True Artist and True Friend: A Biography of Hans Richter - Hardcover

Fifield, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198161573 ISBN 13: 9780198161578

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Hans Richter was the first career conductor to gain international fame and respect. During his career, which began in Budapest and ended over forty years later in Manchester, he dominated the musical life of Vienna, London, and Bayreuth, three of the most important musical centers of the nineteenth century. Few composers of the age were untouched by him: he gave first performances of works by Wagner, Brahms, Elgar, Bruckner, Dvo%rák, and Tchaikovsky, and assisted the careers of several others, including Sibelius and Bartok. His astonishing energy drove him to travel on punishing schedules--he gave a staggering 4,351 public performances--and he was also an accomplished musician, playing every instrument except the harp.
The first major biography of this luminary figure, Fifield's detailed account of his extraordinary conductor illuminates the musical life of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Drawing on a number of previously unpublished letters from a variety of composers and musicians, and featuring a Foreword by Sir Georg Solti, 'True Artist and True Friend' provides a rounded portrait of a truly important member of the world of music--the man who established the art and profession of the modern conductor.

About this title

About the Author

About the Author:
Christopher Fifield is a freelance writer living in Great Britain.

Reviews

The title of this expansive biography of the great conductor comes from Sir Edward Elgar's dedication to him of his First Symphony. And indeed Richter was an extraordinary artist, as well as being an intimate of two great composers: Richard Wagner, for whom he was a virtual amanuensis during Wagner's most productive years, and Elgar, whose reputation he helped to make with revelatory performances of the Enigma Variations, the First Symphony and "Gerontius." Richter (1843-1916) was one of the first great conductors, along with Hans von Bulow and Arthur Nikisch. After a long association with Wagner, and a period during which he helped build the foundations of Bayreuth, he moved to England, first with an annual series of concerts in London, later as conductor of Manchester's celebrated Halle Orchestra; along the way he also helped found the London Symphony Orchestra. He revolutionized standards of orchestral playing in England, as well as building an audience for his magisterial performances of Wagner and Beethoven. He regarded Elgar as a composer on a level with the greatest masters, and performed him accordingly; but otherwise he came to be criticized in later years for his ultra-conservative programs, though no critic ever denied his utter mastery of the orchestra. Fifield, a British critic and musician, has created an absorbing, utterly consistent portrait, which is nevertheless probably too much of a good thing for the general reader--at least a third of it must consist of adulatory reviews, which tend to become numbing after a time. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198161573
• ISBN 13: 9780198161578
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 540