KOUSSEVITZKY, SERGE

KOUSSEVITZKY, SERGE (1874–1951), conductor. Born in Tver, Russia, he went to Moscow at the age of 17 and entered the double-bass class at the Conservatory because instruction in this instrument was free. He became a virtuoso player, arranged classical works, and wrote solos to augment the double-bass repertoire. After his marriage into a rich family, he went to Berlin, and in 1908 made his first public appearance as a conductor. In 1909 he established the publishing firm of Editions Russes de Musique, which became the pioneer publisher of modern Russian composers, whose works, especially those of Scriabin, he championed in his concerts. Koussevitzky organized an orchestra, gave concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and made summer tours on the Volga River in a specially chartered steamer. After the war he settled in Paris,   founded the Concerts Koussevitzky which gave the first performances of many important works, including the orchestration of Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (1922) which he had commissioned from Ravel. Koussevitzky attained his greatest fame when he went to the U.S. to become musical director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1925. During the ensuing 25 years of his directorship he made the orchestra one of the great orchestras of the world. It became a focus for new music, European and American, overriding the objections of his hitherto conservative subscribers. From 1935 the orchestra gave summer concerts at Tanglewood, Massachusetts, augmented from 1940 by a permanent institution of summer courses, the Berkshire Music Center, of which Koussevitzky was president and which became an important center of American musical life. In 1950 Koussevitzky was persuaded by his pupil, Leonard Bernstein, to go to Israel and conduct the israel philharmonic orchestra in a series of concerts. With Bernstein he also became director of the Israeli orchestra's first American tour in 1950/51. The Koussevitzky Music Foundation was established in 1943 in memory of his first wife, Natalie, to commission new works by composers of all nationalities. It was later directed by her niece Olga who became Koussevitzky's second wife. Among the works commissioned by the foundation were: Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra and Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. Koussevitzky's conducting style was distinguished by its nobility and emotional power, especially in works of the late 19th and 20th centuries; his interpretations of the classical masters were sometimes criticized for what could be described as "personal intervention." He donated his large library of musical scores to the Koussevitzky Collection, which was established at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Lourie, Sergei Koussevitzky and his Epoch (1931); M. Smith, Koussevitzky (Eng., 1947); H. Leichtentritt, Serge Koussevitzky, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New American Music (1946); MGG; Baker, Biog Dict. (Uri (Erich) Toeplitz)