Biography
Eliahu Inbal, the conductor from Israel, earned worldwide visibility through both his podium appearances and a broad catalog of recordings that feature the complete symphonies of multiple composers. Across Europe he is equally recognized for his command of opera, a repertory extending from the Italian bel cantists to works composed in the twentieth century. Contemporary scores have likewise occupied his attention; numerous significant new pieces and scholarly reconstructions have received their first performances under his preparation and leadership. He began his education at Jerusalem University as a violin student, yet soon redirected his training toward conducting. He attended masterclasses given by the celebrated and independent-minded Romanian maestro Sergiu Celibidache in Hilversum and continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. His advancing competence received formal acknowledgment in 1963 when he captured the Guido Cantelli Prize at Novara. His initial appearance before English listeners took place in 1965 not on an operatic stage but in the concert hall, where he directed the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Success on that occasion brought further engagements with British ensembles and, eventually, joint citizenship in the United Kingdom. Maintaining a balance between concert and operatic work, he made his Bologna debut in 1969 with Richard Strauss’s Elektra. A production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo presented that same year at Verona reinforced his reputation for unifying the disparate elements of a sprawling score. In 1971 he conducted a concert performance of Luigi Cherubini’s Anacréon, its first hearing in French since the 1803 premiere. Appointed chief conductor of Venice’s Teatro la Fenice in 1984, he remained in that post through 1989. A notably taxing assignment arose in 1986 when he led performances of two Verdi operas, Stiffelio and Aroldo, on a single day; the orchestra won praise despite uneven singing from the casts. Parallel to these activities he served as chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble with which he would produce an important series of recordings, a position he held until 1990; in 1996 the orchestra named him conductor laureate. Several world premieres took place under his direction, among them the 1977 presentation of Juan Allende-Blin’s edition of Claude Debussy’s unfinished La chûte de la maison Usher. That year also witnessed the first performance of Xavier Benguerel’s Concerto for percussion. In 1982 he introduced Isang Yun’s first violin concerto. His recorded legacy includes the complete symphonies of Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and Dmitri Shostakovich, together with the full orchestral works of Maurice Ravel, Alexander Scriabin, Robert Schumann, and Hector Berlioz. A Mondo Musica recording of Gaetano Donizetti’s Maria de Rudenz is notable for the conductor’s understanding of the composer’s transitional language. France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, and in 1996 he was named an honorary member of Italy’s Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI.
Albums