Peter Ronnefeld

Peter Ronnefeld was already a horn player in the RIAS Youth Orchestra as a teenager before studying composition and piano with Boris Blacher, Olivier Messiaen and Hans-Erich Riebensahm. At the age of 21 he experienced the performance of his first stage work Nachtausgabe, at 23 he became Karajan's assistant in Vienna, at 24 he was harpsichordist of the "Concentus musicus Wien" founded by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, at 25 he conducted at the Vienna State Opera, at 26 he became chief conductor at the Städtische Bühnen Bonn and conducted the world premiere of his opera Die Ameise at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. At 28, he became Germany's youngest general music director in Kiel.
The book sheds light on the extraordinarily concentrated career and work of the pianist, conductor and composer, who was born in Dresden in 1935 and died in 1965 at the age of just 30. It also contains reminiscences by his friend, the writer Thomas Bernhard.
With contributions by Günther G. Bauer, Richard Bletschacher, Werner Grünzweig and Carla Henius, interviews with Herbert Feuerstein, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Matthias Koeppel, Aribert Reimann and Edith Urbanczyk as well as an inventory of the music in the Peter-Ronnefeld-Archive.

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