Olaf Koch (14 January 1932 – 22 August 2001) was a German conductor and Hochschullehrer.
In 1964, he was appointed General Music Director at the Meiningen Court Theatre. At the end of the 1960s, he turned to concert conducting, and for over twenty years he was the principal conductor of the Staatliches Sinfonieorchester and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle, which he led to national recognition. Koch championed Neue Musik works by East German (Günter Kochan among others) and Soviet composers. In 1979 he received the National Prize of the GDR.
Initially appointed Conducting Professor at Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, he served as Rector of the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler" from 1982 to 1986.
Life Thuringian origin and socialisation Born in Bebra near Sondershausen, Koch came from a working-class family. He was born in 1932 as the son of a -KumpelAndreas Herbst, Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: So funktionierte die DDR. Volume 3: Lexikon der Funktionäre (rororo Handbuch. 6350). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, , . and grew up in Halle.Günther Buch: Namen und Daten wichtiger Personen der DDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin among others 1987, , . He was also influenced by an antifascist milieu.Wolfgang Herbrand: Was macht eigentlich Olaf Koch. In Monika Zimmermann (ed.): What does actually...? 100 GDR celebrities today. Links, Berlin 1994, , , here . Koch, who was himself a member of the Antifa youth,Rosemarie Preuß: Koch, Olaf. In Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (ed.): Biographical Handbook of the SBZ/DDR. 1945-1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. K. G. Saur Verlag, Munich 1996, , . lost his brother Heinz Koch during the Nazi era, who was executed in in 1941 for high and national treason.Gilbert Stöck: Neue Musik in den Bezirken Halle und Magdeburg zur Zeit der DDR. Kompositionen, Politik, Institutionen. Schröder, Leipzig 2008, , /Fn. 438.
After attending elementary school, he studied violoncello, piano, composition and conducting at the Max Reger Conservatory in Sondershausen from 1945 to 1950. His livelihoodOlaf Koch: Künstler erleben das Glück des Gebrauchtwerdens. In Neues Deutschland, 14 September 1979, Vol. 34, issue 217, . He earned his living during this time as a forestry worker and dance musician. "Out of deep conviction", as Wolfgang Herbrand put it, he turned to the state party in the GDR. Although he had already applied for membership at the age of twenty-one, he did not become a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany until 1955. In terms of cultural policy, he identified with the idea that art no longer belonged only to the elite, but to ordinary people.Gisela Heine: Das Philharmonische Staatsorchester Halle. G. Heine, Halle (Saale) 1997, .
Changing Kapellmeister posts
In 1950 Koch became Repetitor for ballet, opera and operetta and 2nd Kapellmeister in Meiningen, where he was from then on promoted by the theatre director Fritz Diez.Georg-Michael Wagner: Wilhelm Tell, Peer Gynt und Fucik. The actor Fritz Diez celebrated his 70th birthday. In: Neue Zeit, 28 February 1971, Vol. 27, Issue 50, . The main focus of his activity was that of an operetta conductor.Alfred Erck: Geschichte des Meininger Theaters. Südthüringisches Staatstheater, Meiningen 2006, . From 1955 to 1958 he was 1st Kapellmeister at the Opernhaus Halle. There, in 1958, he produced the ballet "Kreuzbauer Ulrike" by Carl-Heinz Dieckmann, choreographed by Henn Haas and set during the German Campaign of 1813Fred K. Prieberg: Musik im anderen Deutschland. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1968, . to the first performance.esche: Tanzspiel vom Befreiungskrieg. "Kreuzbauer Ulrike" by Henn Haas premiered in Halle. In Neue Zeit, 25 June 1958, Vol. 14, Issue 144, . In 1958, he went to the Stralsund Theatre as musical director. From Halle, he brought his assistant director Harry Kupfer,Dieter Kranz: Der Gegenwart auf der Spur. The opera director Harry Kupfer. Henschel, Berlin 2005, , pp. 18f. who was now the only music theatre director to stage the following operas for him in Stralsund: Der Freischütz by Carl Maria von Weber, Enoch Arden by Ottmar Gerster and The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai.Dieter Kranz: Der Gegenwart auf der Spur. The opera director Harry Kupfer. Henschel, Berlin 2005, , . In 1960/61, he moved as music director to the in Stendal. In 1961, he realised with the Hungarian refugee Béla Hollai in the West German Göttingen, a joint project between the Göttinger Symphonie Orchester and Stendal with works by Josef Suk, Aram Khachaturian, Carl Maria von Weber and Robert Schumann.Joseph Schmidt: All-German Chords in a Minor Key. The "temporarily united" orchestras of Göttingen and Stendal on interzone tour. In Süddeutsche Zeitung, 10 January 1961, No. 8, ; Dietrich L.: Geeint durch das starke Band der Musik. The symphony orchestras of Göttingen and Stendal gave joint concerts. In Neue Zeit, 31 January 1961, Volume 17, Issue 26, .
General Music Director at the Meiningen Theatre At the instigation of the GDR authorities and also at his own request, he returned to the Meiningen Theatre from November 1961 to 1967. This time he was engaged as musical director, in 1964 he was appointed General Music Director. For Alfred Erck, Koch was "endowed with absolute ear, loving the great tone, savouring dramatic moments very well, he duly declared war on inaccuracies, even sloppiness, and was feared by orchestra musicians and singers alike." The soloist ensemble at the time included, among others Günther Hofmann, Ines Kurz-Markgraf and Volker Schunke. A novelty was that he brought Eastern European bel canto soloists like Sandor Arizs and Virginia Keranowa to Meiningen from 1964. Accordingly, he initially had mainly Italian operas by Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini performed. In 1962, Koch also took over the direction of the Rüdiger Flohr production of Handel's Ezio in the musical version by Max Schneider. His authoritarian style of leadership and dominance with regard to the soloists clashed in Meiningen with the innovations of director Hans Günter Nebel, who was influenced by Walter Felsenstein's musical theatre.Alfred Erck: Geschichte des Meininger Theaters. Südthüringisches Staatstheater, Meiningen 2006, . The two came together in Russian musical drama, for example in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov.Alfred Erck: Geschichte des Meininger Theaters. Südthüringisches Staatstheater, Meiningen 2006, . In addition, Wagner and Strauss productions were also created. Koch's preference, however, was for symphonies, whereby he particularly appreciated Ludwig van Beethoven. Later, he also included the concert music of Slavic composers such as Modest Mussorgsky and Dmitri Shostakovich in his repertoire. In 1967, he realised the German premiere of the 1st Symphony by Nina Makarova, the wife of Aram Khachaturyan.Olaf Koch Conducted in Moscow. In Neues Deutschland, 15 January 1967, vol. 22, issue 15, . Furthermore, on the occasion of the 1966 Thuringian Music Days, he premiered the Symphonic Poem for Two Pianos and Orchestra by Wolfgang Hohensee with the Berlin pianists Eberhard Rebling and Siegfried Stöckigt.H.J.S., K.H.F.: Two world premieres. New compositions by Kochan and Hohensee. In Neues Deutschland, 3 May 1966, vol. 21, issue 121, . According to Gert Richter, he led the Meiningen Court Orchestra "to a higher musical level".Gert Richter: My thoughts on the death of Olaf Koch. In Händel-Hausmitteilungen 3/2001, . Koch himself regarded the time in Meiningen as the most formative of his career.
Chief Conductor of the Halle Philharmonic Orchestra Koch turned increasingly to concert conducting from 1967Alfred Erck: Geschichte des Meininger Theaters. Südthüringisches Staatstheater, Meiningen 2006, . and was succeeded by Karl-Ernst SasseOn the death of Olaf Koch. In time between music and state. Conductor led the Halle Philharmonic Orchestra for 23 years. In Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 31 August 2001. Head and chief conductor of the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle. Koch "wanted to form an orchestra that should correspond to his high ideas", as journalist Gisela Heine put it.Gisela Heine: Das Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle. G. Heine, Halle (Saale) 1997, . In Halle, he arranges the Handel Festival HalleKarin Zauft: Händel und die Händel-Festspiele in Halle. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2001, , . and the Musiktage with. Thus, on the occasion of the 1970 Handel Festival, he conducted Beethoven's Tripelkonzert, which was interpreted by the Soviet guest musicians, violin virtuoso Oleg Kagan, pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja and cellist Natalia Gutman.Wolfgang Hanke: Parallels intruded. Handel Festival under the Sign of the Beethoven Year. In Neue Zeit, 17 June 1970, Vol. 26, Issue 141, . At the Wittenberg "Weeks of Contemporary Music" in 1971, he participated with a performance of Leoš Janáček'sSinfonietta.Dr. K.: Kunst der Nachbarvölker. Wittenberg weeks of contemporary music. In Neue Zeit, 23 April 1971, Vol. 27, Issue 94, . Moreover, he premiered several contemporary musical works by GDR composers, among others in 1969 Heinz Röttgers Violin Concerto (with Gustav Schmahl)Henz Röttger, Hanns-Jürgen Rusch: Klangvolle Gaben für den Festtag der Republik. The Dessau general music director and composer Prof. Dr. Heinz Röttger on his latest works and plans. In: Neue Zeit, 26 April 1969, Vol. 25, Issue 97, . and in 1970 Hans Jürgen Wenzel's "Trassensinfonie".Hansjürgen Schaefer: Ein neuer Weg keine bequeme Landstraße. On some problems after the premiere of the "Trassensinfonie" in Halle. In Neues Deutschland, 31 May 1970, Vol. 25, Issue 148, . Wenzel's work, however, which had not been awarded by the (VKM),Dorothea Trebesius: Composing as a Profession: France and the GDR in Comparison (1950-1980) (Modern European History volume 4). Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2012, , pp. 121f. led to conflict with Koch, whereupon from the 1970s onwards he initially deferred contemporary music and thus in effect sound creations from the region in the programme planningGilbert Stöck: Neue Musik in den Bezirken Halle und Magdeburg zur Zeit der DDR. Compositions, Politics, Institutions. Schröder, Leipzig 2008, , pp. 249f.; examples of premieres in the 1970s include. Gerhard Wohlgemuths "Symphonic Music for Large Orchestra" and Paul Kurzbach's cantata "Portrait of a Worker", cf. Hans-Joachim Kynaß: Versäumte Partnerschaft vor einem Festkonzert. In Neues Deutschland, 29 May 1971, Jg. 26, Ausgabe 147, . and from 1979 also in Wenzel's progressiveKonstanze Musketa: Musikgeschichte der Stadt Halle. Guide to the exhibition of the Händel-Haus. Händel-Haus, Halle an der Saale 1998, , . Series "Confrontation" of the Halle Philharmonic.Gilbert Stöck: Neue Musik in den Bezirken Halle und Magdeburg zur Zeit der DDR. Compositions, Politics, Institutions. Schröder, Leipzig 2008, , pp. 251f.