CLEVELAND (AP) — Christoph von Dohnányi, a conductor acclaimed for performances as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002, has died at age 95.
Dohnányi died in Munich on Saturday, the Cleveland Orchestra mentioned in an announcement Monday.
“A grand seigneur among the many nice worldwide conductors to whom the Salzburg Pageant owes its world repute,” Salzburg Pageant creative director Markus Hinterhäuser mentioned in assertion.
Dohnányi was most recognized for his time in Cleveland, serving to burnish an orchestra led by George Szell from 1946 to 1970 and Lorin Maazel from 1972 to 1982.
“It’s an ensemble of musicians who come somehow from making chamber music,” Dohnányi mentioned in a 2011 interview for the Cleveland Orchestra Musicians. “The real, very special (characteristic) about the Cleveland Orchestra is that people, musicians, are used to listen to each other very much. All orchestra should do it, many do it, but very few do it to the extent the Cleveland Orchestra is able to do it.”
Displaying exceptional stability, the orchestra has been led since his departure by Franz Welser-Möst, who plans to go away in 2027.
Dohnányi was born in Berlin on Sept. 8, 1929, a son of lawyer Hans von Dohnanyi and Christine Bonhoeffer, sister of the pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer and grandson of the Hungarian composer Ernst von Dohnányi.
“His storied family history gave him a unique musical perspective,” Cleveland Orchestra CEO André Gremillet mentioned in assertion. “Maestro Dohnányi’s artistry and dedication led to a deep mutual respect with our musicians, which was felt sincerely by our audiences.”
Hans von Dohnanyi and Bonhoeffer have been arrested by Germany’s Nazi authorities in 1943 and executed two years later, in line with a timeline Christoph von Dohnányi helped put together for the Cleveland Orchestra.
Christoph von Dohnányi initially studied regulation for 2 years after World Struggle II, then attended Munich’s Musikhochschule to review piano, composition and conducting and coached on the Bavarian State Opera. He studied together with his grandfather at Florida State in 1952-53, then on the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Middle.
He labored on the Frankfurt Opera as a repetiteur and conductor below Georg Solti beginning in 1953 and have become common music director on the Lübeck Opera from 1957 to 1963. He made his U.S. debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1961. Dohnányi moved on to turn into common music director of the Staatstheater Kassell from 1963 to 1966 and chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra in Cologne from 1964 to 1970.
Dohnányi adopted Solti at Oper Frankfurt from 1968 to 1977 and was music director of the Hamburg State Opera from 1977 to 1984; his brother Klaus was Hamburg’s mayor from 1981 to 1988.
He later served as principal visitor conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra from 1997 to 2008 and chief conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Sinfonieorchester from 2004 to 2010.
Dohnányi made his Vienna Philharmonic debut on the 1966 Salzburg Pageant and carried out the orchestra via 2019.
“We are going to bear in mind his creative work with honest appreciation. Our ideas are together with his household,” Vienna Philharmonic chairman Daniel Froschauer mentioned in an announcement.
Dohnányi made 77 appearances on the Salzburg Pageant from 1962 via 2014, main the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s “Die Bassariden” in 1966. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut main Verdi’s “Falstaff” in 1972 and carried out on the Vienna State Opera from 1972 to 2001, primarily Wagner and Strauss but additionally Berg, Friedrich Cerha’s “Baal” and the world premiere of Gottfried von Einem’s’s “Kabale und Liebe.”
Dohnanyi’s marriages to actress Renate Zillessen and soprano Anja Silja led to divorce. He’s survived by his third spouse, Barbara Koller, a violinist and humanities supervisor; brother Klaus; two kids from his first marriage, Katja and Justus, and three from his second, Julia, Benedikt and Olga.
