Günter Wand 1912–2001

With the passing of Sergiu Celibidache in 1996, Georg Tintner in 2000, and now Günter Wand, the grand tradition of Bruckner conducting reaches a natural end. As with so many past masters of the art, Wand served a lengthy apprentice in the opera house and concert hall before achieving fame in the world beyond; yet when, late in life, he did emerge as the Bruckner interpreter par excellence, it was to unanimously rave reviews.

His renditions were unaffected, direct and monumental, the result of the painstaking and protracted rehearsal he demanded but few orchestras were able to offer. Each concert he gave was a deeply spiritual occasion, particularly in his final years, when, although old and frail, he continued to exercise a spellbinding authority on both players and audience.

In his early days he also showed more than a passing interest in modern music, programming much Schoenberg, Webern, Hindemith, Bartók and Stravinsky, as well as contemporary scores by Messiaen, Henze, Martin, Ligeti, Varèse, BA Zimmermann and, on occasion, himself.

Günter Wand’s principal musical training was undertaken at the Cologne Conservatory and Staatliche Hochschule für Musik under Philipp Jarnach for composition and Paul Baumgartner for piano. As a conductor he was, however, mainly self-taught.

His career followed the normal route of the North German Kapellmeister, that of a varied repertoire and much hard graft. A year working on a voluntary basis in the opera house at Wuppertal, where he made his conducting debut with Robert Stolz’s operetta Venus in Seide, was followed by four at Allenstein in East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland) as repetiteur and conductor, during which time he conducted more than 600 performances of opera, operetta, ballet and concerts across the entire repertory. He later became chief conductor at Detmold.

In 1939 Wand began his long professional association with the city of Cologne: he was appointed conductor at the Opera there until its destruction in 1944, when he became conductor of the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra. After the war he returned to Cologne to rebuild the city’s musical life, as music director at the Opera (1945—48), as director of concerts with the Gürzenich orchestra, and as teacher of conducting.

Although Wand’s work was focused mainly at Cologne, he nevertheless found the time and inclination to tour — in Europe, the USSR and Japan. He made his British debut with the LSO in February 1951, in a Beethoven concert at Covent Garden.

In 1974 he resigned his Cologne appointment and moved to Switzerland, where he worked with the Berne Symphony Orchestra. It was at this time that he began his fruitful relationship with the major German radio orchestras, including the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, with which he recorded all the Schubert and Bruckner symphonies, and the Hamburg-based North German Radio Symphony Orchestra. During the 1980s he was appointed chief guest conductor of the BBC SO, and he made his American debut, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to a typically ecstatic reception.

As he grew increasingly frail and reluctant to travel, his appearances became fewer, so that each Wand concert became a quasi-religious experience. His final appearance in London was in Schubert 8 and Bruckner 9, last August, with the Hamburg orchestra making its debut at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall. His fourth recording of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony was issued recently.

Günter Wand: born 7 January 1912; died 14 February 2002.