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 The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

formations. In 1934, he became a violinist of the

Bayreuth Festival The Bayreuth Festival () is a music festival held annually in Bayreuth, Germany, at which performances of stage works by the 19th-century German composer Richard Wagner are presented. Wagner himself conceived and promoted the idea of a special ...

orchestra. He made recordings in the 1960s as second violin of the Schuster Quartet.

Life

Hanstedt was born in 1904 in

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

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, commonly known as Faber & Faber or simply 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, C. S. Lewis, Margaret S ...

, Leipzig 2006, , . After the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

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 Hans Bassermann (20 September 1888 – 12 February 1978) was a German violinist and music scholar. Life Born in Franckfurt, Bassermann was the son of the music teacher Fritz Bassermann (1850-1926), who worked at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfu ...

), 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 () is a public university in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn as the Conservatorium der Musik (Conservatory of Music), it is the oldest music ...

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 (), 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 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

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 ...

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 Germany, German-born Conducting, conductor, pianist, and composer. Born in Berlin, he escaped Nazi Germany in 1933, was naturalised as a French people, French cit ...

. 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 scientis ...

, 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

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 German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

in February 1943. Until his release in

Fürstenwalde Fürstenwalde/Spree (; ) is the most populous town in the Oder-Spree District of Brandenburg, in eastern Germany. Geography The town is situated in the glacial valley (''Urstromtal'') of the Spree river north of the Rauen Hills, about east of ...

in August 1945, he was a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person 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 war for a ...

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

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

Franz Konwitschny Franz Konwitschny (14 August 1901, Fulnek, Moravia – 28 July 1962, Belgrade) was a German conductor and violist of Moravian descent. Biography Konwitschny came from a family of musicians. From 1920 to 1923 he took violin lessons at the Academ ...

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 192719 December 2015) was a German Conducting, 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 Gewand ...

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 Max Butting (6 October 1888 in Berlin, German Empire – 13 July 1976 in Berlin, East Germany) was a German composer. Life Max Butting was the son of an ironmonger and of a piano teacher. He received his first musical instruction from his mot ...

'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 () 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 artistic, academic or politico- ...

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 20th-century German classical violinists German male classical violinists German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union 20th-century German male musicians Players of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra