Jascha Horenstein
A champion of modern music and an intellectual and philosophical conductor of a sort not much encountered any more, Jascha Horenstein moved to Vienna with his family at age six. He went on to study violin with Adolf Busch, Indian philosophy at the University of Vienna, and music at the Vienna School of Music. By 20 he had already decided to become a conductor and left Vienna for study in Berlin, where he conducted the Schubert Choir and became an assistant to Furtwängler. In 1924, he made his debut with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, conducting Mahler's then-little-known First Symphony. From 1925 to 1928, he conducted the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and in 1929, as guest conductor, he led the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of Alban Berg's Lyric Suite. As a young man he made the acquaintance of Schoenberg, Webern, Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Richard Strauss, Busoni, and Janacek, and frequently programmed their music for the rest of his life.
On Furtwängler's recommendation, Horenstein was appointed director of the Düsseldorf Opera in 1929, and remained there until, as a Jew, he was forced to leave Nazi Germany. In the 1930s he lived in Paris and traveled extensively, conducting in Brussels, Vienna, and the USSR, visiting Scandinavia with the Ballets Russe, and touring Australia and New Zealand. He settled in the U.S. in 1942, became a U.S. citizen, conducted many of the leading orchestras of both North and South America and was one of four conductors, including Toscanini, to conduct the newly formed Palestine Symphony Orchestra. Though in great demand from the 1930s onwards, Horenstein did not actively seek a permanent conductorship; he appeared to prefer to work on his own terms.
After the Second World War, Horenstein returned to Europe and lived in Lausanne, Switzerland. Highlights of his renewed European career came in 1950, when he introduced Berg's opera Wozzeck in Paris, and in 1959, when his performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony for the BBC did much to stimulate a Mahler revival in Britain. After 1964, when he presented Busoni's Doktor Faust in New York, he gave many concerts in London with the London Symphony Orchestra and in Manchester with the BBC Northern Symphony Orchestra. In his later years, he appeared frequently at London's Covent Garden.
From Furtwängler, Horenstein learned the importance in searching for the metaphysical rather than theoretical meaning of music, and that outlook coincided with his own interest in Eastern philosophy. As a conductor, Horenstein greatly admired Stokowski for his broad repertoire and the sense of occasion he brought to every performance. He was intolerant of routine performances, even from the greatest orchestras, and in rehearsal, he would run through large sections of a work to establish coherence and continuity before proceeding to finer details of interpretation. In the words of his assistant Lazar, "[t]he exceptional unity and cohesion that characterized his performances arose from the way he controlled rhythm, harmony, dynamics and tempo so that each individual moment might achieve the most vivid characterization, but the overall line and cumulative effect would not be lost."
In the early days of the LP record, Horenstein was widely known for his recordings of the Viennese masters, particularly Mahler and Bruckner, and derived inspiration from the interpretations of his idols, Nikisch, Walter, and Furtwängler. Before he was 30, he had recorded Mahler's Kindertotenlieder and Bruckner's Seventh Symphony. Shortly before his death, he said that "[o]ne of the greatest regrets in dying is that I shall never again be able to hear 'Das Lied von der Erde.'"
© TiVo
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Bach: Concerto brandebourgeois No. 4 (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Portrait, Vol. 5: Jascha Horenstein
Jascha Horenstein, Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 17 Jun 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Overtures & Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6
Vienna Pro Musica Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Sinfonie No. 3, Op. 90 - Serenade No. 2, Op. 16 (Auszug)
Sudwestfunkorchester Baden-Baden, Jascha Horenstein, Orchester der Württembergischen Staatsoper Stuttgart, Andrec Jouve
Classical - Released by Adora on 3 May 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: The 6 Brandenburg Concertos
Vienna Symphony Orchestra Chamber Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" (Mono Version)
Jascha Horenstein, Wiener Symphoniker
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Portrait, Vol. 6: Jascha Horenstein (Remastered 2022)
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 17 Jun 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps & The Firebird Suite
SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring - Symphony of Psalms
Roger-Jean Boutry, Monique Mercier, Jascha Horenstein, Sinfonieorchester Des Südwestfunks, Baden Baden, Choeur et Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française
Symphonic Music - Released by Infinity on 21 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 9
Jascha Horenstein, Wiener Symphoniker
Symphonic Music - Released by Infinity on 16 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor "Choral"
Wiener Symphoniker, Jascha Horenstein
Symphonic Music - Released by HORTUS on 1 Jan 1991
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Faust-symphonie, Danse macabre & Mephisto-valse No. 1 (Mono Version)
Grosses Orchester des Südwestfunks Baden-Baden, Jascha Horenstein
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 - Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, Op. 100 (Live)
Erica Morini, Orchestre National De Paris, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Archipel on 27 Sep 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Horenstein Conducts Strauss, Wagner, Mahler & Schoenberg
Bamberger Symphoniker, Norman Foster, SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C Minor & Variations on a Theme by Haydn
SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 - Janácek: Taras Bulba
Vienna Pro Musica Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein
Classical - Released by Vox Legends on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Erica Morini in Concert
Erika Morini, French National Radio Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Jascha Horenstein, George Szell
Classical - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 3 Jul 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berg & Schoenberg : Altenberglieder Op. 4 - Verklärte Nacht Chamber - Symphony No. 1
Írma Kolássi, Jascha Horenstein, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra of the Southwest German Radio (SWDR)
Classical - Released by Infinity on 6 Jan 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruch Scottish Fantasia & Hindemith Violin Concerto
David Oïstrakh, Jascha Horenstein, Paul Hindemith, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on 23 Jun 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Famous conductors of the past - Jascha Horenstein)
Symphonies - Released by Preiser Records on 3 Aug 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Robert Casadesus in Concert (1946, 1961)
Jean Casadesus, Orchestre Philarmonique de L'ORTF, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein, Eduard van Beinum
Concertos - Released by Music and Arts Programs of America on 2 May 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo