Max Hess (March 1, 1878 - January 25, 1975) was a noted German
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
player.
Born in
Klingenthal
Klingenthal is a town in the Vogtland region, in Saxony, south-eastern Germany. It is situated directly on the border with the Czech Republic opposite the Czech town of Kraslice, 29 km southeast of Plauen, and 33 km northwest of Karlov ...
,
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
, Hess studied with
Friedrich Gumpert
Friedrich Adolph Gumpert (27 April 1841, Lichtenau (Thüringen) – 31 December 1906, Leipzig) was a German horn player and teacher.
Gumpert received his early musical education in Jena. From 1860 he was a horn player, first in Bad Nauheim, then ...
in Germany from 1896-99. He first played the hand horn before switching to the valved horn. From 1899-1905, he played with the Frankfurt Philharmonic, the
Gürzenich Orchestra in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
(where he played in the premiere performance of
Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony in 1904), and with the Liszt Society.
In 1905, Hess moved to the United States to play with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1925. He then joined the
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cinc ...
, retiring in 1937. He spent the final years of his life in a nursing home near
Boston, Massachusetts.
References
The Horn Society biography Hornplayer.net itemMahler-list item
1878 births
1975 deaths
German classical horn players
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