Harold Byrns
Encyclopedia
Harold Byrns was a German-American conductor and orchestrator.
He was born Hans Bernstein in Hanover
, Germany
in 1903. His father had formed a chamber music society in Hanover, and he followed in his father's footsteps. He studied with Walter Gieseking
, Erich Kleiber
and Leo Blech
at the Sternschen Konservatorium in Berlin
, and became assistant to Kleiber and Blech. He worked as a conductor in Lübeck
, Oldenburg
, and Berlin (Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper) before emigrating to Italy
in 1933 and then to the United States
in 1936. He changed his name from Hans Bernstein to Harold Byrns because he felt he could not make it in America with a Jewish name. He formed his own chamber orchestra, the Harold Byrns Chamber Orchestra, which was regarded as the American counterpart of the Boyd Neel
String Orchestra. While living in Los Angeles he wrote and orchestrated music for various films.
He arranged the music for Adolphe Adam
's ballet Giselle
for a February 1941 production by Anton Dolin
at the Ballet Theatre on Broadway
.
In 1945 he orchestrated Lerner and Loewe
's musical The Day Before Spring
for Broadway. He was accepted for the role on the recommendation of Maurice Abravanel
, who considered him a great orchestrator.
After the war he returned to Berlin, and he conducted at the Deutsche Oper, Komische Oper, and was a guest with various symphony orchestras, particularly the Hanover and Turin
(RAI) Radio orchestras. He gave Mahler
concerts with the Vienna Symphony and on Italian Radio.
Harold Byrns founded the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony in 1949. In 1950 he premiered George Antheil
's Serenade No. 2.
He was associated with performances of the works of Arnold Schoenberg
and to an extent made his reputation with that composer. He gave the first Los Angeles performance of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Op. 9. In 1949 he conducted the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony in a concert to celebrate Schoenberg's 75th birthday. He performed Moses und Aron
in 1971 with the Deutsche Oper.
On 17 October 1954, Harold Byrns conducted the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
's Symphony in F sharp
, on Austrian radio. (It was described as "poorly rehearsed and performed", and the work would not receive its premiere concert performance until 27 November 1972, in Munich, under the baton of Rudolf Kempe
). That year he also conducted the first performance of Berthold Goldschmidt
's Sinfonietta with the Suisse Romande Orchestra
.
He orchestrated various early works by Gustav Mahler
, including six songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
, which were recorded as part of Giuseppe Sinopoli
's complete Mahler cycle, and which have been described as "skillful and idiomatic". He was a personal friend of Mahler's widow Alma, and he played an important role in making her agree to public performances of Deryck Cooke
's realisation of the 10th Symphony
. She felt it was "a private love letter" from Gustav to her, and refused to even listen to a private studio recording made for her. Byrns persuaded her to listen to the tape, and she gave her immediate approval. For his devotion to Mahler, Byrns was awarded the Kilenyi Mahler Medal of Honor by the Bruckner Society of America.
Harold Byrns made a specialty of orchestrating piano and vocal/piano music. He had a commission from Herbert von Karajan
to orchestrate some piano pieces by Robert Schumann
, and from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
for some Mahler songs for which he also made the English translation. (Fischer-Dieskau and his son both studied conducting with Harold Byrns.) He was responsible for the complete orchestration of Nicolas Nabokov
's opera Love's Labour's Lost
, premiered in Brussels
in 1973. For Otto Klemperer
's debut in Copenhagen
in 1947, he arranged a suite from Henry Purcell
's The Fairy Queen
.
He made various recordings with the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, including the premiere recording of Béla Bartók
's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
and Igor Stravinsky
's Violin Concerto
with Ivry Gitlis
.
Harold Byrns died in Berlin in 1977, and is buried there.
His son was Peter Salm (1919-1990), Professor Emeritus of Literature and German at Case Western Reserve University
in Cleveland, Ohio
and a specialist in the works of Goethe
and other European literary figures.
He was born Hans Bernstein in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1903. His father had formed a chamber music society in Hanover, and he followed in his father's footsteps. He studied with Walter Gieseking
Walter Gieseking
Walter Wilhelm Gieseking was a French-born German pianist and composer.-Biography:Born in Lyon, France, the son of a German doctor and lepidopterist, Gieseking first started playing the piano at the age of four, but without formal instruction...
, Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber
Erich Kleiber was an Austrian conductor.- Biography :Born in Vienna, Kleiber studied in Prague...
and Leo Blech
Leo Blech
Leo Blech was a German opera composer and conductor who is perhaps most famous for his work at the Königliches Schauspielhaus Leo Blech (21 April 1871 – 25 August 1958) was a German opera composer and conductor who is perhaps most famous for his work at the Königliches Schauspielhaus Leo...
at the Sternschen Konservatorium in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and became assistant to Kleiber and Blech. He worked as a conductor in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...
, Oldenburg
Oldenburg
Oldenburg is an independent city in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the western part of the state between the cities of Bremen and Groningen, Netherlands, at the Hunte river. It has a population of 160,279 which makes it the fourth biggest city in Lower Saxony after Hanover, Braunschweig...
, and Berlin (Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper) before emigrating to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
in 1933 and then to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1936. He changed his name from Hans Bernstein to Harold Byrns because he felt he could not make it in America with a Jewish name. He formed his own chamber orchestra, the Harold Byrns Chamber Orchestra, which was regarded as the American counterpart of the Boyd Neel
Boyd Neel
Louis Boyd Neel was an English conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.-Early years:...
String Orchestra. While living in Los Angeles he wrote and orchestrated music for various films.
He arranged the music for Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Adam
Adolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
's ballet Giselle
Giselle
Giselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
for a February 1941 production by Anton Dolin
Anton Dolin
Sir Anton Dolin was an English ballet dancer and choreographer.Dolin was born in Slinfold in Sussex as Sydney Francis Patrick Chippendall Healey-Kay but was generally known as Patrick Kay. He joined Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1921, was a principal there from 1924, and was a principal...
at the Ballet Theatre on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
.
In 1945 he orchestrated Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe
Lerner and Loewe are the duo of lyricist and librettist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe, known primarily for the music and lyrics of some of Broadway's most successful musical shows, including My Fair Lady, Camelot, and Brigadoon....
's musical The Day Before Spring
The Day Before Spring
The Day Before Spring is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.-Productions:The 1945 touring production closed in Chicago after three days due to a crippling coal strike...
for Broadway. He was accepted for the role on the recommendation of Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel
Maurice Abravanel was aSwiss-American Jewish conductor of classical music. He is remembered as the conductor of the Utah Symphony Orchestra for over 30 years.-Life:...
, who considered him a great orchestrator.
After the war he returned to Berlin, and he conducted at the Deutsche Oper, Komische Oper, and was a guest with various symphony orchestras, particularly the Hanover and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
(RAI) Radio orchestras. He gave Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
concerts with the Vienna Symphony and on Italian Radio.
Harold Byrns founded the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony in 1949. In 1950 he premiered George Antheil
George Antheil
George Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
's Serenade No. 2.
He was associated with performances of the works of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
and to an extent made his reputation with that composer. He gave the first Los Angeles performance of Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Op. 9. In 1949 he conducted the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony in a concert to celebrate Schoenberg's 75th birthday. He performed Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
in 1971 with the Deutsche Oper.
On 17 October 1954, Harold Byrns conducted the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...
's Symphony in F sharp
Symphony in F sharp major (Korngold)
The Symphony in F sharp major, Op. 40, is the only symphony written by the 20th-century Austrian composer Erich Wolfgang Korngold, though he also wrote a Sinfonietta, Op. 5, in 1911-12....
, on Austrian radio. (It was described as "poorly rehearsed and performed", and the work would not receive its premiere concert performance until 27 November 1972, in Munich, under the baton of Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe
Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
). That year he also conducted the first performance of Berthold Goldschmidt
Berthold Goldschmidt
Berthold Goldschmidt was a German Jewish composer who spent most of his life in England...
's Sinfonietta with the Suisse Romande Orchestra
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is a Swiss symphony orchestra, based in Geneva at the Victoria Hall...
.
He orchestrated various early works by Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
, including six songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Des Knaben Wunderhorn is a collection of German folk poems edited by Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, and published in Heidelberg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, between 1805 and 1808...
, which were recorded as part of Giuseppe Sinopoli
Giuseppe Sinopoli
-Biography:Sinopoli was born in Venice, Italy, and later studied at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice under Ernesto Rubin de Cervin and at Darmstadt, including being mentored in composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen...
's complete Mahler cycle, and which have been described as "skillful and idiomatic". He was a personal friend of Mahler's widow Alma, and he played an important role in making her agree to public performances of Deryck Cooke
Deryck Cooke
Deryck Cooke was a British musician, musicologist and broadcaster.-Life:Cooke was born in Leicester to a poor and working class family; his father died when he was a child, but his mother was able to afford piano lessons. Cooke acquired a brilliant technique and began to compose...
's realisation of the 10th Symphony
Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 10 by Gustav Mahler was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition. At the time of Mahler's death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not...
. She felt it was "a private love letter" from Gustav to her, and refused to even listen to a private studio recording made for her. Byrns persuaded her to listen to the tape, and she gave her immediate approval. For his devotion to Mahler, Byrns was awarded the Kilenyi Mahler Medal of Honor by the Bruckner Society of America.
Harold Byrns made a specialty of orchestrating piano and vocal/piano music. He had a commission from Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
to orchestrate some piano pieces by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, and from Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau is a retired German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music, one of the most famous lieder performers of the post-war period and "one of the supreme vocal artists of the 20th century"...
for some Mahler songs for which he also made the English translation. (Fischer-Dieskau and his son both studied conducting with Harold Byrns.) He was responsible for the complete orchestration of Nicolas Nabokov
Nicolas Nabokov
Nicolas Nabokov was a Russian-born composer, writer, and cultural figure. He became a U.S. citizen in 1939.-Life:...
's opera Love's Labour's Lost
Love's Labour's Lost (opera)
Love's Labour's Lost is an opera by Nicolas Nabokov, written by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was first performed in Brussels in 1973.The orchestration was by the German-American conductor Harold Byrns....
, premiered in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
in 1973. For Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
's debut in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
in 1947, he arranged a suite from Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
's The Fairy Queen
The Fairy-Queen
The Fairy-Queen is a masque or semi-opera by Henry Purcell; a "Restoration spectacular". The libretto is an anonymous adaptation of William Shakespeare's wedding comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. First performed in 1692, The Fairy-Queen was composed three years before Purcell's death at the age...
.
He made various recordings with the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, including the premiere recording of Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta
Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz. 106, BB 114 is one of the best-known compositions by the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. Commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the score is dated September 7, 1936...
and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
's Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Stravinsky)
Igor Stravinsky's Violin Concerto in D is a neoclassical violin concerto in four movements, composed in the summer of 1931 and premiered on October 23, 1931. It lasts approximately twenty minutes.It was used by George Balanchine as music for two ballets....
with Ivry Gitlis
Ivry Gitlis
Ivry Gitlis is an Israeli violinist and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. He has performed with the world's top orchestras , and many of his recordings are considered classics.-Life:Born in Haifa, Mandate Palestine to Jewish immigrants from Russia,...
.
Harold Byrns died in Berlin in 1977, and is buried there.
His son was Peter Salm (1919-1990), Professor Emeritus of Literature and German at Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private research university located in Cleveland, Ohio, USA...
in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
and a specialist in the works of Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
and other European literary figures.