Vilém Tauský
Encyclopedia
Vilém Tauský CBE was a Czech
conductor and composer.
at the Vienna State Opera under Gustav Mahler
, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall
.
Tauský studied with Leoš Janáček
and later became a repetiteur at the Brno
Opera. His other teachers included Vilém Petrzelka (composition) and Zdeněk Chalabala
(conducting). At the age of nineteen he conducted Puccini
's Turandot
in Brno
on short notice in place of Chalabala, who had become ill. Tauský was of Jewish ancestry, and the rise of the Nazis
forced him to move to France
. He later volunteered for service with the Free Czech Army. He eventually reached the UK after the fall of France and was later awarded a Czech Military Cross, followed by the Czech Order of Merit at the end of the war. He served musical functions in the Czechoslovak Army in exile, as a military band conductor in France. Bohuslav Martinů
composed his Field Mass for Tauský and his regimental band, but the fall of France prevented them from giving the premiere. He continued as a band and choir leader in the UK.
From 1945 to 1949, Tauský was musical director of the Carl Rosa Opera Company
. He was music director of Welsh National Opera
from 1951 to 1956. On 26 December 1953 he became possibly the only conductor to conduct two operas on the same day, with a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck
's Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon at Sadler's Wells and Giuseppe Verdi
's Il trovatore
at Covent Garden in the evening. He was the first foreign conductor to conduct the Band of the Coldstream Guards
in 100 years and was an instructor/adjudicator at Kneller Hall
for some years, as well as an adjudicator at the annual Brass Band competitions. He was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra
from 1956 to 1966. He regularly appeared with this orchestra on the BBC Light Programme
's long-running weekly show Friday Night is Music Night
. Between 1966 and 1992, he was the director of opera
and head of the conducting course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
.
In 1979, Tauský published his memoirs under the title Vilem Tausky Tells his Story, which his wife Peggy Mallett co-authored. That same year, he was honoured as a Freeman of the City of London. In 1981, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE). He and Mallett published the book Leoš Janáček: Leaves from his Life in 1982.
Tauský's compositions include a Symfonietta for orchestra, a Ballade for cello and piano, the Fantasia da Burlesca for violin and orchestra, an oboe concerto (written for Evelyn Rothwell), a harmonia concerto (for Tommy Reilly
), Coventry: A Meditation for Strings, and a Serenade for Strings.
Tauský and Mallett were married from 1948 until her death in 1982; he was stepfather to her two sons. both of whom died before her. He is survived by his companion of his later years, Brenda Rayson.
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
conductor and composer.
Life
Vilém Tauský was from a musical family: his Viennese mother had sung MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
at the Vienna State Opera under 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...
, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall
Leo Fall
Leo Fall was an Austrian composer of operettas.-Life:Born in Olmütz , Leo Fall was taught by his father Moritz Fall , a bandmaster and composer, who settled in Berlin. The younger Fall studied at the Vienna Conservatory before rejoining his father in Berlin...
.
Tauský studied with Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
and later became a repetiteur at the Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
Opera. His other teachers included Vilém Petrzelka (composition) and Zdeněk Chalabala
Zdenek Chalabala
Zdeněk Chalabala was a Czech conductor. He conducted orchestras in Prague, Ostrava, Moscow.In 1924 he founded Slovácká filharmonie. He was chief opera conductor of the Slovak National Theatre, where he produced many Yugoslav and Russian operas. He was also conductor in the National Theatre of Brno...
(conducting). At the age of nineteen he conducted Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
in Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
on short notice in place of Chalabala, who had become ill. Tauský was of Jewish ancestry, and the rise of the Nazis
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
forced him to move to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He later volunteered for service with the Free Czech Army. He eventually reached the UK after the fall of France and was later awarded a Czech Military Cross, followed by the Czech Order of Merit at the end of the war. He served musical functions in the Czechoslovak Army in exile, as a military band conductor in France. Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
composed his Field Mass for Tauský and his regimental band, but the fall of France prevented them from giving the premiere. He continued as a band and choir leader in the UK.
From 1945 to 1949, Tauský was musical director of the Carl Rosa Opera Company
Carl Rosa Opera Company
The Carl Rosa Opera Company was founded in 1873 by Carl August Nicholas Rosa, a German-born musical impresario, to present opera in English in London and the British provinces. The company survived Rosa's death in 1889, and continued to present opera in English on tour until 1960, when it was...
. He was music director of Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera is an opera company founded in Cardiff, Wales in 1943. The WNO tours Wales, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world extensively. Annually, it gives more than 120 performances of eight main stage operas to a combined audience of around 150,000 people...
from 1951 to 1956. On 26 December 1953 he became possibly the only conductor to conduct two operas on the same day, with a performance of Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
's Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon at Sadler's Wells and Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
at Covent Garden in the evening. He was the first foreign conductor to conduct the Band of the Coldstream Guards
Coldstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....
in 100 years and was an instructor/adjudicator at Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall
Kneller Hall is a stately home in the Twickenham area of west London, and takes its name from Sir Godfrey Kneller, court painter to British monarchs from Charles II to George I...
for some years, as well as an adjudicator at the annual Brass Band competitions. He was principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra
BBC Concert Orchestra
The BBC Concert Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London, one of the British Broadcasting Corporation's five radio orchestras. With around fifty players, it is the only one of the five which is not a full-scale symphony orchestra....
from 1956 to 1966. He regularly appeared with this orchestra on the BBC Light Programme
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
's long-running weekly show Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night
Friday Night is Music Night is a long running live BBC radio concert programme featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra, broadcast most Fridays on BBC Radio 2 at 8.00pm. It is the world's longest-running live music radio programme....
. Between 1966 and 1992, he was the director of opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and head of the conducting course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
.
In 1979, Tauský published his memoirs under the title Vilem Tausky Tells his Story, which his wife Peggy Mallett co-authored. That same year, he was honoured as a Freeman of the City of London. In 1981, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE). He and Mallett published the book Leoš Janáček: Leaves from his Life in 1982.
Tauský's compositions include a Symfonietta for orchestra, a Ballade for cello and piano, the Fantasia da Burlesca for violin and orchestra, an oboe concerto (written for Evelyn Rothwell), a harmonia concerto (for Tommy Reilly
Tommy Reilly
Thomas Rundle Reilly MBE was a Canadian classical harmonica player. He began studying violin at eight and began playing harmonica at aged eleven as a member of his father's band...
), Coventry: A Meditation for Strings, and a Serenade for Strings.
Tauský and Mallett were married from 1948 until her death in 1982; he was stepfather to her two sons. both of whom died before her. He is survived by his companion of his later years, Brenda Rayson.