No other conductor has done more for the music of the twentieth century, than Hermann Scherchen (1891, Berlin - 1966, Florence). He premiered more than 150 works, among them compositions by Henze (“King Stag”), Dallapiccola (“The Prisoner”), Berg (violin concerto), Dessau (“The Trial of Lucullus”), Schoenberg, von Webern, Xenakis, and Richard Strauss (“Symphony for Wind Instruments”).

As a known antifascist, he left Germany in 1933, where he was most recently engaged as musical director in Königsberg. It is therefore understandable that Scherchen, after his return to Germany, accepted his first great performances and recording projects with the works of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911). His success was beginning already after the premiere of the 2nd Symphony in Berlin and the 8th in Munich, but was hampered and finally stopped by the growing anti-Semitism in Austria and Germany. It is not least thanks to Scherchen’s performance as a conductor of Mahler on the recordings in this 10-CD-box, that the composer has found his worthy place in the world’s concert halls today.

Artists

Mimi Cortese (soprano), Lucretia West (mezzo-soprano), Hilde Rössl-Majdan (contralto), Elsa Maria Matheis, Daniza Ilitsch (sopranos), Rosette Anday, Georgine von Milinkovic (contraltos), Erich Majkut (tenor), Georg Öggl (baritone), Hugo Wiener (bass)

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Singakadamie, Hermann Scherchen