Karl Richter (conductor)

Karl Richter (15 October 1926 – 15 February 1981) was a German conductor, Choirmaster, organist, and harpsichordist.

Karl Richter was born in Plauen to Christian Johannes Richter, a Protestant pastor, and Clara Hedwig Richter.

His widow Gladys, who was born in 1931, died in 2019 and was buried in his grave.

Although focusing mainly on the German Baroque period – and particularly on Johann Sebastian Bach's works, Richter recorded a wide amount of music.

His discography includes works by Scarlatti, Handel, Telemann, C. P. E. Bach and Joh. Chr. Bach (Johann Sebastian's sons), Haydn, Gluck, Mozart and Mendelssohn, and Beethoven's Mass in C major.

He also recorded organ works by Liszt and Reger related to Bach, and Brahms' chorale preludes for organ.

He studied first in Dresden, where he was a member of the Dresdner Kreuzchor and later in Leipzig, where he received his degree in 1949.

He studied with Günther Ramin (former teacher of another prominent Bach specialist, organist Helmut Walcha), Karl Straube and Rudolf Mauersberger.

In 1949, the year of his graduation, Richter became organist at St. Thomas Church, Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian Bach had been the music director for 27 years.

During his tenure there, he was witness to the inauguration of Bach's new grave and prepared a special performance of Bach's "St. Anne" Prelude and Fugue in E-flat for the reception.

In 1952, after marrying Gladys Müller, with whom he had two children, Tobias and Simone, he moved to Munich, where he taught organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich and was cantor and organist at St. Mark's Church.

In 1954, Richter founded the Münchener Bach-Chor (Munich Bach Choir), and soon after, the Münchener Bach-Orchester (Munich Bach Orchestra), which rapidly became established as a prominent international ensemble and noted for its interpretations of the works of J. S. Bach and other composers.

Richter served as conductor of both ensembles from 1954 until 1981.

His recordings from 1958 to 1970 are notable for "discipline, rhythmic tautness and expressive intensity".

Richter viewed Baroque music as fundamentally impromptu and subjective in nature, explaining in an interview that he had been told his performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion sounded different from the one he had performed last year.

He viewed this observation in a positive light, stating, "It's bad if you play a work with disdainful routine because you have to, and if you no longer have any thoughts or ideas about it."

This was one of Richter's strengths, because each concert he conducted was a unique, irreplaceable event, and even though two performances could sound slightly different, both seemed just right in the moment he was playing them.

Musicians who played with him acknowledged this and analogized that performing Baroque music with Richter was like playing ping-pong because the back and forth is what directed the piece.

As well as a conductor, Richter is also renowned as a virtuoso harpsichordist and organist.

He undertook at least two American concert tours, the second in late 1958.

His performances of Bach's organ works are known for their imposing registrations and favorable pace and are regarded by many as definitive.

A Bach specialist and renowned interpreter, in 1958 he recorded the full St Matthew Passion for Archiv Produktion, leading himself the Münchener Bach-Orchester, the Münchener Bach-Chor and the Münchener Chorknaben.

Regarding his activity as organist and harpsichordist, among his first recordings (in addition to Handel's concertos, see below) are two works by Bach at the organ of Holy Mary of the Ottobeuren Abbey (1958):

In the 1960s and 1970s he recorded often and toured Japan, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

In 1961, he recorded Bach's Mass in B minor, BWV 232, in a triple LP for Archiv Produktion, and the Magnificat, BWV 243 for the same label.

His Magnificat was also released in another LP featuring BWV 78 on Side A.

In 1963, he recorded the complete Musical Offering, BWV 1079 for Archiv:

In the next two years, he and his orchestra and choir recorded other major vocal works by Bach: excerpts from St John Passion and the Christmas Oratorio; extracts of the former were also released the next year by Deutsche Grammophon.

He then recorded 4 LPs with Deutsche Grammophon from 1964 to 1969, and another one in 1978 (for Archiv Produktion, published in 1980).

In 1971, Richter suffered a heart attack and thereafter suffered increasing problems with his vision.

Consequently, he began to memorize as many works as he could before he might lose his sight.

Eventually he had eye surgery, of which he was initially skeptical but which was effective.

When asked about the energy-draining self-imposed burden of work he set himself, he would reply "My time is now" and "We Richters don't grow old."

In 1977, a recording of the First Movement from Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F by the Munich Bach Orchestra under Richter was selected by NASA to be included on the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper record that was sent into space on the Voyager space craft.

The record contained sounds and images which had been selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

Richter played and conducted a wide range of music (sacred works from Heinrich Schütz to Max Reger, as well as the symphonic and concerto repertoire of the Classical and Romantic periods – even including Bruckner symphonies), but is best remembered for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel.

Richter's performances were known for their soul-searching, intense and festive manner.

He avoided the fluctuations in tempo that were previously characteristic of the prevailing Romantic manner of interpreting Bach, and devoted much attention to the woodwinds and to balance in general.

He would record the work again in later years (1979, published 1980).

In a hotel in Munich in 1981 he suffered a fatal heart attack, and was buried in the Enzenbühl cemetery in Zürich eight days later.