Herbert Kegel
Known in the United States primarily as the conductor of a surefire recording of Orff's Carmina Burana, Herbert Kegel was respected in Europe as a pivotal figure in establishing the works of such individual Modernists as Blacher, Dallapiccola, Dessau, Penderecki, and Nono in the concert hall and on discs. He was one of the first to champion Britten's War Requiem, while his recording of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron was instrumental in keeping this difficult and challenging work before the public. His involvement with Orff's music typifies the duality of a distinguished career whose impact is not yet fully appreciated and whose legacy remains to be assimilated, for beside the ever-popular Carmina Burana, Kegel also recorded -- superbly -- the remaining cantatas, Catulli Carmina and Trionfo di Afrodite, speech-inflected works the composer regarded as parts of a single cycle of Trionfi and that look ahead to the uncompromising utterance of his Antigonae and Oedipus der Tyrann. Kegel studied at the Dresden Conservatory, where Karl Böhm was one of his teachers, from 1935 to 1940, beginning his career, after serving as a conscript during the war in 1946, as kapellmeister of the Volkstheater Rostock. From 1949 to 1978 he was associated with the Leipzig Radio Orchestra & Choir, becoming choirmaster, music director, and principal conductor of the Great Radio Orchestra and Radio Choir in 1953. He became principal conductor of the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra & Choir in 1960. In 1977 he was named principal conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic, a post he held until 1985. From 1985 until his death he frequently appeared as guest conductor at the Dresden and Leipzig opera houses, the Staatsoper Berlin, and the NHK Orchestra, Tokyo. Teaching engagements included a professorship with the Mendelssohn Bartholdy Hochschule für Musik in Leipzig from 1975 until 1978, and a Dresden master class in 1980. Kegel's grasp extended over the standard repertoire, from Bach to Stravinsky, though his center of interest revolved around the German Romantics, Bruckner and Mahler in particular, and the Modernists, great and minor -- Hartmann, Honegger, or Theodorakis no less than Bartók, Berg, and Hindemith -- with a smattering of such audience pleasers as Carmen and Margarethe (that is, Gounod's Faust for German audiences). Several recordings -- including Carmina Burana and Mahler's Symphony No. 4 -- feature distinguished solo work by Kegel's second wife, soprano Celestina Casapietra. His manner was without affectation or grandiosity, rhythmically alert and lyrically poised, always efficient and often inspired. He committed suicide in Dresden on November 20, 1990.
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Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, WAB 105 "Phantastische" (Live)
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schönberg: Moses und Aron
Werner Haseleu, Reiner Goldberg, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Dresdner Kapellknaben, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Herbert Kegel
Classical - Released by Eterna on 1 Jan 1978
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius: Sinfonie No. 4
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Herbert Kegel
Symphonic Music - Released by Eterna on 1 Jan 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
MUSSORGSKY, M.: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. M. Ravel) / Night on the Bare Mountain (A) / BORODIN, A.: Polovtsian Dances (Durjan, Kegel)
Symphonies - Released by Berlin Classics on 10 Feb 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schostakowitsch: Sinfonie No. 1 & 11
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Herbert Kegel, Staatskapelle Dresden, Franz Konwitschny
Symphonic Music - Released by Eterna on 1 Jan 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, WAB 108 "Apocalyptic" (1890 Version)
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen (Highlights)
Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Rundfunk-Kinderchor Leipzig, Herbert Kegel
Opera - Released by Eterna on 1 Jan 1970
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Blacher: Concertante Musik / Orchestervariationen über ein Thema von Paganini / Klavierkonzert No. 2
Gerty Herzog, Herbert Kegel, Dresdner Philharmonie
Symphonic Music - Released by Eterna on 27 Feb 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
ORFF, C.: Carmina Burana (Vulpius, Rotzsch, Rehm, Hunemthal, Leipzig Radio Chorus and Symphony, Kegel) ( Anonymous - Carl Orff)
Classical - Released by Berlin Classics on 30 Mar 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 in E Major, WAB 107 (1885 Version, Gutmann Edition)
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 54 (Live)
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition / Liszt: Les Préludes / Smetana: Vltava
Václav Neumann, Herbert Kegel, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig
Classical - Released by Corona Classics Collection on 19 Mar 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SIBELIUS, J.: Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6 / The Swan of Tuonela (Leipzig Radio Symphony, Kegel, Berlin Radio Symphony, Berglund)
Classical - Released by Berlin Classics on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6 in A Major, WAB 106 (Live)
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms, J.: Deutsches Requiem (Ein)
MariAnne Haggander, Siegfried Lorenz, Rundfunkchor Leipzig, Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Leipzig, Herbert Kegel
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on 1 Jan 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 43
Herbert Kegel, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Jul 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hindemith: Sinfonie in Es-Dur & Sinfonia serena
Dresdner Philharmonie, Herbert Kegel
Symphonic Music - Released by Eterna on 2 Mar 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BRITTEN, B.: War Requiem / PENDERECKI, K.: Threnody To the Victims of Hiroshima / BERG, A.: Violin Concerto (Scherzer, Dresden Philharmonic, Kegel)
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Herbert Kegel
Classical - Released by Berlin Classics on 5 Mar 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
DESSAU, P.: Condemnation of Lucullus (The) [Opera] (Kegel)
Full Operas - Released by Berlin Classics on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chants de chasseurs allemands (Mono Version)
Bläsergruppe des Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchesters Leipzig, Herbert Kegel
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen
Chor Der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Chor des Leipziger Rundfunks, Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Orchester des Leipziger Rundfunks, Horst Stein, Herbert Kegel
Opera - Released by Cantus Classics on 1 Jan 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo