The German-Austrian conductor and composer, Michael Gielen, has died at the age of 91 years. In the post-war period, he contributed significantly to the dissemination of New music in Germany.
As the family has notified the public SWR, Michael Gielen, died at his home in Mondsee, Austria. The composer and conductor ran from 1986 to 1999, the Symphony orchestra of the SWR. He belonged with his extensive Repertoire from Bach to Modern works, from symphonic works to Opera, to the most important conductors of the present.
“We have Michael Gielen one of the great conductors of the 20th century. Century lost. As chief conductor, he has led the SWR Symphony orchestra in the 1980s to create even greater artistic size,” said SWR-Intendant Peter Boudgoust to the deceased.
The artist had already in 2014 due to health reasons from the podium. Prior to that, the specialist for New music for decades, the establishment of the avant-garde in the concert had driven forward, and even as a 22-Year-old with the performance of the complete Piano works of Arnold Schoenberg caused a stir.
Is factual and accurate
Gielen was considered to be very relevant conductor of the work always in the foreground, and all the elements of the composition precisely worked out. His life performance, especially in the field of New music, long remained underestimated, which is why his award of the prestigious Ernst von Siemens music prize in 2010, this is long overdue.
Gielen (R) in 1965, during a rehearsal at the Cologne Opera house in conversation with the composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Was born Michael Gielen on 20. July 1927 in Dresden. Its from Poland-born mother, Rose, an actress by profession, was the sister of the pianist, composer and Schoenberg pupil Eduard steuermann. Because she was Jewish, the family fled from the Nazis to Buenos Aires, where Gielens father worked as a Director at the Teatro Colón.
In Argentina, Gielen began his conducting career as an autodidact. In 1950, he began working at the Vienna state Opera. Engagements followed as chief conductor of the Royal Opera Stockholm, the Belgian national orchestra and the Netherlands Opera. In 1977, he took up the Position of chief conductor of the Frankfurt Opera, which he held until 1987. In Parallel, he was for some years principal guest conductor of London’s BBC Symphony orchestra.
stu/yy (dpa, Munzinger)