Swarowsky, Hans
Swarowsky, Hans
Swarowsky, Hans, noted Austrian conductor and pedagogue; b. Budapest, Sept. 16, 1899; d. Salzburg, Sept. 10, 1975. He studied in Vienna with Schoenberg and Webern, with whom he formed a friendly association; he also was in close relationship with Richard Strauss. He occupied posts as opera conductor in Hamburg (1932), Berlin (1934), and Zürich (1937-40); after conducting the Krakow orch. (1944-45), he was conductor of the Vienna Sym. Orch. (1946-48) and the Graz Opera (1947-50); from 1957 to 1959 he was conductor of the Scottish National Orch. in Glasgow; from 1959, appeared mainly as guest conductor of the Vienna State Opera. He became especially well known as a pedagogue; was head of the conducting class at the Vienna Academy of Music from 1946, where his pupils included Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta. As a conductor, he demonstrated notable command of a large symphonic and operatic repertoire, ranging from Haydn tothe second Viennese School. He was also a highly competent ed. of music by various composers; also tr. a number of Italian librettos into German. M. Huss ed. his book Wahrung der Gestalt (Vienna, 1979).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire