Banter: Phadra / Marchenbilder / Prolog 2000

Description

Harald Banter(b.1930)Orchestral MusicHaraldBanter was born Gerd von Wysocki on 16th March 1930 in Berlin, the son oE theartistic director oE the Lindstrom-Odeon Record Company. He had his owntraining in recording with Berlin Radio and was a composition pupil of JohannesPranschke and Georg Haentzschel. In1950 he became a programme producer with North West German Radio in Cologne andtwo years later Eounded the Harald Banter Ensemble, later the Media-Band,working principally Eor West German Radio. In1955 he took part in the UNESCO International Music Conference at Gravesanowith Hermann Scherchen and the following year gave his first jazz concert atthe Cologne G??rzenich with Albert Mangelsdorff and made a joint appearance withthe Modem Jazz Quartet in the Light Music Week in Stuttgart,performing Gunther Schuller's Twelve by Eleven. He went on to take composition lessons with BerndAlois Zimmermann and in 1957 collaborated with Hans Werner Henze in theVisconti ballet Maratona, first performed in Cologne under Hans Rosbaud.In the following years came performances of Banter's Kantate 58 inCologne and the ballet Diana sorpresa at the Munich GartnerplatzTheatre.  Inthe 19605 Harald Banter directed a jazz class at the Duisburg Conservatory andtook part in master-courses for composition at Schloss Br??hl for the Cologne Musikhochschuleunder the direction of Henze. Therefollowed further work for broadcasting with Media-Band, teaching and seminarsand, in 1979, activity in the editing, production and direction of music forWest German Radio, with productions of work by Kurt Weill and the rediscoveryof operettas by Suppe, Strauss, Millocker and Offenbach, as weIl as of dramaticmusical work by contemporary composers. The same year brought the first performanceof his Concerto tor soprano saxophone and jazz orchestra, followed in1981 by the first performance of his Amores, based on Ovid, for tenor,speaker, chorus and jazz orchestra.  Inthe 19805 Banter's career continued with increasing distinction, performancesand recordings with his newly founded ensemble Vier plus Sechs (Four plus Six),appointment as Vice-President of the German Composers' Union, the award in 1990of the Silver Leaf of the Dramatic Union and of the Silver Medal of the GermanComposers' Union for his services to German music. In 1994 he was awarded the title HonoraryProfessor by the Ministry of Science and Research of North Rhine-Westphalia.  HaraldBanter, whose 65th birthday is celebrated in the present release, is a musicianof great versatility. He had early inspiration in jazz from hearing GeorgeShearing and was influenced by his contact with Zimmermann and collaborationwith Henze. He experimented with smaller jazz ensembles, rather than big bands,collaborating with other contemporary composers and has played an importantpart in the activities of the German copyright agency, the Gemeinschaft f??r Auff??hrungs-undMechanische Vervielfaltigungsrechte, GEMA. The value of his long care