I don't suppose anyone out there knows
more about any of these hornists of old (with Hans having a good
long soak
in Indo-China, I guess I may have to wait for enlightenment in this
area).
Peter, I've let a little time go by to allow Prof. Pizka to respond
to the question, but in his absence I'll start the ball rolling with
one of the stars of your little group.
Paul Rembt was born in the town of Markbreit, in Franconia on the
river Main, on Feb. 7, 1875 (eleven years after the psychiatrist
Alois Alzheimer, of presenile dementia fame, was born there). Rembt
studied with the noted hornist Josef Lindner in Wuerzburg, less than
20 miles to the northwest of his hometown. In 1894 he won a post
with the Guerzenich Orchester in Cologne. His music director was
Franz Wuellner, and old hand who had studied with Beethoven's pupil
and companion Anton Schindler and had previously held conducting
posts in Aachen and Munich (where Wüllner led the world premieres of
Rheingold and Walkuere). Rembt played a number of world premieres
during his Cologne decade, the most important being Richard Strauss'
Till Eulenspiegel and Don Quixote (the first hornist at those
premieres was Ernst Ketz).
1904 brought Rembt an engagement as solo hornist with the orchestra
of the Berlin Royal Opera. The Hofkapellmeister of the opera was
none other than Richard Strauss (he would receive the powerful
Generalmusikdirektor title in 1908). Rembt was also called to play
in Bayreuth beginning in 1906, and would return there, sometimes as
soloist on the Siegfried Call, in 1908, 1909, 1911, 1912, 1914, 1927
& 1931.
The MacMillan Encyclopaedia entry on Rembt has him still alive and
kicking in 1938, but I haven't come across Rembt's retirement or
death date (if you want to pursue it, the former could probably be
deduced by looking through volumes of the Deutsches Buehnen Jahrbuch
around Remdt's 65th birthday and the latter may be obtainable in a
Festschrift issued for one of the Staatsoper Berlin's round-numbered
anniversaries).
Rembt's artistic legacy? As he was the horn instructor of the Berlin
Hochschule fuer Musik, it's not surprising that he published etudes
and volumes of Strauss excerpts for horn (Mainz: Fürstner, 1912) that
were reprinted multiple times over the century and are still
available today. But he was a more well-rounded musician than most,
serving as piano accompanist/coach at the Hochschule and in concert
and acting as chief conductor of the amateur Berliner
Orchestervereinigung (Sergiu Celibidache would later hold the same
position). Robert Kahn, a compositional colleague at the Hochschule,
dedicated the horn part of his lovely Serenade, Op. 73 for oboe, horn
and piano (1923) to Rembt. And one of Paul Rembt's prize pupils at
the Hochschule was none other than Berlin-born Horst Salomon, who
after escaping Germany c. 1936 would become the first hornist of the
newly founded Palestine Symphony Orchestra.
Bill Melton
Hauset (B) / Sinfonie Orchester Aachen (D)
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