Erich Leinsdorf

Following the end of World War II, Erich Leinsdorf ranked among the most esteemed, though not invariably popular, conductors and music directors born in Europe who rose to prominence in the United States. Recognized for his operatic work, his late-1950s recordings of Turandot and Madame Butterfly continue to rank among the catalog’s most enduring favorites, whereas his standing with orchestral repertoire has not held up equally well over time.

Born Erich Landauer in Vienna, Austria, he entered a local music school at age five and began piano lessons at eight. He later attended the music department of the University of Vienna and took courses at the Vienna Conservatory from 1931 to 1933, making his podium debut at the Musikvereinsaal immediately after graduation. In 1933 he joined the Workers’ Chorus in Vienna as assistant conductor, and the next year he auditioned successfully before Bruno Walter and Arturo Toscanini at the Salzburg Festival, where he was named an assistant and served under Toscanini.

The Metropolitan Opera engaged him in New York in 1937; his American debut occurred there at age 25 when he led Wagner’s Die Walküre on 21 January 1938. Success with additional Wagner operas brought his appointment in 1939 as head of the company’s German repertoire. While at the Met he acquired a reputation as a strict taskmaster, insisting on extra rehearsal time from singers and exact fidelity to the printed score from orchestras; although audiences valued the results, many singers he worked with criticized both his approach and its demands.

He acquired American citizenship in 1942, and the following year he became music director of the Cleveland Orchestra. Military service cut the appointment short when he was inducted into the United States Army in December 1943; discharged in 1944, he returned to the Met for the 1944–45 season. Between 1945 and 1946 he also conducted the Cleveland Orchestra several times and revisited Europe, where, as one of the prominent Austrian-born conductors without Nazi ties, he was invited to lead the Vienna Philharmonic. His reception in his native city—recently occupied by the Nazis, bombed and captured by the Allies, and suffering postwar deprivation—proved less than warm.

By 1947 he had returned to the United States as music director of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 1955. He served briefly as music director of the New York City Opera in 1956 before resuming duties at the Met as conductor and musical consultant while accepting numerous guest engagements across America and Europe. In 1962 he succeeded Charles Munch in one of the nation’s most distinguished posts, becoming music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His Boston years proved both highly productive and turbulent; he regarded the political aspects of the role—balancing musicians’ needs, union rules, rehearsal schedules, and board expectations—as distractions from purely musical aims. During this period he also became known for publicly criticizing gaps in the cultural education of players under his direction, inaccuracies in published scores, and mistakes made by fellow conductors.

He left the Boston post after the 1968–69 season, pleased to have occupied one of America’s highest musical offices yet equally relieved, in his own words, to have departed with his health preserved. For the next two decades he conducted opera and orchestral concerts throughout the United States and Europe, including appearances with the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. In 1978 he accepted his first permanent European post as principal conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in West Berlin, remaining until 1980. His 1976 memoir Cadenza: A Musical Career drew attention for its candid, often severe judgments of himself and colleagues as well as for its biographical content. He continued recording into the late 1980s, among them audiophile digital accounts of Wagner orchestral music for the Sheffield Labs label.

His landmark operatic recordings of Turandot and Madame Butterfly remain available on compact disc more than thirty years after their production, while many of his orchestral discs have fared less favorably; most were made for RCA/BMG with the Boston Symphony, and only a few have resurfaced on budget reissues, including a Mahler Fifth Symphony now overshadowed by newer versions. His Mahler Symphony No. 3, regarded as one of his finest achievements and among the stronger performances of that work, has stayed out of print despite its merits.