Karl-Heinz Steffens 

 

Karl-Heinz Steffens relinquished his post as Principal Clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic and his international solo career in 2007 to devote himself to conducting and to take up his position as General Music Director of the Staatskapelle and Opera Halle. At the time, the Berlin Tagesspiegel wrote that “The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra has lost one of its most significant instrumentalists – but the music world has gained a Maestro burning for action” and indeed Karl-Heinz Steffens’ conducting career has developed at a remarkable speed. At the start of the 2009/10 season, he took up a further appointment as Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Ludwigshafen.

Meanwhile Karl-Heinz Steffens appears throughout Germany with orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Hamburg Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic and the Radio Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Stuttgart. This season Karl-Heinz Steffens makes his debut in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and has guest appearances with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester München, the Bern Symphony, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo; he returns for the third consecutive season to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Future engagements include concerts with the Danish National Radio Symphony, the Hallé Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic.

Additionally, Karl-Heinz Steffens is also a prolific operatic conductor. He made his debut in 2008 at the Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden with performances of Fidelio, leading to regular annual appearances there with performances of Tosca, La Traviata and this season The Bartered Bride. In January 2012 he makes his debut at La Scala Milan conducting Don Giovanni.

With the Staatskapelle Halle and the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Steffens has invited the German director Hansgünther Heyme to stage a new Wagner Ring. Performances commenced last season with Das Rheingold to press acclaim; the Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung commented: “What he drew out of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz throughout the evening was astonishing, not just in terms of stylistic clarity and judiciously formed climaxes, but also tone colour and luminosity.

 

Karl-Heinz Steffens conducts like a man possessed.” The project will culminate in spring 2013 with performances of the complete cycle in both Halle and Ludwigshafen.

 

 

史特芬斯的指揮事業早已在音樂界成為了傳奇。

 

史特芬斯在2007年毅然決然的結束了他在柏林愛樂單簧管首席的要職, 接受德國Halle國立交響樂團的邀請, 擔任藝術總監。 2009/2010樂季起, 並將同時擔任德國Rheinland-Pfalz國立愛樂樂團藝術總監。

 

早在史特芬斯還身為柏林愛樂單簧管首席的時期, 就已經以客座指揮的身份與許多具有名望的樂團合作, 包括慕尼克愛樂樂團Muenchner Philharmoniker,

德國的班柏格交響樂團Bamberger Symphoniker, 西德廣播電台交響樂團WDR-Symphony Orchestra, 來比錫廣播電台交響樂團MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, 杜塞道夫交響樂團Duesseldorf Symphoniker, 慕尼克廣播電台交響樂團Muenchner Radio Symphony Orchestra, 國立法蘭克福交響樂團States Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, 比利時國立交響樂團Orchetre National de Belgique …

如今, 史特芬斯現在更以專業指揮的身份, 受邀與世界知名樂團合作:

來比錫布商大廈管弦樂團Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester, 柏林廣播電台交響樂團the Radio Sinfonieorchester Berlin, 瑞士伯恩交響樂團 Bern Symphony Orchestra, 英國伯明罕交響樂團 City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, 聖比德堡交響樂團 St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, 布達佩斯樂團 Dohnanyi Orchestra Budapest…等

 

2008年, 指揮大師巴倫波因親自邀請史特芬斯到柏林國家歌劇院Staatsoper Unter den Linden首演, 另外巴倫波因也在史特芬斯的帶領下,以獨奏家的身份與德國Halle國立交響樂團成功的合作演出。

 

名樂評Frederik Hansen: …..雖然柏林愛樂錯失了一個優秀的音樂家, 但是在古興音樂界更贏得一位不可多得的大師…

 

http://www.staatsphilharmonie.de/en/