Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020)[1] was a German composer and violist. After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he worked for decades as a violist in the Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt. He was simultaneously the violist in the Kehr Trio founded by his violin teacher Günter Kehr, and a composer of incidental music at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.
Volker David Kirchner
25 June 1942
4 February 2020 (aged 77)
- Violist
- Chamber musician
- Composer
- Rheingau Musikpreis
- Peter Cornelius Plaque
- Kunstpreis Rheinland-Pfalz
He was known for his operas which were commissioned by major German opera houses. Die Trauung was premiered at Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden in 1975, Die fünf Minuten des Isaak Babel, described as a scenic Requiem, premiered at the Opernhaus Wuppertal in 1980, and Gilgamesh was commissioned for the Expo 2000 and staged at the Staatsoper Hannover. His operas often focus on historic personalities such as Savonarola and Gutenberg. Kirchner also composed two symphonies, concertos, keyboard music, sacred music such as the Missa Moguntina for the Mainz Cathedral, and especially chamber music. His music has been recorded, and performed internationally.[1]
Kirchner's compositions have included solo pieces, string quartets and other chamber music, symphonies and solo concertos, culminating in works for the stage.[2] His operas often have a political background. Isaak Babel, a 1980 work, shows a person facing the Russian Revolution. Savonarola, a 2011 opera, deals with the short reign of a religious fanatic. Gutenberg, written in 2012, shows the genius from Mainz who had difficulties introducing his invention.[12] Kirchner composed the mass Missa Moguntina in 1993 especially for the Mainz Cathedral, reflecting his roots.[2] The text is the Latin mass expanded by Psalm 130, "De profundis", and Kirchner studied the acoustics of the cathedral.[13]
Kirchner's works were published by Schott, including:[3]
Opera
Sacred music
Orchestra
Concertante
Chamber music
Keyboard
Recordings[edit]
Kirchner's mass Missa Moguntina was recorded in 1993, with soloists Maria Karb, Alison Browner, Mads Elung-Jensen, Johannes M. Kösters and Gregory Reinhart, organist Albert Schönberger, the Mainzer Domchor and Domkantorei St. Martin, and the Mainzer Domorchester, conducted by Mathias Breitschaft.[24]
A recording of his quartet Exil for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, composed in 1995, was combined on a 2015 recording Beyond Time[25] with Fabian Müller's Am Anfang for soprano and ensemble, and Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps.[26]
In 2016, a recording of vocal chamber music was released entitled Media vita in morte sumus (In the midst of life we are in death) – vocal chamber music by Volker David Kirchner, containing three song collections, Obsidian-Gesänge on poems by Dana Obsidian for voice, horn, violin, cello and piano (2013), Es ist ein Weinen in der Welt, setting poems by Else Lasker-Schüler, for voice and piano (2011–2013), and Media vita in morte sumus on poems by Erich Michelsberg for soprano, clarinet, horn, piano and string trio (2006–2007).[27]
Awards[edit]
Kirchner received a prize from Rhineland-Palatinate for young composers in 1974, for his first opera Die Trauung. In 1977, he was awarded the Kunstpreis Rheinland-Pfalz and in 1992 the Gutenberg Plaque of Mainz.[4] In 1994, Kirchner was the first recipient of the Rheingau Musikpreis of the Rheingau Musik Festival.[28] In 1995, he received the composer's prize of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung and the Kreissparkasse Hannover, and in 2007, the Peter Cornelius Plaque of Rhineland-Palatinate, the highest honour of the state.[1][3] In 2014, Kirchner was awarded the "Preis für die Verdienste um die Musikkultur" by the Landesmusikrat Rheinland-Pfalz, in connection with the premiere of the orchestral composition Der mythische Fluss played by the Landesjugendorchester Rheinland-Pfalz (State youth orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate).[29]