Rolf Liebermann:Legend with a passion for music

As a composer and opera director, Rolf Liebermann had two jobs in which he could live out his passion for music. The Swiss landed in Hamburg several times. He was born 110 years ago.

by Beatrix Hasse

Rolf Liebermann was born in Zurich on September 14, 1910. The boy's Jewish family originally comes from Berlin, his great-uncle is the well-known painter Max Liebermann. But father Franz moved to Switzerland because of love. Music is important from an early age:the mother plays the piano, the father sings, and son Rolf also receives piano lessons as a child. He doesn't turn out to be a child prodigy - but there are signs of musical talent.

Future plans? "Something with music"

However, it is difficult for him to make a purposeful decision about a profession. While his older brother follows in his father's footsteps and studies law, Rolf only vaguely stated that he wanted to do "something related to music". More at the family's request than in his own interest, Rolf Liebermann also began studying law after school, but gave it up after the death of his father - he died in 1931. Shortly thereafter, music determined his life again, first through a woman.

Love for Lale Andersen as key to music career

In 1933 the singer Lieselotte Wilke, later known as Lale Andersen, entered Liebermann's life. After Hitler took power in Berlin, the artist left the city and lived in Zurich, received minor roles at the Schauspielhaus, and appeared as a chanson singer in cabarets. She becomes Rolf Liebermann's first great love. He sets silent films to music and creates his first smaller compositions. Soon Lale Andersen asks him to compose for her. The two tour through Swiss cities with texts by Brecht, Ringelnatz, Kästner and other authors set to music, while Liebermann accompanies their singing on the piano.

To Vienna with Scherchen's New Music

Another key figure in Rolf Liebermann's life is Hermann Scherchen, a well-known conductor and composer of new music. In his late twenties, he applied to him in 1937 for a conducting course in Budapest. Scherchen recognizes Liebermann's talent and makes him his assistant. When Scherchen founded the "Musica viva" orchestra in Vienna shortly afterwards, Liebermann followed him.

Flight from the Nazis to neutral Switzerland

In 1938 the Nazis occupied Austria and the orchestra was dissolved. Rolf Liebermann manages to escape from Vienna - back to neutral Switzerland. A short time later he stopped off in Ascona in Ticino, where he met the Russian composer Wladimir Vogel. From 1940 Liebermann learned to compose twelve-tone music from him - an influence on his further musical work. In 1943 he created his first well-known composition:"Polyphonic Studies" for chamber orchestra.

Rolf Liebermann's efirst foray into radio

After the end of the war, Hermann Scherchen appointed him to the Swiss broadcaster Beromünster, where Liebermann initially worked as a sound engineer from 1945. Five years later he takes over the management of the music department. He paid attention to a high level of orchestral work and program design and championed contemporary music on the radio. Conductor Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, leader of the NDR Symphony Orchestra at the time, was part of his circle in the Zurich radio era - and brought Liebermann from the Limmat to the Elbe a few years later.

Career start in broadcasting

In 1957 he succeeded Harry Hermann-Spitz at Norddeutscher Rundfunk - and became a co-founder of the Third Radio Program, which he launched together with radio pioneer Ernst Schnabel. His career as a composer - in the meantime the operas "Leonore 40/45" (1952), "Penelope" (1954) and "Die Schule der Frauen" (1955) have been written - Liebermann is giving up for the time being.

He stayed with NDR until 1959. During his tenure, he worked intensively to promote young talent. Liebermann founded the "Podium for Young People", which was renamed "Podium Rolf Liebermann" in his honor in 1996. Music greats such as the conductors Christoph Eschenbach and Carlos Kleiber or the concert pianist Rudolf Buchbinder are guests there at the beginning of their careers. The NDR also has Rolf Liebermann to thank for the concert series "NDR the new work". After his death, NDR director Jobst Plog described him as "one of the greats of this century". As head of the music department, he paved the way for modern music at the end of the 1950s, giving impulses that are still having an effect today.

Rolf Liebermann Studio:concert hall in honor of the composer

In March 2000, the old NDR Studio 10 in the former synagogue on Oberstrasse was given a new name:Rolf Liebermann Studio, in honor of the composer, opera director and former head of the NDR music department. Concerts by the NDR orchestra and other ensembles take place there - classical concerts as well as jazz, readings and matinees.

Crisis aid for the Hamburg State Opera

But the two years at NDR are just the beginning of Liebermann's years in Hamburg. He will stay for 14 more years. Hamburg's Mayor Max Brauer brings Liebermann into play as a potential director of the Hamburg State Opera. He hesitates at first, but finally agrees after a few negotiations and takes up his post at the Hamburg Opera House in 1959.

As artistic director, Liebermann devotes himself to the restructuring of the house - and always stays very close to his employees. He watches every performance from the first row, third seat. He has excellent contacts to singers, conductors and international artists. During his time at the State Opera, he brought important composers to the house, such as Igor Stravinsky, who even celebrated his 80th birthday on June 14, 1962 at the Hamburg State Opera.

Proud record with 23 premieres

Liebermann also shows courage and brings modern works to the stage such as Alban Berg's "Lulu" or Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex". The balance of his first 14 years as director of the Hamburg State Opera:23 premieres, including 21 commissioned works that were later performed in other cities. Liebermann did it:The Hamburg Opera House now enjoys a new reputation on the international scene.

From Hamburg to the Paris Opera

In 1973 Liebermann was appointed to the Paris Opera. He will remain as its director until 1980, when music management is supposed to end. The musician Liebermann wants to devote himself to composing again - but this only becomes something temporarily.

Liebermann's vision:Opera for every audience

When Liebermann was called to Hamburg again for three years in 1985, the State Opera was once again in crisis. His direct predecessor, Kurt Horres, threw in the towel after just two months as director. And Liebermann fights in his usual sovereign way for his vision:the opera of the 21st century. He is not only concerned with artistic approaches, but also with new structures in the theater, a rehearsal stage for the actors - as it was created shortly afterwards in the former workshops of the theater - and changed admission prices.

Liebermann wants to prove that "the opera is not an elitist museum just for wealthy people," as he said in an interview with NDR radio at the time. His demand:360 seats in the third and fourth tier should be intended for free sale - and the tickets for less well-off people only cost four and eight marks. He calls it the democratization of the opera - and prevails.

Although Liebermann spent his final years in Paris, he returned to Hamburg in 1995. His opera "Acquittal for Medea" was premiered at the Hamburg State Opera on the occasion of his 85th birthday. He also spent his 88th birthday in the city with which he has so much in common. A few months later, on January 2nd, 1999, Rolf Liebermann died in Paris.