Michael Gielen

The German-born conductor Michael Gielen earned acclaim as a leading interpreter of Central European avant-garde repertoire, demonstrating particular skill in mastering intricate scores. He also maintained a parallel career as a composer. Born in Dresden on July 20, 1927, Gielen counted among his maternal relatives the pianist Eduard Steuermann, an associate and interpreter of Arnold Schoenberg. Because his mother, Rose, was Jewish, the family faced mounting danger by the late 1930s. After his father, a stage director, secured a post at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the family emigrated there in 1940. In Argentina, Gielen pursued piano studies, served as a rehearsal pianist at his father’s theater, and presented concerts featuring Schoenberg’s music and other contemporary pieces still seldom heard at the time. In 1950 the family relocated to Vienna, where Gielen again assisted his father at the Burgtheater while independently mounting and leading performances of avant-garde works. Between 1954 and 1960 he held a staff position at the Vienna State Opera; from 1960 to 1965 he served as music director of the Royal Opera of Stockholm; afterward he conducted the Cologne Radio Symphony, the Belgian National Opera, and the Dutch National Opera. Beginning in 1969 he acted as principal guest conductor of the South German Radio Symphony, and between 1977 and 1987 he led the Frankfurt Opera as chief conductor. During these years Gielen became known for championing new music, directing premieres that included Ligeti’s Requiem and several compositions by Karlheinz Stockhausen. From 1980 to 1986 he also directed the Cincinnati Symphony, steering the ensemble, previously focused on lighter fare, toward more adventurous programming. Between 1986 and 1999 he served as music director of the SWF Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden, forging a strong association with contemporary music through first performances and appearances at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. There he made numerous recordings for several labels, among them a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies issued on the Haenssler imprint, and he continued to work with the orchestra as permanent guest conductor well into the twenty-first century before retiring in 2014. Throughout his life Gielen produced his own compositions; although modest in quantity, the works were carefully constructed, many employing twelve-tone methods. He died in Mondsee, Austria, on March 8, 2019.