Helmuth Rilling

Specializing particularly in Baroque repertoire and above all in the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, Helmuth Rilling has long been recognized as a distinguished organist and conductor. Music ran in his family, and his early training took place at the Protestant theological seminaries of Schönthal an der Jagst and Urach in Württemberg. He enrolled at the Stuttgart College of Music in 1952, where his teachers included Karl Gerock for organ, Johann Nepomuk David for composition, and Hans Grischkat for choral direction. Upon completing his studies in 1955, he attended the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena from 1955 to 1957 under Fernando Germani.

While still a student, Rilling established the Gächinger Kantorei in 1954; the forty-voice ensemble has since earned a worldwide reputation among leading Baroque choirs. In 1957 he was appointed organist and choirmaster at Stuttgart’s Gedächtniskirche, a post he has retained ever since. Between 1963 and 1966 he taught at the Spandau school for sacred music, where he also reconstituted the institution’s choir. From 1966 onward he served as a lecturer at the Frankfurt Hochschule für Musik, and between 1969 and 1981 he directed the Frankfurt Kantorei.

Rilling launched the Stuttgart Bach-Collegium in 1965 as a period-instrument ensemble to support the Gächinger Kantorei; together the two groups have appeared as guests on stages around the globe. In 1970 he inaugurated the Oregon Bach Festival in Eugene, home of the University of Oregon, and he has remained its music director while making repeated visits to other American universities. He established the International Bach Academy Stuttgart in 1981 and continues to oversee its activities; following the same model he has helped create national Bach academies in Japan, Argentina, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Russia, and Hungary. In 1990 he was named President of the New Bach Society.

His extensive discography includes the complete set of Bach’s two hundred church cantatas performed with the Stuttgart Bach-Collegium and the Gächinger Kantorei, as well as the Brandenburg Concertos recorded with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra. More than a hundred additional releases have appeared on labels such as Vox, Nonesuch, Denon, CBS, and Turnabout. Beyond the Baroque, Rilling conducted the long-delayed world premiere in 1988 of the Messa per Rossini, composed by Verdi together with twelve other Italian musicians for the first anniversary of Rossini’s death. He has also recorded a Schubert Mass, the Dvořák Stabat Mater, and works by Brahms.

Henri Sauguet was born Jean Pierre Poupard in Bordeaux, France on 18 May 1901 and died in Paris on 22 June 1989. Although his reputation remained largely confined to France during his lifetime, his music has gradually reached a wider international audience since his death. Characterized by sophisticated yet apparently straightforward writing, his style reflects the French preference for rational clarity over overt emotional display.

The son of Auguste-Frédéric Poupard, he adopted his mother’s maiden name for professional use. After studying with Joseph-Marie Canteloube, he began corresponding with Darius Milhaud, who encouraged him to move to Paris and enroll at the conservatory in 1922. There he became a pupil of Charles Koechlin and, through Milhaud’s introduction, encountered the music of Erik Satie.

Together with Roger Désormière, Henri Cliquet-Pleyel, and Maxime Jacob, Sauguet formed the group known as the École d’Arceuil, named after Satie’s residence. Satie himself sponsored their inaugural concert in 1923, yet the collective disbanded following his death two years later. The exposure brought Sauguet a commission for the one-act comic opera Le Plumet du colonel and the ballet Les Roses. Both met with modest success, but his profile rose sharply in 1927 when the Diaghilev Ballets Russes presented his ballet La Chatte, choreographed by Balanchine.

The earnings from La Chatte allowed Sauguet to abandon his earlier clerical positions and concentrate on composition, although he continued to supplement his income through music criticism. He remained in steady demand for ballet and theatrical scores and produced abundant music for radio, film, stage, and television. An accomplished songwriter, he also completed four symphonies and extensive chamber music, including a piece scored for the unusual combination of saxophone, harmonica, and musical saw. In addition, he assembled a notable collection of visual art and occasionally appeared as an actor.