Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky was a Russian orchestra conductor. He continued to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra until the end of the 1949 season, a period of twenty-five years, the longest tenure of any conductor in the orchestra's history.
Background
Serge Alexandrovich Koussevitzky was born on July 26, 1874 in Vyshny Volochyok, Russia. He was the son of Alexander and Anna Barabeitchik Koussevitzky. His mother, who died when he was three, was a pianist and his father was a klezmir violinist, a type of Jewish musician common in czarist Russia, who made a precarious living by teaching and playing for weddings, parties, and the plays and operas that occasionally came to the small Russian towns. An older brother, Adolf, achieved a modest career as a teacher and conductor. Koussevitzky's own prodigious musical gift became evident at an early age.
Education
The music-loving wife of a Moscow engineer gave Serge his first piano lessons, while he learned the rudiments of violoncello technique from another source, possibly his father. It is said he taught himself to play a number of instruments simply by observing and fraternizing with itinerant musicians. Eventually Koussevitzky's desire for more advanced musical training took him to the Moscow Conservatory. Auditions had already taken place, however, and all vacancies were filled. But two scholarships were available, one for tuba and one for double-bass, at the Moscow Philharmonic School, which, while lacking the glamor of the conservatory, offered sound training in orchestral instruments. Without hesitation, Koussevitzky abandoned the cello and entered the Philharmonic School as a double-bass player; he became a virtuoso, notable for his dexterity and richness of tone. While still a student Koussevitzky also played in the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater.
Career
For two years, while continuing to give recitals, Koussevitzky prepared himself for a new career. He heard all the fine conductors then active in Berlin, including Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Felix Mottl, Ernst von Schuch, Felix Weingartner, and, especially, Arthur Nikisch, upon whom Koussevitzky modeled his own style. His private means enabled him to engage the student orchestra of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, as, in effect, a rehearsal instrument upon which to practice. Koussevitzky made his conducting debut on January 23, 1908, in an all-Russian program with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert was a success and established him as a champion of unfamiliar contemporary works. Later that year, Koussevitzky played a double-bass recital at Wigmore Hall in London and began his long association as guest conductor with the London Philharmonic.
In 1909 he returned to Moscow to conduct his own orchestra of 85 players chosen in competitive auditions. They were generously paid and forbidden to perform anywhere else. In addition, with the aid of his wife, Koussevitzky founded a publishing house, Éditions Russes de Musique. It presented new works by promising young Russian composers, including Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Medtner.
In the summer of 1910 Koussevitzky chartered a river steamer and took his orchestra, newspaper reporters, and other observers on a 1, 300-mile cruise from the headwaters of the Volga to the Caspian Sea, performing in towns in which a full symphony orchestra had never before been heard. The tour was so successful that Koussevitzky repeated it in 1912 and 1914; further tours were halted by World War I. When the czarist government collapsed in 1917, Koussevitzky accepted the directorship of the State Symphony (formerly Imperial) Orchestra. The overthrow of the bourgeois-intellectual Kerensky regime by the Bolsheviks was a greater shock to him than the fall of the czar, but Koussevitzky agreed to conduct the orchestra so long as he was free from "political interference. "
In 1920 he left Russia permanently, with his wife and at least part of her fortune. The Koussevitzkys soon built a mansion in the new Parisian suburb of Arcueil. The headquarters of the Éditions Russes de Musique was transferred to Paris, and it was not long before the "Concerts Koussevitzky" had acquired a glittering aura, not only in Paris, but throughout the international music world, comparable to that of the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev. A number of Paris concertgoers were from Boston and their interest was more than casual, since the once-brilliant Boston Symphony Orchestra was in trouble. Koussevitzky was asked to succeed Pierre Monteux as the orchestra's conductor. He assumed the post in the fall of 1924, initiating a glorious period in the orchestra's history--but one that left scars on all participants. The orchestra needed an infusion of vigorous talent, but rebuilding the ensemble was brutal work. Koussevitzky knew what he wanted, and he stormed, raged, cajoled, bullied, and pleaded with the orchestra until he got it.
As he had in Paris and Moscow, Koussevitzky felt an obligation to introduce new works. In his first season the orchestra performed an untried work by an unknown composer, a symphony for organ and orchestra, which was one of the first large-scale compositions by the youthful Aaron Copland. Howard Hanson, Randall Thompson, Roy Harris, Harl McDonald, Henry F. Gilbert, Leo Sowerby, John Alden Carpenter, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, and William Schuman were among the other American composers who had major works introduced or performed by Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony. The constant stream of novelties made news and created exciting seasons. Yet dissidents maintained that Koussevitzky was not as sure-handed as he ought to have been in performing such orchestral staples as Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. In addition, there were communication problems that often complicated Koussevitzky's rehearsals; to the end of his life he had difficulties with English. A favorite Boston Symphony story concerned the player, who, exasperated beyond endurance, packed up his instrument and walked out of a rehearsal. As he left the stage, he fired a parting shot: "Nuts to you, Mr. Koussevitzky!" "I'm sorry, " the conductor replied coldly, "it's too late to apologize. "
By the 1930's, Koussevitzky had established the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the front rank of American orchestras, along with Toscanini's New York Philharmonic and Stokowski's Philadelphia. In 1936, the B. S. O. agreed to participate for five years in the Berkshire Music Festival, which had been founded in 1934. During the orchestra's first seasons, concerts took place in a tent. A crisis came when an all-Wagner concert coincided with a furious rainstorm and, according to tradition, lightning struck the tent during "The Ride of the Valkyries. " Koussevitzky, in a rage, swore he would never again conduct in the Berkshires without more adequate concert facilities. As a result Mrs. Gorham Brooks and Mary Aspinwall Tappan donated the summer estate of the Aspinwall-Tappan family, "Tanglewood, " as a festival site. A concert hall, nicknamed "The Shed, " was designed by architect Eliel Saarinen; wedge-shaped, with a ceiling but no walls, it turned out to be an acoustical marvel, seating about 5, 000 listeners and funneling sound to the surrounding lawn with astounding clarity. The Shed opened on August 4, 1938. Almost at once Koussevitzky began to plan a supplementary summer school, the Berkshire Music Center, at which gifted students from all over the nation would have an opportunity to study with Boston Symphony Orchestra artists and distinguished guest faculty. Koussevitzky taught the conducting classes, which turned out such graduates as Lukas Foss, Eleazar de Carvalho, and Leonard Bernstein. The Berkshire Music Center opened in 1940 and became the focus of Koussevitzky's summers. In 1940 he bought a large house above the Festival grounds with a fine view of the Berkshires, which he named "Seranak. "
During World War II Tanglewood concerts were suspended. They did not resume until 1946. Koussevitzky organized the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Inc. , in order to keep the Music Center going. After the war foundation funds were used to commission new works. A struggle of long standing ended in 1942 when the Boston Symphony Orchestra was finally unionized. Inevitably there were clashes, as when Koussevitzky scheduled an extra rehearsal and the musicians pointed out, with relish, that to do so, by the terms of their contract, called for a week's advance notice. On the whole, however, Koussevitzky's relationship with the orchestra did not appear more abrasive than in its nonunion days.
Achievements
Connections
Serge married Nadezhda Galat, a member of the Bolshoi corps de ballet. Serge met Natalya Konstantinovna Ushkov, daughter of a wealthy tea merchant. Their romance flourished and Koussevitzky was subsequently divorced from his first wife. He and Natalya Konstantinovna were married in Dresden in September 1905. The Koussevitzkys settled in the fashionable Tiergarten section of Berlin, where they entertained on a lavish scale. His wife's fortune had made Koussevitzky a multimillionaire, and the leisure and freedom from Bolshoi Opera routine afforded by his new wealth revived his old ambition to become a conductor. Natalya Koussevitzky died in 1942. On August 5, 1947, Koussevitzky married her niece, Olga Naoumoff, who had lived with the couple since 1924.