There were also a number of works for the lighter genre, created at the suggestion of the great musician Willi Stech.

Bertold Hummel 1969

In 1951, the conductor and pianist Willi Stech took over the direction of the SWF's small entertainment orchestra, which employed 16 musicians, in Freiburg. He seems to have become aware of Bertold Hummel in 1953 at the latest, as in this year Hummel receives the commission for a "Konzertante Ouverture", which is already produced in February. This marked the beginning of an artistically fruitful and financially lucrative collaboration with this orchestra, which was very popular at the time, and its conductor. In the years 1953-61, Hummel provided the Kleine Unterhaltungsorchester with nine independent compositions as well as twelve arrangements of popular piano works for solo piano and chamber orchestra, which were immediately produced by SWF and broadcast several times. The cordial relationship with the musicians and Willi Stech lasted far beyond this time. In 1973, Willi Stech arranged a composition commission for Hummel from the legendary jazz producer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer, who commissioned compositions based on pictures by the painter Hans Thoma. A trilogy (by three different composers) to be performed by the Willi Stech Great Orchestra came to nothing, as Willi Stech was unable to complete the project for health reasons. Hummel submits his composition "Stille vor dem Sturm" on time, but the premiere does not take place under Stech's direction.

Bertold Hummel: Works for the SWF small entertainment orchestra

South African Suite for chamber orchestra

Concertante Overture for chamber orchestra

Pan 56 for solo flute and chamber orchestra

Scherzo for bassoon and chamber orchestra

Fantasia bucolica for viola and chamber orchestra

Burleske for piano and chamber orchestra

Divertimento capriccioso for harpsichord and chamber orchestra (after Pergolesi)

Little Waltz for chamber orchestra (1958) - manuscript of the score preserved

Serenade for violin and small orchestra (1961) - lost

Arrangements of popular piano works

 

Biography

The conductor and pianist Willi Stech was born on 29 November 1905 in Krefeld. He studied piano and composition at the Cologne Academy of Music from 1922-1927 and subsequently performed as a pianist in concerts in Germany and abroad.

He became a member of the NSDAP at the beginning of 1933, which quickly furthered his career. On 21 July 1933, he was given a position as the "main editor" at the newly founded Deutschlandsender in Berlin, where he worked as the in-house pianist and programme designer. In 1934, together with Harold M. Kirchstein, he was the founder of the top band "Die Goldene Sieben", which was disbanded in 1939 due to its excessively "swinging" style. Around 1940, he was commissioned to put together an orchestra that was capable of interpreting not only dance music but also light music appropriately. This Deutschlandsender dance orchestra was in great demand, live performances on the radio, participation in colourful afternoons and television broadcasts were among its constant tasks. As Stech took Anglo-American dance music as his model - he had a licence to listen to enemy stations - this music was also suitable for the German foreign programmes broadcast on shortwave. Together with Barnabás von Géczy, Stech was appointed director of the German Dance and Entertainment Orchestra in Prague in 1944.

After the war, the musician was imprisoned in the Czech Republic and later worked as a pianist in Switzerland. From 1951, Stech took over the "Kleine Unterhaltungsorchester" of the SWF in Freiburg, which comprised 16 musicians and which he conducted until 1970. He then founded his own "Großes Orchester Willi Stech", with which he produced some remarkable recordings. The musician died in Ehrenstetten/Baden on 28 April 1979.

A look into the workshop of the "Kleine Unterhaltungsorchester" of Südwestfunk Freiburg

Literature tip: Behr, Wolfgang Martin: Das kleine Unterhaltungsorchester des Südwestfunks unter der Leitung von Willi Stech. Studies on the task and significance of a radio orchestra (1992). Printed: Baden-Baden 1994 (= Südwestfunk, Schriftenreihe Rundfunkgeschichte, Vol. 3).