RIP Nick Busch, a great horn player 1939 - 2013

[Nick Armstrong]

I was very sad to see this news. His magnificent (subsequently restored) solo on the Barbirolli Mahler 5 was one of my entry points into classical music...

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/obituary-nicholas-busch-longtime-london-philharmonic-orchestra-principal-horn

[salymap]

Good morning Caliban. Would it be possible to put the comments from the threads Recording Gaffs [on CD review] and recently on HS's Horn thread on this.?

There is also alink to Nick Busch by Ams 51 on Recording Gaffs.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh thanks saly, good morning to you too.

I was surprised that I appeared to be the first one mentioning this very sad news, given our active horn community here... Having been away I hadn't seen the various tributes embedded elsewhere. Here they are, so they are all in one place (as well as still in context in the original threads):

Forgive me if this has been marked in another thread, but Nicholas Busch former LPO principal horn for many years, died last Wednesday at the age of 73. He'll be remembered for many things - I've always had a soft spot for his Britten Serenade (with Ian Partridge) and the Strauss Last Songs (Lucia Popp/Tennstedt). There's also a nice story of him "returning to the scene of the crime" to do a patch in the Barbirolli Mahler 5 - years after the event
. R.I P.

I have just heard the desperately sad news that the legendary horn player NICHOLAS BUSCH formerly of the LPO, New Philharmonia and Philharmonia orchestras, died very suddenly yesterday.
R.I.P.
Apparently there is a tribute on the Norman Lebrecht website somewhere but so far I haven't found it. There is this, though|:
http://horncups.com/forums/viewtopic...bdc433aa2a3e7a

Very sad news indeed waldhorn.

Here's the piece that I think you mean

http://www.christopherparkes.com/page2/page3/index.html

Nick was a fine hornplayer. 100% reliable and admired by his colleagues for his quiet efficiency.

A terrible shock for his wife Maggie and I extend my deepest sympathy.

There but for the Grace of God ...

RIP Nick. You leave behind much for us to remember you by.

HS

Sad news, indeed.

[BBMmk2]

To my ignorance, I have never heard this horn player by name but have heard the horn soli that he would have played in the years that he was a player in the LPO. A great player and would sadly be missed.

[Gordon]

In this piece:

http://www.christopherparkes.com/page2/page3/index.html

NB mentions Alan Civil going haywire. What's that story?

[Hornspieler]

In this piece:

NB mentions Alan Civil going haywire. What's that story?

Let sleeping dogs lie - and remember people for their achievements.

HS

[Tony Halstead]

Let sleeping dogs lie - and remember people for their achievements.

HS

Yes, heartily seconded, HS!

[slarty]

Thanks for providing the link to the interview with Nic Busch, it brought back many memories. and thanks for allowing a retired string player to join your thread.

[Gordon]

Let sleeping dogs lie - and remember people for their achievements.

HS

Ah!! and Waldhorn too, so whatever it was is best forgotten. He was a wonderful player too - what an act to have to follow though in September '57. Wasn't he the one that played that nice little cameo on the Beatles' For No One?

Here's a little anecdote that made me smile:

Once on a train bound for Leeds he [AS] sat opposite a young girl who was wearing headphones from which hissed a sound unacceptable for a long journey. When asked to turn the volume down she refused, adding that it was a free country. Alan proceeded to take his horn from its case and to play Mozart loudly. The girl then left the carriage to the applause of the other occupants.

PS I see that AS recorded the Mozarts at least 3 times [Klemperer, Kempe and Marriner] and did the horn parts in Brandenburg 1 for Karajan!! It seems that K did try to get him for Berlin in the early 60s - I suppose that he then had to make do with Gerd Seifert

[LaurieWatt]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Oh thanks saly, good morning to you too.

I was surprised that I appeared to be the first one mentioning this very sad news, given our active horn community here... Having been away I hadn't seen the various tributes embedded elsewhere.

One cannot have too many threads for this legend among principal horns. Caliban has asked me to offer for this forum what I put on Facebook after Nick's funeral on Tuesday. So here it is:

"What a wonderful send off for our much lamented and just late Nick Busch; for those not there we all met at the Arbory Trusts woodland burial site in Barton just west if Cambridge (http://www.arborytrust.org/location.htm) and gave him a great send off. A humanist parting and what a delightful way to do it. In a cardboard box too which he had always wanted - quite a grand cardboard box actually and we all wrote or stuck messages on it. They played September from the Four Last Songs sung by Lucia Popp and conducted by Klaus Tennstedt with Nick's utterly sublime horn solo [which caps one of the finest orchestral accompaniments to these wonderful songs by any orchestra], also Annie Lennox in To the West from Lord of the Rings, again with a very sweet understated accompaniment by himself, and also something else [rock/pop] quite fun which I do not know and wasn't sure why they played it, none the worse for that however! What a day. Goodbye, Nick, goodbye my very good friend."

The sun was shining too to join in the celebrations of his life

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thank you, Laurie.

[amateur51]

One cannot have too many threads for this legend among principal horns. Caliban has asked me to offer for this forum what I put on Facebook after Nick's funeral on Tuesday. So here it is:

"What a wonderful send off for our much lamented and just late Nick Busch; for those not there we all met at the Arbory Trusts woodland burial site in Barton just west if Cambridge (http://www.arborytrust.org/location.htm) and gave him a great send off. A humanist parting and what a delightful way to do it. In a cardboard box too which he had always wanted - quite a grand cardboard box actually and we all wrote or stuck messages on it. They played September from the Four Last Songs sung by Lucia Popp and conducted by Klaus Tennstedt with Nick's utterly sublime horn solo [which caps one of the finest orchestral accompaniments to these wonderful songs by any orchestra], also Annie Lennox in To the West from Lord of the Rings, again with a very sweet understated accompaniment by himself, and also something else [rock/pop] quite fun which I do not know and wasn't sure why they played it, none the worse for that however! What a day. Goodbye, Nick, goodbye my very good friend."

The sun was shining too to join in the celebrations of his life

Thanks for this Laurie