Born: November 1, 1915 - Bayreuth, Germany

The German bass-baritone, Franz Kelch, was allowed to visit, at the age of 10, a Parsifal performance at the Festspielhaus in Bayreuth. Later, and still a young person, he sang in 1933-1934 with the Meistersinger performances in the choir at the background. From that place he heard the most famous singers of the time, from there came the first impulse to become a singer. As he grew up, he received at school instrumental music training on the violin. An immediate singing study was not to be thought of. Only after 2 years of mandatory military service he could begin his singing training with Henriette Klink in Nürnberg, parallel to the military service and financed with the help of the Schmalen Soldes.

The outbreak of the World War II interrupted the training so hopefully begun and destroyed all prospects and plans for many years. During the war Franz Kelch was arrested for two years in prisoner-of-war camp. He worked purposefully also there on the perfection of his voice and gave Lieder recitals with fastidious programmes before the along caught prisoners-of-war.

After the home coming, in desolate time, it was a venture for Franz Kelch to hold to the occupational aspiration as free-lance Lieder and oratorio singer. Since he had married had to take care for his family with two children during the war, he had to teach immediately. Among other things he was responsible for vocal training at a seminar for priests in Freising and at the Jesuitenkolleg in Pullach. The Bayerische Rundfunk (Bavarian broadcast) used him frequently with programmes of early music and with new works of Munich composers (Haas – Zilcher – Rossmann – Suder – Jacobi – Kammeier – Altmann).

Already in 1948 Franz Kelch appeared with the Münchner Philharmoniker under Rudolf Lamy in the Deutsche Requiem by J. Brahms; a little later in the Mass in B minor (BWV 232) of J. S. Bach under Michael Schneider with the Heinrich-Schütz-Kreis and with the Bamberger Symphoniker in the 9^th Symphony of Beethoven unter Josef Keilberth. In 1951 he came with the young Karl Richter to Munich. Immediately a fruitful co-operation resulted in the following years, whereby Kelch sang the bass parts of all big Bach works and numerous cantatas. The Thomaskantor Günther Ramin got him for his two tours of Western Europe and for the Archiv Produktion recording of the Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) in Leipzig. After short time Franz Kelch, with the wide bass-baritone voice, expanded his repertoire to include works from Monteverdi to the modern times. He always experienced special appreciation in the role of Christ in the Bach Passions.

Apart from the expanded concert activity Franz Kelch taught successfully for 25 years at the Leopold-Mozart-Konservatorium Augsburg. After finishing this activity, he trained the soloists for the Passionsspiele 1980 in Oberammergau.

Source: Pasinger Website, English translation by Aryeh Oron (November 2005); blog 'Karl Richter in München' [Photo]
Contributed by: Burke Smith (November 2005, November 2007)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Hans Grischkat

Bass

BWV 201, BWV 205, BWV 233-242

Günther Ramin

Bass

BWV 245

Fritz Werner

Bass

BWV 6, BWV 65, BWV 67, BWV 76, BWV 78, BWV 80, BWV 85, BWV 87, BWV 104, BWV 140, BWV 147
BWV 232, BWV 243, BWV 244, BWV 245

Links to other Sites

pasinger.de: Der Münchner Konzertsänger Franz Kelch feiert am 1.11.2005 seinen 90. Geburtstag [German]

Karl Richter in München [German]

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