Dieter Rexroth

{{Short description|German musicologist and dramaturge (1941–2024)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Dieter Rexroth

| image = Dieter-Rexroth (1).jpg

| alt = Publicity shot of man with grey hair, white stubble beard and spectacles, smiling.

| caption = Rexroth {{circa|2000}}

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1941|03|06|df=y}}

| birth_place = Dresden, Saxony, German Reich

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2024|04|09|1941|03|06|df=y}}

| death_place = Berlin, Germany

| education = {{ubl| Cologne University | Vienna University | Bonn University }}

| occupation = {{ubl| Musicologist | Dramaturge }}

| organizations = {{ubl| Alte Oper | Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin | Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize }}

}}

Dieter Rexroth (6 March 1941 – 9 April 2024) was a German musicologist, dramaturge and cultural manager. He was intendant of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 1996, responsible also for choirs and orchestras in Berlin. He worked for major festivals including Frankfurter Feste at the Alte Oper, Young Euro Classic in Berlin and the Kasseler Musiktage. He wrote or edited books about composers including Paul Hindemith, Hans Werner Henze and Wolfgang Rihm.

Biography

Born in Dresden on 6 March 1941, Rexroth grew up in Lohr am Main from 1945. He began studies of studied composition, conducting, and music pedagogy Cologne University in 1961. From 1963, he studied musicology, German studies and philosophy at the universities of Vienna and Bonn. In 1970, he achieved his doctorate in Bonn with a dissertation on Arnold Schönberg. He studied further for his habilitation, supported by a scholarship of the Thyssen Foundation, writing about the vocal style of Richard Wagner.

Rexroth worked as a music journalist and critic for papers such as Frankfurter Rundschau, General-Anzeiger Bonn and Neue Zürcher Zeitung, and for broadcasters such as Hessischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk, Deutsche Welle and Westdeutscher Rundfunk. He was founding director of the {{Ill|Hindemith Institute|de}} in Frankfurt am Main in 1974 and directed it until 1991, where he published the Hindemith yearbook and Frankfurter Studien as editor. He connected the topic Hindemith to institutions such as Musikhochschule München, Salzburg Mozarteum and Berliner Festwochen. He organised concerts and conferences at the institute in Frankfurt and in several cities. Rexroth lectured at the Musikhochschule Frankfurt, Marburg University, Gießen University, Hochschule für Musik Mainz and the Mozarteum. He developed a chamber music course program for Blonay, focused on Hindemith, in collaboration with Thomas Brandis, Bruno Giuranna, Saschko Gawriloff, Aloys Kontarsky, Rainer Kussmaul, Siegfried Palm and Boris Pergamenschikow. He held Wagner seminars at the Internationales Jugendfestspieltreffen in Bayreuth in den 1970s.

From 1980 to 1994, Rexroth was dramaturge at the Alte Oper concert hall in Frankfurt and co-founder of the Frankfurter Feste serving as the festival's artistic director from 1986 to 1994. He ran composers' portraits as part of the festival including of Sylvano Bussotti, John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Luigi Nono, Olivier Messiaen, Wolfgang Rihm and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and commissioned new compositions. In 1980 he also developed concepts for Schott of new book series about composers (Komponisten-Monographien and compositions (Werkmonographien). He authored scientific publications with topics including Henze, Messiaen, Rihm, music of the 20th century and the string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven.

From 1994 Rexroth developed an artistic event concept for St. Pölten as intendant of the Lower Austrian cultural scene.

In 1996, Rexroth became intendant of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, responsible also for the RIAS Kammerchor, the Berliner Rundfunkchor and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He brought the conductor Kent Nagano to Berlin in 2000 and served as his dramaturgical consultant.{{cite news |last=Brug |first=Manuel |url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/buehne-konzert/article118522070/Sein-vergifteter-Abschied-von-Muenchens-Oper.html |title=Sein vergifteter Abschied von Münchens Oper |newspaper=Die Welt |date=30 July 2013 |language=de |access-date=24 December 2019 |archive-date=3 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203231615/https://www.welt.de/kultur/buehne-konzert/article118522070/Sein-vergifteter-Abschied-von-Muenchens-Oper.html |url-status=live }} In 2000, he was among the founders of the Young Euro Classic festival for youth orchestras in Berlin and worked as its artistic director. He followed Nagano as dramaturge and assistant to both the Bavarian State Opera and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, remaining in Munich until 2013.

Rexroth directed the {{ill|Kasseler Musiktage|de}} festival from 2005 to 2015. Since 2013, he was artistic director of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Prize, where he designed a promotion of the prizewinners and being chairman of the jury for composition.[http://www.fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de/rexroth-dr-dieter/ Jurymitglieder 2013: Rexroth, Dr. Dieter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191224100350/https://www.fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de/rexroth-dr-dieter/ |date=24 December 2019 }} on fmb-hochschulwettbewerb.de

He was appointed honorary professor at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2016.

Rexroth died in Berlin on 9 April 2024, at the age of 83.

Publications

= As author =

Arnold Schönberg als Theoretiker der tonalen Harmonik. Dissertation. Bonn University 1969.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/251898265 Arnold Schönberg als Theoretiker der tonalen Harmonik] on WorldCat
Beethoven. Schott, Mainz among others 1982, {{ISBN|3-7957-2300-0}}. Taschenbuchausgabe: Goldmann, Munich 1982, {{ISBN|3-442-33019-X}}.
Museum. 175 Jahre Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V. Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 1984.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/75102135 Museum 175 Jahre Frankfurter Museums-Gesellschaft e.V.] on Worldcat
with Andres Briner, Giselher Schubert: Paul Hindemith. Leben und Werk in Bild und Text. Schott, Mainz 1988, {{ISBN|3-7957-0204-6}}.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1091924365 Paul Hindemith. Leben und Werk in Bild und Text] on WorldCat
Beethovens Symphonien. Ein musikalischer Werkführer. Beck, Munich 2005, {{ISBN|3-406-44809-7}}.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/57729912 ''Beethovens Symphonien. Ein musikalischer Werkführer] on WorldCat

=As editor =

Erprobungen und Erfahrungen. Zu Paul Hindemith's Schaffen in den zwanziger Jahren. Schott, Mainz 1978, {{ISBN|3-7957-0112-0}}[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/611305584 Erprobungen und Erfahrungen. Zu Paul Hindemith's Schaffen in den zwanziger Jahren] on WorldCat
Zwischen den Grenzen. Zum Aspekt des Nationalen in der neuen Musik. Schott, Mainz 1979, {{ISBN|3-7957-0113-9}}.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/571136505 Zwischen den Grenzen. Zum Aspekt des Nationalen in der neuen Musik] on WorldCat
Paul Hindemith: Briefe. Fischer, Frankfurt 1982, {{ISBN|3-596-22146-3}}.
Opus Anton Webern. Quadriga, Berlin 1983, {{ISBN|3-88679-101-7}}.
Der Komponist Wolfgang Rihm. Schott, Mainz among others 1985, {{ISBN|3-7957-2460-0}}.
Der Komponist Hans Werner Henze. Schott, Mainz among others 1986, {{ISBN|3-7957-2354-X}}.

References

{{reflist

| refs =

{{cite web

| last = Schmitt-Ott

| first = Thomas

| title = Der Programmzauberer

| url = https://www.dso-berlin.de/de/medien/hoeren-sehen/nachruf-auf-dieter-rexroth

| website = Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

| date = 9 April 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 10 April 2024

| archive-date = 10 April 2024

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240410105851/https://www.dso-berlin.de/de/medien/hoeren-sehen/nachruf-auf-dieter-rexroth

| url-status = live

}}

{{cite web

| title = Dieter Rexroth

| url = https://www.badsk.de/bayerische-akademie-der-sch%C3%B6nen-k%C3%BCnste/mitglieder/dieter-rexroth

| website = BADSK

| date = 9 April 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 9 April 2024

| archive-date = 31 July 2023

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230731205510/https://www.badsk.de/bayerische-akademie-der-sch%C3%B6nen-k%C3%BCnste/mitglieder/dieter-rexroth

| url-status = live

}}

{{cite news

| title = Der Orchester-Intendant Dieter Rexroth ist tot

| url = https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/der-orchester-intendant-dieter-rexroth-ist-tot-100.html

| publisher = Deutschlandfunk

| date = 9 April 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 10 April 2024

| archive-date = 9 April 2024

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240409163337/https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/der-orchester-intendant-dieter-rexroth-ist-tot-100.html

| url-status = live

}}

{{cite news

| title = Kulturmanager Dieter Rexroth gestorben

| url = https://noe.orf.at/stories/3252404/

| publisher = ORF

| date = 9 April 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 13 April 2024

| archive-date = 9 April 2024

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240409155733/https://noe.orf.at/stories/3252404/

| url-status = live

}}

{{cite news

| title = Früherer DSO-Intendant Dieter Rexroth verstorben

| url = https://www.rbb24.de/kultur/beitrag/2024/04/dieter-rexoroth-gestorben-frueherer-intendant-deutsches-symphonie-orchester-berlin.html

| publisher = Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg

| date = 9 April 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 10 April 2024

| archive-date = 10 April 2024

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240410013831/https://www.rbb24.de/kultur/beitrag/2024/04/dieter-rexoroth-gestorben-frueherer-intendant-deutsches-symphonie-orchester-berlin.html

| url-status = live

}}

{{cite news

| title = Dr. Dieter Rexroth

| url = https://www.udk-berlin.de/person/dr-dieter-rexroth/

| publisher = Berlin University of the Arts

| date = 2024

| language = de

| access-date = 13 April 2024

| archive-date = 31 July 2023

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230731205516/https://www.udk-berlin.de/person/dr-dieter-rexroth/

| url-status = live