The distinguished German conductor Hermann Scherchen, 1891-1966, became a legend in his own time as a supremely knowledgeable, inspiring, and uncompromising advocate of the most demanding orchestral repertoire. The founder of the Berlin Society of New Music, he was an ardent champion of twentieth-century music, especially that of Schoenberg, with whom he worked, and of Webern. He settled in Switzerland in 1933 and was for six years the conductor of the Zurich Radio Orchestra.

His classic han...