Carlos Kleiber remembered, 20 years on
OrchestrasTwenty years after his lonely death, apparently by his own hand, Carlos Kleiber stands out in memory as the most accomplaished conductor the world has ever seen.
Every Carlos performance – and there were not many in all – is treasured for a perception of the perfection that we came to expect from this unique interpreter.
The son of a great conductor, he confined himself to the works his father commanded – from Beethoven to Berg – but Carlos brought to them a devilment and an energy that old Erich would have disdained.
His friends Abbado and Muti watched in wonderment from opposing perspectives. His musicians received notes on their desk in the interval, telling them whatever he had failed to convey with the most expressive baton ever seen.
He was Carlos Kleiber.
He showed suffering and satisfaction in his face, regret and remose in his shoulders.
He got thropugh this life without once speaking to the media. His mother tongue was English. His wit was waspish and self-unsparing. Once heard, he was never forgotten.
1) “His mother tongue was English”
I had no idea, you see, behind all the myth, all the legend, I had to resort to Wikipedia to find out that his mother was… an American from Iowa!
So our beloved, exotic, mystical Kleiber is just a corn-fed farm boy from the Midwest.
Like the myth and legend that is Maria Callas, who is also an American, from Queens NY, all things great are American and Made in the USA. ; )
2) All kidding aside, let’s maintain a measure of reserve here:
“the most accomplished conductor the world has ever seen”, no, he was the most accomplished conductor of that handful of pieces in that handful of a repertoire, which admittedly are masterpieces of the Western canon, that he focused exclusively on throughout his life, that the world has ever seen.
2) “Most accomplished” are expressions best reserved for the media, though Carlos Kleiber’s exceptional skills are not in question.
His repertoire, however, was not as narrow as his years of fame suggest. He started by conducting a far wider repertoire. Early recordings point to consistently supreme quality. An example is the “Song of the Earth” from the late 60s.
…and Dvorak’s Piano Concerto – hardly a familiar hit, though undeservedly neglected.
Dvorak’s Piano Concerto deserves an occasional outing, but I can’t avoid an overwhelming sense of what might have been….. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Richter and Kleiber had instead recorded Brahms’ Second Concerto (or even his first, but afaik Richter never performed that piece)?
A member of the pantheon of great American conductors, together with Herbert Blomstedt and Sir Charles Mackerras.
TIL Blomstedt and Mackerras were born in the US.
Sir Charles Mackerras – American?
Andrew Clarke is being playful.
Mackerras was an Australian, born in Schenectady, NY. He spent his first three years in the USA.
Similarly, Blomstedt was born in Springfield, MA, and spent his first two years in the USA.
The point I am making is that you cannot define a person’s nationality – or indeed their sense of national identity – on the basis of where they were born. That may have been the nationality on the birth certificate, but Mr Blomstedt remains proudly Swedish and Sir Charles returned to Sydney at an early age and I believe travelled on an Australian passport for the rest of his life.
The “Western canon” IS the greatest music the world has ever seen.
Many say his father was the superior conductor. I don`t get it, I confess. Life in the notes, please.
Also, it appears he didn`t support much his son in his endeavours…What does one say?
In the later years, only Brahms 4 and 4 Beethoven 4 and 7 Mozart 33 …. some Strauss… one of the only good side of Bernstein’s death is that Kleiber accepted a second new years concert… what else?
He did give ONE interview…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qydEss4m20
Comparing this note and an older post http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/040730-nl-kleiber.html I am puzzled: do you think CK was great or not?
Well pointed out, ahem…!
Kleiber was great in a extremely limited repertoire.
Quality is more important than quantity.
Just watch the video of him rehearsing the overture to Der Freischutz…spellbinding.
There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Carlos Kleiber committed suicide. To assert as such is speculation.
Not entirely unreasonable speculation, though, considering similar rumors about his father’s demise.
Do some reading and research.
Kleiber died “apparently by his own hand”? Where’s the proof? Also, not only was his mother an American, but supposedly he had a British nanny.
OK, everyone needs their mythical hero, who they can put above everything else.
First I’ve heard “by his own hand,” which was also said of his father. Curious about the source of such a sad, lonely end.
Carlos Kleiber had prostate cancer.
…and was devastated at losing his wife six months previously. He drove off to their dacha in Slovenia alone in July 2004…
While we are wildly speculating, lets consider this: sometimes terminal cancer patients let go by giving up medication that prolongs their life. Does this count as suicide?
But he took steps himself before that had a chance to kill him.
As Brigitte Faessbender said in one of the two documentaries about Kleiber (she was a friend)…”that’s no reason to end your own life”. She was speaking about some psychological issue or other.
If he’d recorded more, gave more interviews, and appeared in ads for Rolex watches, he’d have had less “mystique.”
I had the privilege of hearing Carlos Kleiber conduct OTELLO in New York. What an incredible experience that was! His interpretation of the score made it feel like I was hearing it for the first time.
Was it also the last time you wanted to hear Otello? That’s my problem after attending La Boheme under Kleiber in Vienna in 1985, with Luciano Pavarotti and, aaah, Mirella Freni. I couldn’t believe my luck for being there; still can’t, almost forty years on.
I had lunch with Kleiber in Tokyo in the 1990s – he was an exceptionally complicated man. Crippled by anxiety and self doubt, he had to be pushed on stage (the pit on this occasion), but once there was a master we still struggle to comprehend. A key aspect of this mastery was his exposure as a boy to the greats. Richard Strauss was a regular visitor at home, who (so Kleiber related) was very scathing about the “American” food he was served. This gave him a level of familiarity with Strauss’s music which we all clearly understood – and which performers followed with slavish devotion. To receive a personal note from him was a gift which (whatever it said) was to be treasured (and taken note of)….
He spent a few years as a teenager at Horace Mann School in the Bronx and took the 1 subway downtown to hear the NBCSO and NYPO conducted by the likes of Toscanini, Reiner and Stokowski (of whom he was a huge fan)……..
May I recommend Charles Barber’s book “Conversations with Carlos” for great information and insight into the psyche of CK.
On a visit to Tokyo in 1987 coinciding with a visit by La Scala, I stupidly decided not to attend Kleiber’s Boheme. Charles Barbour’s splendid memoir, referred to in a later post by John Kelly, is fascinating. It tells of Kleiber’s love affair with Japan and how he would make frequent trips just to visit to countryside and relax.
I second John Kelly’s recommendation. The Barber book provides a fascinating insight into Kleiber.
There exists a full biography in German which has never been translated.
I am not so foolish as to disparage Kleiber. He was a fine conductor, sometimes very fine, but when hyperbole such as calling him “the most accomplished conductor the world has ever seen” is too often deployed to describe him, it is not then perhaps unwarranted to also observe he was perhaps the most overrated conductor the world has ever (not actually) heard, however fine he was. His Beethoven 5 is a case in point. It’s one of the great 5ths but by no means the greatest. It is not even the greatest Kleiber 5th, as in many ways his father surpassed him, even if not in absolute speed (which is hardly the only measure by which to assess an interpretation of the work). C. Kleiber’s scherzo is perhaps the greatest of all. The playing he coaxes from the horns, especially, is phenomenal. When I first heard it, I was thrilled by the way they cut through the texture in a way I’d not heard before, while at the same time not drowning out the other instruments underneath. But the all-important transition is rather pedestrian when compared to, say, Furtwängler, who generates vastly greater mystery and tension in that most pivotal of all symphonic moments. All that being said, still a very good 5th, but by no means the greatest of all. Then there is his Beethoven 7, which basks in the glow of the 5th with which it is coupled on record. Heard in isolation, it is truly nothing special. At all. It’s not even particularly good. His Brahms 4 is ice-cold, the sighing theme which begins the symphony taken far too fast. His Schubert 8 is similarly chilly and forgettable. And so on. He was perhaps a better conductor than anyone alive today, but that’s not saying much. He was not a greater conductor than Bernstein. Or Furtwängler. Or, for that matter, his own father. He was a superlative technician and a maniacal perfectionist, but those attributes quite often worked *against* the musical excellence of his interpretations, or lack thereof. In the final analysis, a conductor who was perhaps the most naturally gifted of all who nevertheless never quite fulfilled the promise of that gift.
Hyperbolic praise aside, arguably Carlos Kleiber’s best work was in opera.
Well-said. I think all of this gushing comes from the fact that Kleiber was extremely telegenic.
The respect Kleiber earned from fellow conductors, soloists, singers and orchestral musicians had nothing to do with his unquestionably telegenic qualities.
Yes, thank you. Good to hear that I am not alone in my evaluation of his Beethoven 7th – the Concertgebouw performance however is superior. Same with Brahms 4, where I much prefer Furtwangler wartime or Tennstedt Boston.
Yes, the Beethoven 5th is great. But again, Furtwangler wartime or Klemperer Vienna are two versions that I prefer. As well as Erich Kleiber’s – my favorite of papa Kleiber is a little known version with the Berlin Staatskapelle, lately available in the screwed up Berlin Staatskapelle box on DG.
I say screwed up because some smartie thought to include only the second act of Furtwangler’s Berlin Tristan; the third act has also been preserved and the interpretation is superior to the famous EMI Philharmonia recording. And only one movement from Karajan’s wartime Bruckner 8. That was an incomplete recording as well, but give us everything is there please.
And not to forget, if it’s 20 years today since Kleiber’s death, it’s 10 years since Maazel’s. They died a decade apart to the day.
The Vienna Phil. What a sound. Those were the days…
Seriously though, I love the part around 9’55” where Kleiber gets bored of doing the same gestures and just lets them get on with it.
Bored with. Sorry.
“Bored of” is also fine, many would say better, particularly if they speak another European language.
Heartfelt thanks, Norman, for keeping the memories alive.
Cycling fans will know that the most stupendous climbs in the Tour de France are not categorised as 1, 2 or 3, but as “HC” – hors concours, i.e. “outwith the competition”. To compare Carlos Kleiber with other conductors is fatuous – he is so clearly hors concours.
British readers should look out for a small tribute to CK in the Announcements section of The Times this Saturday, which is the 20th anniversary of his death.
“The most accomplished conductor the world has ever seen” is a gross and deeply unserious overstatement
The real problem with such a flat “Don’t argue with me” statement is not that it is purest opinion, even if it be informed opinion, but that the world has seen a great many accomplished conductors who lived and died before there were recordings of even the most primitive sort. We have no films, no first-hand experience with their work, nobody lives who played/sang under or worked with them. They are consigned to the dust because they were so unlucky as not to live during OUR precious and authoritative lifetimes. Their talents and abilities are reduced to a dusty collection of anecdotes. Hermann Levi, anyone?
It might be useful to recall that in 2011 the BBC Music Magazine polled 100 of the acknowledged top conductors of the day (including Jansons, Colin Davis and others) asking whom they regarded as the greatest conductor of all time. Exactly how the question was framed I have no idea and that may have had some effect on the result. But Carlos Kleiber came top. Others included Bernstein 2nd, Abbado 3rd, Furtwangler 7th, Toscanini 8th, Fricsay 13th and Mravinsky 17th. Seven of the top 20 were living as of the poll date. Yet clearly it may well have been difficult for those polled to vote for conductors of whom they had little or no direct experience. As David K. Nelson suggests, there is a host of pre-1930s conductors who just would not be considered despite some being ‘great’. So the poll should perhaps be considered much more of a snapshot in time.
I was at the LSO concert he gave that got a scathing review, so much so that he vowed never to conduct a concert in London again (he didn’t). It was one of the greatest concerts I have been to. Fortunately, he did return to the Royal Opera House for some amazing performances. I stood for his first Otellos with Domingo, a late substitution for a planned new production of Andrea Chenier. Miraculous (though I still preferred my first Otello, Jon Vickers, who WAS Otello, not just playing him)
For some of us Furtwangler is “the most accomplished conductor the world has ever seen.” And I know others who would give this title to Bruno Walter.
Furtwängler is my own choice and I’m hardly alone in that assessment. Wildly different conductors like Bernstein and Abbado felt the same. The latter instance is particularly intriguing as his own style was so radically different, but he did say something along the lines that what Furtwängler did was inimitable and no one should even try, which I agree with. It’s why, in contrast, HIP has been such a success among lesser talents: being a method, it can be applied systematically to give predictable and homogenized results. And indeed classical interpretation has never been as homogenized as it is today, particularly orchestral music, thanks largely to the deleterious effects of HIP.
I experienced a performance of Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Calos Kleiber in the 1970’s and was overwhelmed to the point that no later performance has come close. As to whether he was the finest conductor ever to draw breath seems questionable but, from my experience of a live performance together with his recordings, he certainly did what he did superbly well. An exceptional character.
Another, in a very different field, was Tab Hunter who made an impact as an actor and singer in the 1950s and ’60s but is perhaps best remembered for his personality and influence in breaking the taboos surrounding homosexuality. He died at 86 on July 8th 2018; his partner of 37 years Allan Glaser, and eventual husband when same sex marriage became possible in Californian, I’m sure still mourns his passing as do I.
I did know that Carlos Kleiber’s mother tongue was English, and you can hear a few words during a video rehearsal for the New Year’s Day concert in Vienna. Isn’t there a story that Kleiber, wherever he was in the world, was always sent by his agent a monthly British motoring magazine?
I like that another resident of Buenos Aires – but this time an Argentinian- Jorge Luis Borges also spoke English (as second language) because his grandmother Frances Anne Haslam was from Staffordshire, and his nanny, a Miss Tink was also English.
CK certainly was a petrol head.
There is one interview that’s available on YouTube. “The one and only Kleiber Interview – in NDR-Stidio, Hamburg on Dec.7th, 1960.”
Very much missed and never to be forgotten.
Well said!
I’m sure orchestral musicians roll their eyes when conductors insist on talking/explaining at length, but I suspect Carlos Kleiber’s orchestra enjoyed this: “I did not hear Carlos Kleiber’s Rosenkavalier at the Met. My friend remembers Kleiber instructing the orchestra that the music accompanying the Marschalin must shimmer like chiffon, creating a veil through which this character’s fading beauty could be apprehended.” J. Horowitz
Every member of Carlos Kleiber’s public, whether live or via recordings, will have their own view, of course. But it’s telling that when a music magazine asked conductors to nominate their greatest peers, CK was way ahead of all the rest. Here’s what Bernard Haitink said: https://slippedisc.com/2021/10/simon-rattle-watching-carlos-kleiber-with-bernard-haitink/
Bashing Kleiber has become a sport by some YOUTUBE critics. There are some truly great Klieber recordings. His Beethoven 5th deserves all the accolades it receives. However, there are some bad recordings as well. Kleiber’s Borodin 2nd with RSC Stuttgart is horrible, for example.