Carlos Kleiber, mercurial master of the conductor’ s art
Alan Blyth
Wednesday 21 July 2004, 08.32 EDT
One of the most exciting, yet eccentric, conductors of the last 50 years, Carlos Kleiber, who has died aged 74, led performances of symphonic music and opera that will never be forgotten by those who heard them. Happily, he also caught much of the vitality of his live readings in the recording studio. He was one interpreter for whose conducting the epithet “unique” was appropriate.
At the same time, he was an enfant terrible of the musical world. Primarily a recluse, he could only be persuaded into the public arena, at least during the last 20 years, by the combination of a momentous event, long rehearsal times and a huge fee. He took 34 rehearsals for his first performance of Berg’s “Wozzeck” in Munich, and 17 for a Covent Garden “La Bohème.” That other great German conductor Herbert von Karajan once commented: “He only conducts when the fridge is empty.”