Rosbaud – The Rarest Recordings

Today the large recording room of the radio station in Baden-Baden bears his name: Hans-Rosbaud Studio. As artistic director of the Rundfunkorchester, Rosbaud (1895 – 1962) had enabled numerous new works of the 20th century to find their way to the listeners, which he had already begun as first Kapellmeister at the Frankfurter Radio (until 1937) with world premieres of Schönberg and Bartok compositions.

He formed the orchestra in Baden-Baden into perhaps the world’s best ensemble for contemporary music. The number of works premiered by Rosbaud and their composers is legendary: Boulez, Dallapiccola, Fortner, C. A. Hartmann, Henze, Honegger, Jolivet, Messiaen, Xenakis. Bernd Alois Zimmermann dedicated his opera “Die Soldaten” to him.

However, a special feat did not take place in Baden-Baden, but in the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk Hamburg, today’s NDR: the concert premiere of the Schönberg opera “Moses and Aron” (1954, staged 1957 in Zurich). It is also part of this extensive Rosbaud documentation.