Vilém Tauský

Vilém Tauský was from a musical family: his Viennese mother had sung Mozart at the Vienna State Opera under Gustav Mahler, and her cousin was the operetta composer Leo Fall.

At the age of nineteen he conducted Puccini's Turandot in Brno on short notice in place of Chalabala, who had become ill.[2] Tauský was of Jewish ancestry, and the rise of the Nazis forced him to move to France.

Bohuslav Martinů composed his Field Mass for Tauský and his regimental band, but the fall of France prevented them from giving the premiere.

[4] During the Coventry Blitz on the night of 14 November 1940, Tausky was based ten miles away in Leamington Spa with the Czech Free Army.

[7] On 26 December 1953 he became possibly the only conductor to conduct two operas on the same day, with a performance of Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in the afternoon at Sadler's Wells and Giuseppe Verdi's Il trovatore at Covent Garden in the evening.

He also conducted many premieres of UK operas including A Dinner Engagement and Nelson (Lennox Berkeley, both 1954), The Violins Of St Jacques (Malcolm Williamson, 1966)[4] and a studio recording of Miss Julie (William Alwyn, 1977).

[11] Andrew Lamb points out that, following his ten years with the BBC Concert Orchestra during which he raised its profile and range considerably, he was forever after branded as a light music specialist.