Max Hess (horn player)

Max Hess (actually Max Gustav Heß ; born March 1, 1878 in Klingenthal / Sa. , † January 25, 1975 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was a German horn player who worked in Germany and later in the USA . He came from a family based in the Musikwinkel who had been involved in the manufacture and trade of musical instruments for many generations .

Life

Hess studied from 1896 to 1899 at the Leipzig Conservatory with Friedrich Gumpert, first natural horn and then switched to the valve horn .

After completing his training, he began his career as a solo horn player in the Wagner productions of the North German Philharmonic in Rostock and in Frankfurt . He then played in the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne and in the orchestra of the Liszt Association and taught at the Cologne Conservatory .

In 1905 he went to the USA, was first horn player of the Boston Symphony Orchestra until 1913 and founded the Boston Symphonic Horn Quartet , which existed until the First World War . From 1925 to 1937 he was first horn player in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Fritz Reiner and taught at the Cincinnati Conservatory .

Hess was one of the horn players who initially only played the simple F horn and then also used the F / Bb double horn. In 1913 he brought the first double horns, which were already in use in Europe, to the USA. He had a reputation for being a very confident and careful musician.

During the time he was principal horn in the Gürzenich Orchestra, on October 18, 1904, he took part in the first performance of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony conducted by the composer himself .

Web links

• Max Hess on the website of the International Horn Society (IHS)
• Max Hess with documents from his Leipzig studies in french-horn.net