Reinhard Peters (2 April 1926 – 4 June 2008) was a German operatic conductor, violinist and an academic teacher at the Folkwangschule Essen. He was the ''

Generalmusikdirektor A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

'' for the opera companies

Deutsche Oper am Rhein The Deutsche Oper am Rhein (German Opera on the Rhine) is an opera company based in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. The opera also has an associated classical ballet company. Axel Kober has been its Music Director since 2009. The resident orchestra, th ...

Theater Münster Theater Münster (formerly: Städtische Bühnen Münster) is a municipal theatre in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, for plays and music theatre (opera, operetta, musical, ballet). When it opened in 1956 it was regarded as the first ne ...

and

Deutsche Oper Berlin The Deutsche Oper Berlin is a German opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. The resident building is the country's second largest opera house (after Munich's) and also home to the Berlin State Ballet. Since 2004, the De ...

. He premiered music in opera and concert, such as Giselher Klebe's ''

Die tödlichen Wünsche ' (''The Deadly Wishes''), Op. 27, is an opera by Giselher Klebe who also wrote the libretto based on ''La Peau de chagrin'' by Honoré de Balzac. It consists of fifteen lyrical scenes in three acts. It premiered on 14 June 1959 at the Deutsche ...

'', Aribert Reimann's ''

Melusine Mélusine () or Melusina is a figure of European folklore, a female spirit of fresh water in a holy well or river. She is usually depicted as a woman who is a serpent or fish from the waist down (much like a lamia or a mermaid). She is also s ...

'', Nicolas Nabokov's ''

Love's Labour's Lost ''Love's Labour's Lost'' is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth I. It follows the King of Navarre and ...

'', and Wilhelm Killmayer's song cycle '' Tre Canti di Leopardi''.

Career

Born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

, Peters worked as ''

répétiteur A (from the French verb meaning 'to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse') is an accompanist, tutor or coach of ballet dancers or opera singers. A feminine form, , also appears but is comparatively rare. Opera In opera, a is the person ...

'' and violinist at the

Staatsoper Unter den Linden The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

. He studied conducting in Paris. In 1951, he was the first recipient of the prize of the ''Besançon Concorso Internazionale per Giovani Direttori''. He was from 1957 to 1961 conductor at the

, where he led the premiere of Giselher Klebe's ''

'' in Düsseldorf. From 1961, Peters was

(GMD) of the at the

. In 1970, he moved to the

. He conducted with the Berlin company the premiere of Aribert Reimann's ''

'' at the

Schwetzingen Festival The Schwetzingen Festival (German: Schwetzinger Festspiele, now Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele) is an early summer festival of opera and other classical music presented each year from May to early June in Schwetzingen, Germany. In 1952, the broadca ...

on 29 April 1971, staged by

Rudolf Sellner Rudolf Sellner, born Gustav Rudolf Sellner (25 May 1905 – 8 May 1990) was a German actor, dramaturge, stage director, and intendant.Hugo Thielen: ''Sellner, Gustav Rudolf'', in: ''Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon'', p. 332 He represented i ...

. Peters conducted the

Philharmonia Hungarica The Philharmonia Hungarica was a symphony orchestra, based in Marl, Germany, which existed from 1956 to 2001. It was first established in Baden bei Wien near Vienna by Hungarian musicians who had fled their homeland after it was invaded by Sovi ...

Marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part o ...

from 1974 to 1979, and was a professor at the Folkwangschule Essen. Among his students are , and .Jörg Iwer
sinfonieorchester-vs.com He worked as a guest conductor, including the

Berlin Philharmonic The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world. History The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...

. He conducted the premiere of '' The Scarf'', a

chamber opera Chamber opera is a designation for operas written to be performed with a chamber ensemble rather than a full orchestra. Early 20th-century operas of this type include Paul Hindemith's ''Cardillac'' (1926). Earlier small-scale operas such as Pergoles ...

in one act by

Lee Hoiby Lee Henry Hoiby (February 17, 1926 – March 28, 2011) was an American composer and classical pianist. Best known as a composer of operas and songs, he was a disciple of composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Like Menotti, his works championed lyricism at a ...

at the first

Festival dei Due Mondi The ''Festival dei Due Mondi'' (Festival of the Two Worlds) is an annual summer music and opera festival held each June to early July in Spoleto, Italy, since its founding by composer Gian Carlo Menotti in 1958. It features a vast array of conce ...

Spoleto Spoleto (, also , , ; la, Spoletum) is an ancient city in the Italian province of Perugia in east-central Umbria on a foothill of the Apennines. It is S. of Trevi, N. of Terni, SE of Perugia; SE of Florence; and N of Rome. History Spolet ...

, Italy, on 20 June 1958. In 1967 he conducted the premiere of Wilhelm Killmayer's '' Tre Canti di Leopardi'' for

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...

and orchestra at the Allgemeines Deutsches Musikfest München, with

Barry McDaniel Barry McDaniel (October 18, 1930 – June 18, 2018) was an American operatic baritone who spent his career almost exclusively in Germany, including 37 years at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He appeared internationally at major opera houses and fes ...

and the

Münchner Philharmoniker The Munich Philharmonic (german: Münchner Philharmoniker, links=no) is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Rad ...

. In 1973 he conducted the first performances of Nicolas Nabokov's ''

'' both at

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

in Brussels and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. He died in 2008 in Berlin.

Awards

* 1951: Prize at '' Besançon Concorso Internazionale per Giovani Direttori'' in Besançon * 1959: * 1964:

Deutscher Kritikerpreis Deutscher Kritikerpreis was a cultural prize awarded annually by the Association of German Critics (Verband der Deutschen Kritiker e.V.) from 1951 to 2009. This award was given for outstanding contributions in the fields of architecture, the fi ...

Discography

Peters conducted several orchestras in recordings, including the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Philharmonia Hungarica, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the

and the

Collegium Aureum Collegium Aureum was a chamber orchestra founded in Cologne, Germany, in 1962, which later focused on historically informed performance. Playing typically without conductor, they recorded for three decades, and performed concerts on international t ...

. He conducted works by

Adolphe Adam Adolphe Charles Adam (; 24 July 1803 – 3 May 1856) was a French composer, teacher and music critic. A prolific composer for the theatre, he is best known today for his ballets ''Giselle'' (1841) and '' Le corsaire'' (1856), his operas ''Le pos ...

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

Georg Friedrich Händel George Frideric (or Frederick) Handel (; baptised , ; 23 February 1685 – 14 April 1759) was a German-British Baroque composer well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concertos. Handel received his training ...

Ruggero Leoncavallo Ruggero (or Ruggiero) Leoncavallo ( , , ; 23 April 18579 August 1919) was an Italian opera composer and librettist. Although he produced numerous operas and other songs throughout his career it is his opera '' Pagliacci'' (1892) that remained hi ...

Gioachino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

and

Camille Saint-Saëns Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...

. He also accompanied singers such as

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, ...

Ernst Haefliger Ernst Haefliger (6 July 191917 March 2007) was a Swiss tenor. Biography Haefliger was born in Davos, Switzerland, on 6 July 1919 and studied at the Wettinger Seminary and the Zürich Conservatory. Later he became a pupil of Fernando Carpi in G ...

and

Rita Streich Rita Streich (18 December 192020 March 1987) was one of the most admired and recorded lyric coloratura sopranos of the post-war period. Biography Rita Streich was born in Barnaul, southern Siberia, in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Repu ...

, including: * ''Ernst Haefliger. Das Sängerporträt.'' Deutsche Grammophon, Hamburg 1980. * ''Klavierkonzert op. 22'' by

Heimo Erbse Heimo Erbse (27 February 1924 – 22 September 2005) was a German composer from Rudolstadt. Erbse studied in Weimar, and then worked from 1947 to 1950 in the theater before studying under Blacher in 1950. He lived most of his life in Austria ...

. Edel, Hamburg 1993. * ''Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Szenen und Arien.'' Polygram, Hamburg 1993. * ''O luce di quest’anima. Rita Streich singt Opernarien.'' Polygram, Hamburg 1996. Several of his recordings were chosen for the CD compilation of , including

Jürg Baur Jürg Baur (11 November 1918 – 31 January 2010) was a German composer whose works include ''Incontri and Mutazioni.'' Baur studied at the Cologne University of Music and taught there in his later years. Baur was also awarded the Federal Cro ...

's ''Concerto romano'' for oboe and orchestra (1960), played in 1963 by Manfred Zeh and the NDR-Sinfonieorchester, in the section Konzerte 1960-1970.

References

External links

* *
Festival Besancon
festival-besancon.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Reinhard 1926 births 2008 deaths German male conductors (music) Academic staff of the Folkwang University of the Arts Musicians from Magdeburg 20th-century German conductors (music) 20th-century German male musicians