Hans Haym was a German conductor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As musical director in the town of Elberfeld

Elberfeld

Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929.-History:The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "elverfelde" was in a document of 1161...

 he championed the works of the then unknown English composer Frederick Delius

Frederick Delius

Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...

 before that composer's works were heard in his native country.

Biography

Haym was born in Halle. He was educated at the universities of Jena and Tübingen, where he studied philosophy and classical philology. After graduating, he studied music in Munich, including classes in composition, the piano, organ and singing.

Haym succeeded Julius Buths

Julius Buths

Julius Buths was a German pianist, conductor and minor composer. He was particularly notable in his early championing of the works of Edward Elgar in Germany. He conducted the continental European premieres of both the Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius...

 as conductor of the Concert Society, or Elberfelder Concertgesellchaft, in 1890. Despite the conservative tastes of his audiences he programmed new music when he could, including early performances of Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

's Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks in 1895 and Delius

Frederick Delius

Frederick Theodore Albert Delius, CH was an English composer. Born in the north of England to a prosperous mercantile family of German extraction, he resisted attempts to recruit him to commerce...

's Over the hills and far away (under its German title Über die Berge in die Ferne) in 1897 and his Paris: The Song of a Great City

Paris: The Song of a Great City

Paris: The Song of a Great City is a nocturne for orchestra composed by Frederick Delius over the period of 1899-1900. Hans Haym, to whom Delius dedicated the work, conducted the premiere on 14 December 1901 in Elberfeld, Germany...

in 1899. He introduced Delius's music to Buths, who had gone from Elberfeld to the more important musical directorship of Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...

. Buths, who was later an early exponent of Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

's music, also became an admirer of Delius's work.

Haym also introduced Delius's music to Fritz Cassirer

Fritz Cassirer

Friedrich Leopold Cassirer, was a German conductor. He was one of the early proponents of the music of Frederick Delius, and conducted the premiere of Delius's first opera.-Biography:Cassirer was born in Breslau...

, musical director of the Stadttheater, Elberfeld, where Delius's opera Koanga

Koanga

Koanga is an opera with music by Frederick Delius, his third opera, written between 1896 and 1897, and a libretto by Charles F. Keary, inspired partly by The Grandissimes of George Washington Cable. Inspiration also came from Delius' own experiences as a young man when his family sent him to work...

was premiered in 1904. At about this time, Haym fell ill and was obliged to convalesce in the Tirol

County of Tyrol

The County of Tyrol, Princely County from 1504, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire, from 1814 a province of the Austrian Empire and from 1867 a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary...

.

Haym hoped to be appointed to the more prestigious musical directorship of Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, but was unsuccessful. At Elberfeld, Haym and his orchestra attracted leading musicians to appear with them, including Raoul Pugno

Raoul Pugno

Stéphane Raoul Pugno was a French composer, teacher, organist, and pianist known for his playing of Mozart's works.Raoul Pugno was born in Paris. He made his debut at the age of six, and with the help of Prince Poniatowski he was then able to study at the École Niedermeyer. He then went to the...

, Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...

, Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

, Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni

Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, editor, writer, piano and composition teacher, and conductor.-Biography:...

 and Artur Schnabel

Artur Schnabel

Artur Schnabel was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura...

. He retired from the musical directorship in 1920 and died in Elberfeld at the age of 60 on 15 February 1921.