Description

LUDWIG HOELSCHER (SOLINGEN, GERMANY, AUGUST 23, 1907 – TUTZING, GERMANY, MAY 8, 1996)

 

 

 

 

Hoelscher was the youngest of three children of a jeweler and hobby violinist who decided to found a “family string quartet”. The young Ludwig started at the age of six years playing the cello. From the age of ten, he gained experience in chamber music at home, but did not emerge as a child prodigy. Hoelscher studied the cello in Cologne, Munich, Leipzig and Berlin, including with Hugo Becker, Julius Klengel and Wilhelm Lamping (1880-1951). In 1930 he (together with Ibolyka Zilzer, 1906-1971) received the Mendelssohn Prize for performing musicians. His musical career began when he met the pianist Elly Ney, who founded the Elly Ney piano trio with him and the violinist Wilhelm Stross in 1932. From 1934 to 1938 he was a member of the Strub Quartet in Berlin. In 1931 Hoelscher made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Max Fiedler. Hoelscher was considered one of the most important artists in the Nazi state, which was also reflected in his inclusion in the ” Gottbegnadeten-List ” (“Guide List “) published by the Reich Propaganda Ministry in August 1944 and freed him from military service. On May 1, 1937, Hoelscher became a member of the NSDAP (membership number 5,156,776). On April 1, 1937, the 29-year-old was a professor at the Music Academy in Berlin worked. On May 29, 1938 he was a soloist in the final concert of the first Reich Music Festival in Düsseldorf, where the Nazi propaganda exhibition Degenerate Music was also shown. In the same year, Hoelscher performed at the Beethoven Days of the Hitler Youth in Wildbad and at the cultural and political labor camp of the Reich Youth Leadership in Weimar and played for the “Lichtfest” in front of the workforce of four industrial companies. From 1938 Hoelscher also worked as a professor at the Mozarteumin Salzburg. For the purpose of “cultural propaganda”, he appeared in occupied Belgium in 1942 at hiking concerts for the Wehrmacht in Antwerp, Ghent, Mechelen, Löwen, Lier and St. Niklaas. These concerts were repeated in 1943, and he had additional performances in Bucharest, Lemberg, Lublin and Warsaw. A few months before the end of the war, on December 2, 1944, he performed together with the Philharmonic of the General Government in Kraków. This “General Government Philharmonic” was one of “General Governor ” Hans Frank Orchestra founded for propaganda purposes, which was filled with top Polish musicians. Despite membership in various National Socialist organizations, such as the NSDAP, the Reich Colonial League and the Old Men’s League of German Students, Ludwig Hoelscher was able to continue his career after the Second World War. From 1954 to 1972 he was a professor at the Stuttgart University of Music. Numerous concert tours took him around the world, including for the first time to Japan in 1953, where he became an honorary member of the Ueno University in Tokyo. In addition to many other awards, he also received honorary membership of the Beethoven-Haus Bonn association. Ludwig Hoelscher appeared as a soloist and as a chamber musician (including with Elly Ney, Walter Gieseking, Hans Richter-Haaser, Wilhelm Kempff, Wilhelm Keilmann, Carl Seemann, Adrian Aeschbacher, Kurt Rapf ). He premiered over 50 works (including by Wolfgang Fortner, Martin Karl Hasse, Joseph Rheinberger, Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Hans Pfitzner, Walter Gieseking, Karl Hölle, Harald Genzmer, Hans Werner Henze, Ernst Krenek, Heinrich Sutermeister, Peter Jona Korn, Günter Bialas, Wilhelm Keilmann, Casimir von Pászthory). He also brought works by Paul Hindemith to the German premiere. The cello sonata op.30 (1935) by Theodor Hausmann is dedicated to Ludwig Hoelscher.

 

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1. Cello Sonata Op. 69 (Beethoven) Allegro ma non tanto  Scherzo – Allegro molto Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace Elly Ney (piano)
2. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 I. Allegro non troppo – Animato (Saint-Saëns) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
3. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 II. Allegretto con moto (Saint-Saëns) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
4. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33 III. Molto allegro (Saint-Saëns) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
5. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 9 in B-Flat Major, G. 482 I. Allegro moderato (Boccherini) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
6. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 9 in B-Flat Major, G. 482 II. Adagio non troppo (Boccherini) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
7. Concerto pour violoncelle No. 9 in B-Flat Major, G. 482 III. Rondo. Allegro (Boccherini) Berliner Philhamoniker, Otto Matzerath
8. Piano Trio No 1 in B Major, Op. 8 (Brahms) Allegro con brio Scherzo Adagio Allegro Elly Ney Trio Elly Ney (piano) and Wilhelm Stross (violin)
9. Sonata for Arpeggione in A minor, D 821 (Schubert) Allegro moderato Adagio Allegretto Elly Ney (piano)
10. Sonate pour violoncelle in G Minor, Op. 65 I. Allegro moderato (Chopin)  Hans Altmann (piano)
11. Sonate pour violoncelle in G Minor, Op. 65 II. Scherzo (Chopin)  Hans Altmann (piano)
12. Sonate pour violoncelle in G Minor, Op. 65 III. Largo (Chopin)  Hans Altmann (piano)
13. Sonate pour violoncelle in G Minor, Op. 65 IV. Finale. Allegro (Chopin)  Hans Altmann (piano)
14. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 I. Allegro non troppo (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
15. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 II. Allegretto quasi menuetto (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
16. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38 III. Allegro (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
17. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 I. Allegro vivace (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
18. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 II. Adagio affettuoso (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
19. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 III. Allegro passionato (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)
20. Sonate pour violoncelle No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99 IV. Allegro molto (Brahms) Jörg Demus (piano)