Paul Sacher
Encyclopedia
Paul Sacher was a Swiss
conductor
, patron
and impresario
.
, among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra (Basler Kammerorchester) to play works written before the classical period and modern works. Immensely wealthy, he commissioned works from many well known composers, including Igor Stravinsky
(who provided him with the Concerto in D
), Béla Bartók
(the Divertimento for Strings, String Quartet No. 6, and the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
), Bohuslav Martinů
(many works including the Double Concerto, Concerto da camera etc.) Arthur Honegger
(many works, including the Second Symphony and the Fourth Symphony Deliciae Basilienses), Frank Martin
(six works, including the Petite Symphonie Concertante), Paul Hindemith
, Hans Werner Henze
, Richard Strauss
, Elliott Carter
, Witold Lutosławski (Sacher Variation, Double Concerto, Chain 2, etc.) Henri Dutilleux
and Harrison Birtwistle
.
Pierre Boulez
's Grawemeyer Award
-winning work Sur Incises
was written for Sacher's 90th birthday. Boulez's entire catalogue (including drafts) was bequeathed to the Paul Sacher Foundation. Henze dedicated his Tenth Symphony
in memory of Sacher, who had commissioned it but died before it was completed.
In 1983 Sacher acquired the Stravinsky estate. The Paul Sacher Stiftung (Foundation) is located in the centre of Basel (in Munsterplatz) and houses one of the world's most important collections of musical manuscripts. Most of these collections were purchased by Sacher during his lifetime, and they include complete collections by several of the most important composers of the twentieth century (Lutosławski, Ligeti, Boulez, et al.). In 1997 Sacher received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Music in Kraków
.
He was named the world's third richest man in the 1990s, having married the heiress of the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann–La Roche. At the time of his death he was reputed in various publications to be the richest man in Europe. He died in 1999, aged 93.
, Luciano Berio
, Pierre Boulez
, Benjamin Britten
, Henri Dutilleux
, Wolfgang Fortner
, Alberto Ginastera
, Cristóbal Halffter
, Hans Werner Henze
, Heinz Holliger
, Klaus Huber
and Witold Lutosławski) were asked by Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
to write compositions for cello solo using his name spelt out in musical notes as the theme (eS, A, C, H, E, Re). The compositions were partially presented in Zurich on 2 May 1976. The whole "eSACHERe" project will be (for the first time in complete performance) performed by Czech cellist František Brikcius in May 2011 in Prague.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
and impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
.
Biography
He studied under Felix WeingartnerFelix Weingartner
Paul Felix von Weingartner, Edler von Münzberg was an Austrian conductor, composer and pianist.-Biography:...
, among others. In 1926 he founded the Basel Chamber Orchestra (Basler Kammerorchester) to play works written before the classical period and modern works. Immensely wealthy, he commissioned works from many well known composers, including Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
(who provided him with the Concerto in D
Concerto in D (Stravinsky)
Igor Stravinsky's Concerto in D for string orchestra was composed in Hollywood between the beginning of 1946 and 8 August of the same year in response to a 1946 commission from Paul Sacher to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra , and for this reason is sometimes...
), Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
(the Divertimento for Strings, String Quartet No. 6, and the Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114 is one of the best-known compositions by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the score is dated September 7, 1936...
), Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
(many works including the Double Concerto, Concerto da camera etc.) Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
(many works, including the Second Symphony and the Fourth Symphony Deliciae Basilienses), Frank Martin
Frank Martin (composer)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer, who lived a large part of his life in the Netherlands.-Childhood and youth:...
(six works, including the Petite Symphonie Concertante), Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
, Elliott Carter
Elliott Carter
Elliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
, Witold Lutosławski (Sacher Variation, Double Concerto, Chain 2, etc.) Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
and Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
.
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
's Grawemeyer Award
Grawemeyer Award
The Grawemeyer Awards are five awards given annually by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States. The prizes are presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...
-winning work Sur Incises
Incises (Boulez)
Incises and Sur Incises are two related works of the French composer Pierre Boulez.Incises is Boulez's first work for solo piano since his third piano sonata of 1955–57/63. Originally written in 1994, it has been revised twice, most recently in 2001...
was written for Sacher's 90th birthday. Boulez's entire catalogue (including drafts) was bequeathed to the Paul Sacher Foundation. Henze dedicated his Tenth Symphony
Symphony no. 10 (Henze)
Symphony No. 10 by Hans Werner Henze was written between 1997 and 2000.Unlike his Ninth Symphony, the Tenth has a more traditional four-movement symphonic structure. The first movement, entitled Ein Sturm is suitably tempestuous; the second, Ein Hymnus is for strings alone...
in memory of Sacher, who had commissioned it but died before it was completed.
In 1983 Sacher acquired the Stravinsky estate. The Paul Sacher Stiftung (Foundation) is located in the centre of Basel (in Munsterplatz) and houses one of the world's most important collections of musical manuscripts. Most of these collections were purchased by Sacher during his lifetime, and they include complete collections by several of the most important composers of the twentieth century (Lutosławski, Ligeti, Boulez, et al.). In 1997 Sacher received an honorary doctorate from the Academy of Music in Kraków
Academy of Music in Kraków
The Academy of Music in Kraków is a conservatory located in downtown Kraków, Poland.-History:The Academy, until 1945 as a conservatory under the name Cracow Conservatory or Conservatory of the Music Society, was founded in 1888 by the eminent Polish composer Władysław Żeleński thanks to artistic...
.
He was named the world's third richest man in the 1990s, having married the heiress of the pharmaceutical company Hoffmann–La Roche. At the time of his death he was reputed in various publications to be the richest man in Europe. He died in 1999, aged 93.
"eSACHERe"
On the occasion of Sacher's 70th birthday, twelve composer-friends of his (Conrad BeckConrad Beck
Conrad Beck was a Swiss composer.Beck was the son of a pastor. His stay in Paris between 1924 and 1933 proved crucial to his artistic development, where he studied with Jacques Ibert and also made contact with Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger, and Albert Roussel...
, Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio
Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...
, Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
, Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
, Wolfgang Fortner
Wolfgang Fortner
Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music...
, Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Ginastera
Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :...
, Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter
Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina is a Spanish composer. He is the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter.-Life:...
, Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
, Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber
Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater...
and Witold Lutosławski) were asked by Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
to write compositions for cello solo using his name spelt out in musical notes as the theme (eS, A, C, H, E, Re). The compositions were partially presented in Zurich on 2 May 1976. The whole "eSACHERe" project will be (for the first time in complete performance) performed by Czech cellist František Brikcius in May 2011 in Prague.
| Composer | Composition |
|---|---|
| Conrad Beck Conrad Beck Conrad Beck was a Swiss composer.Beck was the son of a pastor. His stay in Paris between 1924 and 1933 proved crucial to his artistic development, where he studied with Jacques Ibert and also made contact with Arthur Honegger, Nadia Boulanger, and Albert Roussel... |
Für Paul Sacher : Drei Epigramme für Violoncello solo |
| Luciano Berio Luciano Berio Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian... |
Les Mots sont allés |
| Pierre Boulez Pierre Boulez Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics... |
Messagesquisse, pour 7 violoncelles |
| Benjamin Britten Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to... |
Tema "Sacher" |
| Henri Dutilleux Henri Dutilleux Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own... |
Trois Strophes sur le nom de Sacher |
| Wolfgang Fortner Wolfgang Fortner Wolfgang Fortner was a German composer, composition teacher and conductor.-Life:Fortner was born in Leipzig. From his parents - both singers - Fortner very early on had intense contact with music... |
Zum Spielen für den 70. Geburtstag : Thema und Variationen für Violoncello Solo |
| Alberto Ginastera Alberto Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.- Biography :... |
Punena n° 2, op. 45 |
| Cristóbal Halffter Cristóbal Halffter Cristóbal Halffter Jiménez-Encina is a Spanish composer. He is the nephew of two other composers, Rodolfo and Ernesto Halffter.-Life:... |
Variationen über das Thema eSACHERe |
| Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"... |
Capriccio per Paul Sacher |
| Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez... |
Chaconne, für Violoncello Solo |
| Klaus Huber Klaus Huber Klaus Huber is a Swiss composer.Huber was born in Bern, Switzerland. One of the leading figures of his generation in Europe, he has written extensively for chamber ensembles, choirs, soloists and the orchestra as well as the theater... |
Transpositio ad infinitum |
| Witold Lutosławski | Sacher-Variationen |