Sergiù Celibidache

Conductor Sergiu Celibidache was famous for his extensive rehearsals and his dislike of recordings; he believed that the essence of music could be transmitted only in live performance. He had a long career, lasting five decades, and was also a notable educator. Celibidache's musical approach was shaped in part by his studies of Zen Buddhism. He successfully avoided making commercial recordings for most of his life, but many of his live and radio performances were recorded and continue to be issued and reissued.Celibidache (che-lee-bee-DAH-kay) was born on July 11, 1912, in Roma, Romania, and grew up in the larger city of Iași. His surname at birth was Celebidachi; his father was a military officer and government official of Greek descent. His name was misspelled while he was studying in Germany, and he retained the new version. He started doing improvisations on the piano at age four. His family expected him to follow his father into government, but in 1936, he enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin, studying conducting with Kurt Thomas, Walter Gmeindl, and Fritz Stein, and also taking composition classes. He moved to the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (now the Humboldt University of Berlin), where he took musicology courses with Arnold Schering and Georg Schünemann, and also philosophy. In classes with Martin Steinke, he discovered Zen Buddhism and converted to that religion, noting, "All I can say is that without Zen, I couldn't have known this strange principle that the beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning. Music is nothing but the materialization of this principle." He received a PhD in 1944 after writing a dissertation on Josquin Desprez. After World War II, Berlin Philharmonic conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler was banned from leading the group during denazification proceedings, and Celibidache was appointed general music director in his place. From 1947 to 1954, he shared conducting duties with Furtwängler, but Herbert von Karajan was chosen as music director after Furtwängler's death.Celibidache performed with various radio groups, including the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Radio France, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and in 1979, he became the principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, continuing to hold that position until his death. There, he refused to accept the blind audition victory of trombonist Abbie Conant; she sued and was victorious in court. He was also popular in England, where he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and was championed by pianist Eileen Joyce. Generally, however, he led orchestral music rather than concertos, and his rehearsals were lengthy and famous for their exactitude and demanding qualities. Celibidache aimed at a transcendent experience in the concert hall, and, in the opinion of many, often achieved it. He is considered one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, but he refused to make recordings. Dozens of his performances were recorded and released, mostly after his death in Nemours, France, on August 13, 1996. Bruckner was among his specialties, and in 2025, a 1984 performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 in E major was released by the Munich Philharmonic's in-house label. Celibidache was active as an educator, often giving courses that were open to all without cost; he taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, among other schools.
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