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Winter 2021 28 28 P A N P I P E S HANS VON BÜLOW: A LIFE AND TIMES by Alan Walker Oxford University Press, 2010 W aving read and thoroughly enjoyed biographies about Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin by noted musicologist Alan Walker, I was eager to read another one. I chose Hans von Bülow: A Life and Times. The chapter synopses enticed me to begin this satisfying account of an extraordinary life. Now that I've finished reading the biography, I highly recommend it to anyone who loves classical music. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the 64 photos in the biography make it even longer, enhancing its actual 510 pages, which are captivating. With grace and respect, the author fills in the personal and professional details of the subject's incredible, tumultuous, and utterly fascinating life. Rather than being exhaustive, this book review is designed to share some facts from the volume to pique interest in a man who for years, in his unqualified pursuit of excellence, endured tremendous physical challenges — even onstage. Who was Hans Guido Freiherr von Bülow (1830-1894)? "He was a renowned concert pianist; a virtuoso orchestral conductor; a respected (and sometimes feared) teacher; an influential editor of works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Chopin, and above all of Beethoven, in the performance of whose music he had no rival; a scourge as a music critic . . .; and last, he was a composer whose music, while it is hardly played today, deserves a better fate than benign neglect." (page 5) Bülow, competent in both Greek and Latin, was quadrilingual. His childhood and adolescence were unhappy, but his musical career — despite his mother's objection to it for years — was brilliant. Franz Liszt once said: "I do not consider him my pupil, but rather my heir and successor." (page 67) Bülow married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Richard Wagner. Throughout the book, the author details these intimate and intricate relationships but on page 145 highlights the salient—and most remarkable—point, namely: Hans von Bülow was detached enough "to distinguish between Wagner the man, whom he despised, and Wagner the musician, whom he revered. His refusal to confuse Art with the artist who created it reveals a sense of discrimination so rare among human beings that we have no hesitation in describing it as one of Bülow's finest achievements." During his first successful concert tour at 23, he was called back for an encore ten times in the Hungarian capital. Throughout his later career, he continued to reward audiences with encores — perhaps one concerto movement or sometimes even full symphonies. He was not merely the first pianist to perform a single-composer recital; he even gave four different all-Beethoven programs on four consecutive evenings. No wonder his legendary photographic memory is undeniable. And under his baton, mind boggling as it still is, all of the Meiningen Court Orchestra musicians were able to play all nine Beethoven symphonies by memory. At age 25, Walter Damrosch (1862-1950) asked Bülow for conducting lessons, a startling idea then since conductors learned their skills independently, but Bülow agreed. Almost a century later, handwritten touching tributes by legendary conductors (including Herbert von Karajan, Georg Solti, Pierre Boulez, Eugene Ormandy, and Lorin Maazel) were compiled in Hans von Bülow As Famous Conductors Saw Him (Musikverlag Hans Sikorski, Hamburg, 1978). The original book at auction and its 1000 published facsimile copies raised sufficient funds to restore his gravesite. Although he was cheated occasionally by swindling concert managers, in general he was paid handsomely for his work. Always true to his character, he championed things he believed worthwhile, often paying out of his own pocket or not accepting remuneration for his services. As soloist in 1875 in Boston, Bülow, the dedicatee, gave the first performance of Piano Concerto in B-flat minor, Opus 23 by Tchaikovsky and had to repeat the Finale. As maestro in 1882, Bülow conducted the first Berlin performance of Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-Flat Major, Opus 83 by Brahms who was the soloist. Two equally incredible debuts in different capacities! Early in his career, he made himself unwelcome in Berlin, but a quarter of a century later, he was adored there. Under Bülow's leadership, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra skyrocketed to its prestige and prominence still enjoyed today. The Eroica Symphony played a significant part in Bülow's career. At one orchestral performance of this under Bülow, Richard Strauss recalls being moved to tears. Bülow programmed the work on both his first concert with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and at his official farewell concert. In Hamburg after Bülow's death, Gustav Mahler conducted this masterpiece in a Three-B memorial concert for the incomparable Bülow, one of the greatest musicians who ever lived. Bülow's autopsy described quite a different medical scenario from misdiagnoses during his lifetime, so it is especially painful to read about both questionable treatments as well as extreme suffering, which he endured heroically both at the piano and on the podium. Thanks to the technology of Thomas Edison, Bülow cut cylinder recordings for phonographs. Sadly today the whereabouts of these treasures continue to be a mystery. Happily, however, there are other non- auditory kinds of resources available—his compositions, transcriptions, and editions, all listed in Appendix II. Included in this narrative are many retorts and anecdotes — witty or biting, jesting or provoking — that evoke a smile or a wince. All in all, in spite of some human failings, under Walker's biographical pen, Bülow remains a musical giant. In actual height, he only came up to the shoulders of Marie Schanzer von Bülow (1857– 1941), his second wife 27 years his junior, but it was she who for almost a half century after his death carried his torch by publishing and editing his work. To the memory of this flame keeper, Alan Walker most fittingly dedicates his book, which he himself described in an interview as the "best book I ever wrote." And as is his practice, he wrote it without using a computer keyboard! — Reviewed by Jayne I. Hanlin REVIEWS

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