Gustav König (12 August 1910 – 5 February 2005) was a German conductor and music director in

Essen Essen () is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and Dortmund, as well as ...

Life

König was born at

Schwabach Schwabach () is a German city of about 40,000 inhabitants near Nuremberg in the centre of the region of Franconia in the north of Bavaria. Together with the neighboring cities of Nuremberg, Fürth and Erlangen, Schwabach forms one of the three me ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

in 1910 and educated at the local ''Gymnasium'' (Grammar school) and conservatory in his hometown. He went on to study at the

Hochschule für Musik und Theater München The University of Music and Theatre Munich (), also known as the Munich Conservatory, is a performing arts music school, conservatory in Munich, Germany. The main building it currently occupies is the former ''Führerbau'' of the NSDAP, locate ...

. His conducting career began in 1932–1933 as opera conductor and concert conductor in

Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in Lower Saxony in western Germany. It is situated on the river Hase in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. With a population of 168 ...

and then

Szczecin Szczecin ( , , ; ; ; or ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Poland-Germany border, German border, it is a major port, seaport, the la ...

(1934–1935),

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

at the Neues Schauspielhaus and

Theater des Westens The Theater des Westens (Theatre of the West) is one of the most famous theatres for musicals and operettas in Berlin, Germany, located at 10–12 in Charlottenburg. It was founded in 1895 for plays. The present house was opened in 1896 and ded ...

(1936–1937 ), and Aachen (1941–1942) as

Kapellmeister ( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...

and Deputy General Music Director to

Herbert von Karajan Herbert von Karajan (; born ''Heribert Adolf Ernst Karajan''; 5 April 1908 – 16 July 1989) was an Austrian conductor. He was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 34 years. During the Nazi era, he debuted at the Salzburg Festival, ...

. From 1943–1944 he was musical director of the

Opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

in Essen. from the 1951/52 season he was appointed general music director, working with Karl Bauer, Erich Schumacher and Jürgen Dieter Waidelich. König retired in 1975, after being conductor of the ''Essener Philharmoniker'' since 1943. He died in Essen in 2005 at the age of 94.14.02.2005 Trauer um Gustav König Deutsches Musikinformationszentrum
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Berliner Morgenpost, 16. February 2005

Legacy

König was known for mounting original or German premieres of works of modernity, including Frank Martin's '' Le Vin herbé'' (1948), Alban Berg's ''

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'' (1953), Dallapiccola's '' Il prigioniero'' (1954) and Hermann Reutter's ''Die Brücke von San Luis Rey''.

References

Bibliography

* Franz Feldens: ''75 Jahre Städtische Bühnen Essen Geschichte des Essener Theaters 1892–1967''. Rheinisch-Westfälische Verlagsgesellschaft, 1967. * Helga Mohaupt, Rudolf Majer-Finkes: ''Das Grillo-Theater: Geschichte eines Essener Theaterbaus. 1892–1990''; mit Dokumentation von Rudolf Majer-Finkes; Bonn: Bouvier, 1990, * Jürgen Dieter Waidelich: ''Essen spielt Theater: 1000 und einhundert Jahre; zum 100. Geburtstag des Grillo-Theaters.'' Bd. 1 (1992) und Bd. 2 (1994), ECON-Verlag,

External links

Gustav König, Der Spiegel, Issue 31/1956 (August 1)

Discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Konig, Gustav 1910 births 2005 deaths 20th-century German conductors (music) German male conductors (music) Music directors (opera) 20th-century German male musicians