Kurt Sanderling(1912-2011)

Kurt Sanderling was born in Arys (Orzysz), East Prussia, to Jewish parents on September 19th, 1912. After early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he left for Russia in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. From 1942 to 1960 he was joint principal conductor with Yevgeny Mravinsky of the Leningrad Philharmonic. As a German refugee with a broad cultural outlook, he grew very close to Dmitri Shostakovich. He returned to Germany where he led the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and Dresden Staatskapelle. He made his British debut in 1970. He later became particularly associated with the Philharmonic starting in January 1980, with a series of performances of the complete Beethoven symphonies at Wembley. The Philharmonic later appointed Sanderling their Conductor Emeritus. He was also Emeritus Conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. Sanderling had conducted several major Symphony orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, who had asked Sanderling to be the permanent conductor of he orchestra, however, Sanderling's commitments made him refuse the offer. Martin Bernheimer praised Sanderling's conducting skills. He announced his retirement from conducting in 2002. His recordings include sets of the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Philharmonic, and the piano concertos with pianist Mitsuko Uchida, Nos. 3, 4 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Nos. 1, 2 and 5 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was among the first conductors to perform and record Deryck Cooke's completion of Gustav Mahler's 10th symphony, which his friend Berthold Goldschmidt had premiered. Kurt Sanderling died on September 17th, 2011, two days before his 99th birthday.