Koussevitzky and Singular Soloists

Over his 25-year tenure with the BSO, Serge Koussevitzky was equally at home collaborating with musicians well-established on the world stage—such as Rachmaninoff, Heifetz, Zimbalist, or Piatigorsky—as he was with nurturing early career soloists such as Jesús María Sanromá, Ruth Posselt, Dorothy Maynor, and Lukas Foss. This week’s offerings focus on musicians from both of these camps: young Lukas Foss and the highly esteemed Efrem Zimbalist. 

German-born American pianist, conductor and composer Lukas Foss (1922-2009) spent three summers as a student at the Tanglewood Music Center (1940-1942) and returned to Tanglewood intermittently between 1948-1971 and 1989-1994 to serve on the TMC faculty. In addition, Foss was the BSO’s pianist from 1944 to 1950 and soloed with Koussevitzky and the BSO 26 times. He gave this performance of Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto on the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death (Nov. 4, 1847). In addition to this Nov. 4 performance at Symphony Hall, Foss performed the work at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and Carnegie Hall on Nov. 14 and 15, respectively. Critics responded positively: “Mr. Lukas Foss gave a truly brilliant and spirited performance of Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto, a work full of charm and the spirit of youth…Mr. Foss won a well-deserved ovation for his impeccably fluent work.”  (Alexander Williams, Boston Herald, Nov. 5, 1947). As of 2024, the BSO has never commercially recorded Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto. 

Russian-American violinist Efrem Zimbalist (1889-1985) made his U.S. concert debut with the BSO in 1911, performing the American premiere of the Glazunov Violin Concerto. He performed 10 times with the BSO, under the batons of Max Fiedler, Karl Muck, Pierre Monteux, and Koussevitzky. His 1946 appearances (March 29-31) at Symphony Hall were his last as soloist with the BSO, and both audience and orchestra audibly appreciated his performance: in this recording, applause breaks out after every movement, and an orchestra member close to the microphone exhales upon the conclusion of the second. Zimbalist retired from performance entirely a few years later in 1949, returned briefly in 1952, and retired again for good in 1955. Zimbalist was director of the Curtis Institute of Music from 1941 to 1968; in 1943 he married the school’s founder, Mary Curtis Bok. Koussevitzky and the BSO recorded Brahms' Violin Concerto twice with Jascha Heifetz on the RCA label in 1937 and 1939, but never with Zimbalist.