Renate Eggebrecht

Renate Eggebrecht (born August 12, 1944) is a German violinist and record producer.

The violinist Renate Eggebrecht

Born in Selent, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, Eggebrecht received her initial musical training from her mother, starting at the age of four. At the age of seven she became a pupil of Hans Hilf, who had studied in the master class of Walther Davisson at the Leipzig Conservatory. From the age of twelve Renate Eggebrecht studied violin with Friedrich Wührer and piano with Wilhelm Rau at the Lübeck College of Music. She continued her training at the Munich College of Music. Subsequently she devoted herself to private studies with Prof. Wolfram König, attending master classes with Max Rostal, Seymion Snitkovsky and chamber music courses with the LaSalle Quartet.

In 1986 Renate Eggebrecht founded the Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet with which she gave the World Premiere Performance of Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Piano Quartet in A-flat Major (1822) on March 6th 1988 in the Cultural Center Gasteig in Munich and the first Munich performance of the String Quartet in E-flat Major (1834) by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel. In 1988 she published the first editions of these chamber music works (Furore Verlag, Kassel), also producing the world-premiere CD, recorded by her ensemble, in a co-production with the Bavarian Radio.

In order to publicize unknown and forgotten music, Renate Eggebrecht founded the music production firm of Troubadisc as a label for Classical music in 1991. For this label she made world premiere CD recordings of chamber music by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Ethel Smyth, Germaine Tailleferre, Grażyna Bacewicz and other women composers.

In 1993 Renate Eggebrecht produced the complete songs of the French composer and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger, their first release on CD, and similarly the instrumental and piano songs of Ethel Smyth in 1997. Besides Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s chamber music, Eggebrecht also produced the composer’s songs in 2001, and in 1998, with the pianist Wolfram Lorenzen, the piano cycle Das Jahr ("The Year") based on the composer’s fair copy as a CD world premiere. 2015 Renate Eggebrecht has produced the Symphony No.6 "Exodus“ op . 112 (1988/89) and the Memorial, op. 118 (1990) by the Romanian composer Anatol Vieru (1926-1998).

With her ensemble, Eggebrecht recorded Darius Milhaud’s String Quartets nos. 1 - 8 for CD in 1994-5, as well as his works Machine agricoles op. 56 and Catalogue de Fleurs op. 60, all for the Troubadisc label. This label also issued CD recordings by the Fanny Mendelssohn Quartet of the two large string quartets by Arthur Bliss in 1996.

In 1997, together with the German pianist Wolfram Lorenzen, Eggebrecht was able to present the CD recordings, in three volumes, of Edition Max Reger’s Piano Chamber Music. She subsequently devoted herself to recording Max Reger’s complete works for violin solo, which she presented in 2003.

Eggebrecht has contributed greatly as a chamber musician to the discovery of worthwhile music by neglected composers. In 2000 she issued, together with the cellist Friedemann Kupsa, the world premiere recording of the Sonata for violin and violoncello (1947) by the Greek Schoenberg pupil Nikos Skalkottas, and the Sonatina op. 324 by Darius Milhaud. With Friedemann Kupsa she presented in 2002 the world premiere of the Duo-Sonata (1985) by the Romanian avant-garde composer Anatol Vieru and the Strassenmusik No 16, op. 210 (2001) by the Greek composer Dimitri Nicolau.

Her experience with the music of the twentieth century in the area of chamber music provided Renate Eggebrecht with excellent prerequisites for dealing with the new expressive possibilities of the violin as a solo instrument. In order to make available to the listening public the compositions for violin alone that were written from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day, the violinist Renate Eggebrecht initiated the edition "Violin Solo" in 2002; volume 1 included the world premiere recording of the Sonata op. 61 by Johanna Senfter, a pupil of Max Reger.

In 2006 the violinist Renate Eggebrecht released the second album of the series, this time with two world premieres: the Sonatina op. 383 by Darius Milhaud, and the Sonata in Greek Mood, op. 228 (2002) by Dimitri Nicolau. The latter work is dedicated to Renate Eggebrecht.

In 2007 the third album released with the complete recording of the works for violin solo (1916–1925) by Paul Hindemith together with the world premiere recordings of the Capriccio (1997) by Anatol Vieru and the Partita (1976) by the Russian minimalist Vladimir Martynov.

In 2008 Renate Eggebrecht released the fourth album of the series "Violin Solo" with the Suite no.1 and No.2 (1958) by Ernest Bloch, the "Élégie" (1944) by Igor Stravinsky, the "Four Caprices" (1968) by Grażyna Bacewicz, the "Sonata-Monologue" (1975) by Aram Khachaturian and the work "a paganini" (1982) by Alfred Schnittke.

In 2010 Renate Eggebrecht released the fifth solo album with recordings of the Sonata op. 115 (1947) by Sergey Prokofiev, the ‘Sonata fantasia’(1928/29) by Ljubica Marić, the Caprice no. 1 (1949)and the world premiere recordings of the Caprice No. 2 (1952) and the Sonata (1941) by Grażyna Bacewicz, she released also the Sonata (1962) and the Suite of Estonian Dance Tunes for solo violin (1978) by Eduard Tubin and the world premiere recording of the Sonata (1978) by Edison Denisov. The violinist presents therewith the complete recording of the works for Solo Violin by Grażyna Bacewicz.

With the sixth album in 2013 Renate Eggebrecht devotes to the Six Sonatas (1923) by Eugène Ysaÿe and the Capriccio (1944) by Joaquín Rodrigo.

The completion of this Edition Violin Solo in the year 2013 forms the seventh album with the Sonatas & Partitas for Violin solo BWV 1001 - 1006 by J. S. Bach followed by the Postludium II (1982/83) by Valentin Silvestrov.

A sequence of works already becomes evident, beginning with Max Reger’s Chaconne op. 117, over Bach's Sei Solo and extending to the present day: A compendium of the modern violin literature -

Renate Eggebrecht’s violin is a Stradivarius copy by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume from 1858; her favorite bow is by Jules Fétique.

Discography

TROUBADISC Musicproduction

• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.7, 3 CD Set 2014: Johann Sebastian Bach, Sonatas and Partitas BWV 1001 - 1006 (1720); Valentin Silvestrov, Postludium II (1982/83).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.6, CD 2014: Eugène Ysaӱe, Sonatas No. 1 - 6 (1923); Joaquín Rodrigo, Capriccio (1944).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.5, SACD 2010: Sergey Prokofiev, Sonata op.115 (1947); Ljubica Marić, Sonata fantasia (1929); Grażyna Bacewicz, Polnish Caprices no.1 (1949) and no.2 (1952), Sonata (1941), Eduard Tubin, Sonata (1962), Suite on Estonian Dance Tunes (1979); Edison Denisov, Sonata (1978).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.4, SACD 2008: Ernest Bloch, Suite no.1 (1958) and no.2 (1958); Igor Strawinsky, Élégie (1944); Grażyna Bacewicz, Four Caprices (1968); Aram Khachaturian, Sonata-Monologue (1975); Alfred Schnittke, a paganini (1982).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.3, SACD 2007: Paul Hindemith, Studien (1916), Sonata op.11, Sonata op.31 No.1 (1924), Sonata op.31 No.2 (1924), Satz und Fragment aus einer Sonate (1925); Anatol Vieru, Capriccio (1977); Vladimir Martynov, Partita (1976).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.2, SACD 2006: Erwin Schulhoff, Sonata (1927); Béla Bartók, Sonata (1944); Grażyna Bacewicz, Sonata (1958); Darius Milhaud, Sonatine pastorale op.383 (1960); Dimitri Nicolau, Sonata in Greek Mood op.228 (2002).
• VIOLIN SOLO Vol.1, CD 2001: Max Reger, Chaconne op.117 no.4; Johanna Senfter, Sonata op.61 (1930); Nikos Skalkottas, Sonata (1925); Arthur Honegger, Sonata (1940).
• Max Reger, the complete works for Solo Violin on 4 CDs 1999-2002: CD 1 2000, Four Sonatas op.42 (1899); CD 2 (2CD Set) 1999, Seven Sonatas op.91 (1906); CD 3 2002, Seven Preludes and Fugues, Chaconne op.117 (1909/1912); CD 4 2002, Preludes and Fugues 131a (1914), Preludes and Fugues op. posth. (1902), Prelude op. posth. (1915).
• Strassenmusik n.16, Duos for Violin & Violoncello, CD 2002: Zoltán Kodály, Duo op.7; Elizabeth Maconchy, Theme and Variations (1951); Anatol Vieru, Sonata (1984–85); Dimitri Nicolau, Strassenmusik n.16 op.210 (2001).
• Duo mon amour, Duos for Violin & Violoncello, CD 2000: Maurice Ravel, Sonata (1920-1922); Darius Milhaud, Sonatina (1953); Arthur Honegger, Sonatina (1932); Nikos Skalkottas, Sonata (1947).
• Max Reger, Edition Piano Chamber Music with Wolfram Lorenzen and Siegfried Mauser Piano, 3 CDs: CD 1 1997, Violin Sonatas opp. 72 (1903) and 139 (1915); CD 2 1997, Piano Quintet op.64 (1903), Piano Trio op.102 (1908); CD 3 1998, Piano Quartets opp.113 (1910) and 133 (1914).
• Melomania String Quartets, CD 1997: Elisabeth Lutyens, Violeta Dinescu, Gloria Coates.
• Arthur Bliss, CD 1997: String Quartet no.1 (1941), String Quartet no.2 (1950).
• Darius Milhaud, String Quartets no.1 - 8, 3 CDs 1994-95: CD 1 1994, String Quartet no.1 op.5 (1912), String Quartet no.2 op.16 (1914–15); CD 2 1995, String Quartet no.3 op.31 (1916), String Quartet no.4 op.46 (1918), String Quartet no.5 op.64 (1920); CD 3 1996, String Quartet no.6 op.77 (1922), String Quartet no.7 op.87 (1925), String Quartet no.8 op.121 (1932).
• Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel, Chamber Music, CD 1994: Piano Quartet (1822), Chamber Music (1834), Piano Trio op.11 (1846-47).
• Germaine Tailleferre, Chamber Music, CD 1993: Violin Sonata no.1 (1921), Violin Sonata no.2 (1948), String Quartet (1919), Piano Trio (1978)
• Grażyna Bacewicz, String Quartets, CD 1992: String Quartet nr.4 (1950) String Quartet nr.6 (1959–60), String Quartet nr.7 (1965).
• Ethel Smyth, Chamber Music Vol.3, CD 1992: Double Concerto in A (1926), (version with Piano), Horn: Franz Draxinger, Piano: Céline Dutilly).
• Ethel Smyth, Chamber Music Vol.1 and Vol.2 (2 CD Set) 1991: Violin Sonata op.7 (1887), String Quintet op.1 (1883), String Quartet (1902/12)