ORFEO International

News

March 2012

Eugen Jochum † 26 March 1987

Eugen Jochum, who died twenty-five years ago on 26 March 1987, was one of the most important conductors of his generation.
Eugen Jochum
Foto: Reinhold MöllerAt a time when the legacy of great artists is not always treated with the respect that it deserves, an assessment that may sound like an empty cliché perhaps requires a brief explanation. A native of Babenhausen in the Allgäu, Jochum is assured of a place of honour in the post-war history of a city as closely associated with music as Munich thanks not least to his work as the first principal conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He later filled a similar position with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, leaving his mark on two orchestras that remain at the very forefront of international music making. He was also one of that hand-picked group of orchestral conductors who helped to shape the early years of the post-war Bayreuth Festival, where he conducted Tristan und Isolde, Lohengrin and Parsifal. He additionally conducted the final performances of Wieland Wagner’s Parsifal in 1973. But JochumÕs repertory was almost literally all-embracing, covering not only Wagner and Bruckner but also contemporary works and “classics” in the truest sense of the term. And he broached them all with equal success. His artistry is reflected in the Orfeo catalogue in recordings of works by Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner and Verdi as well as Pfitzner and Hindemith.