Death of the clarinettist Eduard Brunner
Eduard Brunner from Switzerland has died in Munich at the age of 77. The former principal clarinettist of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was also a knowledgeable apologist for contemporary music.
Compositions for clarinet by Cristóbal Halffter, Krzysztof Meyer, Edisson Denissow, Augustyn Bloch and Toshio Hosokawa, among others, are due to his initiative. Together with Helmut Lachenmann, he also developed new playing techniques for his instrument.
Born in Basel, Eduard Brunner studied at the Basel Music Academy. In 1962, he became principal clarinettist in the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Rafael Kubelik. From 1992, he taught clarinet and chamber music at the Saarbrücken Academy of Music. According to the Musiques Suisses label, Brunner has recorded over 250 works for clarinet on CD, including with Alfred Brendel, Andràs Schiff, Oleg Kagan, Gidon Kremer, Jurij Bashmet, Kim Kashkashian, Natalia Gutman, the Borodin Quartet and the Hagen Quartet.
