Hans von Bulow
A man of outstanding musical gifts, Hans von Bulow, was born in Dresden on 8 January 1830. He forsook his intended career in law under the influence of Wagner, subsequently conducting the premières of Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger. He was a piano pupil of Liszt, married to his daughter Cosima, and divorced her after an affair with Wagner. As court conductor to the Duke of Meiningen, he raised the orchestra's reputation to that of the finest in Europe. His protégé, Richard Strauss, succeeded him in 1885, and he died in Cairo on 12 February 1894.