Jascha Horenstein

Richard Strauss - Don Juan
Brahms - Symphony No.2

This important new CD celebrates the art of Jascha Horenstein, considered by many to be one of the finest conductors of the 20th century.

Recorded live at the Montreux Festival in 1966, this is intended as an introductory taster to an enxtended series of live and studio recordings with Horenstein conducting some of the repertoire for which he was known and acclaimed.

Born in Kiev in 1898, he and his family fled Russia in 1905 to escape the revolution and settled in Vienna where Horenstein bagan his career. He made his conducting debut in 1925 with Mahler's First Symphony and by 1928 was assistant in Berlin to Siegfried Ochs. In the same year he also became Music Director of the Dusseldorf Opera.

Like many of his contemporaries, Horenstein left Germany in the 30's at the rise of the Third Reich and eventually settled in the USA in 1939.

Horenstein toured Europe extensively in his latter years, conducting most of the British Orchestras. He died in London in 1973.