Eberhard Buschmann and Bertold Hummel got to know and appreciate each other in 1971 at the latest, when Buschmann was appointed professor of bassoon and piano at the Bavarian State Conservatory of Music in Würzburg. The two perform together in countless concerts and on concert tours with the Würzburg Bach Society, the Würzburg Cathedral Music and the chamber orchestra of the State Conservatory - usually in the continuo group. Buschmann asks Hummel to write the wind trio Moments musicaux op. 48 and rehearses it with young musicians as part of the chamber music courses of the "Jeunesse musicale Deutschland" for the premiere on 28 August 1973 in Bad Mergentheim. In 1993, Hummel arranged the Concertino for basset horn and strings op. 27a, composed in 1964, for bassoon and consulted with Buschmann, who gave the world premiere of the Concertino for bassoon and strings op. 27b with great commitment. Buschmann's radio recordings of the 5 Epigrams for bassoon solo op. 51 (BR 1977), the Sonatina for bassoon and piano op. 59b (BR 1979) and the Divertimento for cello and bassoon op. 62c (BR 1979, with the composer on cello) have become reference works.

Biography

Eberhard Buschmann studied piano with Prof Hans Richter-Haaser and bassoon with Prof Albert Hennige in Detmold. He received a silver medal at the International Bassoon Competition in Geneva and was praised for his interpretation of a piece by Henri Dutilleux at the ARD Music Competition, where he was invited to perform in the final concert. From 1957, he was principal bassoonist in the "Musiktheater im Revier" orchestra in Gelsenkirchen. There he familiarised himself with the entire operatic and symphonic literature for 13 years. Temporary work and chamber concerts with colleagues took him to Dortmund, Essen, Düsseldorf and Hanover. In 1971, he accepted a professorship for bassoon at the Bavarian State Conservatory of Music in Würzburg, which he held until 1996. Since his student days, he played together with Dieter Klöcker in the Consortium Classicum and performed with this ensemble on all continents. Together with his students, he founded the "Würzburg Bassoon Ensemble", with which he also performed his own arrangements of light music. Buschmann played several instruments (bassoon, organ, piano, violin, accordion) and was excellent at arranging music for wind ensembles in the style of the time. He was passionate about rediscovering lost or unknown bassoon literature from earlier eras in old archives. For example, he discovered and edited a bassoon concerto in G major by Friedrich Hofmeister and a bassoon concerto in F major by Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Together with Monica von Saalfeld, he dedicated himself for many years to the interpretation of concertante duos for bassoon and piano from the classical-romantic period and they founded the "Trio Devienne" with the principal flautist of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Robert Dohn. Buschmann was musically active until the end of his life, accompanying several choirs on the piano and organising a music series in a retirement home, in which he himself played. In his old age, he was able to look back on a rich life. Eberhard Buschmann will be remembered as a gifted musician and an empathetic person.