SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY

July 2024 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Serge Koussevitzky – the Russian-born double bass virtuoso turned music director, educator and mentor. Fellow double bassist and conductor Leon Bosch examines his hugely influential life

Serge Koussevitzky pictured around 1930

STUDENT PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Serge Koussevitzky was an enigma. His status as a double bass soloist equalled that of his illustrious predecessors Domenico Dragonetti (1763–1846) and Giovanni Bottesini (1821–89). He was also a conductor who commanded the same reverence accorded to Toscanini and Stokowski, a passionate advocate for new music, an esteemed publisher, and a dedicated educator of and mentor to a generation of musicians.

But he also had his detractors. Orchestral musicians, especially those of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, feared and resented his autocratic hiring and firing of musicians; some doubted the integrity of his musical education and his suitability therefore as music director; and he was notoriously also often at loggerheads with music critics.

The occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth provides a convenient opportunity for evaluating his legacy and perhaps coming to a greater understanding of the man himself.

EARLY YEARS

Koussevitzky was born into a musical family in the small town of Vishny-Volochok, approximately 180 miles north-west of Moscow, on 26 July 1874. His father, Alexander Koussevitzky, was a violinist and his mother, Anna Barabeitchik, a pianist. The young Sergey Alexandrovich was a musical child, and learnt to play a number of instruments, including the violin, trumpet and tuba, but with the cello as his primary focus at that time.

At the age of 17, Koussevitzky set off for Moscow to further his musical education. He failed to secure a place at the Moscow Imperial Conservatory, on account of presenting himself too late after the start of term, but he cajoled his way into the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, where the only available scholarships were for trombonist, piccolo player and double bassist. He chose the double bass and made rapid progress under the guidance of his teacher Josef Ramboušek, principal double bassist of the Bolshoi Theatre and professor of double bass at the school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society from 1882 until his death in 1901.

As a 15-year-old student

Koussevitzky practised demonically, much to the annoyance of his roommates, who found him a barnlike loft space where he could practise endlessly without disturbing anyone. His efforts were richly rewarded, however. In 1892, one year after entering the Philharmonic Society school, he was presented to Tchaikovsky as a double bass virtuoso, performing Ramboušek’s arrangement of the Andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet with the composer himself at the piano. And in October 1894, Koussevitzky became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra in Moscow.