Goossens, Eugene (EN)

Goossens Sir Eugene, *26 May 1893 London, †13 June 1962 Hillingdon (Middlesex), son of Eugène II, English conductor and composer of Belgian origin. In 1903–04, he studied at the Conservatory in Bruges, then at the Liverpool College of Music, and in 1907, he received a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, where he worked under Rivarde (violin), Dykes (piano), Ch. Wood (theory) and Ch. Stanford (composition). In 1912–15, he played violin in the Queens Hall Orchestra. At the same time, from 1912, he was a member first of the Langley-Mukle Quartet, then of the Philharmonic String Quartet he founded. In 1916, he made his debut as an opera conductor with a performance of The Critic by Ch. Stanford and became an assistant to Th. Beecham (until 1920). In 1921, he founded his own orchestra, with which he gave six concerts; among others, he conducted the English premiere of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. His success resulted in him becoming conductor of the Handel Society, succeeding R. Vaughan Williams; in the same year, he led Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, taking turns with G. Fitelberg; in 1926, he again conducted the Ballets Russes during performances in London. In 1923, he went to the United States to become conductor of the newly established Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. From then on, he spent winters in America and summers in England for 23 years. He was conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra from 1931–46; in 1947, he moved to Australia, where he served as director of the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in Sydney (1947–55) and conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. He raised both of these institutions to a very high level, for which he received a knighthood in 1955. In 1956, he returned permanently to England.

During his extensive career, Goossens conducted leading American and English orchestras; he performed the most difficult scores with exceptional ease. As a composer, he attracted attention with his early chamber works (trios Op. 6 and 7, String Quartet, Sketches Op. 15), distinguished by their technical radicalism. Later, he wrote works of a lyrical nature and intense emotionalism (Violin Sonata, Piano Quintet), declaring himself a supporter of neoclassicism (Sinfonietta, Silence, String Sextet). The most important works from the last period of Goossens’s work are the operas: Judith and Don Juan de Mañara. As a farewell to Goossens leaving the USA, a collective orchestral work, Variations on a Theme by Eugene Goossens, was created in 1946, the theme and finale of which were written by Goossens, and the individual variations were composed by E. Bloch, A. Copland, P. Creston, A. Fuleihan, R. Harris, W. Piston, B. Rogers, R. Sessions and J. D. Taylor.

Literature: E. Goossens Overture and Beginners. A Musical Autobiography, London 1951; R. Hull Eugene Goossens, “Music and Letters” XII, 1931.