Hans Rosbaud

Hans Rosbaud, internationally acclaimed conductor, was born in Graz, Austria on July 22, 1895. A superb musician and possessor of an unimpeachable personal integrity, Rosbaud managed to survive the Nazi era and World War II to emerge as one of the most respected musicians of the post-war international music scene. Rosbaud's earliest musical training was with his mother, herself an accomplished pianist. After completion of his academic education, which emphasized the study of classical languages and culture, Rosbaud entered Dr. Hoch's Conservatory in Frankfurt am Main and distinguished himself as a pianist, composer and conductor. His teachers were Bernhard Sekles (Composition) and Alfred Hoehn (Piano). Paul Hindemith was one of his fellow students at the Conservatory.

In 1921 Rosbaud began his professional career in Mainz, having been chosen as the youngest from a field of 80 candidates to become the director of the newly-formed municipal School of Music and conductor of the municipal symphony concerts. Within a few years the School of Music developed an excellent reputation in Germany and eventually became an Academy of Music. Rosbaud became musical director and principal conductor of the orchestra of Radio Frankfurt in 1928. His extensive activity in Frankfurt and the consistent quality of his conducting broadened his sphere of influence and increased his renown. Of particular significance was his fostering of contemporary music, which soon made Frankfurt a center for activity in this field. The great masters of new music--Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Bela Bartok, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern and Paul Hindemith--were regular participants in the Radio Frankfurt concerts at this time. Rosbaud conducted the premieres of the Bartok Second Piano Concerto (with the composer as soloist), Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, Hindemith's Concerto for Brass and Strings and Schoenberg's Variations Op. 31, among many other works.

...