Aylmer Buesst

Biography

Aylmer Wilhelmy Buesst and Helen Violette Buesst (née Pett). His brothers were Victor Augustine (1885-1960; a composer), and Tristan Noël Marchand (1894-1982; a soldier, barrister and collector of Australiana). The Buesst family had migrated in the 1870s from Staffordshire in England, "buesst" being an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "stout". Nevertheless, his mother later pretended the name was German, and sometimes added an umlaut (Büesst) to make it appear so.

He studied the violin in Melbourne, where he was celebrated as a prodigy. During the 1890s the visiting virtuoso Joseph Joachim noticed him, and took him to Breslau to study with him. He had further studies at the Breslau Conservatory, then with César Thomson in Brussels and August Wilhelmj in London. His music studies continued at the Leipzig Conservatory, including conducting studies with Arthur Nikisch.

He married Vaanda Heiliger in about 1908. They had two daughters, Ysolde and Victorine. In 1911 he was invited to conduct the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, England. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, he was imprisoned in Strangeways Prison as an enemy alien in the belief that he was a German, since he spoke German fluently, had developed a German-sounding English accent from his years of study on the European continent, and had also adopted the umlaut when writing his surname. He enlisted the aid of a friend on the outside, Sir Gerald Woods Wollaston (a future Garter Principal King of Arms 1930-1944) in researching his ancestry, to prove that he was of purely English stock. Wollaston was able to secure his release after ten months. In the process, Wollaston had a grant of arms organised for Buesst. Ironically, due to his excellent German, Buesst (who had quickly dropped the umlaut) was then used in interrogating captured German officers and generally helping with translations throughout the remainder of the war.

Aylmer Buesst conducted the Moody-Manners Opera Company, the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company,

His book Richard Wagner's The Nibelung's Ring: An Act By Act Guide to the Plot and Music was published in 1932, and had a second edition in 1952.

In 1933 he was appointed Assistant Music Director for the BBC until 1936. He led the premiere performance of Béla Bartók's Cantata Profana, in a radio broadcast from London on 25 May 1934. He led the Scottish Orchestra 1939-40.

He held teaching posts at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. His students included the composers Buxton Orr and Imogen Holst, the conductors George Weldon, Robert Jenner, and Thomas Loten, and the tenor Ian Partridge.

He was President of the St Albans Orchestral Society, and his daughter Jill was a pianist.

He died in January 1970, aged 86.

Recordings

Aylmer Buesst made recordings with Richard Crooks and Heddle Nash.

He made only the third recording of Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana, with the BNOC in 1927. The principal singers were Heddle Nash, Justine Griffiths, Harold Williams, Buesst's wife May Blyth, and Marjorie Parry (then John Barbirolli's wife). The recording has been released on CD, paired with Eugene Goossens conducting Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. This release has received a number of glowing reviews.

References

Sources

• Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Eric Blom, 5th ed, 1954, Vol. I, p. 1003

References

1. [http://www.societies.cam.ac.uk/cuhags/escutcheon/7.3_easter_2002.pdf The Escutcheon, Journal of the Cambridge University Heraldic and Genealogical Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, Easter Term 2002]{{dead link. (October 2016)
2. was born in 1883 in [[Melbourne]], the son of William Augustus Buesst (1846–1935)[http://www3.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe-80/t1-g-t3.html The LaTrobe Journal, No. 80, Spring 2007]
3. link. (11 April 2011)
4. [http://www.answers.com/topic/aylmer-buesst Answers.com]
5. "Bikwil".
6. [http://www.universaledition.com/Bela-Bartok/composers-and-works/composer/38/work/1445 Universal Edition]
7. [http://www.musicweb-international.com/orr/obit.htm Music Web International: Obituaries for Buxton Orr]
8. [http://www.courtlanemusic.com/imogenholst/imogen-holst-biography.html Imogen Holst.com] {{webarchive. link. (30 August 2010 (his name is misspelt as "Elme Buesst"))
9. [http://www.naxos.com/person/George_Weldon/30350.htm Naxos]
10. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080329062641/http://www.nailseaconcertorchestra.org.uk/index.php?pageNo=504 Nailsea Concert Orchestra]
11. [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/helen.begley/about.html Dacorum Symphony Orchestra] {{webarchive. link. (25 October 2012)
12. [http://www.classicalarchives.com/artist/10792.html#tv=about Classical Archives]
13. [http://www.saso.org.uk/history.php 75 Years of the St Albans Symphony Orchestra] {{webarchive. link. (5 October 2011)
14. This was the first complete opera recording ever made in England using the electric process.[http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/w/56196/Pietro-Mascagni-Cavalleria-Rusticana/3 Presto Classical]
15. [http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=127798 ArkivMusic]
16. [http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jan06/Mascagni_Cav_Pag_27805.htm Music Web International]