Hermann Scherchen

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Hermann Scherchen (June 21, 1891 – June 12, 1966) was a German conductor.

Born in Berlin, he conducted in Riga from 1914 to 1916 and in Konigsberg from 1928 to 1933, after which he left Germany in protest at the Nazi regime and worked in Switzerland.

Making his debut with Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, he was a champion of 20th century composers such as Richard Strauss, Webern, Berg and Varèse, and actively promoted the work of younger contemporary composers including Iannis Xenakis and Luigi Nono.

He was the teacher of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and contributed to the libretto of Hartmann's opera Simplicius Simplicissimus.

He is probably best known for his orchestral arrangement (and recording) of Johann Sebastian Bach's Art of Fugue. Another notable achievement is his 1958 recording of Beethoven's Eroica symphony for the Westminster label (subsequently reissued on compact disk), containing what is still (as of 2006) the fastest first movement ever recorded and the closest to the Beethoven's metronome mark. [1] [2] His 1953 "Lehrbuch des Dirigierens" ("Treatise on Conducting" ISBN 3-7957-2780-4) is a standard textbook. And his recorded repertoire was extremely wide, ranging from Vivaldi to Reinhold Glière.

He died in Florence. He is survived by a number of children, including Wulff Scherchen. Wulff's six year relationship with Benjamin Britten started when he was age thirteen. John Bridcut descibes the passionate exchanges of letters between the famous composer and the young boy in Britten's Children.

His daughter, Myriam Scherchen, runs a record label Tahra which produces historic recordings on CD famous conductors, including Scherchen himself.