Rudolf Würthner ( 1920 - 1974)

Rudolf Würthner was born in Trossingen, Germany, on 13th of August 1920, being the youngest of eight brothers and sisters.

He was a born musician and even the accident he had on the farm of his parents with an agricultural machine, at the age of four and a half, and in which he lost half of the thumb and a part of the forefinger of his right hand, could not stop him from learning to play on the accordeon. He studied at the Städtischen Musikschule Trossingen and the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart.

From 1939 till 1942 he was teacher at the Städtischen Musikschule Trossingen.
In 1947 the "Orchester des Hauses Hohner" was founded and Rudolf Würthner became conductor of the orchestra. He saw the music group as a large orchestra and cast it with 25 accordions, 3 - 6 electronic instruments and a clavinet. The solo parts were often played by virtuoso accordionists. With professionalism and a high artistic level he brought the Hohner Orchestra to unknown hights and they performed all over the world, often performing pieces Würthner had composed.
Rudolf Würthner also was a wellknown and appreciated soloist. As it was impossible for him to play on a normal right handed accordeon, due to the accident, he had ordered a left handed accordion at the factory of Hohner. The button side of such an accordion is just the opposit of a normal instrument: it has the law tones below and the high tones on top of the button side. Also the basses are placed the opposit way. In 1948 he became Vice World Champion at the contest in Lausanne, with a presentation of his own arrangements of Bach's works for organ.

Würthner was not only a soloist, composer and arranger, he also wrote several books on how to play the accordion.

Rudolf Würthner died on 3rd of December 1974 from a rare kidney desease, only 54 years of age.
                                                        Works
1951 Carmen, Fantasy after Bizet
1951 Variationen über ein russisches Volkslied
1957 Moderato allegretto scherzando
1957 Moderato allegro assai
Tango sentimentale
Tiroler Rhapsody for accordion orchestra
Concert Etude on a theme of Paganini
Ländler in thirds
Variations on an Original Theme for accordion orchestra
Festival-Ouverture for accordion orchestra
Münchner Rhapsody for accordion orchestra


Sources: lefthandcorner.wtal.de; akkordeon-online.de
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