Protected: From the Archives:
Adolf Busch
Timeline
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Recordings
Adolf Busch left a particularly rich legacy of recordings as a solo violinist, as first violin of the Busch Quartet and as leader of the Busch Chamber Players. The small selection below includes some of the best known of these recordings, which continue to serve as a model for all succeeding generations. The Schubert Fantasy (recorded in 1931) documents the treasurable partnership with Rudolf Serkin, while the Beethoven and Schubert quartet recordings (dating from 1937 and 1938) capture the Busch Quartet in its heyday. The recording of the Busch Violin Sonata No. 2 (again with Rudolf Serkin) is of the work’s premiere at the Library of Congress in December 1946.
We have also included a sampling of Busch’s life and work as a prolific composer, with works ranging from the 1920s (the Five Prelude and Fugues. Op. 36 as well as the Divertimento for 13 Instruments, Op. 36) to the 1940s (the Romanze for clarinet and strings, Op. 53d and the Divertimento for wind trio, Op. 62b), the latter works written during Busch’s American years just prior to the founding of Marlboro Music.
In addition to the complete recordings with the Busch Quartet (issued by Warner Classics in 2015 as a 16-CD set), contemporary listeners can enjoy several live performances of Busch’s music at Marlboro (1961-82), released on the Pristine Classical label, along with some 10 albums of Busch’s chamber music and orchestral performances.
Gallery
Click any of the pictures below to view an enlarged version complete with additional quotes in the captions.
!["[Marlboro was] the greatest success for all concerned, since music was made communally morning to evening—purely for pleasure—in the most varied combinations," said Busch. "He was always eager to talk about music, and ready to play anything just for the fun of it," added Marlboro co-founder Louis Moyse. | Marlboro Music founders Marcel Moyse, Louis Moyse, Rudolf Serkin, Blanche Moyse, Adolf Busch, and Hermann Busch, with Nathan Chaikin (second from left) in 1951.](https://www.marlboromusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Marlboro-Music-Founders.jpg)
!["I do believe that ensemble playing offers better opportunities for deepening the purely musical approach [than solo playing]," Busch wrote to his brother-in-law Otto Grüters after a Quartet performance. "Playing interestingly is nothing—anyone can do that; but playing rightly [richtig], as we can do, no one else can do that—not even us." | The Busch Quartet in the 1930s.](https://www.marlboromusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BSQ.jpg)
!["Here [in the U.S.], just as much as anywhere else, the public yearns for good music and good art, and is happy about concerts with good programs. So the work that we do here—a few serious artists, Rudi and I, the quartet, my little orchestra, which I have once again established—is very satisfying, for the audiences are on our side." —Adolf Busch, in a letter to his niece, May Fahrländer, in 1942 | Drawing of Adolf Busch and Rudolf Serkin by Hilda Wiener, c. 1935.](https://www.marlboromusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/rudolf-serkin-and-adolf-busch-by-hilda-wiener-01e24a.jpg)
![Busch developed into a "remarkable phenomenon" as a composer, Karl Straube, the iconic German organist, once told conductor Siegmund von Hausegger. “It is our duty to support him as a composer—who is completely outside of the party system—because in this capacity he is one of the quiet ones in the country.” Writing about the German premiere of Busch’s Symphony in E Minor, Op. 39 in 1928, critic Werner Wesselhoeft declared, “What first and foremost captivates is the elemental power of expression, not only in terms of dynamics and rhythm, but rather in the naturalness of feeling... With Busch one has [...] the conviction that his work is absolutely honest."](https://www.marlboromusic.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/composer.jpg)
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