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Born: August 31, 1896 - Tachau, Austria-Hungaria (today Tachov, Czech Republic)
Died: March 16, 1958 - Munich, Bavaria, Germany |
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The German choral condutor and organist, Josef Kugler, came from a family of musicians in Tachau. His father, a church musician, had given up his profession as a wood turner for the sake of music. Josef Kugler attended elementary school and public school in Tachau (today Tachov) in the Czech Republic. He received the basis of his musical work as a child with lessons in violin, piano and organ from his father. At the age of 12 he took over from his father as organist in Tachau and participated in the church choir. From 1910 to 1914 he attended the music school in Bečov and completed his major in organ with the grade "excellent". During World War I, he worked together with his brother Karl Kugler (1894-1958) as a temporary choir director. After the end of the war in 1918 and the founding of Czechoslovakia, Josef Kugler began studying music at the Prague Conservatory in Prague and continued it at the German Music Academy in 1920. In 1922 he left the academy after successful training in the subjects composition and conductor.
Josef Kugler's first job was that of Second Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Aussig an der Elbe in 1922, after three years he left Bohemia and went abroad. He worked as theater conductor at the Theater Dortmund (1925-1933), Grillo-Theater in Essen (1933-1934), Staatstheater Braunschweig (1934-1935) and then went to Munich as a choir director at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where he remained until the end of World War II in 1945.
During the Munich years Josef Kugler worked together with established musical greats of the time. In 1935 he conducted a performance of the opera Der arme Heinrich by Hans Pfitzner under the direction of the composer, worked as a choir director at the premiere of the opera Friedenstag by Richard Strauss and in 1939 at the premiere of Carl Orff's opera Der Mond. In these years he collaborated with General Music Director Clemens Krauss, who praised them. In addition, from 1939 to 1949 he was also the artistic director of the traditional Münchner Lehrergesangsvereins under Oswald Kabasta (since 1995 Münchner Oratorienchor e.V). After the end of World War II in 1945, which brought with it the destruction of the city and the Münchner Nationaltheaters, Kugler withdrew to the family refuge during the war in Götzens in Tyrol and worked with resentment and hatred at the Innsbrucker Landestheater.
Josef Kugler found a new area of activity in 1948 when he was appointed Choir Director of the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (1949-1958). Now he could devote himself exclusively to his main area of work, choral conducting. This activity was characterized by the fruitful collaboration with Eugen Jochum, Chief Conductor of the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, which he founded in 1949, and he was also a lecturer for choral exercises at the Münchner Akademie für Tonkunst. In addition to the usual great works of music literature and early music, Kugler also studied the works of the modern era, e.g. C. Orff's Carmina Burana and the Catulli Carmina as well as Igor Stravinsky's opera Oedipus Rex.
For his services, Josef Kugler received the Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class).
Josef Kugler was married to the soprano Gertrud Riedinger, had their son Michael Kugler and was the brother of the Tachau and Geretsried choir director Karl Kugler (b December 30, 1894 in Tachau; d March 24, 1958 in Wolfratshausen).
Sound recordings and recordings of broadcasts by Bayerischer Rundfunk are documented on records and in the broadcaster's sound archive. His recording include: Giuseppe Verdi, Johannes Brahms: Stabat Mater, Part Songs For Mixed Chorus (Mercury); Carl Orff: Aus "Catulli Carmina" (Ludi Scaenici), under Eugen Jochum (Deutsche Grammophon, 1954); Transeamus (Gloria In Excelsis Deo) / Ave Verum (Deutsche Grammophon, 1954). |
