BUSCH in Vienna: Beethoven & Haydn Symphonies (1950) - PASC614

Fritz Busch‘s recordings of Beethoven and Haydn for the American Remington label in Vienna are famed in stating some of the last orchestral studio recordings Busch ever made. Being at the prime of his art of conducting, particularly his Beethoven was far too little documented by that time although he had already conducted Beethoven very early in his career, both in concert and in the studio, his earliest surviving rendering, the scherzo of the 'Eroica‘, being made in Stuttgart in 1919. Only much later his “Leonore” Overtures II and III and Ninth Symphony, were recorded in Copenhagen by the Danish Radio (in 1948 and 1950 respectively, available on PASC 604), the Violin Concerto (soloist Adolf Busch) in New York in 1942, the Egmont Overture in Los Angeles in 1946 for the Standard [Oil] Music Hour, the First Symphony in Chicago in 1949 and the Fifth in New York in December 1950. Busch’s Viennese recordings of the Symphonies Nos. 3 and 8 with the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester and of No. 7 with the Wiener Symphoniker from a Radio Rot-Weiß-Rot concert hence form an essential contribution to the Beethoven performing tradition and complement Busch’s art of conducting Beethoven substantially.

Additionally to the Beethoven recordings made in Vienna, there was sufficient time left to do another record for Remington, Haydn’s “The Clock” Symphony. Busch’s recording of Haydn’s G major Symphony No. 88 for His Master’s Voice in Copenhagen in 1949 had been a great success commercially so that Vienna was now the right place to devote the remaining recording to this late Haydn symphony. Although the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester database does not give the exact recording schedules, it appears reasonable to assume that the Beethoven recordings were made first. Marcel Prawy (1911–2003), the recordings’ producer, had just started organising concerts at the Kosmos Cinema and was responsible for the Viennese Remington productions. He became a central figure in Viennese operatic life, including a professorship in operatic dramaturgy at the University of Music and Performing Arts. On the last day of the Remington recording sessions the Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester appointed Fritz Busch as an honorary member. It is by no means coincidental that the recordings Fritz Busch made in Vienna, be it for the radio or in the recording studio, are of music of the ‘core’ ‘Classical’ repertoire – he clearly wanted to make his mark in this field.

Jürgen Schaarwächter, Max-Reger-Institut with BuschBrothersArchive, Karlsruhe