Carl Schuricht - Decca Recordings 1949-56 (2004)

Carl Schuricht was among the most distinguished German conductors of the inter- and post-War years.

His family was musical and gave him his initial musical training. His father was an organ manufacturer and his mother was a pianist. He studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, and then with Max Reger in Leipzig.

He had the typical German conductor's apprenticeship, beginning as an assistant in a provincial opera house and working his way up to music director in progressively more important locations.

He became music director in Wiesbaden in 1911 and elected to stay there until 1944. From this base he made frequent guest conducting appearances elsewhere and appeared at many summer music festivals. He was known for his interest in French music and other modern compositions. He frequently played music of Debussy, Ravel, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky.

He toured abroad often, and made his first U.S. appearance in 1927. For many years he conducted annual summer concert series in Scheveningen, Holland, a resort town next to the capital city, The Hague. In recognition of this the Dutch government gave him the Order or Orange-Nassau in 1938.

In 1942 he was appointed conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. He often opposed the Nazi government's policies, and in 1944 fled to Switzerland, where he resided thereafter. As many German conductors who had favored modern music in the inter-War years did, he settled firmly to the traditional symphonic repertory in the post-War years and thereafter became strongly associated with performances in the Romantic tradition, with rhythmic freedom and a smooth, beautiful and expressive sound.

He was chosen to conduct the re-opening after the War of the Salzburg Festival in Austria in 1946, and continued his frequent guest conducting appearances and associations with summer festivals, including the Ravinia Festival in Chicago and the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts. He often conducted the London Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He was chosen to share conducting duties with André Cluytens when the Vienna Philharmonic made its first American tour in 1956. In later years he often took the podium with that orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic and frequently conducted the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra.

He was little-known as a composer, writing orchestral music, piano works, and songs. ~ Joseph Stevenson