Kurt Mederacke – Serenade, Op. 56, for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn and Bassoon
Little is documented about the composer Kurt Mederacke in standard music reference works. He is best known for his wind quintet "Bohemian Suite," Op. 43, first published in 1948 by the Leipzig firm Hofmeister and now a staple of the wind quintet repertoire.
Mederacke was born in Leipzig in 1910 and trained from 1927 to 1935 at the Leipzig State Conservatory of Music. He initially studied violin with Charles Münch before turning to bassoon as his principal subject under Prof. Carl Schaefer. From the 1930s until around 1942 he served as third and later principal bassoonist in Chemnitz. Two printed compositions survive from this period: a "Neu-Deutschland" march from 1933 and "Am Meer," Op. 4, a salon piece for piano or salon orchestra published by the Leipzig firm Otto Gaumer.
After the Second World War, Hofmeister published several volumes of orchestral studies for bassoon edited by Mederacke himself.
Mederacke went on to hold the position of principal bassoonist with the Braunschweig State Orchestra. Following his retirement he lived in Braunlage in the Harz mountains, where he died in 1983.
As something of a 100th-birthday gift, this newly published Serenade, Op. 56, will hopefully find a wide circle of music lovers.
