Serge Koussevitzky

Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky (Russian: Сергей Александрович Кусевицкий; Serge Koussevitzky; * 14.jul / July 26 1874greg in Wyschni Wolotschok, .. † June 4, 1951 in Boston ) was a Russian- American conductor and double bassist.

Childhood and youth

Koussevitzky came from humble beginnings from a Jewish family. He grew up in Wyschni Wolotschok, a small town in Tver Oblast, about 250 km north- west of Moscow. His parents were professional musicians. They taught him on violin, cello and piano. At the age of 14 years Koussevitzky left his hometown to study music in Moscow.

Conductor and promoter of Russian music

By marrying the daughter of a wealthy tea merchant, he was given the opportunity to realize his dream of conducting. Since 1905 Koussevitzky lived in Berlin and announced on January 23, 1908 with the Berlin Philharmonic debut as a conductor. For performance was inter alia the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Rachmaninov, who played in this performance itself. 1909 Koussevitzky founded a music publishing ( "Editions Russes de Musique " ) and published works by Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Medtner and Scriabin. In 1910 he rented for the first time a steamboat and played with a build and it funds Orchestra at 19 places along the Volga. Two other tours followed in 1912 and 1914 after the war and the revolution Koussevitzky conducted for three years, the State Symphony Orchestra in Petrograd ( now St. Petersburg). , But left early 20s finally from the Soviet Union. About Berlin, he returned to Paris, where in 1921 the "Concerts Koussevitzky Symphoniques " founded. Here he devoted himself to the Russian composers. A milestone in music history was the premiere of the orchestrated version of Modest Mussorgsky's piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition, which Ravel had created in order Kussewizkis.

Promoter of American music

In the U.S. he founded in 1937 the Tanglewood Music Festival, one of the outstanding musical events in the United States. In 1951, he invited the young conductor Lorin Maazel to Tanglewood. This was where, among others, Leonard Bernstein his career to the Koussevitzky had an almost paternal relationship.

Double bass virtuoso

Because Koussevitzky needed a scholarship and such only stood for the bass class available, he began a study of this instrument. His teacher Josef Rambousek came from Prague and was like Franz Simandl or Gustav Laska a student of the pedagogue Josef Hrabe. Koussevitzky was hired after graduation in the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre as a double bassist and stepped forward to as a virtuoso. In 1903 he made ​​his debut in Germany. His solo programs consisted of original compositions for double bass, for example, by Giovanni Bottesini and Gustav Laska, and adaptations of other instrumental concertos for double bass, including Mozart's Bassoon Concerto, K. 191, and Max Bruch's Kol Nidrei op.47.

He composed a few pieces for double bass, which to this day are very popular. It is Andante cantabile and Valse miniature op 1, Berceuse and Chanson Triste, Op 2, Concerto in F sharp minor, Op 3 ( orchestrated by Wolfgang Meyer- Tormin ) and the Humoresque, Op 4

Koussevitzky had many valuable instruments including basses by Maggini, Guarneri and Amati. But for his solo performances, he used mostly a double bass of the company Glässel & Herbig from the Saxon Mark Neukirchen. Much better known is his Amati Double Bass today. Built in 1611, the instrument was once owned by Domenico Dragonetti. After the death Kussewizkis gave his widow, Olga, a double bass virtuoso Gary Karr in the U.S. continues.

With its increasing employment as a conductor, the virtuoso career faded into the background. But Koussevitzky Council continued on with the double bass, albeit to a lesser extent. Koussevitzky was the first double bass player who recorded a record. The early 20s, he played his own compositions as well as a works by Gustav Laska and Henry Eccles. In 1929 he gave his last public concert in Boston as a bass soloist.