Heinz Holliger | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Born | 21 May 1939 85) Langenthal, Switzerland | (age
Education | Conservatory of Bern |
Occupation(s) | Oboist, composer, conductor |
Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, [1] composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. [1] His repertoire includes Baroque and Classical pieces, but he has regularly engaged in lesser known pieces of Romantic music, as well as his own compositions. [1] He often performed contemporary works with his wife, the harpist Ursula Holliger; composers such as Berio, Carter, Henze, Krenek, Lutosławski, Martin, Penderecki, Stockhausen and Yun have written works for him. Holliger is a noted composer himself, writing works such as the opera Schneewittchen (1998).
Holliger was born in Langenthal, Switzerland. [2] He began playing the oboe at age eleven, [3] and studied at the conservatory of Bern before taking first prize for oboe in the Geneva International Music Competition in 1959. [4] He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez. [5]
He has become one of the world's most celebrated oboists, and many composers, Luciano Berio, Elliott Carter, Hans Werner Henze, Ernst Krenek, Witold Lutosławski, Frank Martin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Henri Pousseur, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sándor Veress and Isang Yun have written works for him. [5] He began teaching at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, Germany in 1966.
In 1972 Holliger, Maurice Bourgue (oboe), Klaus Thunemann (bassoon), and Christiane Jaccottet (continuo) et al. recorded the Six Trio Sonatas for Oboe and Bassoon by Jan Dismas Zelenka. This recording is credited for the "Zelenka Renaissance".
Holliger has also composed many works in a variety of media. Many of his works have been recorded for the ECM label.
Invited by Walter Fink, he was the 17th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2007 in chamber music and a symphonic concert that he conducted himself, including works of Claude Debussy and Robert Schumann along with his Lieder after Georg Trakl and Gesänge der Frühe on words of Schumann and Friedrich Hölderlin.
On the occasion of Paul Sacher's 70th birthday, Holliger was one of twelve composer-friends of his who were asked by Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich to write compositions for cello solo using his name spelt out in German names for musical notes on the theme (eS, A, C, H, E, Re); Holliger contributed a Chaconne for Violoncello Solo. The compositions were partially presented in Zurich on 2 May 1976. The whole "eSACHERe" project was (for the first time in complete performance) performed by Czech cellist František Brikcius in May 2011 in Prague. [6]
Heinz Holliger was married to the harpist Ursula Holliger née Hänggi (1937–2014). [7]
Source: [16]
The oboe is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites.
Isang Yun, or Yun I-sang, was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany.
Sándor Veress was a Swiss composer of Hungarian origin. He was born in Kolozsvár/Klausenburg, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire, nowadays called Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and died in Bern. The first half of his life was spent in Hungary; the second, from 1949 until his death, in Switzerland, of which he became a citizen in the last months of his life.
Edwin Roxburgh is an English composer, conductor and oboist.
Wilhelm Killmayer was a German composer of classical music, a conductor and an academic teacher of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München from 1973 to 1992. He composed symphonies and song cycles on poems by Friedrich Hölderlin, Joseph von Eichendorff, Georg Trakl and Peter Härtling, among others.
Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, academic composition teacher and conductor.
York Höller is a German composer and professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik Köln.
Schneewittchen is an opera by Heinz Holliger. He wrote the libretto based on a poetic text by Robert Walser in iambic trimeter. The opera received its première on 17 October 1998 at the Zürich Opera House which had commissioned the work. The work is a psychoanalytical reworking of the fairy tale of "Snow White", analysing the complex relationships between the roles. It is not a children's opera.
Juliane Banse is a German opera soprano and noted Lieder singer.
Thomas Larcher is an Austrian composer and pianist.
Christian Gerhaher is a German baritone and bass singer in opera and concert, particularly known as a Lieder singer.
Omar Zoboli is an Italian oboist, since 1998 till 2018 professor at the Musikhochschule Basel - Switzerland
Oliver Widmer is a Swiss operatic bass-baritone whose international career has encompassed lieder, opera, and oratorio. In 1998 he created the role of Jäger in Heinz Holliger's opera Schneewittchen.
The Oboe Concerto is a concerto for solo oboe and orchestra by the American composer Elliott Carter. The work was commissioned by the conductor Paul Sacher for the oboist Heinz Holliger. It was first performed in Zürich, June 17, 1988, by Heinz Holliger and the Collegium Musicum Zürich under the conductor John Carewe.
The Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Chamber Orchestra is a musical composition by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski. It was commissioned by the conductor Paul Sacher for the oboist Heinz Holliger and harpist Ursula Holliger, Heinz's wife. The work was composed between 1979 and 1980 and was first performed by Heinz and Ursula Holliger and the Collegium Musicum Zürich under the direction of Sacher in Lucerne on August 24, 1980. The piece is dedicated to Sacher.
Ursula Holliger, née Hänggi, was a Swiss harpist, known for her commitment to contemporary music.
František Xaver Thuri was a Czech composer, harpsichordist, oboist, organist, musicologist and a notable pedagogue.
The Swiss Chamber Soloists is the concert cycle's chamber ensemble, founded in 1999 and led by the three artistic directors of the Swiss Chamber Concerts Jürg Dähler, Daniel Haefliger and Felix Renggli.
Thomas Demenga is a Swiss composer and cellist.
Michael Svoboda is an American composer and trombonist who lives and works in Switzerland.