http://www.gramophone.co.uk/newsMainTemplate.asp?storyID=2163&newssectionID=1
Carlos Kleiber has died July 19 2004
Carlos Kleiber, renowned for both his formidable interpretations
of music and his often eccentric and reclusive nature, has died aged
74.
Carlos Kleiber, 1930-2004 (photo: DG/Neumeister)
For the last years of his life he refused to record (indeed,
hardly ever performed) and was known to cancel at short notice. He
never hired an agent, never gave an interview, and conducted all
contractual negotiations himself. It was joked that he only
conducted when his freezer was empty – though on one rare return to
the podium he was lured back by the fee of an Audi car.
But when he did work, Kleiber showed an unstinting devotion in
the pursuit of excellence. The results were some of the most
powerful, emotional and insightful performances of the last century.
His discography is slight, containing just a handful of
symphonies, including Beethoven and Brahms, and a tiny number of
operas, including Der Rosenkavalier and Tristan und Isolde. Yet if
the question is one of quality not quantity, Kleiber’s discography
is rich indeed. His recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No 5 with the
Vienna Philharmonic, which became a legendary recording almost over
night, was described in Gramophone as ‘one of the most articulate
and incandescent Beethoven Fifths I have ever heard’. An entirely
different sort of work, Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus also
attracted superlatives from its Gramophone reviewer, who said in
1986: ‘Ten years after its original release there is still no
recording of Die Fledermaus that, for me, matches this one for the
compelling freshness of its conductor’s interpretation.’
Carlos Kleiber was born in 1930, an Austrian of German birth and
the son of conductor Erich Kleiber. He held a number of appointments
at various European opera houses, including répétiteur of the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf from 1956, becoming its
conductor two years later. He worked at the Zürich Opera from
1964-66, and was first Kapellmeister at the Württembergisches
Staatstheater in Stuttgart for three years from 1966. From 1968, for
ten years, he had a guest contract at the Staatsoper in Munich.
Career milestones included débuts with the Vienna Staatsoper in
1973 and Bayreuth in 1974, both with Tristan und Isolde; Royal Opera
House and La Scala débuts in 1974 with Der Rosenkavalier; and débuts
with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1982, and the New York Met in 1988.
He conducted the Vienna Philharmonic New Year concerts in 1989 and
1992.
He was the first choice of the Berlin Philharmonic to succeed
Herbert von Karajan, but turned down the offer.
