Hans Rosbaud (22 July 1895 – 29 December 1962) was an Austrianconductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century.
Rosbaud was born inGraz. As children, he and his brotherPaul Rosbaud performed with their mother, who taught piano. Hans continued studying music at theHoch Conservatory inFrankfurt, under the tutelage ofBernhard Sekles in composition andAlfred Hoehn in piano.
Rosbaud's first professional post was inMainz, starting in 1921, as the music director of the city's new School of Music, which included conducting the municipal symphony concerts. He became the first chief conductor of the Hessischer Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra (later thehr-Sinfonieorchester or Frankfurt Radio Symphony) ofFrankfurt in 1928.[1] During the 1920s and 1930s, he presented premieres of works byArnold Schoenberg andBéla Bartók. During theNazi era, his freedom to present new music was restricted. In 1937, he became the general music director of the city ofMünster. In 1941, Rosbaud took the same position inStrasbourg, heading theOrchestre philharmonique. During the war years Rosbaud deliberately kept a low profile, avoiding making any political statements. This was with good reason: his brother Paul was a spy for theAllies, helping them stay informed, amongst other things, about the Nazi progress towards developing anatomic bomb.[2]
In 1945 he was named music director of theMunich Philharmonic by United States occupation authorities. In 1948, Rosbaud's contract with the Munich orchestra was allowed to lapse because the city authorities wanted to move the orchestra's repertoire in a conservative direction.[3] That year Rosbaud became the first chief conductor of theSouth West German Radio Orchestra inBaden-Baden, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1954, he conducted the first performance of Schoenberg's operaMoses und Aron at 8 days' notice; this performance was issued on a 1957 commercial recording for Philips.[4] He regularly took the SWR Symphony Orchestra to festivals of contemporary music, such as at Donaueschingen.[5] On 6–8 December 1962, he concluded a six-week residency with theChicago Symphony Orchestra, leadingSchumann'sPiano Concerto withEugene Istomin andMahler'sNinth Symphony. He died less than a month later inLugano,Switzerland on 29 December.
Gramophone recently remarked that Rosbaud "was one of the unsung heroes of mid-20th-century music, who ... gave thoroughly rehearsed and assimilated performances and premieres of the widest possible range of music".[6] InFanfare, Peter J. Rabinowitz pointed to range of his sympathies, claiming it was "greater than that of just about any of his contemporaries except perhapsBernstein,Scherchen, andStokowski. Rosbaud is best remembered, probably, for his Mahler, hisBruckner, his work with theSecond Vienna School ... and especially his commitment to the post-war avant-garde. But he was a world-class Mozartian, too (his Aix-en-Provence Mozart operas from the 1950s hold up far better today than the better-known Busch recordings from Glyndebourne)—and he championed earlier music as well (he recordedGluck’sOrfeo ed Euridice andRameau’sPlatée). What’s more striking is that he was able to give his performances of each of these composers an entirely different signature."[7] Rosbaud was a highly cultured man, widely read and varied in his intellectual interests. Putting himself at the service of music he chose to perform, he commanded the respect of numerous notable composers of the 20th century. Prominent in his legacy are recordings of the music of Bruckner, Mahler,Stravinsky andBoulez. A tireless advocate of new music, he was closely associated withKarl Amadeus Hartmann, conducting premiere performances of Hartmann's operaSimplicius Simplicissimus and his Second andFourth Symphonies, amongst others.
Rosbaud mastered five different musical instruments, from various sections of the orchestra. His favorite pastimes consisted of reading world literature in its original languages (ancient and modern), and studying scientific journals.
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| Preceded by none | Chief Conductor, Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra 1948–1962 | Succeeded by |
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Principal conductors of theTonhalle-Orchester Zürich | ||
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