Hermann Scherchen.
Hermann Scherchen (21 June
1891 in Berlin
– 12 June
1966 in Florence
) was a
German
conductor.
Life
Scherchen was originally a
violist and played
among the violas of the Bluthner Orchestra of Berlin while still in
his teens.
He conducted in Riga
from 1914 to
1916 and in Königsberg
from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in
protest at the Nazi regime and worked in
Switzerland
. Along with the philanthropist Werner Reinhart, Scherchen played a leading
role in shaping the musical life of Winterthur
for many years, with numerous premiere
performances, the emphasis being placed on contemporary
music.
Making his debut with
Schoenberg's
Pierrot Lunaire, he was a
champion of 20th century composers such as
Richard Strauss,
Webern,
Berg and
Varèse, and actively promoted the
work of younger contemporary composers including
Iannis Xenakis and
Luigi Nono.
He was the teacher of
Karl Amadeus
Hartmann, and contributed to the
libretto of Hartmann's opera
Simplicius Simplicissimus. He
also premiered Hartmann's early work
Miserae. The conductor
Francis Travis was a pupil, then conducting
assistant, for five years.
He is probably best known for his orchestral arrangement (and
recording) of
Johann Sebastian
Bach's
The Art of
Fugue. Another notable achievement is his 1958 recording
of
Beethoven's
Eroica symphony for the
Westminster label (subsequently
reissued on
compact disc), containing
what is still (as of 2006) the fastest first movement ever recorded
and the closest to Beethoven's own, problematic, metronome mark.
[71807] [71808] His 1953 "Lehrbuch des Dirigierens" ("Treatise
on Conducting" ISBN 3-7957-2780-4) is a standard textbook. His
recorded repertoire was extremely wide, ranging from
Vivaldi to
Reinhold Glière.
Like
Vasily Safonov and (in
later life)
Leopold Stokowski,
Scherchen commonly avoided the use of a baton. His technique when
in this mode sometimes caused problems for players; an unidentified
BBC Symphony Orchestra bassoonist told the singer
Ian Wallace that interpreting Scherchen's
minuscule hand movements was like trying to milk a flying gnat.
According to
Fritz Spiegl, Scherchen
worked largely through verbal instructions to his players and his
scores were peppered with reminders of what he needed to say at
each critical point in the music.
However, Scherchen did not always dispense with the baton. The film
of his rehearsal of his edition of Bach's 'Art of Fugue' with the
CBC Toronto Chamber Orchestra shows him using a baton throughout,
and very effectively.
Family
After a brief marriage to actress
Gerda Müller, Scherchen married Chinese
composer
Xiao Shuxian. A daughter,
Tona Scherchen, was born to them in
1938. She has also made a name for herself as a composer. His last
wife was Pia Andronescu from whom he had 5 children.
He was survived by a number of children, from five wives and other
women.
One his sons was Wolfgang "Wulff" Scherchen. Wulff's six-year
relationship with
Benjamin Britten
started when he was aged thirteen. John Bridcut describes the
passionate exchanges of letters between the famous composer and the
young boy in
Britten's
Children.
His daughter, Myriam Scherchen, runs a record label
Tahra
which produces historic recordings on CD devoted to famous
conductors, including Scherchen himself.
His sister Helen was married to
Hungarian cartographer Sándor Radó.
Quote
- "Music does not have to be understood. It has to be listened
to."
Recordings
In 1996 Tahra published the only commercially released recording of
Malipiero's complete
L'Orfeide.
It was a remastered
live recording of the 7 June 1966 performance at the Teatro della
Pergola
in Florence, conducted by Scherchen only five days
before his death. The cast included
Magda Olivero and
Renato Capecchi (Tah 190/191).
Notes
- The Musikkollegium Winterthur Orchestra
- Story told by Wallace during the BBC radio panel game My
Music, 1993
- Spiegl, Fritz: Music Through the Looking Glass
(London, 1984)
- Michael H. Kater, The Twisted
Muse
- Manfriani, Franco, Mito e contemporaneità, Edizioni
Pendragon, 2007, pp. 35-36. ISBN 8883425472
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