Heinz Rögner (conductor)
MDR-Sinfonieorchester & MDR-Kammerphilharmonie
rec. 1994-2001, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Germany
GENUIN GEN22742 [4 CDs: 262:09]
I first heard of the conductor, organist and pianist Heinz Rögner a few years ago when I came across his Bruckner symphonies Nos. 3-9 in an impressive set on Brilliant Classics. For many years, he worked in German Democratic Republic, alongside such notable conductors as Abendroth, Kegel, Konwitschny, Suitner, Masur, Tennstedt and Kempe.
Rögner, born in Leipzig in 1929, came from a lower-middle-class family. His father taught him to play the piano. He was prodigiously gifted, but could not afford music lessons. Church singing and organ playing were his refuge during the war. In 1942, he won a nationwide piano audition with pieces by Chopin and Bach, and followed up in 1943 with Schubert’s F minor Fantasy. He sang in Messiah under Abendroth. Rögner’s music education began after 1945, with organist Günther Ramin, the Thomas Church Kantor, and later with conductor Hans-Joachim Rotzsch. He studied viola, piano and conducting at Leipzig University.
This box contains a fairly good representation of Heinz Rögner’s conducting repertoire from concerts in the period following re-unification of Germany in 1990. Many of his earlier recordings were made in East Germany, where he held conducting positions at the Weimar Music Theatre, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin State Opera, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Radio Choir. He toured extensively in Eastern Europe, as well Austria, France, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland and West Germany. Not well-known in the West, Rögner enjoyed considerable status in the Far East. He toured regularly with his Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and as a touring conductor with Japanese orchestras. He was also Principal Guest Conductor of the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra from the late 1970s.
Rögner’s recording legacy stretches from Albinoni, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Enesco, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Weill, Wolf-Ferrari, to modern German pieces by Rosenfeld and Manfred Schubert. These were recorded and released by Eterna, and several on Philips in the West. His performances in Japan were released by different labels. Highlights of his music-making on record reveals his wide-ranging interests, including trumpet concertos by Torelli, Grossi, Fasch and Albinoni, Weingartner’s arrangement of Schubert’s Grand Duo in C, Eisler’s three Orchestral Suites and the Kleine Sinfonie.
After re-unification, Rögner found it difficult to fit in; the sudden arrival of commercialism brought cutbacks and the loss of work. Even so, he found a place for his talents in his last decade mostly with the renamed MDR Symphony Orchestra, which incorporated the former Leipzig Radio Symphony and Large Radio Orchestra. He was a long-time professor of conducting at the Hanns Eisler Music School in Berlin.
The recordings in this box were issued by MDR (Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk). The less familiar pieces – such as Reger’s Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart and Mahler’s orchestration of Schubert’s Death and the Maiden string quartet – document very well what type of work he was doing in Germany. The other works are pieces that he would have conducted frequently throughout his career. All of the performances feature MDR Symphony Orchestra or MDR Chamber Orchestra. The earliest is Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony from a concert in the new Gewandhaus Hall in Leipzig on 12 June 1994; the latest is Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin from 8 April 2001. Each of these fascinating recordings offers a special quality in Rögner’s music-making. He was known to allow his players to express themselves. Rather than dictate from the podium, he made minimal movements with his arms to determine the flow of the music. His facial expressions brought out a unique warmth in his concerts.
I was especially impressed with Reger’s Variations and Fugue, a neglected masterpiece. Rögner’s love of Bruckner comes across strongly in the Sixth Symphony, a beautifully constructed rendition of a work close to his heart. His reading of the Pastoral Symphony brings out all the beauty, and the players appear to love the freedom in the easily expressed woodwind playing. I rate most highly Mahler’s orchestration of Death and the Maiden in a truly spell-binding performance, atmospheric in its trance-like playing from the richly toned strings. The rendition of Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony is among the finest I have heard, and makes one regret that Rögner never set down a complete series of Schubert symphonies. The performances of Gershwin and Ravel pieces with the MDR Chamber Orchestra capture very well the colour and harmony in these works. The orchestra reveals wonderful nuances, especially the woodwinds. These fine musicians grace the Beethoven and Mendelssohn works, affirming the virtuosity of the woodwind and brass musicians in this ensemble.
The only disappointment is that there are no collaborations with some of the many soloists with whom Rögner worked, or of his opera work. Perhaps in the future we will see another box of his archive recordings. This set is recommended as a fine record of his contribution to the musical history of the great German city of Leipzig. The well-filled booklet in German and English has recollections of Rögner by Michael Sanderling, Karl Suske, Max Pommer, Georg Fritzsch, Arndt Jehmlich and tge conductor’s daughter Susanne Rögner, and a short biography by Dirk Stove who has curated this set for Genuin. There are many photos of Rögner’s work and his family throughout his career. This is a fine collection of an outstanding musician who maintained the Leipzig musical tradition in the second part of the 20th century.
Gregor Tassie
Previous review: Nick Barnard
Contents
CD 1 [59:25]
Felix MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY (1809-1847)
Meeresstile und Glückliche Fahrt [14:37]
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Symphony No. 6 in F op. 68 [44:08]
CD 2 [73:23]
Franz SCHUBERT (1799-1828)
Symphony No. 7 in B minor D759 (Unfinished) [28:52]
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor D810 “Der Tod und das Mädchen”, arranged for orchestra by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) [44:01]
CD 3 [54:52]
Max REGER (1873-1916)
Variations and Fuge on a Theme from Mozart op. 132 [37:22]
Maurice RAVEL (1875-1937)
Le Tombeau de Couperin [17:30]
CD 4 [74:29]
Anton BRUCKNER (1824-1896)
Symphony No. 6 in , WAB 106 [54:32]
George GERSHWIN (1898-1937)
An American in Paris, Symphonic Pictures for Orchestra [19:47]
Recorded live at the Gewandhaus Leipzig on 20 February 1999, 28 February 1999, 25 August 1995, 21-22 September 1997, 20 October 1998, 8 April 2001, 12 June 1994, 25 December 1997.
