Eugene Goossens

Sir Eugene Aynsley Goossens (/ˈɡuːsənz/; 26 May 1893 – 13 June 1962) was an English conductor and composer.

He was born in Camden Town, London, the son of the Belgian conductor and violinist Eugène Goossens (fils, 1867–1958) and the grandson of the conductor Eugène Goossens (père; 1845–1906). (Note: His father and grandfather spelled Eugène with a grave accent; he himself did not.) He studied music at the age of ten in Bruges, three years later in Liverpool, and in 1907 in London on a scholarship at the Royal College of Music under composer Charles Villiers Stanford and the violinist Achille Rivarde among others. He won the silver medal of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and was made associate of the Royal College of Music.

He was a violinist in Thomas Beecham's Queen's Hall Orchestra from 1912 to 1915 and performed in the Philharmonic Quartet before coming to attention as Beecham's assistant conductor with a performance of Stanford's opera The Critic (1916). In 1921 he decided to make conducting his career and founded his own orchestra; with this ensemble he made a number of gramophone records for Edison-Bell's Velvet Face label. He gave the British concert premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring on 7 June 1921 at the Queen's Hall with the composer present.

For nearly a quarter of a century, he accepted positions at U.S. orchestras. At the invitation of George Eastman he was conductor of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1923 to 1931. This post also involved teaching at the Eastman School of Music. During the late 1920s he often conducted for Vladimir Rosing's American Opera Company, an organization which grew out of the Eastman School. From 1931 to 1946 he succeeded Fritz Reiner as the conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In a tribute to Goossens on his departure for Australia, nine American composers collaborated on Variations on a Theme by Eugene Goossens, for orchestra. The composers were Ernest Bloch, Aaron Copland, Paul Creston, Anis Fuleihan, Roy Harris, Walter Piston, Bernard Rogers, Roger Sessions and Deems Taylor, with Goossens himself writing the finale.

Goossens spent nine years in Australia, from 1947 to 1956. He conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and other groups, and was the director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music. He held these positions concurrently until March 1956, when he was forced to resign after a major public scandal, only a year after being knighted.

In the early 1950s, Goossens met Rosaleen Norton, the so-called "Witch of Kings Cross". Norton was known as an artist of the grotesque and for her interest in the occult and erotica, which Goossens secretly shared. They conducted an intense affair, exchanging a number of passionate letters; although Goossens asked Norton to destroy all of them, she kept a bundle hidden behind a sofa.[2]

In early 1956, Goossens visited Europe, unaware that Sydney police were already in possession of his letters to Norton and photographs of her occult activities, which had been stolen from her flat by Sydney Sun reporter Joe Morris, who had infiltrated her supposed "coven". When Goossens returned to Australia on 9 March 1956, he was detained at Sydney Airport, following a tip-off by informants in London; his bags were searched by Customs officials, who found a large amount of what was then considered pornographic material, which included photographs, prints, books, a spool of film, some rubber masks, and sticks of incense.

Although he was not immediately arrested or charged, Goossens naively agreed to attend a police interview a few days later, where he was confronted with photographs of Norton's "ceremonies" and his letters. Faced with the evidence of his affair with Norton – which left him open to the serious charge of "scandalous conduct" – Goossens was forced to plead guilty to the pornography charges. He paid a fine of ₤100; more significantly, the scandal ruined his reputation and forced him to resign from his positions. He returned to England in disgrace.

The scandal was the basis of a novel, Pagan (1990), by Inez Baranay; it also inspired a play, The Devil is a Woman, by Louis Nowra and an opera, Eugene & Roie, by Drew Crawford. The scandal is documented in the film The Fall of the House, directed by Geoff Burton.

Most often remembered as a highly regarded conductor with substantial tenures as music director of both the Cincinnati and Sydney Symphony orchestras, Eugene Goossens was also an important composer of twentieth-century music. Had the achievements of his career not been overshadowed by an unfortunate scandal and fall from grace in his last years, his legacy would likely have been even more significant.

Born in London and of Belgian heritage, Goossens trained as a violinist at the Bruges Conservatory and the Liverpool College of Music. It was not until he attended the Royal College of Music that he began serious composition study, with Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. Among his first compositions from 1911-13 are the Variations on a Chinese Theme and the Octet (written for flute, clarinet, horn, harp, and strings). These works utilized an early style strongly reminiscent of the French impressionists Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, and drew strong praise from the elder statesmen of the composition circle at that time, including Frederick Delius.

In order to support himself, Goossens followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both of whom were conductors. He trained as the assistant conductor to Sir Thomas Beecham, and began to develop an impressive conducting career. In 1921, he gave many Londoners their first Stravinsky experience in the premiere UK performance of Le Sacre du Printemps.

In 1923, George Eastman (of Kodak fame) invited him to become the first music director of his newly formed Eastman-Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Following continued success there, he was offered the helm of the Cincinnati Symphony in 1931, where he was active in commissioning a number of new works, including Aaron Copland's masterpiece Fanfare for the Common Man (1942).

Although a composer of modest number, Goossens composed works in nearly every genre. His first significant orchestral work, Sinfonietta (1922), was championed by Arturo Toscanini. His most popular works include his Oboe Concerto from 1927 (written for his brother, Leon Goossens), two symphonies from 1940 and 1945, and two operas drawn on libretti by Arnold Bennett. These include the opera Judith (in which Joan Sutherland made her debut in 1951) and Don Juan de Mañara. With the exception of premieres and a few rare occasions, Goossens never had a strong inclination to conduct his own works.

It was in Sydney that Goossens would reach both the pinnacle of his career and the lowest depths of indignity. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra had been recently organized, and in 1947 Goossens was invited to become its first music director. Goossens was a visionary; although his dreams began small (the introduction of outdoor performances and increased visibility) they culminated with his groundbreaking idea and subsequent proposal for the Sydney Opera House. His many efforts were finally rewarded when he was knighted in 1955.

A 1957 scandal with artist Rosaleen Norton severely affected Goosens and destroyed his Australian career. Forced to resign from his conducting posts, Gossens returned to England. His chronically ill health and a congenital heart defect contributed to a long period of illness following the scandal. Sketches for a ballet and third opera were left unfinished at his death in 1962. He is the author of Overture and Beginners: A Musical Autobiography.