|
Born: July 29, 1920 - Dresden, Saxony, Germany
Died: November 20, 1990 - Dresden, Saxony, Germany |
|
The distinguished German conductor; Herbert Kegel, studied at the Dresden Staatskapelle's orchestra school (Dresden Hochschule für Musik), where his main mentors were Karl Böhm in conducting and Boris Blacher in compostion (1935-1940).
Herbert Kegel began his career, after serving as a conscript during World War II, in 1946, as kapellmeister of the Volkstheater Rostock. In 1949, he was engaged as conductor of the Rundfunkchor Leipzig and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig; was made conductor (1953), Generalmusikdirektor (1958), and Chief Conductor (1960) of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. From 1977 to 1985 he served also as Chief Conductor of the Dresdner Philharmonie. From 1985 until his death he frequently appeared as guest conductor at the Dresden and Leipzig opera houses, the Staatsoper Berlin, and the NHK Orchestra, Tokyo.
From 1975 to 1978 Herbert Kegel was a Proessor the Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschule für Musik, and in 1978 became a professor at the Dresden Hochschule für Musik.
Herbert Kegel was regarded as one of the most competent conductors of East Germany, combining a thorough knowledge of his repertoire with a fine sense of effective presentation of the music. His grasp extended over the standard repertoire, from J.S. Bach to Igor Stravinsky, though his center of interest revolved around the German Romantics, Bruckner and Igor Stravinsky in particular, and the Modernists, great and minor - Hartmann, Arthur Honegger, or Theodorakis no less than Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, and Paul Hindemith - with a smattering of such audience pleasers as Georges Bizet's Carmen and Margarethe (Charles Gounod's Faust for German audiences). He was respected in Europe as a pivotal figure in establishing the works of such individual Modernists as Blacher, Luigi Dallapiccola, Paul Dessau, Penderecki, and Nono in the concert hall and on discs. He was one of the first to champion Benjamin Britten's War Requiem, while his recording of Arnold Schoenberg's Moses und Aron was instrumental in keeping this difficult and challenging work before the public. His involvement with Orff's music typifies the duality of a distinguished career whose impact is not yet fully appreciated and whose legacy remains to be assimilated, for beside the ever-popular Carmina Burana, he also recorded - superbly - the remaining cantatas, Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite, speech-inflected works the composer regarded as parts of a single cycle of Trionfi and that look ahead to the uncompromising utterance of his Antigonae and Oedipus der Tyrann. His manner was without affectation or grandiosity, rhythmically alert and lyrically poised, always efficient and often inspired.
Herbert Kegel committed suicide in Dresden on November 20, 1990. He was married to the Italian soprano Celestina Casapietra from 1966 to 1983. Their only son Björn Casapietra is active as a singer, moderator and actor. |
