Carlos Kleiber was born on July 3, 1930, and died on July 13, 2004. He was a German-born Austrian conductor who is considered one of the greatest conductors in history. His father, Erich Kleiber, was also a conductor. Kleiber was known for conducting music from the Romantic period. John Rockwell wrote, "He was a perfectionist who required long rehearsals. His performances combined precision with emotional expression."

Early life

Kleiber was born as Karl Ludwig Bonifacius Kleiber in Berlin in 1930. He was the son of Erich Kleiber, a well-known Austrian conductor, and Ruth Goodrich, an American from Waterloo, Iowa. In 1935, the Kleiber family moved to Buenos Aires, and Karl was renamed Carlos. As a child, Carlos had an English teacher and attended English boarding schools. He also composed music, sang, and played the piano and timpani. His father, Erich Kleiber, recognized Carlos’s musical abilities but advised him not to pursue a career in music. Erich wrote to a friend, “What a pity the boy is musically talented.”

Carlos first studied chemistry at ETH Zurich but later chose to focus on music. In 1952, he worked as an assistant conductor at the Gärtnerplatz Theatre in Munich. He made his conducting debut in 1954 with the operetta Gasparone at the Potsdam theatre. From 1958 to 1964, he served as music director at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Duisburg. He then worked at the Opera in Zurich from 1964 to 1966. Between 1966 and 1973, he was first music director in Stuttgart, his final permanent position. After that, he frequently conducted at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.

During his time in Düsseldorf, Kleiber conducted operas by Giuseppe Verdi, including La traviata, Rigoletto, I due Foscari, and Otello; by Giacomo Puccini, such as La bohème and Madama Butterfly; by Richard Strauss, like Daphne and Der Rosenkavalier; by Jacques Offenbach, including Les Contes d'Hoffmann and several operettas; by Franz Lehár, The Merry Widow; by Engelbert Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel; by Igor Stravinsky, Oedipus Rex; and by Ruggero Leoncavallo, Edipo re. In Zurich, he conducted Verdi’s Falstaff and Bedřich Smetana’s The Bartered Bride for the first time.

Mature career

During his time as a freelancer, Kleiber only performed on special occasions. In 1966, he made his British debut at the Edinburgh Festival by performing Alban Berg's Wozzeck. His father had conducted the premiere of this work in 1925. At the Royal Opera House, Kleiber performed operas such as Der Rosenkavalier, Elektra, La bohème, and Otello. He first appeared at Bayreuth in 1974, conducting Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

Kleiber made his American debut in 1978 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He conducted with them again in 1983, which were his only performances with a US orchestra. His debut at the Metropolitan Opera was in 1988, when he conducted La bohème with Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni. In 1989, after Herbert von Karajan left the Berlin Philharmonic, Kleiber was offered the chance to become its music director but refused. He returned to the Met in 1989 to conduct La traviata and again in 1990 for Otello and Der Rosenkavalier.

Kleiber avoided public attention and reportedly gave only one interview in his lifetime, despite some claims he never gave any. After leaving the Bavarian State Opera, his performances became less frequent, and he made only a few recordings.

Many of his studio recordings are highly respected. These include Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh Symphonies with the Vienna Philharmonic, Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 4, and Franz Schubert's Third and Eighth ("Unfinished") Symphonies, also with the Vienna Philharmonic. Other recordings feature Antonín Dvořák's Piano Concerto with Sviatoslav Richter, Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, and Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata. Kleiber's final studio recording was Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Recording sessions began in 1980, but Kleiber left before completion. Deutsche Grammophon released the recording anyway, which upset him.

Kleiber's limited studio recordings have been expanded by releases of live performances, often from broadcast recordings. These include his two Vienna New Year's Concerts, performances of Beethoven's Fourth and Seventh Symphonies with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Beethoven's Sixth Symphony with the Bavarian State Orchestra. The Sixth Symphony is notable because Kleiber conducted it only once in this performance, which was recorded on a C-90 compact cassette for his son, not from a radio broadcast.

Later years

Kleiber left concert performances in the early 1990s but sometimes returned for private or charity events. At one such event in Ingolstadt, part of his payment was a new Audi car made according to his preferences. His performances were carefully practiced but often appeared natural and full of creativity. Many of his coworkers and audience members believed he was an unusual but highly talented conductor, placing him among the greatest conductors in history despite the small number of his public performances.

He was buried in the Slovenian village of Konjšica, near Litija, where he died in 2004. He was buried next to his wife, Stanislava Brezovar, a ballet dancer who had passed away seven months earlier. They had two children: a son named Marko and a daughter named Lillian.

Preserved performances

Kleiber's conducting style is saved on video in many performances. These include Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 7 from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus from Munich, Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier from Munich and Vienna, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 36th Symphony and Brahms's Second Symphony from the Musikverein in Vienna, Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Mozart's 33rd Symphony, and Brahms's Fourth Symphony from Munich, and Bizet's Carmen from Vienna. Kleiber also conducted the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in 1989 and 1992, and both concerts are saved on video.

Legacy

In 2008, Rai Radio 3, an Italian national radio channel, included a 10-episode program in its evening show, Radio3 Suite. The program, titled Il Sorriso della Musica: un Ritratto di Carlos Kleiber ("The Smile of Music: A Portrait of Carlos Kleiber"), was organized and hosted by Andrea Ottonello. It featured participation from Claudio Abbado, Mirella Freni, Maurizio Pollini, and especially Carlos Kleiber’s sister, Veronica. During the program, Abbado described Kleiber as "one of the greatest, if not the greatest, conductors of the 20th century" ("Carlos è stato uno dei più grandi, se non il più grande, direttore del Novecento").

On 26 September 2009, BBC Radio 3 broadcast a documentary titled Who Was Carlos Kleiber? The program was produced by Paul Frankl and presented by Ivan Hewett, with research by Ruth Thomson. It included interviews with four individuals who knew Kleiber well: tenor and conductor Plácido Domingo, music administrator and intendant Sir Peter Jonas, music journalist and critic Christine Lemke-Matvey, and conductor–pianist Charles Barber.

Kleiber’s talents—his musical and dramatic understanding, analytical skills, technique, and ability to explain his ideas—made him the greatest conductor of his time. One colleague said, "When I work with him, I feel he knows why the composer wrote every note, treated every phrase, and created every orchestral color in a specific way. If he were to lead a major orchestra permanently, he could make it the greatest ensemble in history."

In July 2014, on the tenth anniversary of Kleiber’s death, a group of public broadcasters in Canada, Great Britain, and the United States aired a two-hour documentary titled Carlos Kleiber: A Conductor Unlike Any Other. The program, produced by Jon Tolansky, included interviews with singers Ileana Cotrubaș, Thomas Hampson, Dame Felicity Lott, the late Dame Margaret Price, and Jonathan Summers, as well as members of the Chicago Symphony, Royal Opera House, London Symphony, and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. It also featured conductor and friend Charles Barber, administrators Sir Peter Jonas and Sir John Tooley, and recording executive Costa Pilavachi. The documentary included excerpts from Kleiber’s most important recordings, such as Beethoven’s Fifth and Seventh Symphonies, Verdi’s La traviata, Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, and Weber’s Der Freischütz.

On 21 June 2010, the city of Ljubljana celebrated Kleiber’s 80th birthday with a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, directed by Kleiber’s friend Riccardo Muti. In March 2011, BBC Music Magazine announced Kleiber had been selected as "the greatest conductor of all time" in a poll of 100 current conductors, including Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, and Mariss Jansons. Kleiber, who conducted about 96 concerts and 400 operatic performances in his 74 years, was voted ahead of Leonard Bernstein and Claudio Abbado, who received second and third places, respectively.

Susanna Mälkki, music director of the Ensemble Intercontemporain and one of the conductors polled, said, "Carlos Kleiber brought an incredible energy to music. Yes, he had about five times as much time to rehearse than conductors do today, but he deserved it because his vision was remarkable, he knew what he wanted, and his attention to detail was truly inspiring."

Jeremy Pound, Deputy Editor of BBC Music Magazine, added, "Asking 100 of today’s top conductors to name their idols and inspirations was fascinating. Many named Kleiber, who conducted fewer concerts in his lifetime than most of them direct in just a few years. Kleiber’s incredible attention to detail, enthusiasm for music, and high level of performance could never be doubted. Perhaps 'less is more' is the real path to true greatness?"

Charles Barber, Kleiber’s biographer, friend, and pen-pal, noted another factor in Kleiber’s career: "Uniquely, Carlos Kleiber combined the strictness of German analysis, form, and discipline with the expressive energy of Latin dance, rhythm, and joy. For nearly twenty years at the beginning of his career, a conductor named Karl gradually became Carlos. He never turned away from that cultural background, which influenced everything he did."

Kleiber was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2012. Clemens Hellsberg of Gramophone (May 2012) stated:

Honours and awards

• Cultural Honor Prize from the City of Munich in 1978
• Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 1980
• Pour le Mérite for Science and Art in Germany in 1990
• Austrian Decoration for Science and Art in 1990
• Golden Baton from La Scala in Milan in 1995
• German Record Prize
• Bavarian Order of Merit in 1995
• Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art in 1998

Filmography

• September 2009 BBC Radio Program: Who Was Carlos Kleiber?
• Documentary: Spuren ins Nichts – Der Dirigent Carlos Kleiber (Germany, Slovenia, Austria, 2010, 52 minutes). Directed by Eric Schulz. Produced by Centauri, EuroArts Music International, and Servus TV.
• TV Documentary: I Am Lost to the World (March 2011). Directed by Georg Wübbolt. Produced by BFMI, ZDF, 3sat, and C major Ent.