Gerd Albrecht

Gerd Albrecht emerged as one of the foremost conductors of the late twentieth century. Particular acclaim surrounded his accounts of German music from the late Romantic era onward through the twentieth century.

He entered the world on July 19, 1935, in Essen, Germany, where his father Hans Albrecht had already gained recognition as a musicologist. As a teenager Albrecht performed in a choir and turned to conducting at sixteen. Enrollment at the Musikhochschule Hamburg followed in 1955; there he trained with Hans Brückner-Rüggeberg while simultaneously attending lectures in musicology, philosophy, and art at the universities of Hamburg and Kiel.

Prizes at the International Young Conductors Competition in Besançon, France, in 1957 and at the Hilversum Conductors Competition the next year steered him decisively toward the podium. His first professional post was repetiteur at the Stuttgart State Opera; in 1963 he advanced to principal conductor of the Mainz City Opera.

Opera companies dominated the early phase of his career. Albrecht served as music director of Bühnen Lübeck from 1962 to 1966 and of Kassel Staatsoper from 1966 to 1972, then succeeded Lorin Maazel as principal conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. During his Kassel years he introduced a program of events for children—an initiative he sustained for decades and that prompted him to write his own set of fairy tales for young listeners.

In 1975 he added the Tonhalle-Orchestra of Zurich to his commitments, remaining until 1980. Guest engagements multiplied during the 1980s, and he became widely regarded as an authority on German and Central European repertoire extending from the early nineteenth century to the present. Appointed music director of both the Hamburg Staatsoper and the Philharmonisches Staatsoper Hamburg in 1988, he stayed until 1997.

His appointment as principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic—the first non-Czech to hold the post—generated friction within an orchestra divided between supporters of Albrecht and those of Jiří Bělohlávek. Criticism from Czech President Vaclav Havel precipitated his resignation in 1996. Later he led the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra from 1998 to 2007 and the Danish National Radio Symphony from 2000 to 2004.

Recording activity intensified from the mid-1980s; in 1995 alone he issued eleven separate discs. Contracts with Koch, Capriccio, and Wergo frequently placed him before orchestras in demanding contemporary German scores. He continued working until his death on February 2, 2014, in Berlin, after which additional recordings appeared.