Hans Knappertsbusch

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Hans Knappertsbusch (March 12, 1888 - October 25, 1965) German conductor born in Elberfeld (present-day Wuppertal), best known for his performances of the music of Richard Wagner, Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss.

Knappertsbusch studied philosophy at Bonn University and conducting at the Cologne Conservatory with Steinbach. For a few summers he assisted Siegfried Wagner and Hans Richter at Bayreuth. He began his career with conducting jobs in Elberfeld (1913–1918), Leipzig (1918–1919) and Dessau (1919–1922). When Bruno Walter left Munich for New York, Knappertsbusch succeeded him as General Music Director of the Bavarian State Opera. He incurred the wrath of Goebbels by asking a German diplomat in the Netherlands whether he was a "Muss-Nazi" (someone who was forced to join the Nazi Party for career reasons): as a result his Munich contract was revoked ^[1]. In the late 1930s he went to Vienna to conduct at the Wiener Staatsoper, thus ignoring the Nazis' policy of not allowing German artists to work in Austria. At the same time he became one of the emerging artists of the Salzburg Festival. Knappertsbusch continued to appear in Vienna and Salzburg during the German occupation of Austria. When World War II ended, he returned to Munich, but continued to guest conduct in Vienna, as well as to make appearances at the Bayreuth Festival. He hardly toured outside the German speaking world. He disliked long rehearsals, and was sometimes accused of laziness.

He died in Munich, before the advent of the compact disc, but many of his recordings have been released on CD.

Knappertsbusch was one of the favorite conductors of the Wiener Philharmoniker, leading the orchestra in Vienna, Salzburg and on tour abroad.

Knappertsbusch's 1951 and 1962 recordings of Parsifal are generally considered definitive of that work.

[edit] Principal conducting appointments

Preceded by Bruno Walter	General Music Director, Bavarian State Opera 1922–1935	Succeeded by Clemens Krauss
Preceded by Clemens Krauss	General Music Director, Bavarian State Opera 1945	Succeeded by Georg Solti