Jörg Faerber

Tainted by a long association with a budget label, Jörg Faerber was too often wrongly assumed to be just another workaday German conductor leading his orchestra in routine sight-reading sessions. In truth, Faerber distinguished himself as a perceptive interpreter of Baroque and other music, although not in a historically informed style. Faerber studied at the Hochschule für Musik in his native Stuttgart, then began conducting theater orchestras in that city. In 1960 he founded the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra in Heilbronn, with which he remained for more than 40 years. He quickly built it into a highly regarded ensemble in Europe, one that flutist James Galway later declared to be his favorite chamber orchestra. Faerber began a long association with Vox in the 1960s, prolifically recording eighteenth century and later repertory. That label's habit of making hasty recordings with second-rank provincial orchestras sullied the conductor and orchestra's reputation among people who didn't bother to listen to the often vibrant performances. Later recordings for such major labels as EMI and RCA, mainly backing up such soloists as Maurice André and James Galway, helped raise Faerber's international profile and reputation. He continued to tour with the orchestra into the early years of the twenty-first century. Jörg Faerber died on September 15, 2022 in in Willich, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany at the age of 93.