Guila Bustabo ∙ Unearthed Broadcast Recordings

Guila Bustabo was among the most exceptional talents of the 20th century. Already recognized as a child prodigy, she was invited by leading orchestras in the United States and began touring Europe in 1934 and Australia in 1938, achieving great success. With the outbreak of the Second World War, and with Nazi Germany not yet at war with the United States, her American manager at the time, advised Bustabo to remain in Europe, leading to concerts in musical centers in Holland and the Scandinavian countries. Subsequently, Bustabo collaborated with renowned conductors in Nazi Germany. While she never openly expressed support for the Nazi Party, her regular collaborations with well-known conductors, and her readiness to progress her career in Nazi Germany and its occupied territories, were interpreted as passive agreement to being utilized for propagandistic purposes. However, Bustabo was not raised to determine her life, as her overbearing mother played a controlling role, dictating every aspect of her daughter’s life. Consequently, Bustabo faced a post-1945 boycott from artist agencies and concert organizers in her homeland, despite occasional concert appearances. As a result, her further career remained confined to Europe. In her final years, she served in the first violin section of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Recently discovered radio recordings shed new light on her legacy, featuring concertos by Mozart and Khachaturian, of which no other recordings are known.