Jascha Horenstein

Jascha Horenstein (OldStyleDate|May 6|1898|April 24 in Kiev, Ukraine - April 2, 1973 in London) was a Ukrainian-born American conductor.

Horenstein was born in Kiev; his mother was Austrian. His family moved to Vienna in 1911 and he studied there with Joseph Marx (music theory) and Franz Schreker (composition) before moving to Berlin and working as an assistant to Wilhelm Furtwängler. During the 1920s he conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Forced as a Jew to flee the Nazis, he moved to the United States of America in 1940 (he eventually became an American citizen). He died in London.

Horenstein is particularly remembered as a champion of modern music and as a Mahler conductor, although his repertory as shown by discographies was quite wide. In 1929 he conducted the premiere of three movements of Alban Berg's "Lyric Suite" in an arrangement for string orchestra. In 1950, he conducted the first Paris performance of Berg's "Wozzeck". [cite news | author=Alex Ross | title=A Minor Legend In His Time, Now A Major Cult Hero | url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9406E0D81F3DF935A25753C1A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all | work=New York Times | date=16 October 1994 | accessdate=2007-09-03]

Horenstein conducted the works of Anton Bruckner and Gustav Mahler throughout his career, and he also displayed ongoing interest in Carl Nielsen at a time when these composers were unfashionable. For example, his 1951 Vox recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 9 was the first studio recording, and the second commercial record, of that work. Several years later, he recorded the "Originalfassung" (original version) of Bruckner's Symphony No. 9. [Braunstein, Joseph, "Reviews of Records: Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Original Version) / Pro Musica Symphony (Vienna); Jascha Horenstein" (April 1954). "The Musical Quarterly", 40 (2): pp. 286-289.] He made studio recordings of several of Mahler's symphonies at various points in his career, including Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3 with the London Symphony Orchestra. A number of radio archives hold broadcast airchecks of many of the other Mahler symphonies, as well as "Das Lied von der Erde". In recent years, several of Horenstein's concert performances have been reissued on the BBC Legends label, including his celebrated 1959 Royal Albert Hall performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 and his 1972 Manchester performance of Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde". [cite news | author=Andrew Clements | title=Earth Tremors | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,,240214,00.html | work=The Guardian | date=11 February 2000 | accessdate=2007-09-03]

Horenstein also recorded Robert Simpson's Third Symphony and music by Paul Hindemith and Richard Strauss during the last few years of his life. His opera recordings included Carl Nielsen's "Saul og David". His final operatic, and British, engagement was his March 1973 performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden of Richard Wagner's "Parsifal". [Anderson, Robert, "Music in London" (May 1973). "The Musical Times", 114 (1563): pp. 507-508.] [Obituary for Jascha Horenstein (1973). "The Musical Times", 114 (1564): p. 632.]

References

External links

* [http://ww.musiciansgallery.com/tribute/horenstein/horenstein.html Biography]
* [http://turing.cs.camosun.bc.ca:8080/Horenstein/Discography Discography]
* [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2001/Dec01/Horenstein_Discography.htm Another discography]