationally and has worked with orchestras in Italy, Sweden, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg together. His wide- ranging repertoire ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Béla Bartók, but his special love was for the works of Anton Bruckner and Johann Strauss ( son).

He died at the beginning of a sample of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 with the Dresden Philharmonic conducting.

Awards

• Title of professor
• Cross of Honour for Science and Art, First Class
• Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
• Culture Medal of the City of Linz
• Honorary member of the Franz Schmidt community

Writings

• Advice on the performance of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner. Events in Linz, Linz 1974.
• When I forgot to conduct ... and other experiences of a globe-trotting conductor. Orac, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-85368-942-6.