Michael Gielen
Encyclopedia
Professional career
Gielen was born in DresdenDresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, to opera director Josef Gielen. Through his mother, Rose, he is the nephew of Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann was an Austrian pianist and composer. The actress Salka Viertel was his sister...
and Salka Steuermann Viertel. He began his career as a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, where he studied with Erwin Leuchter and gave an early performance of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
's complete piano works in 1949 (the South-American première). While serving as conductor and répétiteur
Répétiteur
Répétiteur , repetitore , or Korrepetitor / Repetitor , originally from the French verb répéter meaning "to repeat, to go over, to learn, to rehearse"....
at the Wiener Staatsoper (1950–60), he conducted much contemporary music outside the opera house. His next operatic appointment was as conductor of Royal Swedish Opera
Royal Swedish Opera
Kungliga Operan is Sweden's national stage for opera and ballet.-Location and Environment:...
from 1960 to 1965, followed by posts at the Netherlands Opera and the Opern- und Schauspielhaus Frankfurt from 1977. He was principal conductor of the Belgian National Orchestra (1969–73), the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...
(1980–86) and of the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra is a radio orchestra located in the German cities of Baden-Baden and Freiburg...
(1986–99), which he has been closely associated with since.
He has demonstrated a mastery of the most complex contemporary scores, and he has given many premières, including Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...
's Fassade and Klangschatten – mein Saitenspiel, György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
's Requiem, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
's Carré
Carré (Stockhausen)
Carré for four orchestras and four choirs is a composition by the German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, and is Work Number 10 in the composer's catalog of works.-History:...
and Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was a post-WWII West German composer. He is perhaps best known for his opera Die Soldaten which is regarded as one of the most important operas of the 20th century...
's Requiem für einen jungen Dichter. In 1973 he recorded Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron is a three-act opera by Arnold Schoenberg with the third act unfinished. The German libretto was by the composer after the Book of Exodus.-Compositional history:...
with Günter Reich
Günter Reich
Günter Reich , also spelled Günther Reich and Gunther Reich, was an Israeli baritone of German birth...
, Louis Devos, choir und orchestra of the Österreichischer Rundfunks, used as a soundtrack for the film Moses und Aron
Moses und Aron (film)
Moses und Aron, known in English as Moses and Aaron, is a 1973 film by the French filmmaking duo of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet based on the unfinished opera of the same title by Arnold Schoenberg...
. In 1979 he revived Schreker's opera Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten
Die Gezeichneten is an opera in three acts by Franz Schreker, libretto by the composer.-Composition history:...
at the Oper Frankfurt, where it had been premiered in 1918. During his time in Frankfurt, later called the Gielen Era, he collaborated with stage directors such as Hans Neuenfels
Hans Neuenfels
Hans Neuenfels is a German writer, poet, film producer, librettist, theatre director and opera director.- Biography :...
for Verdi's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
and Ruth Berghaus
Ruth Berghaus
Ruth Berghaus was a German choreographer and opera and theatre director.Berghaus was born in Dresden and studied Expressionist dance and Dance direction with Gret Palucca there and was an advanced student at the German Academy of Arts in Berlin, at least part of the time under Walter Felsenstein -...
for Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
.
He is also a noted conductor of the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...
and Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
. As a composer, he has elaborated on the tradition of the Second Viennese School
Second Viennese School
The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
and his small oeuvre includes settings of poems by Hans Arp, Paul Claudel
Paul Claudel
Paul Claudel was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism.-Life:...
, Stefan George
Stefan George
Stefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
, and Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
.
Awards
- 1986: Theodor W. Adorno AwardTheodor W. Adorno AwardThe Theodor W. Adorno Award is a highly prestigious German award for outstanding achievement in philosophy, theatre, music, and film. It was established by the city of Frankfurt in 1977 to commemorate the sociologist and philosopher Theodor Adorno, who had taught at the University of Frankfurt for...
- 2010: Ernst von Siemens Music PrizeErnst von Siemens Music PrizeThe international Ernst von Siemens Music Prize is an annual music prize given by the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste on behalf of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung , established in 1972. The foundation was established by Ernst von Siemens...
- Juni 2010: Großes Verdienstkreuz mit Stern der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Selected works
- Die Glocken sind auf falscher Spur after Hans Arp, premiere 1970, Joan CarrollJoan CarrollJoan Carroll was a successful child star in movies between 1938 and 1948.-Biography:Born as Joan Felt, she became an accomplished child actress, scoring personal successes on Broadway in the hit musical Panama Hattie, and the 1940 film, Primrose Path, as Ginger Rogers's younger sister...
, Siegfried PalmSiegfried PalmSiegfried Palm was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for him....
, Aloys Kontarsky, Wilhelm Bruck, Christoph Caskel, Michael Gielen, at the Saarländischer RundfunkSaarländischer RundfunkSaarländischer Rundfunk is a public radio and television broadcaster for the German Bundesland of Saarland, with its headquarters in the Broadcasting House Halberg in Saarbrücken. SR is a member of the ARD.- Finances :...
festival "Musik im 20.Jahrhundert" - 1983 - 1985: string quartet Un vieux souvenir after BaudelairesCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
's Les Fleurs du MalLes Fleurs du malLes Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 , it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements...
, premiere 1985, LaSalle QuartetLaSalle QuartetThe LaSalle Quartet was a string quartet active from 1946 to 1987. It was founded by first violinist Walter Levin. The quartet played on a donated set of Amati instruments....
, Cincinnati
Literature
- Michael Gielen: Unbedingt Musik. Erinnerungen. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 3-458-17272-6.
- Michael Gielen, Paul Fiebig: Mahler im Gespräch. Die zehn Sinfonien. Metzler, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-476-01933-0.
External links
- Michael Gielen Music Information Center Austria
- Der Leuchtturm, Tagesspiegel, 19 July 2007
- Unbedingt Musik, Berliner ZeitungBerliner ZeitungThe Berliner Zeitung, founded in 1945, is a German center-left daily newspaper based in Berlin, published by Berliner Verlag. It is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since unification. In 2003, the Berliner was Berlin's largest subscription newspaper—the weekend...
, 20 Juli 2007 - Anti-Schamane, Neue Musikzeitung, Nr. 7, 2007
- Ein Vermittler, ein Missionar, Die ZeitDie ZeitDie Zeit is a German nationwide weekly newspaper that is highly respected for its quality journalism.With a circulation of 488,036 and an estimated readership of slightly above 2 million, it is the most widely read German weekly newspaper...
, 12 Juliy2007 Nr. 29 - Die Hoffnung wahren in der Zerrissenheit, SWRSWRSWR may refer to:Technology:* Standing wave ratio, a wave and antenna concept* Steel Wire ropeRadio stations:* Südwestrundfunk, a public broadcasting company for the southwest of Germany...
, 20. Juli 2007, also as audio (19 min)