Marschner died in March 2020 at the age of 93.[2][5]
Teaching
At the age of twenty-six, Marschner became a professor at the Folkwang-Hochschule Essen and then taught at the Musikhochschule Köln from 1958 to 1963.[2] As primarius of the Cologne String Quartet with Maurits Frank, the cellist of the Amar Quartet, he combined the quartet's worldwide engagements with his tasks as soloist, conductor, composer and pedagogue. He represented the German violin school also as a professor at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music.[2] He was professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg from 1963 to 1997.[3] Marschner gave master classes in Ankara, Beijing, London, St. Petersburg, Warsaw, Weimar, and in Łańcut Castle in Poland.[2] He was a juror of international competitions, and founded the International Violin Competition "Ludwig Spohr" in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1976.[2] He founded his own chamber orchestra, the Kammerorchester Wolfgang Marschner, in the 1970s.[2][6] Marschner founded the Deutsche Spohr Akademie, an international academy for violin, viola and cello, and the Marschner Festival Hinterzarten in 1976, to promote young artists who played chamber music for strings. It included from 1992 a triennial International Marschner Competition for Violin and Viola as well as the International Violin Making and Violin Sound Competition "Jacobus Stainer" initiated by Marschner.[7] Marschner became also director of the Pflüger Foundation which maintains a school for string players until age 16 with a focus on chamber music.[2][3]
Marschner's concertos for string instruments occupy a central position in his oeuvre.
At the premiere of his First Violin Concerto with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Thomas Egel as soloist, which Marschner conducted, the Dresden press described the concerto as an "important contemporary work". In performances with the Rostov-on-Don Philharmonic and the Voronezh Symphony Orchestra, also with the composer as conductor and the Russian violinist Olga Pogorelova, it was described as one of the best instrumental concerts of the twentieth century. It enjoyed particular success in Odessa, with the New Polish Philharmonic, with the Max Bruch Philharmonic in Sondershausen and with the Beethoven Festival Orchestra in Rome and the German soloist Ariane Mathäus, as well as in Zagreb with the Philharmonic Orchestra there.
The high-ranking performances of his Second Violin Concerto with Rainer Kussmaul and the American violinist Oleg Kryssa in Weimar as well as his own interpretations found great resonance among Japanese experts, at the Kirishima Festival, in Tokyo and Osaka, among others.
Marschner's Viola Concerto with himself as soloist was also premiered in Tokyo. Since then, many violists have included it in their repertoire as a symphonic enrichment, and it was performed with overwhelming audience response at the International Master Classes Sondershausen by Loh-Orchester Sondershausen "Max-Bruch-Philharmonie", conducted by the Japanese conductor Hiroaki Masuda, as well as in Saint Petersburg.
His Cello Concerto is dedicated to the Italian solo cellist of La Scala in Milan, Alfredo Persichilli, who also played the premiere in Rome and was soloist in the German premiere with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic.
Orchestral
Symphony No. 1 "Don Sinfonie", Sinf.Orch.Voronezh 1998, conducted by Marschner
Symphony No. 2 for string orchestra, Spohr Philharmonie
Symphony No. 3 "nach Bildern von Hans Thoma", Festival Hinterzarten
Violin Concerto No. 1, Dresdner Staatskapelle
Violin Concerto No. 2 for violin and string orchestra, Weimar – Kryssa. Tokyo – Marschner 2003
Violin Concerto No. 3 for violin, organ, choir and orchestra
Liguria Fantasie, WDR Cologne
Clarinet Concerto, 1949
Andante Lirico for string orchestra, Osaka Kammerorchester
Viola Concerto, Geida Orchester Tokyo 2004
Cello Concerto, Philharmonie Rom, Persichilli
Paganini-Variationen for violin and orchestra, Kirishima Festival Japan
Concertante for violin, cello and orchestra, Lancut Festival Poland 2002
Trittico for violin, viola and cello, New Polish Philharmonie 2004
Fantasie Espagnole for violin and orchestra, WDR Cologne 1951
Chamber music
Epilog for piano quartet, Lenzerheide Schweizer Musikwochen
Piano Trio, Reger Trio Rom
Liguria for two pianos, Pogorelov Duo Russland
Streichquartett-Sonett, Beethoven Festival Sutri Skiba Quartett
^Andrew D. McCredie, Kenneth Walter Bartlett: Karl Amadeus Hartmann. (Pocket books on musicology 74). Verlag Heinrichshofen, Wilhelmshaven 1980, ISBN3-7959-0297-5, pp. 109–199. online