Rudolf Kempe (June 14, 1910 – May 12, 1976) was a German conductor. June 14 is the 165th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (166th in leap years), with 200 days remaining. ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... May 12 is the 132nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (133rd in leap years). ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... A conductor conducting a band at a ceremony A conductors score and batons Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. ...

Early years

Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of 14 he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. For other uses, see Dresden (disambiguation). ...

He played the oboe in the opera orchestra at Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929. In addition to the oboe he played the piano regularly, as a soloist, in chamber music or accompanying,^[1] as a result of which, in 1933, the new Director of the Leipzig Opera invited Kempe to become a répétiteur, and later a conductor, for the opera.^[2] The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. ... Dortmund is a city in Germany, located in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia, in the Ruhr area. ... The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra is a German orchestra based in Leipzig, Germany. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Répétiteur (Fr. ...

During the Second World War Kempe was conscripted into the army, but instead of active service was directed into musical activities, playing for the troops and later taking over the chief conductorship of the Chemnitz opera house.^[3] Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... Chemnitz (Sorbian/Lusatian Kamjenica, 1953-1990 called Karl-Marx-Stadt; Czech: Saská Kamenice) is a city in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. ...

Opera

Kempe directed the Dresden Opera and the Dresden Staatskapelle from 1949 to 1952, making his first records, including Der Rosenkavalier, Die Meistersinger and Der Freischütz. (‘He obtains some superlative playing from the Dresden orchestra,’ commented The Record Guide.^[4]) He maintained a relationship with the Dresden orchestra for the rest of his life, making some of his best-known records with them during the stereo era. The Dresden Staatskapelle is an orchestra based in Dresden,Germany. ... Year 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Der Rosenkavalier (The Cavalier of the Rose) is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. ... Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (The Master Singers of Nuremberg) is an opera in three acts, written and composed by Richard Wagner. ... Der Freischütz (English: The Freeshooter) is an opera in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber to a libretto by Friedrich Kind. ...

His international career began with engagements at the Vienna State Opera in the 1951season, for which he conducted Die Zauberflöte, Simon Boccanegra, and Capriccio.^[5] Vienna State Opera (German: Wiener Staatsoper), located in Vienna, Austria, is one of the most important opera companies in Europe. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... Die Zauberflöte (en: The Magic Flute) is an opera in two acts composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. ... Simon Boccanegra is an opera with a prologue and three acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave, based on the play Simón Bocanegra by Antonio García Gutiérrez. ... Capriccio is an opera by German composer Richard Strauss. ...

He was invited to succeed Georg Solti as chief conductor of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich from 1952 to 1954, and was permitted by the East German authorities to do so without severing his ties with Dresden.^[6] In 1953 Kempe appeared with the Munich company at the Royal Opera House in London, where the General Administrator, Sir David Webster, quickly decided that Kempe would be an ideal Musical Director for the Covent Garden company. Kempe resisted the appointment, and did not accept the top job at any opera house after leaving Munich in 1954. He nonetheless conducted frequently at Covent Garden and was immensely popular there,^[7] conducting among other works, Salome, Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, the Ring^[8], Un Ballo in Maschera and Madama Butterfly, of which the critic Andrew Porter compared Kempe’s conducting favourably with that of Toscanini and de Sabata. ^[9]. As a guest conductor, Kempe frequently revisited Munich conducting mostly the Italian repertory. Sir Georg Solti, KBE (pronounced ) (21 October 1912 - 5 September 1997) was a world-renowned Hungarian-British orchestral and operatic conductor. ... Munich, National Theatre The Bayerische Staatsoper or Bavarian State Opera is an opera company in Munich and is one of the leading opera companies in Germany and the world and has existed since 1653. ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich: St. ... 1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Floral Hall of the Royal Opera House The Royal Opera House is a performing arts venue in London. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... David Webster can refer to several people: David Webster (businessman), Chairman of InterContinental Hotels Group David Kenyon Webster (1922–1961), American soldier, journalist and author David Webster (politician) (1923–1969), British Conservative Member of Parliament for Weston-Super-Mare David Webster (opera manager), British general director of the Royal Opera... Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. ... This article is about the Greek mythological personalities. ... Valkyrie Warrior Maiden by artist Arthur Rackham (1912) Der Ring des Nibelungen, commonly translated into English as The Ring of the Nibelung or The Nibelungs Ring, is a series of four epic music dramas based loosely on figures and elements of Germanic paganism, particularly from the Icelanders sagas and... Un ballo in maschera, or A Masked Ball, is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Arturo Toscanini listening to playbacks at RCA Victor (BMG Music) Arturo Toscanini (March 25, 1867 – January 16, 1957) was an Italian musician. ... Vittorio (Victor) De Sabata (April 10, 1892 – December 11, 1967) was an Italian conductor and composer. ...

Kempe’s début at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus was in 1960. The Ring cycle he conducted there in that year was notable for multiple casting, with the role of Wotan split between Hermann Uhde and Jerome Hines, and Brünnhilde between Astrid Varnay and Birgit Nilsson. The Bayreuth Festspielhaus (Bayreuth Festival Theatre) is an opera house built to the north of the town of Bayreuth in Germany, dedicated to the performance of Richard Wagners operas. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ... Hermann Uhde (July 20, 1914–October 10, 1965 was a German Wagnerian baritone. ... Jerome Hines The American basso Jerome A. Hines (November 8, 1921 – February 4, 2003) was a well-known opera singer who was associated with the Metropolitan Opera for many years. ... Astrid Varnay (born April 25, 1918 in Stockholm, Sweden) is an American soprano. ... Birgit Nilsson Birgit Nilsson (May 17, 1918 – December 25, 2005) was a Swedish soprano who specialized in operatic and symphonic works. ...

Orchestral

From 1961 to 1975 Kempe was chief conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, in which role he was the chosen successor of the orchestra's founder, Sir Thomas Beecham. Kempe had been associated with the orchestra since 1955. A member of the RPO later said of Kempe, 'He was a wonderful controller of the orchestra, and a very great accompanist...Kempe was like someone driving a racing-car, following the piano round the bends.'^[10]. Kempe abolished Beecham's 'male-only' rule, introducing women into the RPO: an orchestra without them, he said, ‘always reminds me of the army’<The Gramophone 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) is an English orchestra based in London. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

From 1965 to 1972 Kempe worked with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, and from 1967 to his death conducted the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he made international tours and recorded the first quadraphonic set of the Beethoven symphonies. 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1965 calendar). ... 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ... Zürich (German:   , Zürich German: Züri , in English generally Zurich, Italian: Zurigo) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ... Zurichs Tonhalle is one of the major - and special - concert halls of the world and its resident orchestra is named after it. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra is one of three great orchestras in the city of Munich, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Bavarian State Opera orchestra. ... 4 channels quadraphonic label Quadraphonic sound uses four channels in which speakers are positioned at all four corners of the listening space, reproducing signals that are independent of each other. ... Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770 &#8211; March 26, 1827) was a German composer of Classical music, the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. ...

In the final months of his life he was the chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The opening concert of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts on 16 July 1976, in which he was to have conducted his BBC forces in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, became a memorial concert for him following Kempe's death in Zürich aged 65.^[11] The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain. ... Ludwig van Beethovens Missa Solemnis in D Major, Op. ... Zürich (German:   , Zürich German: Züri , in English generally Zurich, Italian: Zurigo) is the largest city in Switzerland (population: 366,145 in 2004; population of urban area: 1,091,732) and capital of the canton of Zürich. ...

Recordings

Rudolf Kempe is particularly remembered for his performances and recordings of Richard Strauss (whose complete orchestral works he recorded) and Richard Wagner. This article is about the German composer of tone-poems and operas. ... Wilhelm Richard Wagner (Leipzig, May 22, 1813 – Venice, February 13, 1883) was an influential German composer, conductor, music theorist, and essayist, primarily known for his operas (or music dramas as he later came to call them). ...

References

• Cox, David, The Henry Wood Proms, BBC, London, 1980, ISBN 0-563-17697-0
• Haltrecht, Montague, The Quiet Showman, Collins, London, 1975, ISBN 0-00-211163-2
• Previn, André (ed), Orchestra, Macdonald and Jane's, London 1979, ISBN 0-354-04420-6
• Sackville-West, Edward and others, The Record Guide, Collins, London, 1955.
• The Gramophone, February 1974, p. 1547, interview and profile by Alan Blyth.

Notes