Rezler, Arnold (EN)

Rezler Arnold, *23 May 1909 Moszczenica, †8 February 2000 Fryburg Bryzgowijski, Polish cellist, conductor and teacher, brother of Edmund and Alfons. In 1928–33, he studied cello with Z. Butkiewicz at the conservatory in Poznań and completed his studies with D. Danczowski. In 1930–37, he was a cellist in the orchestra of the Grand Theater in Poznań, and in 1934–37, he taught cello at the Wielkopolska Music School there. From 1937, he was the concertmaster of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Vilnius and the Vilnius Symphony Orchestra, he taught at the M. Karłowicz Conservatory and began his conducting career; he also performed as a soloist and chamber musician. In 1944, he founded the first post-war radio station in Lublin (Pszczółka). A year later, he settled in Bydgoszcz, where he became the programme director of the Polish Radio Station and created and led the Bydgoszcz Polish Radio Broadcasting Orchestra until 1955, with which he made many archival recordings. In 1946, he organised and led the Municipal Symphony Orchestra, on the basis of which the Pomeranian Philharmonic was later established. After the liquidation of the Bydgoszcz radio orchestra, he moved to Warsaw in 1956. In the years 1956–58 he was the second conductor of the National Philharmonic, in 1958–65 the conductor of the Warsaw Opera, and in 1964–78 the artistic director of the Representative Orchestra of the Polish Army (currently the S. Moniuszko Concert Orchestra of the Polish Army), creating a repertoire for it that is still performed today. He gave concerts with all Polish philharmonic orchestras and with WOSPR, as a guest conductor. In addition to radio recordings, he made several album recordings for Polskie Nagrania (including opera songs and arias with W. Wermińska and works by H. Wieniawski with B. Gimple and the National Philharmonic). In 1955, he started working at the State Higher School of Music in Łódź and Warsaw (in 1973, he received the title of professor); he taught cello and chamber music classes as well as orchestra classes at the Warsaw University. In 1992 he settled in Freiburg im Breisgau.

Arnold Rezler is the author of many arrangements for pedagogical purposes (including W.A. Mozart’s violin concertos in chamber arrangement) and versions for orchestra or for violin with orchestra of works by Chopin (waltzes, nocturne Op. 27), H. Wieniawski (including Kujawiak, Legend, Scherzo-tarantelle), A. Zarzycki (Mazurka in G major, Romance in E major), R. Statkowski (Krakowiak), A. Andrzejewski (Burlesque), I. Paderewski (Concert Allegro – arrangement of the first movement of the violin concerto, which Arnold Rezler found in the form of an incomplete piano reduction) and the orchestration of the Cello Concerto in C major Op. 26 by I. Pleyel. Arnold Rezler was awarded, among others, Knight’s Cross (1954) and Officer’s Cross (1959) of the Order of Polonia Restituta, he received the 1^st degree award of the Minister of Culture and Art (1970).

Arnold Rezler’s cousins were also musically active – Leszek Rezler (*1906), violinist and teacher, conductor of the Poznań Symphony Orchestra (1949–53) and the Poznań State Higher Music School Orchestra (from 1956), and Józef Rezler (1915–1993), violinist and teacher, concertmaster of the Pomeranian Philharmonic Orchestra (1956–81).