Aber spielen müssen Sie selber

In this book Hans Ulrich Schmid, the founder of the famous concert agency that bears his name, gives insights into the world of music management from the founding of his business in 1959 until the 1980s. Schmid was an influential character in the music business: a man with vision and a pioneer spirit, a typical self-made man and post-war entrepreneur with a great feeling for musical talent. As a concert agent he was soon representing artists and orchestras of international status. In these memoirs he describes his encounters with some of them in a way that combines the personal with general interest: Maurice André, Wilhelm Kempff, Sir John Barbirolli, Helen Donath, Sir Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, Sir Georg Solti, Hans Werner Henze – to name but a few.

The role of the ‘impresario’, as Hans Ulrich Schmid describes himeslf in the subtitle, is defined at the outset: “I can try to recommend conductors, broadcasters etc to you when you want to put on a concert; in theory I can book a concert hall in your name, advertise your concert and interest an audience in it; I can accompany you to the said concert, show you the way to the podium. In short, I can manage everything relating to the concert for you. But the performing is up to you!”.