The reissue on Music for Pleasure of the recording made of the Glyndebourne production of Le Nozze di Figaro (Mozart) in 1934 (CFP 117-118).

RCA Victor's 5 EP set of Busch's Glyndebourne's 'Cosi fan tutte'

Concert Hall CHC-61 Schubert Symphony No. 5: Fritz Busch conducting the Winterthur Symphony Orchestra.

"Symphonie-Orchester Winthertur" conducted by Fritz Busch: Schumann First Symphony (Spring), and Overture "Die schöne Melusine", Op. 32 (MMS 148)

The Haydn's Symphony No. 101 in D Major The Clock: The Austrian Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Busch.

An early edition of the Eroica Symphony.

Beethoven's 3rd Symphony on a release on Vibraton from Italy. Ref. VB K 2002. Recording originally produced by Marcel Prawy.

Fritz Busch on the cover of an early catalog when Remington Records was still located at 263 West 54th St., the first address of the company.

View also 'BUSCH MSS' - listing Busch's manuscripts.

As is the case with so many artists who appeared on the Remington label, also of conductor Fritz Busch there are only a few performances released on this early nineteen fifties label. They landed there merely by accident, one would suspect. However it was Don Gabor who asked impressario Marcel Prawy in Vienna to make recordings of the conductor with the pure style.

In 1950 there were many recordings of Fritz Busch on 78 RPM shellac discs available, like excerpts from Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde', a performance of Richard Strauss's 'Don Juan' and several complete Mozart operas from the productions of John Christie's Glyndebourne Festival in the nineteen thirties.

Fritz Busch (at left) in 1950 in Glyndebourne with John Christie, Carl Ebert (Producer) and Moran Caplat (General Manager). Picture taken from the cover of His Master's Voice Lp Mozart at Glyndebourne (ALP 1731).

However, performances of Busch released uniquely on the new medium, the Long Playing record, were non existent, except for the odd Concert Hall CHC-61 of Schubert's Fifth Symphony with the Winterthur Symphony Orchestra, released in the fall of 1950.
Dubbings from 78 RPM plates would only gradually appear in the new format. The first was RCA Victor's 2 Lp set (LCT 6001) of the 1934 production of 'The Marriage of Figaro', issued in 1952. The later reissue of this recording of 'Le nozze di Figaro' on Music for Pleasure EMI Lp (CFP 117-118) - with Roy Henderson (baritone), Aulikki Rautavaara (soprano), Audrey Mildmay (soprano), Wili Domgraf-Fassbänder (baritone), Haddle Nash (tenor), Norman Allin and Italo Tajo (bass), Constance Willis (mezzo soprano), Luise Hellesgruber (soprano), Fergus Dunlop (bass), Morgan Jones (tenor), Winifred Radford, and Fritz Busch conducting - shows an exceptional sound quality. No wonder 'Figaro's Hochzeit' was the first recording to be transferred to Lp.
The opera was recorded by HMV at Glyndebourne Theatre, Sussex, England on 6/6/34, 24/6/35 and 28/6/35. First released as Volume 1 of "The Mozart Opera Society" in 1934, and Volumes 2-3 followed in 1935.

(Note: If you do not play vinyl, or if you cannot find the analog HMV transfer to Lp, it is good to know that 'Le nozze di Figaro' on 78 RPM discs was recently transferred to CD by Pristine Audio, the company which restores and transfers historical material with great success.)

Satisfying sales of a Remington disc with Fritz Busch conducting could not only result from the fact that Fritz Busch was considered a significant musician and opera conductor worldwide, but also that during the nineteen forties his name had become familiar to many New Yorkers. During World War Two Fritz Busch was Musical Director of the New Opera Company for several seasons, and after the war he conducted productions of the New York Metropolitan on various occasions.

Dr. Fritz Busch, founder and director of the Glyndebourne Mozart Festivals, formerly Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Opera and General Music Director of the Dresden State Opera. Picture edited by R.A.B., taken from Etude Magazine, April 1943. (SoundFountain Archive)

During his New York period, Fritz Busch was interviewed for the Etude Magazine. The interview was published in the April 1943 issue.
The introduction of the article gives a short biography and a survey of his career compiled from the information he gave to the editors of the magazine.

Fritz Busch, son of the distinguished violin maker, Wilhelm Busch, and brother of Adolf Busch, violinist, and of Hermann Busch, violoncellist, has contributed more perhaps than any other contemporary musician to the vitality of opera. Dr. Busch became operatic conductor at Riga at the age of nineteen, and two years later he entered upon the duties of Director of Music at Aachen. He succeeded Max von Schillings as chief conductor of the Stuttgart Opera and, from 1922 to the beginning of the currently political regime in Germany, served as General Musical Director of the State Opera at Dresden. During this period he presented world premieres of the operatic works of Richard Strauss, Busoni, Hindemith, Weil, Wolf-Ferrari, and Stravinsky, besides launching a Verdi revival which drew the attention of the musical world. In 1934 Dr. Busch launched the notable Mozart Festivals at Glyndebourne, England, during which more than two hundred performances of Mozart's operas were given. After a period of activity in Buenos Aires, Dr. Busch assumed directorship of the New Opera Company, in the USA. Under the sponsorship of Mrs. Lytle Hull, the New Opera Company has a twofold goal: the presentation of intimate, chamber opera under the highest of traditional artistic standards, and the training of young, entirely inexperienced American singers.

In his conversation, with Burton Paige of Etude Magazine, Fritz Busch specifically aimed his attention at young singers. He states that he does not like the 'star' system, but wants to give young and new talents a chance and to educate them by providing the necessary professional experience.
Busch:

Erna Berger was one of the singers he certainly was referring to. And Sena Jurinac whose mentor he was. Busch also played a significant role in the career of Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender. Just to name a few.
Numerous are the names of artists who had been given a chance to receive education and to reach a high degree of professionalism.
Fritz Busch had also given proof of his ideas with the New Opera Company when, in 1942, he let Regina Resnik sing Lady Macbeth.
Regina Resnik recalls:

I can describe the incredible beginning of my operatic life, thanks to Maestro Busch. I was 19 years old when I sang the entrance aria of Lady Macbeth for Maestro Busch and his son Hans. Instead of a position in the chorus, which I thought was going to be offered to me, they offered to teach me the role of the Lady as a COVER UNDERSTUDY. In the morning of December 4, 1942, I was called to come to the Broadway theater at 8 pm. Under a work light, in costume, I was walked through the opera (most of which I sang) with maestro Fritz Stiedry alone in the pit and a piano on stage. The following day, December 5th, with Toscanini present in the audience, I sang Lady Macbeth, replacing the ailing soprano Florence Kirk. (Stiedry conducting for Busch, who heard the performance in the theater.) I had NO position or power to make ANY wish known. I only had to sing to prove the faith the New Opera Company had shown in putting this beginner on stage in that role. I was completely prepared, yet completely unaware of the possible consequences. The fact that my preparation was so complete - I will always owe this to Dr.Busch - I was thrown into the Olympic swimming pool. - Regina Resnik (August 1st, 2005)

After the war -when the New Opera Company was more or less replaced by the New York City Opera - Fritz Busch often conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, the company which, strangely enough, produced the opera performances precisely on the basis of the 'star' system which Busch disliked so much.
The art of Fritz Busch can be seen in Verdi's 'Otello', the first live telecast ever done of an entire opera. It was done from the stage of the old Metropolitan Opera House with Lucia Albanese, John Garris, Thomas Hayward, Martha Lipton, Nicola Moscona, Ramón Vinay and Leonard Warren. That was in 1948!

In this New York context the release of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Opus 55, 'Eroica', performed with the Austrian Symphony Orchestra on R-199-21 is not only logical but also rather unique. The Schwann catalog of June 1951 lists this Remington disc (which was probably released already several months earlier), and that is well before September 14th of 1951, the day the maestro died.
So the appearance of Busch on Remington was not the ultimate marketing trick with the conductor's passing away in mind, as some may have assumed. It became however a quasi memorial album and it is suspected that quite a lot of copies were sold worldwide.
Warren DeMotte's evaluation of the recording of Beethoven's Third Symphony in 'The Long Playing Record Guide' may sound as a warning to some, but to others as an incentive to buy the record: "Busch leads an inferior orchestra in a superior performance."
The inferiority certainly being caused for a great deal by the low technical quality of the matrix and the subsequent pressing on cheap plastic. Yes, the sound is thin, but that could be corrected by adjusting the bass and treble of the tube amplifier, as was the custom in those days. Yet the orchestra is very disciplined and succeeds in following for a good deal the ideas of the conductor who himself seems to follow the score in a strict manner. It is a style which is in contrast to the deeper sensitivity of performances by Wilhelm Furtwangler, the other famous conductor of that same generation.

Another recording, Haydn's Symphony No. 101 (The Clock), was available on a 10 inch disc with reference R-149-31. Cecil Smith commented on it when reviewing a batch of Remington records in The New Republic of April 23, 1951: "The best orchestral performance in the group I listened to is Haydn's Symphony No. 101 ("The Clock"), conducted with taste by Fritz Busch, played expertly by the Austrian Symphony Orchestra, and cleanly and brightly recorded."
It is indeed a lively performance, full of nuances.

The third recording of Fritz Busch acquired by Don Gabor through producer Marcel Prawy from Vienna was that of Beethoven's Symphony No. 8 coupled with the recording of Haydn's 'The Clock'. These recordings were released on a 12 inch Masterseal disc with reference number MW 39.
Haydn's 'The Clock' was at the same time a Remington release. The Masterseal was issued around March 1952 (it was listed in the Schwann Catalog of that month).
Note: There was another noteworthy Masterseal disc with Volkmar Andreae conducting Bruckner's Symphony no. 1 with The Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstler Orchester, 1950, Masterseal ML 40, which never appeared on Remington.

The Masterseal label was deliberately chosen to release the Andreae Bruckner recording as well as the specific Busch performance. The Masterseal label had a list price of $6.45 for a 12 inch record. The recordings were considered special and probably the license fee was higher than for other recordings produced by Marcel Prawy.
Materseal MW 39 was a special FRIZ BUSCH MEMORIAL ALBUM.
A quote from the liner notes:

Late in 1950 he (Fritz Busch) conducted a concert and performances of "Meistersinger" and "Marriage of Figaro" in Vienna. Critics wrote that "a new spirit had enlivened the city's musical world." "International Masterworks, Inc." is proud that Fritz Busch consented to record for them during his few three hours there. After the recording sessions, he addressed the Austria State Symphony in a wonderful farewell speech, quoting Robert Schumann: "Where enthusiasm is the guiding spirit - there is the center of the world". These words are a symbol of the life of Fritz Busch, cruelly cut short by his sudden death (...).

In April 1953 the Busch performances on the Masterseal label were issued as Remington R-199-149 and then the Masterseal issue was no longer available.
The high reference number of R-199-149 would suggest that it was a Musirama recording and was profiting from some technical advancement. But since it was recorded in 1950, it is not. As a Remington it was released in December 1953.
Warren De Motte wrote about the Beethoven Op. 93 recording: "Busch squeezes the last drop of technique out of an inferior orchestra." This reflects that the maestro asked for discipline and precision. But the performance also shows the tension and the hectic life the conductor had which led to his rather unexpected and early death.

Despite the technical qualities of the recordings and the capabilities of the orchestras, these recordings are part of the belong to the ll legacy of a great conductor.

Fritz Busch, who was born in Siegen on March 13, 1890, and who was predestined to be a great conductor (at the age of twelve he bought himself a baton), died in London on September 14, 1951 of a heart attack.

The liner notes on a late Remington release sums it all up:

Fritz Busch near the end of his life during a recording session. It is the same photograph as featured on the earliest Remington Records catalog on which cover is printed the following testimony: I record for Remington Records because it offers me the possibility to reach the widest audiences on high fidelity quality recordings at prices everyone is able to pay... Fritz Busch conductor. Picture taken from the back of a Remington cover. Edited by R.A. Bruil.

Rudolf A. Bruil, June 10th, 2005