Complete Symphonic, Lieder & Choral Recordings / The Warner Classics Edition (CD65)

TBA

WOLFGANG SAWALLISCH, THE INDISPENSABLE CONDUCTOR

For five decades Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) held a central position in the musical world. That centrality was reflected in a series of top orchestral and operatic posts and in his interpretations, free of self-regarding eccentricities. His modest but highly effective conducting technique also made him the ideal recording artist. Sawallisch was a Bavarian born in Munich, city of orchestras and a great opera company, which he headed for 21 years. He started his career as an outstanding pianist and remained a sought-after accompanist to great Lieder singers and instrumentalists. Volume 1 of a complete conspectus of his Warner Classics recordings (made for Electrola and EMI Classics between 1954 to 1997) includes wonderful Lieder and song collaborations, as well as famous concerto accompaniments for eminent soloists and a heartwarming traversal of Schubert’s secular vocal and sacred choral music with Bavarian Radio colleagues. But the main focus among the 65 discs is on his symphonic achievements: Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner and Dvořák – the latter’s Eighth Symphony was his first published recording, from 1954. Richard Strauss, an early influence, is strongly represented. Volume 2 will focus on his operatic work.

This 65CD-box brings together all the non-operatic recordings that the German conductor and pianist Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) made in the years from 1954 to 1997 for EMI Classics and Electrola (now Warner Classics).

Wolfgang Sawallisch – Short biography

Born in Munich on 26 August 1923

Started the piano at five and at ten was set on becoming a concert pianist.

At eleven, influenced by Hans Knappertsbusch and Richard Strauss, changed his mind considering a conductor’s career.

1939-1945 Musical progress interrupted by war service in the Wehrmacht, then continued with Joseph Haas, pupil of Max Reger, at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Munich.

1946 Graduated, he started his career as an outstanding pianist. Conducting lessons with Rosbaud and Markevitch.

1947 First post as répétiteur, then principal conductor at the opera house in Augsburg.

1949 Won the duo prize at the Geneva International Competition with violinist Gerhard Seitz

1952-53 Markevitch’s assistant at the International Summer Academy at the Salzburg Mozarteum

25 June 1953 Berliner Philharmoniker debut at 29, the youngest-ever man to have conducted that great ensemble

1953 Remarked by Walter Legge who hire him to build up a catalogue of the new LP vinyl records – among Böhm, Klemperer, Furtwängler and Karajan!!!

1953-1958 conductor at Aix-la-Chapelle theater

1954 First recording under Columbia: Dvořák 8th Symphony and Scherzo Capriccioso

1956 Recorded Strauss’ Horn concertos with Dennis Brain. The composer remains one of his favourite (CD53-60)

1961 Conducting professor at Cologne High School

1960-1970 Principal Conductor of the Wiener Symphoniker

1961-1973 Musical Director of Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra (Philharmonischen Staatsorchesters Hamburg)

1970 First recording as pianist for EMI: Mendelssohn’s Lieder with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau

1971-1992 Generalmusikdirektor of the Bayerische Staatsoper

1973-1980 Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse romande

1977-1983 Recorded Schubert complete secular and sacred choral works with the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (CD12-22)

1993-2003 Musical Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra

2013 Died at his home in Grassau on 22 February, aged 89