Lorin Varencove Maazel (born March 6, 1930) is a conductor, violinist and composer.
Early life
Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States. Raised by a musical family (his grandfather Isaac was a violinist in the Met Orchestra), Maazel was a prodigy, taking his first conducting lesson at age seven and making his debut at age eight. At the age of eleven, he guest conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra on the radio. At twelve he toured America to conduct major orchestras. He made his violin debut at the age of fifteen. He later studied at the University of Pittsburgh.
Career
In 1960 he became the first American to conduct at Bayreuth. He was conductor of the Deutsche Oper Berlin from 1965 to 1971 and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1975.
In 1972, Maazel began his tenure as music director at the Cleveland Orchestra, succeeding George Szell. Maazel's emotional, rich interpretation of music greatly differed from Szell's characteristic crisp, defined precision in performance. One of his most notable recordings during this time was the first complete recording of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, using an all African-American cast (except for the chorus). He held the post until 1982. He has not conducted the Cleveland Orchestra since his departure, although Maazel cancelled a scheduled return engagement in 2006 because of illness.[1]
Maazel then served at the Vienna State Opera from 1982 to 1984 as general manager and chief conductor. From 1984-1988, he was the music consultant to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and its music director from 1988 to 1996. From 1993-2002, he was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich.
He has conducted the music for three operatic films - Don Giovanni (1979), Carmen (1984), and Otello (1986).
In 2000, Maazel made a guest-conducting appearance with the New York Philharmonic in two weeks of subscription concerts after an absence of over twenty years,[2] which met with positive reaction from the orchestra musicians.[3] This engagement led to his appointment in January 2001 as the orchestra's next music director, starting in 2002, succeeding Kurt Masur.[4][5] He relinquished this position with the New York Philharmonic in 2009 to Alan Gilbert.
In 2004, Maazel became the music director of the Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic. In March 2006, Maazel toured Asia with violinist Lidia Baich, conducting orchestras such as the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and NSO of Taiwan. Since September 2006 Maestro Maazel has been the musical director of the orchestra of the opera house of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences), Valencia, Spain.
Maazel conducted the New York Philharmonic on their landmark visit to Pyongyang, North Korea on February 26, 2008. He led the orchestra in renditions of the North Korean and United States national anthems, Dvorak's New World Symphony, George Gershwin's An American in Paris, and closed with the traditional Korean folk song "Arirang".
Maazel has also composed an opera, 1984, based on the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Family
Maazel has been married three times. His first two marriages, to pianists Miriam Sandbank and Israela Margalit, ended in divorce. His third wife is the German actress Dietlinde Turban. They have two sons and a daughter.
Lorin's father, the actor Lincoln Maazel (1903-2009), co-starred in George A. Romero's horror movie Martin, and his mother, Marie Barnet Maazel, founded the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony.[6]
Notable recordings
- Serge Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, the complete ballet, with the Cleveland Orchestra (Decca)
- Georges Bizet: Carmen, with the Orchestre National de France and the Radio France Chorus, featuring soloists Julia Migenes (soprano), Plácido Domingo (tenor), Faith Esham (soprano), Ruggero Raimondi (bass-baritone), Lillian Watson (soprano), Susan Daniel (mezzo-soprano), et al. (Erato New DVD CDR10530)
- Sergei Rachmaninoff: Complete symphonies (1-3), Isle of the Dead, and The Rock, with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. (Deutsche Grammophon 419314)
- Jean Sibelius: Complete symphonies (1-7), with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. (Decca 430778)
- Gustav Mahler: Complete symphonies (1-9 plus the Adagio of Symphony No. 10), with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. (CBS/Sony)
- Maurice Ravel: L'enfant et les sortilèges, with the French National Radio Orchestra and the Radio France Chorus, featuring soloists Françoise Ogéas (soprano), Jeannine Collard (alto), Jane Berbié (soprano), Sylvaine Gilma (soprano), Colette Herzog (soprano), Michel Sénéchal (tenor), Heinz Rehfuss (baritone), et al. (DG 423718)
- Andrew Lloyd Webber Variations with Julian Lloyd Webber (cello) and the London Philharmonic Orchestra (Philips 420 342)
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio, with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera Concert Choir, featuring soloists Birgit Nilsson (soprano), James McCracken (tenor), Kurt Böhme (bass), Tom Krause (baritone), Graziella Sciutti (soprano), Donald Grobe (tenor), et al. (Decca 448104)
- Modest Moussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel) and Night on Bald Mountain (orch. Rimsky-Korsakov) with the Cleveland Orchestra (Telarc CD-80042)
References
External links
