Marga Höffgen (Contralto)

Born: April 26, 1921 - Mülheim an der Ruhr^[1], Germany
Died: July 7, 1995 - Müllheim, Baden, Germany

The German contralto, Marga Höffgen, studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik with Hermann Weissenborn.

Marga Höffgen made her concert debut in Berlin in 1952. In 1952 she made a highly successful appearance in Vienna as a soloist in Mätthaus-Passion (BWV 244) conducted by Herbert von Karajan. She then was active as a concert singer in Europe. She also appeared in opera at Covent Garden in London, at the Vienna State Opera, and at the Bayreuth Festival. Together with Hertha Töpper, Marga Höffgen was one of the leading contralto singers of Bach’s vocal works during the 1950’s and the 1960’s, and she recorded many of them with actually most of the leading J.S. Bach’s German conductors of the period.

[1] According to "Opernlexikon" she was born in Müllheim, Baden, the same city she later died.

Source: Mostly Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of 20^th Century Classical Musicians (1997); Opernlexikon (Author: Horst Seeger, 4^th revised edition 1989)
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (May 2001); Johannes Honigmann (June 2006)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Theodor Egel

Alto

BWV 232 [NYR], BWV 245 [NYR]

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Alto

BWV 244

Eugen Jochum

Alto

BWV 244, BWV 245 (x2)

Herbert von Karajan

Alto

BWV 232

Fritz Lehmann

Alto

BWV 245

Karl Münchinger

Alto

BWV 244

Günther Ramin

Alto

BWV 245 [1^st], BWV 245 [2^nd]

Karl Richter

Alto

BWV 232 [4^th], BWV 244 [3^rd]

Kurt Thomas

Alto

BWV 4, BWV 11, BWV 54, BWV 71, BWV 111, BWV 243, BWV 248

Fritz Werner

Alto

BWV 67, BWV 78, BWV 245

Helmuth Rilling

Alto

BWV 41, BWV 48, BWV 96, BWV 125, BWV 146

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