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Fritz Busch

Fritz Busch(13 March 1890 – 14 September 1951) was a Germanconductor.

Fritz Busch
Black and white photograph of a middle aged white man, clean shaven with full head of hair
Busch in the early 1930s
Born(1890-03-13)13 March 1890
Siegen,Westphalia
Died14 September 1951(1951-09-14)(aged 61)
London, England
OccupationConductor

Busch was born inSiegento a musical family and studied at theCologne Conservatory.After army service in the First World War, he was appointed to senior posts in two German opera houses. At theStuttgart Opera(1918 to 1922) he modernised the repertory, and at theDresden State Opera(1922 to 1933) he presented world premieres of operas byRichard Strauss,Ferruccio Busoni,Paul HindemithandKurt Weillamong others. He also conducted at theBayreuthandSalzburgFestivals.

Being an ardent Anti-Nazi, Busch was dismissed from his post as director at Dresden in 1933 and made most of his later career outside Germany. He conducted in New York and London, but his main bases were Buenos Aires, where he was in charge at theTeatro Colónfor several opera seasons in the 1930s and 1940s; Copenhagen and Stockholm, conducting theDanish Radio Symphony Orchestraand theStockholm Philharmonic;andGlyndebournein England, where he was the founding musical director ofGlyndebourne Festival Operaworking together with the stage directorCarl Ebert.

Busch disliked showmanship and was known as a scrupulous musician who strove to do justice to the composers whose works he conducted. He died in London aged 61.

Life and career

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Early years

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Busch was born on 13 March 1890 inSiegen,Westphalia,the eldest of eight children ofWilhelm Busch[de]and his wife Henriette, née Schmidt.[1]Wilhelm was a carpenter, violin-maker and music-shop keeper; his wife was an embroiderer. It was a musical family; Wilhelm and Henriette supplemented their incomes by performing dance music at weekends.[1]Their other children were the violinistAdolf Busch,the actorWilli Busch[de],the cellistHermann Busch,and the pianist and composerHeinrich Busch[de].[2]

As a boy, Busch took music lessons with his father and others, and in 1906 he entered theCologne Conservatory,studying harmony andcounterpointwithOtto Klauwell[de],piano with Karl Boettcher and laterLazzaro Uzielli,and conducting with the principal,Fritz Steinbach.[2]His relations with Steinbach were edgy, but he acknowledged the older man's influence on him. Steinbach was highly regarded by conductors as different asArturo ToscaniniandAdrian Boult;Busch thought him outstanding as an interpreter ofBeethoven,Boult admired hisBachand all three put him at the top ofBrahmsconductors.[3][4][n 1]

In 1909 Busch spent a season as conductor at theDeutsches Theater, Riga,and in 1911 and 1912 he toured as a pianist.[6]He was then appointed director of music for the city ofAachenwith responsibility for theMunicipal Operaand the city's celebrated choral society. Among those whose works he premiered there wereDonald Tovey,who became a close friend of Busch and his brothers.[7][8]In 1911 Busch married Margarete Boettcher, a niece of his piano teacher;[9]their first son, Hans, later a stage director, was born in 1914.[10]

Busch remained at Aachen until the outbreak of theFirst World Warin 1914, when he enlisted in the German army, rising from the ranks to become a junior officer.[11]

Stuttgart and Dresden

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Busch when director at Stuttgart, 1919

In 1918 Busch successfully applied for the vacant post ofWürttembergCourtKapellmeister– musical director of theStuttgart Opera– in succession toMax von Schillings.[12]The conservative tradition of the house, until then the court opera of theKingdom of Württembergwithin the German Empire, was swept away in theNovember Revolutionof 1918,[12]and Busch took advantage of the freedom to widen the repertoire, introducing new works by composers includingHindemithandPfitzner,and presenting modern stagings such asAdolphe Appia's forWagner'sRing.[13] In 1922, Busch was appointed musical director of theDresden State Opera.In the words ofThe Musical Times:

This was success indeed: a musician in his early thirties raised to the post whereErnst von Schuchhimself had conducted the premieres of [Richard Strauss's]Salome,ElektraandDer Rosenkavalier.No opera house in Germany held greater repute. Under Fritz Busch Dresden maintained its lead.[14]

To Dresden's series of Strauss premieres Busch addedIntermezzo(1924) andDie ägyptische Helena(1928)). He presented the world premieres of works byFerruccio Busoni(Doktor Faust,1925), Paul Hindemith (Cardillac,1926) andKurt Weill(Der Protagonist,1926), and others, and the German premiere ofPuccini'sTurandot(1926).[14]During his eleven-year tenure he kept the Dresden house at the highest level, mounting innovative, provocative stagings with the help of prominent costume and set designers.[13]

In 1924 Busch conductedDie Meistersingerat the first post-warBayreuth Festival.[n 2]The production was not a success. The cast was second-rate and there were mixed reviews for the quality of the orchestral playing.[16]Busch refused subsequent requests to conduct at the festival. In 1927, at the invitation ofWalter Damrosch,he made his American debut, conducting theNew York Symphony Orchestra:the climax of the programme was the nine-year-oldYehudi Menuhin's first performance of theBeethoven Violin Concerto.Busch was so impressed that he arranged for Menuhin to come to Dresden, where he played the Beethoven concerto, theBach E majorand theBrahms.[17]

Busch (l) withRichard Strauss,1928

In 1932 Busch was invited to conduct Mozart'sDie Entführung aus dem Serailat theSalzburg Festival.Having recently been much impressed byCarl Ebert's staging of that opera in Berlin, Busch accepted the invitation on condition that Ebert should be engaged as director.[18]The success of the production led Ebert to invite Busch to Berlin to conduct a new staging ofVerdi'sUn ballo in maschera,a celebrated and long-remembered production.[19]

Though not generally concerned with national or international politics, Busch had watched the rise of theNazi Partywith dismay and disgust. Not himself Jewish, he counted many Jews among his friends, valued democracy and hated dictatorship. He made no secret of his contempt for the Nazis, and afterAdolf Hitlercameto power in 1933,Busch was dismissed by the Nazi-dominated SaxonLandtag.[20]Among those outraged by the affair was Strauss, whose new operaArabella,dedicated to Busch, was to have been premiered at the Dresden opera under its dedicatee.[20]Busch was replaced byKarl Böhm,a more congenial figure to the régime.[21]

Although Busch was forced out of Dresden by the local Nazis, the historianMichael Katerwrites that senior party figures in Berlin, notablyHermann Göring,had a high regard for Busch and hoped to secure him as general director of theStaatsoper.According to Kater,Wilhelm Furtwängler,chief conductor of theBerlin Philharmonic,did not want so eminent a rival as Busch in the city; as Furtwängler had the backing of Hitler, the post went instead toClemens Krauss.[7][22]The last offer from the Nazis was a return to Bayreuth to replace Toscanini, who refused to work under the régime. Busch too refused.[23]

Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Glyndebourne

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From 1933 Busch's career was mostly outside Germany. In May of that year he accepted the musical directorship of theTeatro Colónin Buenos Aires for a season. Returning to Europe at the end of the year he began a long association with theDanish Radio Symphony Orchestraand theStockholm Philharmonic.[7]

Glyndebourne exterior (2006 photograph)

In the early 1930s an English landowner,John Christie,and his wife, the singerAudrey Mildmay,conceived the idea of stagingcountry house operain a purpose-built opera house on the Christie estate atGlyndebournein Sussex. In November 1933 Christie sounded Busch out about becoming his musical director; Busch was by then contractually committed in Buenos Aires, but a financial crisis in Argentina shortly afterwards enabled him to reconsider Christie's invitation. As at Salzburg, he arranged for Ebert to join him to direct productions.[24]

Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicianssums up the success of the Glyndebourne enterprise:

The level achieved by the carefully chosen and rehearsed ensemble at the summer festivals, 1934–1939, is part of operatic history. The repertory was based on Mozart but includedDonizetti'sDon Pasqualeand the first staging by a British company of Verdi'sMacbeth.Ironically, it was at patrician Glyndebourne rather than at Dresden that the democratically minded Busch came nearest to his ideal of being able "to build up an opera production in the smallest detail and with... complete respect for the work'".[7]

Glyndebourne's productions were enthusiastically received by reviewers and public; Busch and his forces made pioneering recordings ofLe nozze di Figaro,Don GiovanniandCosì fan tutteforFred Gaisbergand theGramophone Company.[25]Both at the time and later two musical idiosyncrasies were commented on: Busch's use of a piano rather than a harpsichord to accompanyrecitativesand the avoidance ofappoggiaturas– in both respects German musical practice being old-fashioned by international standards of the day.[24]

Busch remained musical director at Glyndebourne until the outbreak of theSecond World Warin 1939, when the festival was suspended.[26]He made his London debut in 1938, conducting theLondon Symphony Orchestraat theQueen's Hallin a programme of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms.[27]

Busch continued to conduct at the Teatro Colón (1934–1936 and 1940–1947). Until 1940 he worked in Scandinavia during the winter months. According toGrovehe grew so attached to Copenhagen that he turned down the offer to become chief conductor of theNew York Philharmonic.[7]From June 1940 to 1945 he conducted mostly in South America, except for a not wholly successfulBroadwayexperiment on Glyndebourne lines (the New Opera Company) and guest appearances with the New York Philharmonic, both in 1942. In 1945 he conducted at theMetropolitan Opera,making his debut there withLohengrin,[2]and toured with the company for four seasons. New York was not to his taste: one concert promoter observed, "he was not a showman".[7]

In 1950 Busch returned to Glyndebourne when the main festival resumed there after the war.[26]Early in 1951 he revisited Germany, conducting in Cologne and Hamburg.[7]He returned to Glyndebourne later in the year for an all-Mozart festival –Così fan tutte,FigaroandDon Giovanni,and the first professional production in England ofIdomeneo.[7][24]Howard TaubmanofThe New York Timespraised Ebert's "unflaggingly imaginative and alive" staging and Busch's "loving hand, fusing the orchestra with the singers on the stage into a laughing, glowing entity".[28]In the early post-war years the Glyndebourne company appeared regularly at theEdinburgh Festival,and in August 1951 Busch was in Edinburgh to conduct his first post-war Verdi opera for the company,La forza del destino.Critics praised his "percipient direction" and "inspired" conducting.[29]On 14 September, five days after the last Edinburgh performance, Busch died suddenly of a heart attack in London at the age of 61.[24]

Reputation

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In the opinion ofGrove,Busch was "the soundest type of German musician: not markedly original or spectacular, but thorough, strong-minded, decisive in intention and execution, with idealism and practical sense nicely balanced".[7]The Timescalled him "a virile, faithful and extremely skilful interpreter of Mozart" and continued, "His beat like his bearing was one of quiet authority; his interpretations were fully alive without fuss or idiosyncrasy but devoted wholly to the projection of the music as he conceived the composer to have intended it".[11]

Recordings

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Busch's recordings include:[30]

Notes, references and sources

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Notes

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  1. ^After leaving the Conservatory, Busch developed a warm friendship with Steinbach, who became godfather to Busch's first child, Hans Peter, in 1914.[5]
  2. ^On his arrival in Bayreuth, Busch decided to attend a chorus rehearsal that was in progress, only to be dragooned into the tenor section by the chorus masterHugo Rüdelwho had mistaken him for a member of the choir.[15]

References

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  1. ^abBusch 1953,pp. 13, 33
  2. ^abcSlonimsky, Kuhn & McIntire 2001,pp. 516–517
  3. ^Boult 1973,p. 181.
  4. ^Busch 1953,pp. 48, 57.
  5. ^Dyment 2012,p. 312.
  6. ^Randel 1996,pp. 120–121
  7. ^abcdefghiCrichton 2001
  8. ^Boult 1983,p. 153.
  9. ^Busch 1953,p. 86.
  10. ^Tommasini, Anthony(29 September 1996)."Hans Busch, 82, Stage Director of the Indiana University Opera".The New York Times.
  11. ^ab"Dr Fritz Busch",The Times,17 September 1951, p. 6
  12. ^abBusch 1953,p. 119.
  13. ^abStevenson, Joseph.Fritz BuschatAllMusic.Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  14. ^abAber 1951,pp. 499–500
  15. ^Busch 1953,pp. 159–160.
  16. ^"Bayreuth Festival",The Times,26 July 1924, p. 10; andBusch 1953,p. 164
  17. ^Busch 1953,pp. 176–177.
  18. ^Busch 1953,p. 189.
  19. ^Busch 1953,pp. 189–190.
  20. ^abKater 1999,p. 121
  21. ^Kater 1999,p. 65.
  22. ^Kater 1999,p. 122
  23. ^Busch 1953,p. 217.
  24. ^abcdHughes 1984,pp. 253, 255–258
  25. ^Blyth 1979,pp. 44, 88, 104.
  26. ^abSadie, Stanley."Glyndebourne",Grove Music Online,Oxford University Press, 2001. Retrieved 24 May 2020(subscription required)
  27. ^"London Symphony Orchestra",The Times,29 November 1938, p. 12
  28. ^Taubman, Howard."3rd Mozart Opera at Glyndebourne",The New York Times,28 June 1951, p. 36
  29. ^"Glyndebourne Opera",The Times,22 August 1951, p. 2; and "Edinburgh Festival",The Stage,30 August 1951, p. 10
  30. ^Fritz Busch discography(in German)

Sources

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Cultural offices
Preceded by
none
 Musical Directors, Glyndebourne Opera Festival
1934–1951 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Principal Conductors, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
1937–1940 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Principal Conductors, Danish National Symphony Orchestra
1937–1951 		Succeeded by
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