ORFEO International

News

February 2013

† Wolfgang Sawallisch

Just half a year before his 90th birthday, Wolfgang Sawallisch has died in Grassau im Chiemgau. Whoever experienced his art at first hand will remember above all the naturalness of his music-making – whether on the conductor’s podium or at the piano.
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Foto: Sabine ToepfferHe was still young when he became famous for his fluid tempi that never seemed rushed, however fast they were. His style was devoid of pathos, which was also a reason why he was invited to conduct at the Bayreuth Festival in 1957, ten years after the start of his career. The aim at the time was to free Wagner’s works from the false bombast of times gone by. Nevertheless, Wolfgang Sawallisch never belonged to the “analytical” school of conductors or to the coolly calculating interpreters of classical music. For he always remained full of the enthusiasm that he had displayed at the piano in his youth – an enthusiasm that served to carried him swiftly onwards from his first job as répétiteur and kapellmeister in Augsburg, up to the heights of an international career. In Sawallisch’s first volume of reminiscences, for example, we can read how he learnt much of the operatic repertoire – especially the works of Richard Strauss – by studying and playing through the vocal scores at the piano (all the while imagining their instrumentation, using similar scores as his guide). It was no surprise that singers and musicians held him in high regard as an accompanist and as a partner in chamber music, nor that he inspired great respect among the many singing coaches who later worked under him when he was a chief conductor and general music director. His longest tenure was at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where he spent two decades from 1971 onwards. As is well known, the Wagner and Strauss anniversaries of 1983 and 1989 respectively saw him conduct all their stage works in Munich. Sawallisch also recalls in his memoirs that his appointment in Munich had come at a time when he had never intended returning to his native city. His positions as chief conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, plus guest engagements in Italy and Japan, had by the 1960s already made him into a cosmopolitan of the music world – a status that was confirmed once again by his time as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1993–2003). Sawallisch retained his connection to Japan, not least through his guest performances there with the Bavarian State Opera. Sawallisch’s last new production as Intendant in Munich was of Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in a production by Ennosuke Ichikawa in an indubitably “uncritical”, fairy-tale kabuki style. In retrospect, this proved that when it came to the forms of intercultural exchange so beloved today – far removed from the ideologies of “director’s theatre” – then this conductor’s supposedly conservative aesthetic was perhaps more advanced than many others acknowledged. His sovereign command of his musical art was never in doubt, from Mozart to the (late) Romantics, and also extended to contemporary composers such as Herbert Blendinger, Keith Fitch, Wilhelm Killmayer and Isang Yun. Sawallisch’s acoustic legacy as both conductor and pianist is well represented on the Orfeo label, be it as the conductor of the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra or at the Salzburg Festival or the other major stations of his career. In the face of such a wealth of music, we can now only look back with a mixture of gratitude and sadness.

Wolfgang Sawallisch

* 26. August 1923 – † 22. Februar 2013

Opera

C 062833 Wagner, Richard Die Feen Moll, Gray, Rootering, Studer, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk, Sawallisch

C 169882 Strauss, Richard Arabella Berry, Schmidt, Varady, Donath, Fischer-Dieskau, Dallapozza, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 345953 Wagner, Richard Das Liebesverbot Prey, Fassler, Schunk, Lenz, Engen, Hass, Chor der Bayerischer Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 346953 Wagner, Richard Rienzi Kollo, Studer, Rootering, Janssen, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 463971 Puccini, Giacomo Der Mantel Fischer-Dieskau, Ilosfalvy, Lenz, Engen, Varady, Töpper, Brokmeier, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 514992 Rossini, Gioacchino Mosé Raimondi, Villa, Brinkmann, Araiza, Lenz, Rootering, Soffel, Moll, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 516992 Strauss, Richard Die schweigsame Frau Grist, Mödl, McDaniel, Grobe, Böhme, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 546001 Puccini, Giacomo Gianni Schicchi Fischer-Dieskau, Schary, Mödl, Ahnsjö, Thaw, Fahberg, Auer, Engen, Chor der Bayerischen Staatsoper; Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 625042 Strauss, Richard Ariadne auf Naxos Matic, Berry, Schmidt, King, Weber, Hiestermann, Riener, Sramek, Gruberova, Tomowa-Sintow, Düsing, Equiluz, Vogel, Dickie, Vance, Miljakovic, Yachmi, Wiener Philharmoniker, Sawallisch

C 843112 Verdi, Giuseppe Macbeth Fischer-Dieskau, Bumbry, Lagger, Lorenzi, Konzertvereinigung Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker, Sawallisch

Lied

C 001811 Schubert, Franz Ausgewählte Lieder Price, Schöneberger, Sawallisch

C 074021 Zumsteeg, Johann Rudolf Balladen: Die Entführung, Des Pfarrers Tochter von Taubenhain Bernd Weikl, Wolfgang Sawallisch

C 185891 Mendelssohn, Schumann, Pfitzner, Wolf etc. Eichendorff-Lieder Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wolfgang Sawallisch

C 333931 Mahler, Gustav Lieder aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Wolfgang Sawallisch

C 524991 Pfitzner, Hans; Strauss, Richard Liederabend Hermann Prey, Wolfgang Sawallisch

Concert

C 006061 Blendinger, Herbert Media in vita op. 35 Donath, Becht, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Wolfgang Sawallisch

C 039101 Brahms, Johannes Ein deutsches Requiem Price, Allen, Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks; Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sawallisch

C 145851 Bruckner, Anton Symphonie No. 1 c-Moll (Linzer Fassung 1865/66) Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 241911 Bruckner, Anton Symphonie No. 5 B-Dur Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 024821 Bruckner, Anton Symphonie No. 6 A-Dur Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 160851 Bruckner, Anton Symphonie No. 9 d-Moll Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 406961 Furtwängler, Wilhelm Symphonie No. 3 Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch

C 112851 Hindemith, Paul Requiem "For those we love" Fassbaender, Fischer-Dieskau, Wiener Staatsopernchor; Wiener Symphoniker, Sawallisch

C 795091 Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Symphonie g-Moll KV 183, Klavierkonzert Es-Dur KV 449, Symphonie g-Moll KV 550 Friedrich Gulda, Concertgebouw Orkest, Wolfgang Sawallisch

C 168881 Pfitzner, Hans Vor- und Zwischenspiel zu Palestrina, Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, Die Rose vom Liebesgarten Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sawallisch

C 606031 Schubert, Franz; Weill, Kurt; Strauss, Richard; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Symphonie D 200, Symphonie No. 1, Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche, Opern- und Konzertarien Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; London Symphony Orchestra, Sawallisch

C 004821 Strauss, Richard Symphonie für Bläser "Fröhliche Werkstatt" Münchner Bläserakademie, Sawallisch

C 236901 Strauß, Johann (Sohn); Strauß, Johann (Vater); Strauß, Josef Festkonzert Wiener Symphoniker, Sawallisch

C 044831 Strawinsky, Igor Der Feuervogel, Suite Orchester- und Klavierfassung Naoumoff; Wiener Symphoniker, Sawallisch

C 091841 Weber, Carl Maria v. Symphonien No. 1 & No. 2 Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Sawallisch

C 161871 Wagner; Verdi; Mozart; Beethoven; Brahms Berühmte Ouvertüren Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Sawallisch