____________________________________________________
October 12, 13, and 14, 1978
Carlos Kleiber made his U.S. debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on October 12, 13, and 14, 1978, conducting Weber’s Overture to Der Freischütz, Schubert’s Third Symphony, and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
“Kleiber’s arrival here was preceded by almost as much excited anticipation and ecstatic European notices as greeted [Sir Georg] Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini when they gave their first performances with the Orchestra back in the mid-1950s. . . . Is the man really as good as everyone says he is?” asked John von Rhein in the Chicago Tribune. He answered his own question. “Thursday night provided the answer: No, he is even better.” Von Rhein continued, “He pays this orchestra the ultimate (and how seldom realized!) complimentby simply letting it play. He obviously values passion over deliberation, intensity over clinical perfection, spontaneity over calculation. He is a conductor of rare brilliance, and rarer humility. . . . It sounded in fact like an entirely different orchestra, and it delivered one of the most electrifying kinetic Fifths this reviewer has ever heard.”
Carlos Kleiber and the Orchestra acknowledge applause following a performance of Brahms’s Symphony no. 2 on June 3, 1983 (Terry’s photo)
Kleiber returned for a second engagement on June 2, 3, and 4, 1983, to lead the Orchestra in Butterworth’s English Idyll no. 1, Mozart’s Symphony no. 33, and Brahms’s Symphony no. 2. “Every score is seen both as a unity and as a series of flowing phrases, each one of which is to be shaped, colored, balanced, and accented as perfectly as possible,” wrote Robert C. Marsh in the Chicago Sun-Times. “There is never the slightest suggestion of routine, the lapse into the standard reading. Every bar is a fresh adventure, an invitation to discovery. His insight is exceptional. He can play music you think you know forward and backwards and show you one new vision after another.”
This article also appears here.
3 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 8, 2016 at 12:01 PM
Geoffrey Decker
Are any of the Kleiber live performances available on special edition CDs?
January 8, 2016 at 12:13 PM
Frank Villella
Sadly, no, due to permission issues. We hold the radio broadcast master of the 1978 performance here in the Archives, but Kleiber did not give permission for the 1983 concerts to be recorded.
January 8, 2016 at 12:32 PM
Geoffrey Decker
That’s very sad. I wonder if Kleiber’s son or daughter could be contacted asking for permission. I know a lot of live items have been released on the German Orfeo label, and I imagine they simply contacted his children. The conductor Charles Barber, who wrote the recently published Conversations with Carlos, might very well have a way to get in touch with them. It would make a wonderful release!