Karl Richter
Karl Richter was regarded as one of the great Bach conductors of the twentieth century, noted for solid regularity in rhythms and a serious approach to the music, though he was not given to following the changing pronouncements of musicologists concerning historical accuracy in performance.
He was brought up in the tradition of German Protestant religious music; his father was a minister in the central German regions near where Johann Sebastian Bach had lived. Richter learned piano and organ, and as he approached his 12th birthday entered the Kreuzschule school in Dresden. After World War II, he entered the Leipzig Conservatory, where he studied with Rudolf Mauersberger, and also studied at the Leipzig Institute for Sacred Music, where he learned Bach interpretation from Karl Straube and Günther Ramin. Very soon he was appointed choirmaster of the Christuskirche in Leipzig at the age of 20, and in 1947 became the organist of the Thomanerkirche, both institutions with strong Bach traditions.
He left East Germany in 1950 to live in West Germany and settled in Munich, where he was organist of the Markuskirche and started teaching that same year at the Hochschule für Musik of Munich. He organized the Munich Bach Choir in 1951, and in 1953 added to it the Munich Bach Orchestra. His performances naturally centered on Bach and under Richter his musicians and singers became one of the most renowned organizations specializing in the music of the great German master and his era.
The formation of the Munich Bach Chorus and Orchestra reflected a growing international interest in music of the Baroque and, sparked by the advent of the LP record, the notion of integral series of composers' works. Deutsche Grammophon's Archiv label was the first of such historic specialty sub-labels. Richter and his Bach Choir and Orchestra became a major pillar of that label and recorded numerous Bach choral works, gaining international recognition.
They toured frequently, and Richter also played and recorded often as an organist and harpsichordist. In 1968, Richter made one of his most dramatic guest conducting tours when he conducted the St. John Passion and the B minor Mass in both Moscow and Leningrad at a time when religious music of any sort was rarely heard in the Soviet Union.
Although his regularity of tempo (some called it inflexibility) placed him apart from the Romantic manner of performing Bach, Richter's performances otherwise retained the Romantic era's approach, stressing the solemnity of Bach's music and including dramatic large-scale dynamic contrasts. Newer research and the growing popularity of "original" or "period" instrument performances did not affect his interpretations, which used modern instruments. In some respects, younger interpreters who emerged in the 1970s considered him the representative of an approach against which they were reacting.
Later in his career, Richter enlarged his repertory to conduct Classical, and even Romantic, era works, but tended to remain known primarily as a Baroque specialist. He is best remembered for his mastery of Baroque choral/orchestral works of the largest scale, where his architectural approach to the music is most effective. His recordings of the Bach Passions, oratorios, B minor Mass, and Magnificat, as well as Handel oratorios such as the Messiah, are considered his most important contribution to the Baroque discography.
© TiVo
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Mozart: Violin Concerto No. 3 / Bach: Sonata BWV 1014, 1015 & 1016
Classical - Released by Mezhdunarodnaya Kniga Musica on 1 Jan 1972
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Flute Sonatas BWV 1020, 1030-1032; Partita BWV 1013
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Organ Concertos Nos.1 - 6
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1974
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: La Passion selon saint Matthieu, extraits (Mono Version)
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Sundays after Trinity II (Vol. 5)
Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Concerti Grossi opp. 3 & 6
Karl Richter, Orchestre -Bach de Munich
Classical - Released by Archiv Produktion on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Karl Richter - Great Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 11 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Mass in B Minor, BWV 232
Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: Sonatas for Violin and Harpsichord BWV 1014-1019
Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Cantatas I
Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Weihnachtsoratorium, BWV 248
Classical - Released by Warner Classics International on 2 Jun 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richter dirigiert Bach (Box)
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach, J.S.: St. John Passion
Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter, Münchener Bach-Chor
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 4 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.S. Bach: Johannes-Passion, BWV 245
Choral Music (Choirs) - Released by Urania Records on 1 Nov 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Karl Richter Edition: Flute Concertos
Aurèle Nicolet, Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Profil on 24 Nov 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I. Siciliano. Largo (Remastered 2021)
Classical - Released by Eurodisc on 14 May 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Karl Richter - The Organist
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 28 Nov 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel: Arias
Münchener Kammerorchester, Hans Stadlmair, Orchestre -Bach de Munich, Karl Richter
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Best Recordings of All Time
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 1 Dec 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Orchestral Suite No.3 in D, BWV 1068
Karl Richter, Munchener Bach Orchester
Classical - Released by Classically on 10 Aug 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
The Art of Karl Richter
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on 1 Aug 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo