Music: The Musical Busches

In Manhattan last week the musical woods were full of Busches:

¶ Brother Fritz Busch (citizen of Argentina) conducted Tannhauser at the Metropolitan Opera House and didn’t seem to mind that his first try at Tannhauser fortnight ago had been severely panned (“I never blame the critics because I know my virtues and it does not touch me. I start again like a sportsman.”).

¶Martial Singhej, son-in-law of Fritz (and citizen of France) sang Wolfram in Busch’s first performance of Tannhauser.

¶ Brother Adolf Busch, violinist (citizen of Switzerland), led his Little Symphony through four of Handel’s Concerti Grossi at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his orchestra: wife Frieda (clarinet), daughter Irene (violin), brother Hermann, onetime first cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic (cello).

¶ Pianist Rudolf Serkin, son-in-law of Adolf, rehearsed in Manhattan for a West Coast concert appearance before a European tour in May.

The musical Busches got their bent from their father, a German shepherd who became a violinist and a violin-maker. He started Fritz at the piano and Adolf on a violin when each was four. “We made music all day, from eight in the morning until midnight,” says Fritz. Papa Busch concluded proudly that both Fritz and Adolf had perfect pitch when they identified a locomotive’s whistle as F sharp.

Fritz grew up to be musical director of the Dresden State Opera; Adolf founded the famed Busch Quartet. They all left Germany when Hitler’s first anti-Jewish law went into effect and have never been back—though of all the family only son-in-law Rudolf Serkin is Jewish. Two unmusical Busches are still in Germany. Says Mrs. Adolf: “We don’t even know if they are living, and don’t want to.”

A fourth generation of Busches is on the way—two small Singhers, four small Serkins. The most musical of them is Johnny Serkin, three, born on Beethoven’s birthday, and already learning to draw the bow across his violin. Says Mrs. Adolf: “Nobody is anxious to hurry him. We hate child prodigies.”