Erich Kleiber

Erich Kleiber (5 August 1890, Wieden, Vienna – 27 January 1956, Zurich) was an Austrian conductor, composer. He is widely considered to be one of the legendary conductors of the 20th century.

He was born in a poor teacher's family in Vienna in 1890. His mother was a "pioneer Wagnerian" who, as Kleiber remembered, though she died when he was only six, played piano transcription of Lohengrin and Tristan at home. His father died the year before. As a little boy, he went to live with his grandfather in Prague. In 1900, he returned to Vienna to live with an aunt. In July 1908, he left Vienna and studied art, philosophy, history at the Charles University in Prague between 1908 and 1912 and took conducting lessons at the Prague Conservatory.

Erich Kleiber made his debut at the Prague National Theater in 1911; Then he conducted opera in Darmstadt (1912-1919), Barmen-Elberfeld (1919-1921), Düsseldorf (1921-1922), and Mannheim (1922-1923).

In 1923, after conducting a stirring performance of Beethoven's Fidelio at the Berlin State Opera, he became the general music director of the institution (1923-1934), as the successor of Leo Blech. During twelve years he was one of the forming artists of the German music life with Wilhelm Furtwängler and Richard Strauss. He was known for his interpretations of the standard symphonic and operatic repertoire - works of Beethoven and Wagner -, as well as for championing new works (Alban Berg, Ernst Krenek, Darius Milhaud and Igor Stravinsky). In 1925, he conducted the world première of Alban Berg's opera, Wozzeck. and the first German performance of Janáček's opera, Jenufa.

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