Kurt Sanderling - September 19, 1912 – September 17, 2011 - RIP

[BBMmk2]

A great conductor of solid good interpretations and a top drawer in depth conductor of the music of Shostakovich. RIP Kurt Sanderling

[Mahlerei]

I have a few recordings with his son Thomas; pretty good they are too.

[gurnemanz]

I lived very happily with his famous Dresden Staatskapelle Brahms Symphonies for many years on LP before accumulating additional versions. He was a great man who lived under under three dictators - Hitler, Stalin, Ulbricht. It was the politically motivated Walter Ulbricht who made a deal with Khrushchev for Sanderling to take on the Berlin Symphony Orchestra as an East Berlin rival to Karajan in the West - against the wishes of the Leningraders who, not surprisingly, wanted to keep him.

[verismissimo]

Fine Brahms cycle with his Dresdners from the 1970s. Still one of the best.

[Colonel Danby]

Very sad news, as I was hoping that he would reach his 100th birthday: he was a fine conductor, and I was lucky to see him live in concert in Birmingham: can't remember the orchestra (though it may have been the Philharmonia) but Richard Goode played a Mozart Piano Concerto and Kurt finished off with a great Bruckner Four.

I thought that Sanderling may have taken the helm of the Berlin Phil for a short time in 1945 while Fürtwängler and Karajan were undergoing denazification, as a "good" German, but I may be wrong.

Anyway, one of the great conductors of the 20th Century. RIP

[HighlandDougie]

Anyone around in Glasgow in 1990 (its 'Year of Culture') might remember Sanderling conducting the Berlin Philharmonic (Haydn - was it no 88? - and a wonderful Shostakovich 5) in the newly-opened Concert Hall. He returned the next year but this time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. More Shostakovich (was it the 8th?), with exceptionally good playing from an orchestra who clearly greatly admired him as a conductor. A sad loss but some wonderful recordings with which to remember him (I share Gurnemanz's views on his Brahms - my standard listening if I just want to hear a fine, unmannered performance from a proper German orchestra).

[visualnickmos]

Fine Brahms cycle with his Dresdners from the 1970s. Still one of the best.

Indeed. I have his Beethoven 1, 2, 5, 6, 8. Would love to have his complete Beethoven symphonies - if they were ever produced.

I saw him many years ago at the RFH, and was bowled over by the occasion - he somehow seemed to make the music that although I was familiar with, sound like something new and exciting.

Another one of the 'last of the last' leaves us.

[pastoralguy]

Indeed. I have his Beethoven 1, 2, 5, 6, 8. Would love to have his complete Beethoven symphonies - if they were ever produced

I'm sure it was Sanderling who made a set of Beethoven Symphonies under a re-vitalised Philharmonia Orchestra in the 80's that were sponsored by a cigarette company. (du Maurier, if I remember correctly. The box set used the cig companies 'colours' on the boxed set to striking effect.) I'm sure the individual discs were released on the EMI 'Studio' label.

I remember he used to conduct the SNO in the 80' and 90's. I'm sorry to say that I don't remember any specific concerts.

[Curalach]

He returned the next year but this time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. More Shostakovich (was it the 8th?)

No HD, it was the 10th. A very bleak and tragic reading as I remember it. Quite superb.

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks, Curalach. Can't quite think how I had the 8th in my mind as I remember the first movement of what you have confirmed was the 10th as spellbinding. I'm very glad to have been there (and a shame that the Glashow Concert Hall appears to be abandoning its International Series)

[EdgeleyRob]

He was a legend (an overused word I know).Very sad. RIP

[Peter Katin]

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddi...ctor-dies.html


This is the only obituary I've found so far.

Actually there were extensive obituaries in both Times and Telegraph.

[pastoralguy]

I'm very glad to have been there (and a shame that the Glashow Concert Hall appears to be abandoning its International Series)

Really?! That's very sad news indeed.

[HighlandDougie]

PG

Seemingly for economic reasons, the International Series is no more. That's not to deny that among them, the RSNO, the BBC SSO and the SCO don't have a pretty wide-ranging series of programmes, with other things (a weekend of minimalism, for instance) chucked in but it somehow seems to be a backward step. Even Edinburgh seems to have the odd visiting orchestra outwith the Festival. Glasgow's aspirations to be regarded as a "great European city" seem even more unrealisable if European orchestras have no place there. So memories of Kurt Sanderling and the Berlin Phil are even more treasurable (and, if you were my father, Furtwängler and the Berlin Phil in the early 1930s) as we seem unlikely ever to hear them in Glasgow again.

[bluestateprommer]

US obits on Kurt Sanderling

From the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/arts/music/kurt-sanderling-eastern-bloc-conductor-dies-at-98.html

From the Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-kurt-sanderling-20110919,0,7045899,full.story

Apologies also for the redundant earlier post; it's been deleted.