Michael Gielen | |
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_(cropped_to_Michael_Gielen).jpg) Gielen in 1965 | |
| Born | Michael Andreas Gielen (1927-07-20)20 July 1927 |
| Died | 8 March 2019(2019-03-08) (aged 91) Mondsee, Austria |
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Michael Andreas Gielen (20 July 1927 – 8 March 2019) was an Austrian conductor and composer known for promotingcontemporary music in opera and concert. Principally active in Europe, his performances are characterized by precision and vivacity, aiding his ability to interpret the complex contemporary music he specialized in.
He first worked in Buenos Aires, where he lived with his family between 1938 and 1950. In Europe, he first worked in Vienna and then in Sweden as the Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of theRoyal Swedish Opera. He conducted notable world premieres such as György Ligeti'sRequièm, Karlheinz Stockhausen'sCarré, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann's operaDie Soldaten and hisRequiem für einen jungen Dichter. He directed theOper Frankfurt from 1977 to 1987, installing more contemporary operas, winning stage directors such asHans Neuenfels andRuth Berghaus, and reviving operas such as Schreker'sDie Gezeichneten. During his era, the company became one of the leading operas.
Gielen was also principal conductor of theNational Orchestra of Belgium (1969–1973), theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–1986) and theSouthwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra (1986–1999). As a composer, he worked in the tradition of theSecond Viennese School, often setting modern literature to music. His works were premiered with performers such asJoan Carroll,Siegfried Palm,Aloys Kontarsky and theLaSalle Quartet.
Gielen was born inDresden to Rose (née Steuermann) andJosef Gielen [de].[1] His father was a theatre and opera director from 1924 at theStaatstheater Dresden, who staged the premiere of Kaiser/Weill'sDer Protagonist at theSemperoper in 1926. His mother Rose came from a Jewish family inSambor (thenAustria-Hungary, now Ukraine). She was an actress who had given up acting when their first child Carola was born, but appeared occasionally, for example as a speaker in the premiere of Arnold Schoenberg'sPierrot lunaire in Dresden in 1919, rehearsed with her brotherEduard Steuermann.[1][2][3] The football playerZygmunt Steuermann was their younger brother.[4] The boy Michael first attended a reformed school from 1934 until it was closed by the Nazis. Both children were baptized and raised Catholic to counter Nazi indoctrination.[1]
Clemens Krauss called Josef Gielen to theStaatsoper Berlin in 1936, where Michael attended primary school for a year, and then the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium.[1] When his father's contract was dissolved in 1937,[1] he found a position at the ViennaBurgtheater. The family followed there in 1938.[1] Michael attended a grammar school and took piano lessons. Josef Gielen successfully staged at theTeatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1938 and 1939, and managed to get immigration papers for his wife and the two children. In 1940, the family left for Argentina, leaving most of their belongings behind.[1]
Gielen began his career as apianist inBuenos Aires, where he studied withErwin Leuchter [de].[1] As arépétiteur at the Teatro Colón at age 20, he played thebasso continuo to the recitatives, in the style of the time, in a performance of Bach'sSt Matthew Passion conducted byWilhelm Furtwängler.[5] In 1949, he gave an early performance ofArnold Schoenberg's complete piano works.[1][5] In this period he also shortly studiedphilosophy.
In 1950, Gielen moved to Vienna where his father had become director of the Burgtheater. Michael Gielen was conductor and répétiteur, who conducted at theWiener Staatsoper from 1954 to 1960,[1] assisting conductors such asKarl Böhm,Herbert von Karajan and Clemens Krauss.[5] He conducted contemporary music outside the opera house.[6]
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His next operatic appointment, from 1960, was at theRoyal Swedish Opera, where he wasGeneralmusikdirektor (GMD) for the first time, until 1965.[1] He conducted a production of Stravinsky'sThe Rake's Progress, whichIngmar Bergman staged as a radicalisedChristian Passion (radikalisierte christliche Passion), in the presence of the composer.[5]
He took to freelance conducting in 1965, including the premiere ofBernd Alois Zimmermann's operaDie Soldaten in Cologne that year,[1] a work that had been deemed to be impossible to perform.[5] He premieredAribert Reimann's operaEin Traumspiel on 20 June 1965 at theOpernhaus Kiel.[1][7] He then had a contract with theNetherlands Opera.[1]
From 1977 to 1987, Gielen was GMD at theOper Frankfurt, where he worked with the dramaturgeKlaus Zehelein towards more contemporary operas.[1][8] In 1979, he revivedFranz Schreker's operaDie Gezeichneten there, which had premiered in Frankfurt in 1918.[9] During his time in Frankfurt, later called theGielen Era,[6] he collaborated with stage directors such asHans Neuenfels for Verdi'sAida andRuth Berghaus for Wagner'sDer Ring des Nibelungen.[10] The time was described as the Ära Gielen/Zehelein (Gielen/Zehelein era)[1] and made Frankfurt an internationally recognised opera.[5]
Gielen was also principal conductor of theBelgian National Orchestra (1969–73) and theCincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1980–86).[6][11][12][13] He was from 1986 to 1999 the conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg (Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra), and made it known as the leading orchestra for premieres, notably at theDonaueschinger Musiktage. From 1991, he collaborated in Berlin with theStaatsoper Unter den Linden and theBerliner Sinfonie-Orchester (now Konzerthausorchester Berlin).[5]
He demonstrated a mastery of the most complex contemporary scores, and conducted many premieres, includingHelmut Lachenmann'sFassade andKlangschatten – mein Saitenspiel,György Ligeti'sRequiem, andKarlheinz Stockhausen'sCarré. He premiered Zimmermann'sRequiem für einen jungen Dichter in Düsseldorf in 1969.[14] In 1973 he recorded Schoenberg's operaMoses und Aron, used as a soundtrack for the filmMoses und Aron.[6]
In October 2014, Gielen announced his retirement from conducting for health reasons, particularly seriously deteriorated eyesight.[15] He died inMondsee, Austria, on 8 March 2019 of pneumonia.[8][16][5][17]
With the SWR, Gielen recorded various symphonies, including a complete cycle of bothMahler andBeethoven,[18][19] as well as select ones byBrahms.[18] Recordings of later composers include works byBruckner,Stravinsky,[19] Schoenberg,Berg andWebern; his recording ofMoses und Aron is its first commercial stereo recording.[18] Among the many works by modern and contemporary composers he recorded were those byKagel, Ligeti,Nono, Zimmermann andRihm.[18]
His recordings—and conducting in general—are noted for their relentless precision, exactness and veracity over sentimentality. These characteristics were particularly helpful in performing complex contemporary works.[18][19]
Gielen began to compose in 1946, and kept composing throughout his career as a conductor.[5] He was influenced by the tradition of theSecond Viennese School, and his small oeuvre includes settings of poems byPaul Claudel,Stefan George, andPablo Neruda.[1] Hisdie glocken sind auf falscher spur afterHans Arp was premiered in 1970 with sopranoJoan Carroll, cellistSiegfried Palm, pianistAloys Kontarsky, Wilhelm Bruck,Christoph Caskel and the composer at theSaarländischer Rundfunk festival, "Musik im 20.Jahrhundert"[20][1] His string quartetUn vieux souvenir afterBaudelaire'sLes Fleurs du mal, composed from 1983, was premiered in 1985 inCincinnati by theLaSalle Quartet.[1]
His compositions are listed by the Akademie der Künste:[21]
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| Preceded by | Chief Conductor,Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra 1986–1999 | Succeeded by |
