Christopher Fifield's remarkable study explores the personality, life and work of a conductor who influenced and inspired the leading composers, singers and instrumentalists of his day.

Christopher Fifield's remarkable study explores the personality, life and work of a conductor who influenced and inspired the leading composers, singers and instrumentalists of his day.

The Austro-Hungarian Hans Richter (1843-1916) was the first career-conductor to gain international fame. His first appointment was to Budapest, and he went on to dominate music-making in Vienna, Bayreuth, London, Manchester (withthe Hallé Orchestra) and other towns and cities in Britain and Europe between 1865 and 1912. Richter gave first performances of works by Wagner, Brahms, Elgar, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Stanford and Parry and helped to further the careers of Dvorák, Sibelius, Bartók and Glazunov.
Christopher Fifield's remarkable study explores the personality, life and work of a conductor who influenced and inspired the leading composers, singers and instrumentalists of his day. Originally published in 1993, this revised and expanded edition contains extensive new material in the form of Richter's conducting books. Translated and reproduced in full, they detail every one of the 4,351 public performances Richter gave in a professional life spanning 47 years. Drawing on Richter's own diaries, the book also presents his correspondence with many contemporary composers (Wagner in particular) and performers. Fifield's biography of this seminal figure provides a revealing insight into British and European music and concert life during the long nineteenth century.

CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is a conductor, music historian, lecturer and broadcaster.He is the editor and author of theLetters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier andMax Bruch: His Life and Works, both published in new editions by The Boydell Press. He has also writtenIbbs & Tillett - The rise andfall of a Musical Empire andThe German Symphony between Beethoven and Brahms.

1843-1865 Childhood and Years of Study
1866-1867 Tribschen
1868-1869 Munich
1870-1871 Brussels : Tribschen
1871-1874 Budapest
1874-1875 Budapest and Bayreuth
1875 Vienna
1876 Bayreuth
1877 London
1878-1879 Vienna
1879-1880 Friends and Enemies
1880-1881 London and Vienna
1881-1882 Richter and d'Albert
1882 Richter and d'Albert
1882-1883 The Master's Death
1884 More Opera in London
1885-1886 Vienna, London and Birmingham
1887-1888 Return to Bayreuth
1889-1900 Vienna
1897-1900 Richter and Mahler
1889-1890 England
1891-1895 England
1895-1900 England
1890-1899 Bayreuth
1894-1899 Richter's diary
1899-1900 Hallé Orchestra
1900-1902 England
1903-1904 England
1904-1906 England
1906-1908 England
1908-1909 England
1909-1911 England
1911-1914 Retirement
1914-1916 The Last Years
Finale
Hans Richter's Conducting Books
Appendix 1: Works conducted by Hans Richter
Appendix 2: Cities and towns where Richter conducted
Select Bibliography