Georg Hanstedt (9 October 1904 – 25 March 1975) was a German violinist. He was a long-standing member of the

Gewandhaus Orchestra The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra (Gewandhausorchester; also previously known in German as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig) is a German symphony orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. The orchestra is named after the concert hall in which it is bas ...

in Leipzig, and played in various string quartet formations. In 1934, he became a violinist of the Bayreuth Festival orchestra. He made recordings in the 1960s as second violin of the Schuster Quartet.

Life

Hanstedt was born in 1904 in Gelsenkirchen as the son of a police station master, Georg Hanstedt, and his wife Elisabeth, ''née'' Wahnes.Hans-Rainer Jung: ''Das Gewandhaus-Orchester. Seine Mitglieder und seine Geschichte seit 1743.''

Faber & Faber Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel ...

, Leipzig 2006, , . After the Abitur passed at the secondary school in his home town, he studied violin (with

Walther Davisson Walther Davisson (15 December 1885 – 18 July 1973) was a German violinist and conductor. Background Davisson was born in Frankfurt am Main. He studied in Frankfurt at the Hoch Conservatory from 1900 to 1906 with Johann Naret-Koning and ...

and Hans Bassermann), teaching theory and composition (with

Max Ludwig Max Ludwig (22 April 1896 – 26 September 1957) was a German bobsledder who competed in the early 1930s. He won the bronze medal in the four-man event at the 1932 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid and finished seventh in the two-man event ...

) at the

Leipzig Conservatory The University of Music and Theatre "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig (german: Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig) is a public university in Leipzig (Saxony, Germany). Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn ...

from 1923 to 1928.Hedwig und Erich Hermann Mueller von Asow (ed.): ''Kürschners deutscher Musiker-Kalender 1954''. 2nd edition of the Deutsches Musiker-Lexikon,

de Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, Berlin 1954. In addition, he was enrolled at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

in humanities subjects. He participated in the

Gewandhaus Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The f ...

concerts already during as a student. In 1929, he became a member of the second violins of the

, conducted by

Bruno Walter Bruno Walter (born Bruno Schlesinger, September 15, 1876February 17, 1962) was a German-born conductor, pianist and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French citizen in 1938, and settled in the U ...

. Following the emergency decree of Reich Chancellor

Heinrich Brüning Heinrich Aloysius Maria Elisabeth Brüning (; 26 November 1885 – 30 March 1970) was a German Centre Party politician and academic, who served as the chancellor of Germany during the Weimar Republic from 1930 to 1932. A political scienti ...

, he was dismissed in November 1931. From October 1934, he played in the Leipziger Sinfonie-Orchester conducted by

Hans Weisbach Hans Edgar Weisbach (19 July 1885 – 23 April 1961) was a German conductor and pianist. Life Born in Głogów, Silesia, Weisbach came from a family of soldiers. Already from the age of seven he received piano as well as violin lessons and appea ...

. The same year, he was accepted by the Bayreuth Festival orchestra. In April 1937, he was reinstated in the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which was meanwhile conducted by

Hermann Abendroth Hermann Paul Maximilian Abendroth (19 January 1883 – 29 May 1956) was a German conductor. Early life Abendroth was born on 19 January 1883, at Frankfurt, the son of a bookseller. Several other members of the family were artists in diverse dis ...

. He was drafted to the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

in February 1943. Until his release in

Fürstenwalde Fürstenwalde/Spree (; Lower Sorbian: ''Pśibor pśi Sprjewje'') is the most populous town in the Oder-Spree District of Brandenburg, Germany. Geography The town is situated in the glacial valley (''Urstromtal'') of the Spree river north of the ...

in August 1945, he was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

in the Soviet Union. He then continued his activities in the Gewandhaus Orchestra with conductors

Herbert Albert Herbert Albert (26 December 1903, Bad Lausick – 15 September 1973) was a German conductor. Albert was born in Lausick and died in Bad Reichenhall. After studying with Karl Muck as a pianist he later held a succession of music director ...

Franz Konwitschny Franz Konwitschny (14 August 1901, Fulnek, Moravia – 28 July 1962, Belgrade) was a German conductor and violist of Moravian descent. He started his career on the viola,Schwinger playing in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Wilhelm Furtw ...

Václav Neumann Václav Neumann (29 October 1920 – 2 September 1995) was a Czech conductor, violinist, violist, and opera director. Life and career Neumann was born in Prague, where he studied at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Micka (violin), and ...

and

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus O ...

until 1971, eventually playing first violin.

Chamber music

Hanstedt was active as a chamber musician in many ways: From 1928 to 1938 he played second violin in the Genzel Quartet,.Jürgen Stegmüller:
Streichquartett. Eine internationale Dokumentation zur Geschichte der Streichquartett-Ensembles und Streichquartett-Kompositionen von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart
' in: ''Quellenkataloge zur Musikgeschichte''. Vol 40). Noetzel, Wilhelmshaven 2007, and in 1943 in the Schachtebeck Quartet, and from 1945 in the Kirmse Quartet. Later, Hanstedt was second violin of the Schuster Quartet. In 1960, they recorded Max Butting's String Quartet No. 8, Op. 96. They recorded in 1965/66 the String Quartet No. 2 by Leo Spies.Rare Classical Recordings Episode 1
virtuosochannel.com retrieved 7 August 2020 The quartet was awarded the

Handel Prize The Handel Prize (german: Händel-Preis) is an annual award, instituted in 1956, which is presented by the city of Halle, in Germany, in honour of the celebrated Baroque composer George Frideric Handel. It is awarded, "for exceptional artisti ...

in 1963. From 1936 he was married to Irene Melzer; the couple had two children. He died in Leipzig at age 70.

References

External links

* *
Georg Hanstedt
on the MusicSack data base * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanstedt, Georg 1904 births 1975 deaths People from Gelsenkirchen German classical violinists Male classical violinists German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union 20th-century German male musicians