The Lost Generation: Apostel, Kauder, Busch The Orchestra Now & Leon Botstein

• Hugo Kauder (1888 - 1972): Symphony No. 1:
• 1 Symphony No. 1: I. Bewegt 09:05
• 2 Symphony No. 1: II. Sehr mäßig bewegt 08:57
• 3 Symphony No. 1: III. Sehr breit und betragen 11:58
• 4 Symphony No. 1: IV. Ruhig, streng gemessen 10:11
• Hans Erich Apostel (1901 - 1972): Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Theme:
• 5 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Theme: Andante più tosto Allegretto 00:58
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation I:
• 6 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation I: Allegretto 00:59
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation II:
• 7 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation II: Andante cantabile 01:48
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation III:
• 8 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation III: Tagstück, Pastorale 02:43
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation IV:
• 9 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation IV: Vivace 03:10
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation V:
• 10 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation V: Adagio 03:04
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VI:
• 11 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VI: Vivace 03:13
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VII:
• 12 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VII: Nachtstück, in Kubins Manier 03:36
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VIII:
• 13 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation VIII: Andante cantabile 02:07
• Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation IX:
• 14 Variations on a Theme by Haydn: Variation IX: Allegretto 01:51
• Adolf Busch (1891 - 1952): Variations on an Original Theme:
• 15 Variations on an Original Theme 10:19
• Total Runtime 01:13:59

Info for The Lost Generation: Apostel, Kauder, Busch

If you’ve seen the Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro”, you’ve seen and heard The Orchestra Now, the exceptional ensemble that appears in the movie’s Tanglewood Music Festival scene. The Orchestra Now (TŌN), a New York-based graduate-level training orchestra comprised of the most vibrant young musicians from around the globe, was founded by conductor, educator and music historian Leon Botstein, whose insatiable curiosity has resulted in rescuing countless musical works from oblivion. Their first recording for AVIE, “The Lost Generation”, brings together three German-speaking composers who were contemporaries of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, but whose music became supressed by historical events of the 20th century.

In November 2022, Botstein and TŌN gave the US premiere of Hugo Kauder’s Symphony No. 1, a “splendid” work that “made a splash” (New York Classical Review). The largely self-taught Moravian-born composer had a distinguished career in Vienna until he was forced to flee the Nazis and arrived in New York in 1938. The first of Kauder’s five symphonies was dedicated to Alma Mahler. Whilst his musical language is rooted in the tradition of Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler, he forged an individual voice with his ease and flexibility of harmonic and metrical shifts.

German-born, Austrian composer Hans Erich Apostel studied with Schoenberg and Berg. His works incorporated his mentors’ expressionism and 12-tone methods in equal measure. The Nazis deemed Apostel’s music “degenerate”, but he lived out his life in Vienna until his death in 1972. His Variations on a theme by Haydn, performed frequently in the mid-20th century, is an homage to the second movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 103, the “Drum Roll, which itself comprises variations on a theme.

Adolf Busch, one of the most celebrated violinists and chamber musicians of the 20th century, was also a prolific composer. A staunch opponent of Nazism, he left his native Germany, arriving first in Switzerland and eventually the United States in 1939. A late Romantic compositional style imbues his Variations on an Original Theme, originally for piano four hands and presented to his wife as a Christmas present in 1944. Busch’s longtime chamber music partner and son-in-law, the pianist Rudolf Serkin, frequently performed the work with his son Peter, who made this orchestration of his grandfather’s composition, in a familial labor of love.

Maestro Botstein conducted The Orchestra Now with vivacity, accuracy, and commanding expression. Tonight was a marvelous, adventurous delectation of works rarely heard, packaged with a special treat of the New York premiere of Hugo Kauder’s Symphony No. 1. Finally, it was an honor to celebrate the brilliance of composers who kept their creative spirits alive despite the desperate political conditions in their homelands” (Opening Night)

“Kauder symphony proves a compelling rediscovery in Orchestra Now program” (New York Classical Review)

The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
Leon Botstein, conductor

The Orchestra Now (TŌN)
is a group of vibrant young musicians from across the globe who are making orchestral music relevant to 21st-century audiences by sharing their unique personal insights in a welcoming environment. Hand-picked from the world’s leading conservatories—including the Yale School of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Royal Academy of Music, and the Eastman School of Music—the members of TŌN are enlightening curious minds by giving on-stage introductions and demonstrations, writing concert notes from the musicians’ perspective, and having one-on-one discussions with patrons during intermissions.

Conductor, educator, and music historian Leon Botstein, whom The New York Times said “draws rich, expressive playing from the orchestra,” founded TŌN in 2015 as a graduate program at Bard College, where he is also president. TŌN offers both a three-year master’s degree in Curatorial, Critical, and Performance Studies and a two-year advanced certificate in Orchestra Studies. The orchestra’s home base is the Frank Gehry-designed Fisher Center at Bard, where it performs multiple concerts each season and takes part in the annual Bard Music Festival. It also performs regularly at the finest venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and others across NYC and beyond. HuffPost, who has called TŌN’s performances “dramatic and intense,” praises these concerts as “an opportunity to see talented musicians early in their careers.”

The orchestra has performed with many distinguished guest conductors and soloists, including Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Gil Shaham, Fabio Luisi, Joan Tower, Vadim Repin, Hans Graf, Peter Serkin, Naomi Woo, Gerard Schwarz, Tan Dun, and JoAnn Falletta. Among TŌN’s many recordings are albums featuring pianists Piers Lane, Anna Shelest, and Orion Weiss; Buried Alive with baritone Michael Nagy, which includes the first recording in almost 60 years—and only the second recording ever—of Othmar Schoeck’s song-cycle Lebendig begraben; Classics of American Romanticism, featuring the first-ever complete recording of Bristow’s Arcadian Symphony; and the soundtrack to the motion picture Forte. Recordings of TŌN’s live concerts from the Fisher Center can be heard on Classical WMHT-FM and WWFM The Classical Network, and are featured regularly on Performance Today, broadcast nationwide.

Leon Botstein
is founder and music director of The Orchestra Now (TŌN), music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra (ASO), artistic codirector of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, and conductor laureate and principal guest conductor of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (JSO), where he served as music director from 2003 to 2011. He has been guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Mariinsky Theatre, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Taipei Symphony, Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and Sinfónica Juvenil de Caracas in Venezuela, among others. In 2018, he assumed artistic directorship of Campus Grafenegg and Grafenegg Academy in Austria.

Recordings include acclaimed recordings of Othmar Schoeck’s Lebendig begraben with TŌN, Hindemith’s The Long Christmas Dinner with the ASO, a Grammy-nominated recording of Popov’s First Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra, and other various recordings with TŌN, ASO, the London Philharmonic, NDR Orchestra Hamburg, and JSO, among others. He is editor of The Musical Quarterly and author of numerous articles and books, including The Compleat Brahms (Norton), Jefferson’s Children (Doubleday), Judentum und Modernität (Bölau), and Von Beethoven zu Berg (Zsolnay). Honors include Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award; the American Academy of Arts and Letters award; and Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria, for his contributions to music. Other distinctions include the Bruckner Society’s Julio Kilenyi Medal of Honor for his interpretations of that composer’s music, the Leonard Bernstein Award for the Elevation of Music in Society, and Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award. In 2011, he was inducted into the American Philosophical Society.

Booklet for The Lost Generation: Apostel, Kauder, Busch