AN ENDURING LEGACY

July 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Serge Koussevitzky – the Russian-born double bass virtuoso turned music director, educator and mentor. Fellow double bassist and conductor Leon Bosch examines his hugely influential life

Serge Koussevitzky pictured around 1930

STUDENT PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Serge Koussevitzky was an enigma. His status as a double bass soloist equalled that of his illustrious predecessors Domenico Dragonetti (1763–1846) and Giovanni Bottesini (1821–89). He was also a conductor who commanded the same reverence accorded to Toscanini and Stokowski, a passionate advocate for new music, an esteemed publisher, and a dedicated educator of and mentor to a generation of musicians.

But he also had his detractors. Orchestral musicians, especially those of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, feared and resented his autocratic hiring and firing of musicians; some doubted the integrity of his musical education and his suitability therefore as music director; and he was notoriously also often at loggerheads with music critics.

The occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth provides a convenient opportunity for evaluating his legacy and perhaps coming to a greater understanding of the man himself.

EARLY YEARS

Koussevitzky was born into a musical family in the small town of Vishny-Volochok, approximately 180 miles north-west of Moscow, on 26 July 1874. His father, Alexander Koussevitzky, was a violinist and his mother, Anna Barabeitchik, a pianist. The young Sergey Alexandrovich was a musical child, and learnt to play a number of instruments, including the violin, trumpet and tuba, but with the cello as his primary focus at that time.

At the age of 17, Koussevitzky set off for Moscow to further his musical education. He failed to secure a place at the Moscow Imperial Conservatory, on account of presenting himself too late after the start of term, but he cajoled his way into the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, where the only available scholarships were for trombonist, piccolo player and double bassist. He chose the double bass and made rapid progress under the guidance of his teacher Josef Ramboušek, principal double bassist of the Bolshoi Theatre and professor of double bass at the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society from 1882 until his death in 1901.

As a 15-year-old student

Koussevitzky practised demonically, much to the annoyance of his roommates, who found him a barnlike loft space where he could practise endlessly without disturbing anyone. His efforts were richly rewarded, however. In 1892, one year after entering the Philharmonic Society school, he was presented to Tchaikovsky as a double bass virtuoso, performing Ramboušek’s arrangement of the Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet with the composer himself at the piano. And in October 1894, Koussevitzky became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra in Moscow.

THE DOUBLE BASS VIRTUOSO

Koussevitzky’s ambitions, however, exceeded a rank-and-file orchestral position. Despite moving up to the first desk in double-quick time, he worked with ever greater zeal, attaining an exceptional virtuosity that would have a stupefying effect upon everyone who heard him. His playing was by all accounts ‘refined, exquisite and expressive’, according to Moses Smith in his 1947 book Koussevitzky.

He became a popular recitalist not only in Moscow and St Petersburg but also throughout Russia, and made his first solo appearance in Berlin in 1898. Because of the relative paucity of available repertoire, Koussevitzky made for himself a number of transcriptions of works including Eccles’s Violin Sonata in G minor, Mozart’s Bassoon Concerto, Bruch’s Kol nidrei, Strauss’s Cello Sonata and the first two of Scriabin’s Five Preludes op.74. He also composed four salon pieces for double bass and piano: Andante op.1 no.1, Valse miniature op.1 no.2 (published as Deux morceaux), Chanson triste op.2 and Humoresque op.4 (all published c.1906–7).

Koussevitzky succeeded Ramboušek as professor of double bass in 1901 at the relatively tender age of 27, adding to his musical prestige, and in 1902 he composed his Double Bass Concerto in F sharp minor op.3. Its first performance, at a Moscow Philharmonic concert in February 1905, was enthusiastically received by the critic Ivan Liapev, who also commented on Koussevitzky’s esteemed artistic status.

KOUSSEVITZKY CAJOLED HIS WAY INTO THE SCHOOL OF THE MOSCOW PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY, WHERE THE ONLY AVAILABLE SCHOLARSHIPS WERE FOR TROMBONE, PICCOLO AND DOUBLE BASS

Koussevitzky featured in The Strad in July 1908

He was in demand as a soloist in many of the Moscow salons, and continued to give extensive recital tours throughout Europe and Scandinavia. Even once he had become a successful conductor, he never completely forsook the double bass. He performed in a number of charity concerts and is also rumoured to have given an impromptu performance of his Valse miniature after conducting a concert in Scotland.

In comparison with that of other double bass virtuosos and composers, Koussevitzky’s output was relatively modest. Bottesini composed approximately three dozen solo compositions, and Josep Cervera-Bret (1883–1969) more than 60, but his Double Bass Concerto and the four salon pieces enjoy the distinction of being a central and indispensable part of solo double bass repertoire.

HISTORIC SOLO RECORDINGS

In 1928 and 1929, when in his mid-fifties, Koussevitzky made what is almost certainly the first ever commercially released recording for solo double bass, on the RCA label. He plays the second movement Andante from his Concerto, his Chanson triste and Valse miniature, Gustav Laska’s Wiegenlied, the Largo from Eccles’s Sonata in G minor and Beethoven’s Minuet in G major (all with piano accompaniment). Koussevitzky’s liberal use of portamento might seem a little dated by today’s standards, but this historic recording (bit.ly/4aAVzmG) provides a valuable insight into the nature of his musicianship and instrumental virtuosity.

Koussevitzky with his double bass

It wasn’t until much later into the 20th century that other double bassists began to perform his music, however. The American bassist Gary Karr was at the forefront of the revival, and in 1969 with the financial assistance of the Koussevitzky Foundation, he recorded the first complete performance of Koussevitzky’s Concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Alfredo Antonini.

My own introduction to Koussevitzky was in 1981 when, as a student at the South African College of Music of the University of Cape Town, I learnt his four salon pieces for double bass and piano. They made a deep impression on me, and I also quickly learnt his luscious Concerto op.3. They have remained stalwarts of my repertoire ever since and I teach his compositions to all my students. As a double bass player, Koussevitzky has always been an inspiration to me, and as a conductor I find his indefatigable energy equally infectious.

I have absolutely no doubt that Koussevitzky will retain his place alongside Dragonetti and Bottesini as one of the most important figures in the history of the double bass, and that the impassioned sounds of his music for the instrument will continue to reverberate around the concert halls of the world.

WITH ACCESS TO BOTH A HUGE FORTUNE AND THE DEVOTED SUPPORT OF HIS NEW WIFE, HE WAS ABLE TO PURSUE HIS MUSICAL DREAMS FEARLESSLY

A REMARKABLE CHANGE IN FORTUNE

Koussevitzky may well have made an even bigger contribution to the art of string playing and the repertoire for the double bass had he remained merely an instrumentalist. However, it is his work as publisher, conductor, music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and tireless champion of new music that arguably remains unsurpassed.

His appearance as a soloist in a series of concerts at the Moscow mansion of Konstantin Ushkov, a wealthy tea merchant, was to prove the decisive turning point in Koussevitzky’s life. In the audience was Ushkov’s daughter, Natalya Konstantinova. Early in 1905 he and Natalya married – just a few months after he divorced his first wife of only three years, the ballerina Nadezhda Galat.

This second marriage truly set him free. With access to both a huge fortune and the unconditional and devoted support of his new wife, he was able to pursue his musical dreams fearlessly.

The double bass alone was no longer enough. In 1905, while he and Natalya were living in Berlin, he set out to master a long-held ambition: the art of conducting. He hired a pianist to play through orchestral scores while he practised his gestures, reputedly to rows of empty chairs arranged in the pattern of a symphony orchestra. He then hired the services of an orchestra of students from the Berlin Hochschule, whom he rehearsed at will for nearly two years, working through a large core repertoire. In 1908, when he deemed himself properly prepared, he engaged the Berlin Philharmonic for his debut. The all-Russian programme included Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Overture, Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto in C minor, with the composer as soloist, the Entr’acte to Taneyev’s Orestes and Glière’s Symphony in C minor. Both the Taneyev and Glière constituted European premieres. In a second concert approximately one month later, he conducted Beethoven’s ‘Egmont’ Overture and Seventh Symphony, as if to emphasise his command of the standard classical repertoire.

Natalya Ushkova Koussevitzky

Koussevitzky at the start of his conducting career

USHKOVA PHOTO BACHRACH/BSO. CONDUCTING PHOTO COURTESY BSO

Reviews were favourable, as was comment from members of the orchestra. The German magazine Die Signale wrote ‘Koussevitzky left no doubt that he is an interpreter of uncommon temperament and an effective orchestral leader. He knows how to get elemental bursts of power from the orchestra as well as the sweetest and most ingratiating sounds, and with all his energy and all his temperament he keeps authoritative control.’ The Berlin Philharmonic musicians were similarly impressed by his open-mindedness and his willingness both to learn and dictate.

Koussevitzky would however soon add a third strand to his career. He sought to establish a music publishing house modelled on the philanthropic venture of the impresario Mitrofan Belyayev who had, until his death in 1904, encouraged composers of the Russian Nationalist School. In 1909 he and his wife returned to Russia to establish the Éditions Russe de Musique. Its purpose was to publish works by Russian composers with Scriabin, Stravinsky, Taneyev and Medtner among the earliest beneficiaries.

Over the next few years Koussevitzky judiciously deployed the fortune at his disposal to consolidate his reputation as a conductor of distinction, as well as a champion of new music. He promoted an annual series of concerts in Moscow and St Petersburg, initially performed by the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre with him presiding over his former colleagues, and latterly with his own orchestra. He inaugurated orchestral cruises along the Volga River, designed to take symphonic music to new audiences. He commissioned and published the music of the most eminent Russian and European composers and championed celebrated soloists such as Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Busoni, Schnabel, Godowsky, Auer, Kreisler, Elman and Heifetz. He invited eminent European artists such as Debussy to perform and conduct in Russia. He promoted the prestigious and fashionable Concerts Koussevitzky in Paris. And he generated many more conducting engagements throughout Europe and the United Kingdom, where he was regularly invited to conduct the London and BBC Symphony Orchestras.

Koussevitzky was undeterred by the intervention of World War I and the Russian Revolution. He continued all his musical activities, fuelled by a breathless and obsessive determination, laying the foundations for the next, even more prolific, chapter of his life.

THE BOSTON SYMPHONY YEARS

At the age of 50, in 1924, Koussevitzky was appointed the ninth conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the position that would become his most important and enduring musical relationship and that he would hold until his retirement in 1949.

The demands of music directorship proved more exacting than freelance life, with its attendant musical sovereignty, that Koussevitzky had until now enjoyed. Preparing a few dozen different programmes and conducting more than one hundred concerts in a 30-week season was an entirely new – and initially onerous – challenge.

He quickly set about rebuilding the orchestra to match his vision, mercilessly hiring and firing musicians – 17 were culled in his first season. He soon presided over an ensemble that the New York Times critic Olin Downes characterised as ‘an orchestra that is without a superior if it has an equal in this country, a band that Mr Koussevitzky has brought to unique flexibility, sensitivity and virtuosity’.

Caricature of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky, 1936

(l–r) Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein at Tanglewood with their mentor Serge Koussevitzky

CARTOON COURTESY OF ROBERT RIPLEY/BSO. TANGLEWOOD PHOTO RUTH ORKIN, BSO ARCHIVES

Koussevitzky’s programming at the Boston Symphony was always ambitious and enterprising, and it is difficult to think of any other music director or conductor with as prolific a track record of commissioning and promoting new music. This uncommon emphasis was a particular characteristic of Koussevitzky’s programming, but he was also uniquely creative in the presentation of standard repertoire. He would often devote whole series of concerts to single composers, in the manner of mini festivals.

In 1927, for example, he programmed a Beethoven festival, including the complete cycle of symphonies, to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of Beethoven’s death. The centenary of the birth of Brahms was similarly observed in 1933, and he also presented a Tchaikovsky festival during the same 1933–34 season. Koussevitzky performed the first complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies in the US (1932–33). He was also offered the privilege of conducting the world premiere of Sibelius’s Eighth Symphony, before it subsequently transpired that Sibelius had destroyed the score.

Koussevitzky related a story to friends about rehearsing one of Sibelius’s new works, according to Moses Smith in his book Koussevitzky. Convinced that a certain part of the music would benefit from a different choice of tempo but unwilling to disobey the composer’s instructions, he cabled Sibelius in Finland. The reply came back, ‘Play it as you feel it.’ Koussevitzky’s devotion to Sibelius’s music was formally recognised in April 1931 when he received the Cross of the Finnish Order of the White Rose.

It would be difficult to overstate the enormous debt of gratitude the musical world owes to Koussevitzky for his patronage of so many composers, and the resulting musical masterpieces that now form a treasured part of the classical canon. Ravel’s iconic orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra are two of Koussevitzky’s best-known commissions, but there are many more: Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto, Barber’s violin and cello concertos and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms are just a few.

Koussevitzky exercised a zealous commitment to promoting American music, and he loyally encouraged young and developing talent. Aaron Copland is but one example of a young composer who benefited from Koussevitzky’s generosity. Even though the first performance of 24-year-old Copland’s Symphony for Orchestra and Organ (later reworked as the First Symphony) had a lukewarm reception. Koussevitzky’s faith in the young composer did not waver, and he commissioned Copland to write another work for a League of Composers event. The result was Music for the Theatre, arguably one of Copland’s finest compositions.

Koussevitzky presented more than 150 compositions by American composers during his tenure at Boston and, at a time when recording was still an expensive pursuit, he methodically set about accumulating an unprecedentedly large discography, much of it still available. These efforts did not go unnoticed and in addition to being granted American citizenship in 1941, he received a string of honorary degrees and awards including doctorates from Brown University in 1926 and Harvard in 1928. He used his title, Dr Koussevitzky, with pride.

A TRIBUTE TO NATALYA

When Koussevitzky’s wife Natalya died in 1942, he created the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in her honour, with the aim of assisting composers by commissioning new compositions and underwriting the cost of their performances.

Benjamin Britten was one of the earliest beneficiaries of the foundation, which commissioned his opera Peter Grimes. Other important works enabled by the foundation include Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphonie, Milhaud’s Second Symphony, Stravinsky’s Ode and Copland’s Third Symphony.

The Berkshire (now Tanglewood) Music Center, alongside the Tanglewood Festival, was central to Koussevitzky’s vision as an educator; he believed that ‘so long as culture and art exist, there is hope for humanity.’ He was director of the Berkshire Centre and taught conducting as well as giving lectures and leading the student orchestra. In 1940, the centre’s first year of operation, it received 600 applications. Hindemith and Copland taught composition, Herbert Graf gave classes in operatic interpretation, Olin Downes lectured on musical history, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra gave instrumental lessons.

Students took turns conducting, with two pianists playing reductions of the orchestral scores. They were surrounded by mirrors, to see themselves as others might see them, and a ballet master was also engaged to teach students how to be elegant on the podium. The system of score reading and study that Koussevitzky had designed for himself, one born out of necessity, and the very same that he employed in his conducting classes has endured to this day.

Natalya and Serge Koussevitzky pictured in Life magazine, 1940

BERNSTEIN REVEALED THAT KOUSSEVITZKY IMPARTED TO HIM THE FEELING OF PLAYING THE ORCHESTRA AS ONE PLAYS AN INSTRUMENT

Leonard Bernstein, Koussevitzky’s most illustrious protégé, revealed that he owed everything to him and that it was Koussevitzky who imparted to him the feeling of playing the orchestra as one plays an instrument. Musicians who performed under Bernstein suggest that he had absorbed the gestures, mannerisms and spirit of Koussevitzky’s conducting.

In 1947 he became the first BSO conductor to be given the title Music Director. The same year, he married his late wife’s niece Olga Naumova (right), who had initially been hired as his secretary. Olga continued to promote Koussevitzky’s legacy after his death in Boston in 1951.

Although Koussevitzky enjoyed a brilliant career as a double bass virtuoso, publisher and patron of composers, it is as a conductor that he will be best remembered. His legacy lives on through the numerous recordings he made, the countless works he commissioned, the composers he championed, the musicians he mentored, and the continued pioneering work of his Koussevitzky Foundation.

MAGAZINE PHOTO BSO. NAUMOVA PHOTO HEINZ WEISSENSTEIN (WHITESTONE PHOTO)/BSO