100th Birthday Wolfgang Sawallisch
26 August 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of the former General Music Director. Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich in 1923. After private studies and graduation from the Munich Musikhochschule, he began his conducting career at the Städtische Bühnen Augsburg. From 1953 he held music director posts in Aachen, Wiesbaden and Cologne. At the Cologne Musikhochschule he was professor of a conducting master class.
Also in 1953, he was the youngest conductor ever to be invited to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. From 1957 to 1962 he conducted at the Bayreuth Festival. From 1960 to 1970 he was Hamburg’s General Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, and at the same time he was Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Both orchestras appointed him honorary member and honorary conductor. From 1973 to 1980 Sawallisch was Directeur Artistique of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva.
In 1971 he became Bavarian General Music Director, and in 1982 also Artistic Director of the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, of which he was made an honorary member in 1992 after his retirement. The last performance under his musical direction at the Bavarian State Opera was Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust in 2000.
From 1993 to 2003 Wolfgang Sawallisch was Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra in the USA. He has performed regularly with the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo (of which he was the only “Honorary Conductor Laureate”), the Orchestra Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, the London Philharmonic and the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Orchestre de Paris, the Concertgebouw Orkest, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. He was the only non-Italian to hold the “Toscanini Golden Baton”, awarded by La Scala in Milan on the occasion of his 35-year association with the house. In 2003 he was appointed Honorary Conductor of the Hamburg Philharmonic. He also enjoyed the highest reputation as a pianist in the chamber music field and as a lied accompanist.
On the evening of 22 February 2013, Wolfgang Sawallisch passed away at the age of 89 at his home in Grassau, Upper Bavaria.
Here is a selection of articles on the occasion of his 100th birthday:
Photo credit: Wilfried Hösl