Martin Kettle
The Guardian Sunday 13 July 2014
Renowned conductor Lorin Maazel died from complications of pneumonia at his home in Castleton, Virginia. Photograph: Giambalvo & Napolitano/Redferns
Lorin Maazel, one of the most high-achieving and highly paid orchestral conductors of the past half-century, died on Sunday at his home in Virginia in the United States, after suffering complications from pneumonia. He was 84.
Maazel was music director of a gallery of top orchestras in Europe and the United States – including Cleveland, Paris and Munich – for more than 40 years, and had been chief conductor of opera houses in West Berlin and Vienna too. His last major post was as music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 2001- 2009, during which he led the orchestra on a controversial and ground breaking visit to Pyongyang, North Korea.
In Britain his principal connections were with the Philharmonia Orchestra, of which he was an associate principal conductor from 1971. Maazel continued to conduct the Philharmonia until the end of his life. His last concerts with the orchestra were in London in March. The orchestra tweeted last night that it was "devastated" by the news of Maazel's death.
Born in France in 1930 to Jewish American parents, Maazel was brought up in the United States, where he became a famous child prodigy. By his 11th birthday he had already shared a podium with Leopold Stokowski, while the no less legendary Arturo Toscanini was responsible for getting Maazel his first steady conducting job in 1942, when Maazel was only 12.
A talented violinist, Maazel was briefly a member of the Fine Arts Quartet and of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He gave violin recitals throughout his career and wrote for the instrument. His conducting career was littered with firsts, most notably as the first American to be invited to conduct at the annual Wagner festival in Bayreuth, where he first conducted in 1960.
Maazel had a long association with Vienna, where he had a brief and stormy period in charge of the Vienna state opera, and with the Vienna Philharmonic, whose annual new years' day concert he directed regularly in the 1980s, returning for the last time in 2009.
Never a musician to hide his light under a bushel, Maazel tried hard to succeed Herbert von Karajan as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra when the long Karajan reign came to an end in 1989. The orchestra's choice of the late Claudio Abbado was a huge blow.
Maazel was a composer as well as a conductor, writing an opera based on George Orwell's 1984 that was performed, under his own direction, at Covent Garden and the New York Metropolitan, to generally lukewarm reviews.
Maazel was music director of a gallery of top orchestras in Europe and the United States – including Cleveland, Paris and Munich – for more than 40 years, and had been chief conductor of opera houses in West Berlin and Vienna too. His last major post was as music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 2001- 2009, during which he led the orchestra on a controversial and ground breaking visit to Pyongyang, North Korea.
In Britain his principal connections were with the Philharmonia Orchestra, of which he was an associate principal conductor from 1971. Maazel continued to conduct the Philharmonia until the end of his life. His last concerts with the orchestra were in London in March. The orchestra tweeted last night that it was "devastated" by the news of Maazel's death.
Born in France in 1930 to Jewish American parents, Maazel was brought up in the United States, where he became a famous child prodigy. By his 11th birthday he had already shared a podium with Leopold Stokowski, while the no less legendary Arturo Toscanini was responsible for getting Maazel his first steady conducting job in 1942, when Maazel was only 12.
A talented violinist, Maazel was briefly a member of the Fine Arts Quartet and of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He gave violin recitals throughout his career and wrote for the instrument. His conducting career was littered with firsts, most notably as the first American to be invited to conduct at the annual Wagner festival in Bayreuth, where he first conducted in 1960.
Maazel had a long association with Vienna, where he had a brief and stormy period in charge of the Vienna state opera, and with the Vienna Philharmonic, whose annual new years' day concert he directed regularly in the 1980s, returning for the last time in 2009.
Never a musician to hide his light under a bushel, Maazel tried hard to succeed Herbert von Karajan as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra when the long Karajan reign came to an end in 1989. The orchestra's choice of the late Claudio Abbado was a huge blow.
Maazel was a composer as well as a conductor, writing an opera based on George Orwell's 1984 that was performed, under his own direction, at Covent Garden and the New York Metropolitan, to generally lukewarm reviews.
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