Richard Fuchs

Richard Fuchs: composer, architect, artist

Richard Fuchs: composer, architect, artist

Richard Fuchs was born in 1887 in Karlsruhe, Germany, the eldest son of a well-established German Jewish family. He was a gifted pianist and composer, but pursued architecture as his family wanted him to have a more stable profession. 

Fuchs was a disciple of Wagner and Mahler, composing symphonies, chamber works, as well as many songs. His music was suppressed by the Nazis because he was Jewish, and was only performed to limited Jewish audiences.

After Kristallnacht, Fuchs was imprisoned in Dachau, but released when the news arrived that the family had gained permission to journey to New Zealand. The Fuchs family - Richard, his wife and two daughters arrived in New Zealand 1939 and Richard began work as an architect. However, six months later the war broke out. Along with others from Germany, Fuchs was declared an ‘enemy alien’. He lost his job and struggled to find his feet thereafter. 

Fuchs tried to become involved in the fledgling Wellington music scene but despite having recommendations from some of the greatest maestros of the twentieth century including Wilhelm Furtwängler; Felix Weingartner; Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacobs, he was unsuccessful in having his music performed.

Fuchs was also a talented artist and watercolour painter, drawing inspiration from his new home, the gorse covered hills, and dramatic Rimutaka ranges.

Richard Fuchs’ music was re-discovered when in 2005, author Steven Sedley came across a reference to him in his research. Sedley wrote, ‘While researching documents relating to Lili Kraus I came across correspondence between the New Zealand Chamber Music Society and Richard Fuchs, who hoped that the Chamber Music Society would schedule performances of his string quartet and piano quintet. There was something in the tone of these letters that suggested that those on the committee of the Chamber Music Society had no appreciation of the cultural heritage and serious musical passion that Richard Fuchs embodied. He was dismissed as a lightweight and perhaps something of a curiosity and eccentric nuisance in the account of the history of the Chamber Music Society’. Sedley stumbled across a trove of Fuchs’ compositions and went on to write a biography.

Sedley’s discoveries contributed to the re-kindling of interest in Fuchs’ compositions, both in New Zealand and internationally. 

A concert was held in Germany in 2007 focusing on Fuchs’ music, the first time his music had been heard in Germany for 80 years. In May 2008 a symphonic movement was played by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in Wellington and on 5 August 2008, the Governor-General of New Zealand, opened the Richard Fuchs Archive at Government House. The occasion was celebrated with a chamber music concert by members of the NZSO and two Fuchs chamber compositions were premiered.

As an architect, Richard Fuchs’ buildings in Germany are now landmark protected and as a musician his music is being increasingly heard in New Zealand and Europe.

 Richard Fuchs’ grandson, Danny Mulheron, along with Sara Stretton, have directed and produced this documentary about Fuchs and you can listen to his work here