Schuch first studied law but then turned to music, trained at first by East. Stolz. He studied in Graz and later in Vienna, briefly with Felix Otto Dessoff, and started his conducting career in 1867 as Kapellmeister at Lobe"s Theatre in Breslau while the Breslau Opera was out of action following a fire.
There followed engagements in Würzburg (1868–1870), Graz (1870/1871) and Basle, until he was employed in 1872 by Pollini"s Italian Opera for Dresden. There in 1872 he became Music director at the Court Opera, from 1873 Royal Kapellmeister with Julius Rietz, later with Franz Wüllner. In 1878, he was appointed Royal Professor.
In 1882 he undertook the direction of the Court Opera with the title of privy councillor, and in 1889 became its general music director
From 1882 onward, he lived in Niederlößnitz in the Weintraubenstraße (in 1883 renamed at his own suggestion as Schuchstraße 15/17). In 1898, he was ennobled by the Austrian emperor and in 1899 was appointed to the Saxon Confidential Privy Council.
His period of influence is known as the Schuch era in operatic performing history. Tours as guest conductor in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Paris aside, he remained committed to Dresden until 1914, and made its opera house there into one of the leading musical stages of Europe.
He created a surpassing ensemble and enlarged the orchestra to make it one of the greatest in the world.
Specializing in the music-dramas of Wagner, he also led the original productions of the Richard Strauss operas Feuersnot (1901), Salome (1905), Elektra (1909) and Der Rosenkavalier (1911) as well as the first German productions of operas by Puccini and Mascagni, and the Dresden première of Wagner"s Parsifal on 24 March 1914, his last new production before his death on 10 May. Also highly valued as a nonoperatic conductor, he was particularly known in the concert hall for his renditions of the orchestral works of Felix Draeseke and Strauss. Their daughter Liesel von Schuch sang in Dresden (from 1914 on) and Vienna.
