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Born: June 6, 1926 - Merseburg, Saxony-Anhalt. Germany
Died: January 11, 1998 - Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany |
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The German conductor, Klaus Tennstedt, studied violin and piano at the Leipzig Conservatory. He avoided military service during the Nazi era by joining a Baroque orchestra. He became concertmaster of the Halle Municipal Theater orchestra in 1948, but a finger injury ended his career as a violinist and he continued as a voice coach at the same theater. He then directed his talents toward conducting. In 1958, he became music director of the Dresden Opera, and in 1962, music director of the Schwerin State Orchestra and Theatre.
Klaus Tennstedt emigrated from East Germany in 1971, obtaining asylum in Sweden. He conducted in Gothenburg at the Göteborg Theater, and in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1972, he became General Music Director of the Kiel Opera in northern Germany. From 1979 to 1981, he was Chief Conductor of the NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, and during the same period (1979-1982) was Principal Guest Conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra in Minneapolis.
In 1974, Klaus Tennstedt made his North American debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. His first USA appearance was shortly after that, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, on December 13, 1974, conducting an all-Johannes Brahms program. The following week, his Boston Symphony Orchestra Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 earned laudatory reviews. In Norman Lebrecht's The Maestro Myth, the story was told that when the Boston management asked Tennstedt what he wanted to conduct, he replied: "You mean I get to choose?" His appearances were so highly acclaimed that as a result, Tennstedt was invited to guest-conduct at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Blossom Music Festival in 1975. His only American opera engagement was a series of seven performances of L.v. Beethoven's Fidelio at the Metropolitan Opera, the last of which, on January 7, 1984, was broadcast.
Klaus Tennstedt then guest-conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In Europe, he guest- conducted the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester of Munich, Berliner Philharmoniker and the SDR Symphony (now the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra).
Klaus Tennstedt's London debut was with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976. In 1977 came his first engagement with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which led to his appointment as its Principal Guest Conductor in 1980, and eventually as Principal Conductor in 1983. Due to ill-health he resigned in 1987, but was later named the its Conductor Laureate, returning to the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1986 to record Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand", EMI) and for G. Mahler concerts in November 1991 (Symphony No. 6) and May 1993 (Symphony No. 7). His last guest appearance in the USA was with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1992, but on the advice of his physicians he retired from conducting altogether in October 1994. The last time he conducted was in June 1994, at a rehearsal of a student orchestra at Oxford University where he received an honorary doctorate a few days later.
In 1978 Klaus Tennstedt became the first German conductor of his generation to conduct the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, which until then had boycotted German conductors because of their connections with the Nazi regime.
Known for his interpretation of the Austro-German repertoire, especially his sympathetic approaches towards Mahler, Klaus Tennstedt is widely considered an established conductor, one of the most influential and the greatest of the late 20th century. His recordings include a complete cycle of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, and several of his concert performances have been reissued on CD. |
