{{Short description|Czech-born British conductor and pianist}} {{distinguish|Walter Süskind}} {{Use British English|date=November 2017}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}} [[File:Aankomst dirigent Walter Susskind op Schiphol. Hij zal het Concertgebouworkest d, Bestanddeelnr 904-2813.jpg|thumb|Walter Susskind (1950)]] '''Jan Walter Susskind''' (1 May 1913 – 25 March 1980) was a Czech-born British conductor, teacher and pianist. He began his career in his native Prague and travelled to London in March 1939 when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia. He worked for substantial periods in Australia, Canada and the United States, as a conductor and teacher.

==Biography== Süsskind was born in Prague.<ref name=grove>[[Richard Bernas|Bernas, Richard]] and Ruth B Hilton. [http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/27150 "Susskind, Walter"], [[Grove Music Online]], Oxford University Press. Retrieved 27 June 2014 {{subscription required}}</ref> His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher.<ref name=gram/> At the State Conservatorium he studied under the composer [[Josef Suk (composer)|Josef Suk]], the son-in-law of [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]].<ref name=gram/> He later studied conducting under [[George Szell]],<ref name=gram/> and became Szell's assistant at the German Opera, Prague, making his conducting debut there with ''[[La traviata]]'';<ref name=grove/> early in his career, he was often known as H. W. Süsskind (H for Hans or Hanuš).{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} His younger brother, [[Charles Susskind]], became a [[bioengineering]] professor and technological historian.<ref name="UCBerkeley">{{cite press release |title=Charles Susskind, UC Berkeley professor emeritus and co-founder of campus bioengineering program, dies at 82 |url=https://newsarchive.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/06/24_susskind.shtml |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |date=June 24, 2004 |access-date=January 23, 2026 |author=Sarah Yang}}</ref>

Susskind was giving a piano recital in Amsterdam in March 1939 when [[Occupation of Czechoslovakia (1938–1945)|Germany occupied Czechoslovakia]], and his mother advised him not to return home. (She was later interned in [[Theresienstadt]] but survived the war.<ref name=gram/>) With the help of a British journalist and consular officials, he arrived in Britain as a refugee.<ref name=gram/> He formed the Czech Trio, a [[Musical ensemble|chamber ensemble]] in which he was the pianist. Encouraged by [[Jan Masaryk]], the Czech ambassador in London, the trio obtained many engagements.<ref name=gram/>

In 1942 Susskind joined the [[Carl Rosa Opera Company]] as a conductor, working with singers such as [[Heddle Nash]] and [[Joan Hammond]],<ref name=grove/><ref name=gram/> and married (1943-1953) the British cellist [[Eleanor Catherine Warren]].<ref name=obitelen>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1500294/Eleanor-Warren.html "Eleanor Warren obituary"], ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 10 October 2005. Accessed 6 October 2019.</ref> In 1944 he made his first recording for [[Walter Legge]] of [[EMI]], conducting Liu's arias from ''[[Turandot]]'' with Hammond.<ref name=gram />

After the war, Susskind became a naturalised British citizen, and though he spent much of his subsequent career outside Britain, he said he would never dream of giving up his British citizenship.<ref name=gram>"Walter Susskind", ''[[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]'', April 1972, pp. 1693–1694</ref>

Susskind's first appointment as musical director was to the [[Royal Scottish National Orchestra|Scottish Orchestra]], where he served from 1946 to 1952.<ref name=grove/> He and his wife divorced in 1953.<ref name=obitelen/> From 1953 to 1955 he was the conductor of the [[Melbourne Symphony Orchestra]] (then known as the Victorian Symphony Orchestra).<ref name=grove/> After free-lancing in Israel and South America he was appointed to head the [[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]] (TSO) from 1956 to 1965.<ref name=grove/><ref name=gram/>

In 1960 he founded the [[National Youth Orchestra of Canada]].<ref name=grove/> In 1962 he gave the World premiere of the Four Epigrams for Symphony Orchestra by [[Rudi Martinus van Dijk]] with the CBC Symphony as part of the CBC's National School Broadcast series Finding Out about Music. While with the TSO he taught conducting at [[The Royal Conservatory of Music]] where among his pupils were [[Milton Barnes (composer)|Milton Barnes]] and [[Rudy Toth]].{{citation needed|date=June 2014}} As he was leaving his post at the TSO, he was featured in a [[CFTO-DT|CFTO]] television special, "Inside the Toronto Symphony", produced and directed by [[Peter Macfarlane]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=1965-04-19 |title=RPM - Records, Promotion, Music - "On The Air" (page 7) |url=https://www.worldradiohistory.com/CANADA/RPM/60s/1965/RPM-1965-04-19.pdf |access-date=2025-02-04 |website=World Radio History}}</ref>

From 1968 to 1975 he was conductor of the [[St. Louis Symphony Orchestra]] with which he made more than 200 recordings.<ref name=grove/> During his seven-year tenure with St. Louis, he taught across the Mississippi River at [[Southern Illinois University Edwardsville]]. He was also closely involved with the [[Mississippi River Festival]], an annually recurring outdoors [[Crossover music|crossover]] concert series organised by the local university.

Susskind served as artistic advisor of the [[Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra]] from 1978 until his death in 1980.

On May 3, 1971, Susskind returned to the [[New York City Opera]] to conduct [[Leoš Janáček]]'s ''[[The Makropulos Affair (opera)|Makropulos Case]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Walter Susskind's Life in Music|last=Freed|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Freed|date=April 6, 1980|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>

Susskind died in Berkeley, California, at the age of 66.<ref name=grove/> His personal archives document his career as a conductor, piano accompanist and avant-garde composer. The BBC Radio 3 program ''Music Matters'' broadcast 29 Jan. 2022 an interview with Susskind's widow Janis, in the process of transferring these materials to the Exilarte Centre, University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0013zyh | title=Music Matters - Andreas Ottensamer, Sarah Kirby, Walter Susskind - BBC Sounds }}</ref>

==Discography (selection)== {{external media |float=center |width=270px |audio1=You may hear Walter Susskind with [[Glenn Gould]] and the [[CBC Symphony Orchestra]] in: <br> [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]'s: Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491 in 1962 <br> [https://archive.org/details/lp_piano-concerto-op-42-piano-concerto-no-24_glenn-gould-cbc-symphony-orchestra-robert/disc1/02.01.+Concerto+For+Piano+And+Orchestra+Op.+42.mp3'''Here on Archive.org''']}}

Recordings include:

* [[Béla Bartók|Bartók]] – ''[[Bluebeard's Castle]]'', Op. 11, Sz.48 ([[Judith Hellwig]]; Endre Koréh; Ernö Lorsy); New Symphony Orchestra * [[Max Bruch|Bruch]] – [[Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch)|Violin Concerto in G minor]], Op. 26 ([[Yehudi Menuhin]], violin; [[Philharmonia Orchestra]]) * [[Antonín Dvořák|Dvořák]] – [[Cello Concerto (Dvořák)|Cello Concerto]] in B minor, Op. 104 ([[Zara Nelsova]], cello; [[Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra]]) * Dvorak – [[Piano Concerto (Dvořák)|Piano Concerto in G minor]], Op. 33 ([[Rudolf Firkušný]], piano; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Dvorak – [[Violin Concerto (Dvořák)|Violin Concerto in A minor]], Op. 53 ([[Ruggiero Ricci]], violin; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Dvorak – [[Romance in F minor (Dvořák)|Romance for Violin and Orchestra in F minor]], Op. 11 (Ruggiero Ricci, violin; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Dvorak – Mazurek for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 49 (Ruggiero Ricci, violin; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Dvorak – ''Silent Woods (Waldesruhe)'' for Cello & Orchestra, Op. 68 (Zara Nelsova, cello; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Dvorak – Rondo in G minor for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 68 (Zara Nelsova, cello; Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * Handel – ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]'' (London Philharmonic Orchestra) * [[Gustav Holst|Holst]] – ''[[The Planets]]'' (Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] – Motet "[[Exsultate, jubilate]]", K. 165 ([[Elisabeth Schwarzkopf]], soprano; Philharmonia Orchestra) * Mozart – [[Piano Concerto No. 20 (Mozart)|Piano Concerto No 20]], K. 466 ([[Artur Schnabel]], piano; Philharmonia Orchestra) * Mozart – [[Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart)|Piano Concerto No 24]], K. 491 (Artur Schnabel; Philharmonia Orchestra) * Mozart – Piano Concerto No 24, K. 491 ([[Glenn Gould]], piano; [[CBC Symphony Orchestra]]) * [[Sergei Prokofiev|Prokofiev]] – ''[[Chout]]'' ballet suite, Op. 21a (London Symphony Orchestra) * [[Sergei Rachmaninoff|Rachmaninoff]] – [[Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)|Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor]], Op. 30 ([[Leonard Pennario]], piano; Philharmonia Orchestra) * [[Camille Saint-Saens|Saint-Saens]] – [[Cello Concerto No. 1 (Saint-Saens)|Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor]], Op. 33 ([[Pierre Fournier]], cello; Philharmonia Orchestra) * [[Jean Sibelius|Sibelius]] – [[Violin Concerto (Sibelius)|Violin Concerto in D minor]], Op. 47 ([[Ginette Neveu]], violin; Philharmonia Orchestra) * [[Bedřich Smetana|Smetana]] – ''[[Má vlast]]'', Overture and Dances from ''[[The Bartered Bride]]'' (Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra) * [[Richard Strauss]] – ''[[Also sprach Zarathustra]]'' (Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra)

==Notes== {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{Commons category-inline}} * {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q55871}} * [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Susskind-Walter.htm Walter Susskind], bach-cantatas.com

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