I am still writing about conductors! Fritz Busch was a German conductor celebrated for his interpretations of Mozart, Verdi, Richard Strauss, and the Austro‑German symphonic tradition. As General Music Director of the Dresden State Opera in the 1920s, he championed both contemporary composers and a renewed interest in Verdi. An outspoken anti‑fascist, he was dismissed by the Nazi regime in 1933 and continued his career in exile, becoming the founding chief conductor of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Renowned for clarity, natural phrasing, and subtle flexibility of tempo, Busch is remembered as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. I hope that you enjoy this posting.
Fritz Busch
March 13, 1890 – September 14, 1951
Fritz Busch was born into a musical family: he was the eldest of five brothers who included Adolf, the violinist, Hertmann, the cellist, Heinrich, the composer, and Willi, the actor. The boys’ father was a violin maker. At the age of seven, Fritz was giving piano recitals in Siegen, where the family lived: by twelve, he was familiar with most orchestral instruments. The following year, he entered Cologne Conservatory.
Busch first conducted professionally at the end of 1908 at Grier, and the next year was appointed as conductor and chorusmaster at the German Theater in Riga. In 1912, he became chief conductor at Aachen, where his orchestral repertoire included Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, music by Reger, of whom he was a leading interpreter, and Donald Francis Tovey, with whom he struck up a close friendship. He also had responsibility for the city’s famous choir.
In 1918, he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Reger festival in Jena, scoring a major success, and was invited to succeed Max von Schillings as chief conductor of the Stuttgart Opera, where he also directed the city’s symphony concerts and formed a choral society.
During the 1920-1921 season, Busch conducted two concerts in Dresden, which went so well that he was asked to do ten in 1921-1922; and in 1922, he was appointed general music director of the opera there. Together with the opera houses of Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich, the Saxon State Opera formed the top tier of German operatic and musical life. Busch did much to confirm and enhance Dresden’s reputation, founding and orchestral school, giving the first performance important works by Busoni, Hindemith, Weill, and Schoek, maintaining the momentum in the German Verdi revival of the 1920s, and directing premiers of two operas by Richard Strauss: Intermezzo and Die ägyptische Helena. In gratitude, Strauss dedicated Arabella to him and the head of the Dresden Opera, Alfred Reuker. In 1924, he conducted Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the first post war Bayreuth Festival. He appeared in New York during the 1927 and 1928 and in London during 1929.
In 1932, Busch formed a team with producer Carl Ebert and designer Caspar Neher for Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Salzburg Festival, and shortly afterwards for Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera at the Berlin Städtische Oper. At Dresden, Busch had found it frustrating that the artistic level of new productions could not constantly be maintained in repertory performances, and he held his collaboration with Ebert to be the high point of his work in Germany. A steadfast anti-fascist, by then he had earned the disfavor of the Nazi Party. Before a scheduled Dresden performance of Rigoletto in March 1933, Busch was called on to the stage and dismissed. He was then asked to conduct the performance, which he attempted to do, but Nazi storm troopers prevented him from starting. Shortly afterwards, he left Germany. He did not return until 1951.
Very soon Busch accepted an invitation to conduct the German operatic repertoire at the Tetro Colón in Buenos Aires, and returned there throughout the 1930s. During the winter of 1933-1934, he commenced his close association with the Danish State Radio Orchestra in Copenhagen and was invited by John Christie to become the chief conductor of the new Glyndebourne Festival Opera, which he accepted on condition that Ebert was in charge of the stage productions. In the first season, they put on Le nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte. Buenos Aires, Copenhagen, and Glyndebourne became the focal points of Busch’s annual schedule up to the outbreak of World War II. At each but most noticeably in Sussex, he achieved the highest artistic standards, as can be heard in his recordings of the three Mozart-da Ponte operas, made with Glyndebourne forces for EMI. At Glyndebourne, he achieved his ambition . . .”to build an opera production in the smallest detail and . . .with complete respect for the work.”
Busch’s international reputation was extremely high: Toscanini recommended him as his successor when he retired from the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra in 1936, but Busch declined. Apart from appearances in New York during 1942, he spent most of the war years from 1940 in South America. After the end of the war, he conducted at the New York Metropolitan Opera for four seasons from 1945, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during its 1948-1949 and 1950 seasons.
In 1949, Busch resumed his relationship with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra and, in 1950, he returned to Glyndebourne. Busch scored a big success with the Danish orchestra at the 1950 Edinburgh Festival to which he returned in 1951 with Glyndebourne productions of Don Giovanni and La forza del destino. In late 1950, Busch made his debut at the Vienna State Opera and was invited to become its chief conductor with effect from the 1951-1952 season. While in Vienna, he also conducted several radio broadcasts and gramophone recordings. In early 1951, he returned to Germany, appearing in Hamburg and Cologne; for the West German Radio of Cologne, he recorded a complete performance of Un ballo in maschera. After returning from the Edinburgh Festival, he died suddenly in London.
Fritz Busch was an instinctive musician of the highest caliber. He favored fast tempi and clear textures: his application of tempo variation was extremely subtle and always felt natural and stylish. His manner with musicians was polite, firm, and often humorous. Sadly Busch died just as tape recording and the long-playing record were becoming the preferred media of the recording industry, but before significant pieces in his repertoire could be recorded. Nonetheless, his recorded legacy contains many magnificent performances.
Taken from A-Z of Conductors, by David Patmore