Antony Beaumont

Antony Beaumont (born 27 January 1949 in London) is an English and German musicologist, writer, conductor and violinist. As a conductor, he has specialized in German music from the first half of the 20th century, including works by Zemlinsky, Weill, and Gurlitt. As a musicologist, he has published books on Busoni, Zemlinsky, and Mahler.

Beaumont was born in London of Anglo-German and Greek-Romanian parentage. He studied at Cambridge, worked as a disc jockey for the BBC, wrote reviews for The Daily Telegraph, and played violin and piano as a freelance artist. At various times he played under conductors Otto Klemperer, Leopold Stokowski, and Georg Solti. After graduation he moved to Germany and became a German citizen. Beaumont has held conducting posts with orchestras in Bremen, Cologne, and Saarbrücken, and has guest conducted opera productions in England and Italy.

Beaumont has prepared new versions of the final two scenes of Busoni's unfinished opera Doktor Faust, based on newly discovered sketches. This version serves as an alternative to the completion made by Busoni's pupil, Philipp Jarnach, which was based on less detailed information. The changes in Scene 2 occur during the vision of Helen of Troy and include slightly altered text and additional music for the character of Faust such that the scene plays for approximately 39 instead of 37 minutes. In the Jarnach version of Scene 3, the final scene, Faust suffers a conventional kind of doom, dying to the accompaniment of E-flat-minor chords; in the Busoni/Beaumont version Faust achieves a self-actualized resurrection: "In the freedom I have won, God and the Devil succumb." Perhaps Jarnach was uncomfortable with the morality, or perceived lack thereof, of Busoni's original intentions. The changes in Scene 3 also include additional action for Mephistopheles (he lifts the body of Faust onto his shoulders and slowly leaves the stage), and a final choral passage not found in the Jarnach version. These changes extend the scene from approximately 25 to 29 minutes. The full score of the Beaumont completion exists as a manuscript; the vocal score was published by Breitkopf and Härtel, Wiesbaden, in 1982.

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