Hermann Scherchen

Igor Markevitch, Kazimierz Wiłkomirski and Edward Downes are recorded as having studied under Hermann Scherchen. The recorded working language is German. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are classical music. Distinctions recorded are honorary doctor of the University of Königsberg and Honorary Member of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

• Name — Hermann Scherchen • Born — 21 June 1891 • Birthplace — Berlin • Died — 12 June 1966 • Place of death — Florence • Occupation — * Conductor

Scherchen was born in Berlin. Originally a violist, he 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 of the new 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. From 1922 to 1950, he was the principal conductor of the city orchestra of Winterthur (today known as Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur). Making his debut with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, he was a champion of 20th-century composers such as Richard Strauss, Anton Webern, Alban Berg and Edgard Varèse, and actively promoted the work of younger contemporary composers including Iannis Xenakis, Luigi Nono and Leon Schidlowsky. He was the teacher of Karel Ančerl, Egisto Macchi, Marc Bélanger, Françoys Bernier, Anna Renfer, Frieda Belinfante and Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and contributed to the libretto of Hartmann's opera Simplicius Simplicissimus. He also premiered Hartmann's early work Miserae. Conductor Francis Travis was a pupil, then conducting assistant, for five years. He is probably best known for his orchestral arrangement (and recording) of Bach's The Art of Fugue. His 1929 "Lehrbuch des Dirigierens" (Treatise on Conducting) is a standard textbook.

Scherchen's first wife – who was also his third wife – was Auguste Marie (Gustl) Jansen, whom he married on 17 June 1921. After a brief marriage to actress Gerda Müller from 1927 to 1929, he was again together with Gustl Jansen. In 1936, Scherchen married the Chinese composer Xiao Shuxian in Peking (Beijing). A daughter, Tona Scherchen, was born to them in 1938. She has also made a name for herself as a composer. The last of his five wives was the Zurich-based Romanian mathematics teacher Pia Andronescu, with whom he had five children: Myriam, David, Esther, Nathan and Alexandra. He died in Florence, survived by a number of children from five wives and other women. One of his sons was Karl Hermann "Wulff" Scherchen. Wulff met Benjamin Britten when they were thirteen (nearly fourteen) and twenty, respectively. Their romantic relationship did not begin until four years later. John Bridcut describes the passionate exchanges of letters between the increasingly-famous composer and the teenager in Britten's Children. Wulff's relationship with Britten is also the subject of Serenade for Tenor, Saxophone and Orchestra, a song cycle by Lyle Chan based on the romantic letters exchanged by the pair. Until 2014, his daughter, Myriam Scherchen, co-ran the music label Tahra, which released officially authorized historical recordings of conductors such as Scherchen, Furtwängler, Mengelberg and others, generally drawn from primary recorded sources. Tahra ceased business after the death of the co-principal of the label, René Trémine. The sister of Auguste Maria Jansen, Helene (Lene) Jansen, was married to the Hungarian cartographer Alexander Radó, who, under the alias 'Dora', was a member of the European-wide resistance organization known as the "Rote Kapelle". When Radó was threatened in Switzerland by German security agents and faced eviction, Hermann Scherchen hid him in his apartment in Geneva.

• "Music does not have to be understood. It has to be listened to." ("Musik muss nicht verstanden werden. Sie muss gehört werden.")