Otmar Suitner

Otmar Suitner ( born May 16, 1922 in Innsbruck, Tirol, † January 8, 2010 in Berlin) was an Austrian concert and opera conductor.

Biography

Otmar Suitner studied at the Conservatory in Innsbruck piano with Fritz Weidlich and from 1940 to 1942 at the Mozarteum in Salzburg also piano with Franz Ledwinka and conducting with Clemens Krauss. 1942 to 1944 he was conductor at Ballettrepetitor with Tyrolean Provincial Theatre Innsbruck. Then he gave concerts as a pianist in particular, including in Vienna, Rome, Munich and Switzerland. 1952 Suitner was Music Director in Remscheid. In 1957 he became General Music Director of the Palatinate Orchestra, today's State Philharmonic Orchestra Rhineland -Palatinate in Ludwigshafen, with which he toured in Berlin, Munich, Hamburg, Italy and Greece. With this orchestra he also accompanied the legendary soprano Maria Callas. He served there until 1960 His GMD site.

1960-1964 Suitner was chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. 1964 to 1967 he conducted the Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser and Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival. 1964 to 1971 and again from 1974 to 1991 Suitner was General Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsoper in East Berlin. Suitner has performed in almost all European countries, especially in Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and at the Vienna State Opera, as well as in the U.S. ( San Francisco Opera ), Latin America and Japan. He was appointed Honorary Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo. In the Federal Republic of Germany they took him, especially on the part of the CDU, its live and work in East Berlin evil, and his rehabilitation by Helmut Kohl, who had known him from Ludwigshafen, helped him little, so that his tours abroad usually took place in other countries.

Otmar Suitner was closely associated with the composer Paul Dessau. He conducted the premieres of operas Puntila Dessau (1966 ), Einstein (1974) and Leonce and Lena ( 1979) at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.

From 1977 to 1990 Suitner was also a professor of conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

In the course of the 1980s Suitner got more and more health problems which meant that he had to stop due to Parkinson's disease in 1990 with the conducting.

Family

Otmar Suitner had two families. He was married to his wife, Marita, with whom he came in 1960 in the GDR and later lived in East Berlin. He also had a mistress, whom he visited at the weekend in West Berlin. In 1965 he had the West German student Renate Heitzmann met in Bayreuth, in 1971 the son of Igor Heitzmann bore him. So his life was a balancing act in divided Berlin, whose border he could exceed at any time with his Austrian passport. After the turn, his family life was changed by both families met more often.

In the documentary After the music his son Igor Heitzmann tells the story of an approach: to the Father, the distant conductor, to the lost country GDR, the unusual ways of life of the parents - and the music. In conversations and pictures, he reconstructs the family history between East and West, combining them with his own, fragmentary memories of the encounters with the Father.

Awards

Suitner received numerous awards, including

Multiple title of professor, he was awarded (for example, in Berlin in 1965 ).

In 1975 and 1976 he headed the conducting course of the Summer Academy in Salzburg.

Importance

" Otmar Suitner represents the extinct type of solid, German ', late romantic embossed Kapellmeister. With a clear, effective Dirigierweise, trying to brisk, vivid music, he never put his person in the foreground and not aimed primarily at success, but on continuous, conscientious work. "

Discography

(Selection, alphabetically by composer )

  • Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1980-1983 / soloist at Symphony No. 9 Magdalena Hajossyova, Uta Priew, Eberhard Buchner and Manfred Schenk.
  • Beethoven: Overtures Egmont, Coriolan and Fidelio / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
  • Beethoven: Overtures Leonore III, The Creatures of Prometheus / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
  • Bizet: Symphony No. 1 (C Major ) / Staatskapelle Dresden
  • Brahms: Symphonies 1-4 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984-1986
  • Debussy: Prelude a l' apres midi d' un faune / Staatskapelle Dresden
  • Dessau: Einstein / complete opera recording / Schreier, Adam, Buchner and others / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1977
  • Dessau: Leonce and Lena / Total recording / Sweet, Büchner, Nossek, Menzel, Schaller, body, iron box, Garduhn / Chorus of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin / Berlin Staatskapelle / 1980
  • Dvorak: The Nine Symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1977-1981
  • Eisler: Serious Songs / Günter body / Staatskapelle Dresden
  • Grieg: Three Orchestral Pieces, Op 56 ( to " Sigurd Jorsalfar " ) / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1976
  • Grieg: Suite " From Holberg's Time ", Op 40 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1976
  • Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op 46 / Bamberger Symphoniker / 1959
  • Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, Op 55 / Bamberger Symphoniker / 1959
  • Handel: Acis and Galatea / Kunitachi College of Music / 1980
  • Haydn: Symphony No. 100 ( " Military Symphony " ) / Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra / 1950?
  • Humperdinck: Hansel and Gretel / Total recording / Springer, Hoff, Adam, Schreier / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1969
  • Lanner: Waltzer, court ball and Steyrische dances and Schoenbrunn / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1970
  • Liszt: Orpheus Symphonic Poem No. 4 / Bamberger Symphoniker / 1957
  • Liszt: Symphonic Poem Mazeppa No.6 / Bamberger Symphoniker / 1957
  • Lortzingstraße: The Opera Rehearsal / Total recording / Litz, Shepherd, Lövaas, Marheineke, Gedda / Chorus and Orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera / 1974
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 1 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1962
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 2 / Hajossyova, Priew / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1983
  • Mahler: Symphony No. 5 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1984
  • Mozart: The Marriage of Figaro / Total recording / Prey, Güden, Rothenberger, Berry, Mathis, Schreier Bird / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1964
  • Meyer: Violin Concerto / David Oistrakh / Staatskapelle Berlin
  • Mozart: Cosi fan tutte / Total recording / Casapietra, Burmeister, body, Schreier, Geszty, Adam / Chorus of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin / Berlin Staatskapelle / 1969
  • Mozart: The Magic Flute / Total recording / Adam, Schreier, Geszty, Donath, body, Hoff, Kuhse, Bird / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1970
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 29 in A major, K. 201 / Staatskapelle Dresden
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 31 in D major, K. 297 (Paris ) / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1968
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 32 in G major, KV 318 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 33 in B flat major, K. 319 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 34 in C major, K. 338 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 39 in E flat major, K. 543 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1976
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1976
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (Jupiter) / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1974
  • Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, K. 551 (Jupiter) / NHK SO Live in Tokyo / 1982
  • Pfitzner: Palestrina / Total recording / Schreier, Lorenz, Nossek, Long, upholstery, Ketelsen, Garduhn, Trekel, Bear, Priew / Chorus of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin / Berlin Staatskapelle / 1986-1988
  • Schubert: Alfonso und Estrella / Total recording / Mathis, Schreier, Fischer- Dieskau, Prey, Adam / Berlin Radio Choir / Berlin Staatskapelle / 1978
  • Schubert: Symphony No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1983-1986
  • Schumann: The Four Symphonies / Staatskapelle Berlin / 1986-1987
  • Smetana: The Bartered Bride / Total recording / Burmeister, Schlemm, long, body, Teschler, Adam / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1962
  • Suppe: The most beautiful Overtures / Staatskapelle Dresden / 1969
  • Wagner: Tannhäuser / Total recording San Francisco House of Opera Live / Thomas, Rysanek, Napier, Stewart and others / Opera Orchestra San Francisco / 1973

Berlin / Staatskapelle Berlin 1974

Film

  • 2007 - After the music. Otmar Suitner. Director: Igor Heitzmann
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