Adolf Busch: The Life of an Honest Musician (2 Volume Set) [Hardcover]

Tully Potter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2010

Adolf Busch (1891-1952) was not only an all-round musician; he was also a moral beacon in troubled times. Now remembered as the first violin of the Busch String Quartet, which he founded in 1912, he was the greatest quartet-player of the last century and also the busiest solo violinist of the inter-War years, regularly performing the great concertos with such conductors as Toscanini, Walter, Furtwängler, Boult, Barbirolli and many others. He was, moreover, an outstanding composer whose works enjoyed performances both at home in Germany and further afield. But at the peak of his popularity his profound sense of decency and his simple human dignity brought about a dramatic reversal in his fortunes. His courageous decision to boycott his native country from April 1933 - despite Hitler's efforts to persuade 'our German violinist' to return - drastically reduced his income and damaged his career as soloist and composer. In 1938, because of Mussolini's race laws, he imposed a similar boycott on Italy, where he had been one of the most popular of classical performers. The following year he emigrated with his quartet colleagues to the United States, where he was not fully appreciated, although he had many successes with his chamber orchestra and founded the Marlboro summer school. This biography, based on more than thirty years' research, documents Busch's life, examining his exemplary behaviour in the context of the tumultuous period in which he lived. 'Adolf is a saint', declared Arturo Toscanini. And Sir Ernest Gombrich said of Busch: 'He was exactly as he played - there was not a false tone in him'. Includes two CDs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The book is a barn-burner, impossible to put down, as the musical world of the era flashes by. To those who would say that 1,432 pages are too many, I would reply: Show me a paragraph that is less than necessary. this is a magnificent achievement, one to challenge all future biographers of any musician. --Fanfare

A brief review cannot hope to do justice to this comprehensively researched and beautifully produced book. (.) How to behave under a tyranny is a complicated question for all but a few rare spirits. Busch was one of them. This remarkable book honours him for it, at last, and for his wonderful music-making. --Sunday Times

(T)ully Potter has seen his magnum opus through to completion. This is indeed something to celebrate. As innumerable booklet notes attest, Potter has always been at his best writing about violinists and other chamber musicians and he seems to have interviewed almost every Busch family member, not forgetting the offspring of those who knew the man intimately. (...) 'Adolf Busch: The Life of an Honest Musician' deserves wider circulation in its own right, as an evocation of a tumultuous era in which right and wrong were plainly discernible yet all too rarely acted upon. INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW If you are looking for the definitive repository of material on Adolf Busch and/or a near-exemplary biography of a great musician that combines restrained interpretation and explanation with factual discourse so well-conceived and written that it's likely to become a classic, then this will fit the bill without reservations. As a contribution to musical scholarship in an area central to the development of twentieth century performance too, Adolf Busch: the Life of an Honest Musician is sure to succeed and earn a place at the top of the list. Recommended without hesitation. CLASSICALNET Every great musician deserves his or her Tully Potter. ... The variety of sources quoted is dizzying, from personal interviews... to little-known books and journals. ... Rare photographs are plentiful... . GRAMOPHONE (A)t once a stirring tale and a disturbing one. WALL STREET JOURNAL A meticulous narrative of over 900 pages...perhaps even more compelling are the remaining 400 pages of interpretive essays and source materials. BBC MUSIC (5 stars)A splendidly lucid, abundantly well-judged tribute. NEWARK STAR-LEDGER --Various

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1280 pages
• Publisher: Toccata Press; Har/Com edition (June 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0907689507
• ISBN-13: 978-0907689508
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Knighthood to Tully Potter for his Bio of Golden Age Violinist Adolf Busch, November 16, 2010

By 

Laurence Vittes "classical CD of the day" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Adolf Busch: The Life of an Honest Musician (2 Volume Set) (Hardcover)

This is a book of extreme importance. It brings to the fore, in great detail and with a sharp writing style, the life and times of one of Germany's greatest musicians, whose direct lineage to Brahms validated his simple elegant virtuoso's style, always playing as if this were the most important thing in his life, totally in the context of his own, unalterable identity as a musician. Every library needs this; every music lover needs to see this, and at least glance through its pages. Tully Potter has been standing up for classical music since he was knee-high to a violin, and deserves a knighthood for this, although he might decline, and a place in our own Classical Music Hall of Fame.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exemplary Life and Musical History of the Times, March 7, 2011

By 

Piso Mojado (In the noble weather of my mind.) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Adolf Busch: The Life of an Honest Musician (2 Volume Set) (Hardcover)

Long awaited, this biography of violinist, composer, quartet and trio leader, teacher, and conductor Adolf Busch (1891-1952), co-founder of the Marlboro School of Music, is a history of the violin, of concerts and chamber-music in the first half of the 20th century. The texts, research notes, copious illustrations, and appendices detail virtually every concert and associate of Busch's life with full descriptions of his musical and personal relations with Reger, Busoni, Tovey, Roentgens and hundreds of others, including those unsympathetic to him such as Furtwaengler, Sibelius, Edwin Fischer, and Elly Ney, for musical or political reasons. Busch's early immigration from Germany and his part in creating the Lucerne Festival and Palestine Symphony Orchestra, precursor of the Israel Philharmonic, before settling in the U.S. and co-founding the Marlboro School of Music with his son-in-law Rudolf Serkin, are fully chronicled, as are those of his brothers, conductor-pianist Fritz Busch and cellist Herman Busch.

Adolf Busch was a stalwart of the German school of violin inherited from Joseph Joachim, standing apart from the Leopold Auer and other schools. The violinists he is most often compared with are Joachim, Bronislaw Huberman, and Joseph Szigeti.

Mr. Potter has done service equal to Henry-Louis de la Grange's for Mahler. His book, well worth the price, is in two volumes, 1400 pp., with hundreds of photographs, many previously unknown. The explanatory notes and identification of those mentioned in the text are exemplary.