Carlos Kleiber

There are various ways to delve into music. Some artists embrace abundance, trying out as much as possible to find the needle of genius in the haystack of offerings. Carlos Kleiber took the opposite path. He deliberately limited himself to a few works, which he repeatedly re-examined, explored, and analyzed throughout his conducting career. These included Brahms' Second, Schubert's Third, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, "Tristan," "La Traviata," and supposedly lighter fare such as "Die Fledermaus" and "Der Rosenkavalier." Here and there, he also dedicated himself to other pieces, such as the Viennese waltz melodies during his guest appearances as maestro of the Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Concerts in 1989 and 1992. At his core, however, he was skeptical of opulence and even his own competence, quite unlike his audience, who celebrated his rare appearances, especially from the 1980s onwards. Sometimes, it was enough for a rumor to circulate that Carlos Kleiber would be conducting, and a concert hall would sell out within a few hours. Carlos Kleiber was considered a genius by many contemporaries, yet his life was anything but straightforward. Born Karl Ludwig in Berlin on July 3, 1930, the son of Austrian conductor Erich Kleiber, he and his family had to flee Germany two years after the National Socialists seized power. Their new home became Buenos Aires, and young Carlos had his first formative musical experiences in the wake of his father, whom he accompanied to rehearsals at the Teatro Colón. He was privately tutored, learning piano and percussion, among other things, but his father wanted him to become a chemist. Instead, he began working at the theater in La Plata, and he dropped out of a chemistry degree in Zurich after only a few months. In 1952, Carlos Kleiber ventured into a career as a musician, working briefly as a répétiteur at the Gärtnerplatztheater in Munich. He then went on to become Kapellmeister, first in Potsdam, then at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf-Duisburg (1958–64), at the Zurich Opera House (1964–66), served as Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater in Stuttgart (1966–68), and returned to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich for five years in 1968. He remained associated with the house as a permanent guest conductor but also continued to perform—albeit rarely—with guest appearances in Bayreuth, Vienna, Stuttgart, Salzburg, Prague, and at La Scala in Milan. As an opponent of symphonic routine, he repeatedly changed ensembles, urging them during their collaborative work to pay particular attention to the musical scores. Kleiber was regarded as a serious, earnest conductor who understood how to create immense emotional, illuminating moments with an orchestra. He disliked microphones listening in or cameras watching him, but he nonetheless allowed his work to be occasionally recorded on LP and later on CD. Among his most important pieces are the recordings of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic in the mid-seventies, Brahms, especially the Fourth Symphony, which was also recorded with this orchestra in 1980, as well as the 1977 "Traviata" from the Munich State Opera with Ilena Cotrubas (Violetta) and Plácido Domingo (Alfredo). Just as almost all of Carlos Kleiber's recordings are considered fundamental, the maestro himself was honored with many awards, including the Honorary Award of the City of Munich (1978), the Pour La Mérité Order (1990), the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1992), and the Golden Baton of La Scala in Milan. In his later years, he was rarely seen on stage. Carlos Kleiber died on July 13, 2004, at the age of 74 in Konjšica, Slovenia, the home of his wife, who had passed away the previous year.