Hans von Bülow
As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms.Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.He was dismissed from his Zurich job for this reason, but at the same time he was beginning to win renown for his ability to conduct new and complex works without a score.He conducted the premieres of two Wagner operas, Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, in 1865 and 1868 respectively; both were immensely successful.However, he apparently continued to respect the composer on a professional level, as he still conducted his works and mourned Wagner's death in 1883.In April 1892 Bülow closed his final performance with the Berlin Philharmonic, where he had been serving as Principal Conductor since 1887, with a speech "exalting" the ideas of Stirner.His accurate, sensitive, and profoundly musical interpretations established him as the prototype of the virtuoso conductors who flourished at a later date.[8] After about 1890 his mental and physical health began to fail, and he sought a warmer, drier climate for recovery; he died in a hotel in Cairo, Egypt, at the age of 64, ten months after his final concert performance.