The famous German conductor Kurt Masur died – Le Figaro

One who was, among other functions, music director of the Orchestre National de France died this morning at 19 December at the age of 88 years.

The famous German conductor Kurt Masur died this Saturday, December 19 in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the age of 88. The president of the New York Philharmonic, Matthew Vanbesien, announced in a message: “It is with great sadness that I write on behalf of the family Masur and the New York Philharmonic Kurt Masur, who was our director Music from 1991 to 2002 and retains this distinguished title, has died, “said Matthew Vanbesien.

Masur was well known to the Parisian public since in 2002 he was called to head the Orchestre National de France in search of a charismatic personality after the difficult years Charles Dutoit: he had established a strong bond with the musicians, giving them pride and ambition, both in the German repertoire in Russian music. The emotional bond remained beyond its mandate: an honorary chief in 2008, he continued to lead in Paris despite the effects of Parkinson’s disease, to fall from the podium in 2012. The public was accustomed to its large size and its high stature, and his leadership style without fuss, need to rough, sometimes prosaic but an impressive grandeur when he was inspired.

Masur was born in Silesia 1927 and had worked with his father electrician if piano lessons followed by her sisters had aroused his interest. He throws himself headlong into the music, seeing pianist until the diagnosis of a tendon too short little finger of the right hand moving towards the direction. Dreamy and shy child, it is necessary physical tests to harden. Mobilized in 1944, he escaped the bombing of Dresden during a permission. His first important post devolves in 1955: the Dresden Philharmonic. His name starts to cross borders, but he refuses the Western proposals. When asked “why? Are you working with the Communists,” Masur replies: “I do not work with the Communists but with the musicians of the Dresden Philharmonic.” He takes the music director of the Komische Oper in East Berlin 1960 to 64. He worked with Walter Felsenstein, who revolutionized the staging of opera, but the relationship between the two men are not easy, Masur is not ready to cut back on his musical powers.

The consecration happens in 1970: he takes the reins of the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the orchestra of Bach and Mendelssohn. He stayed 27 years, directing more than 900 concerts on tour. It records the great Germanic repertoire, Beethoven, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner, now living Saxon tradition of an orchestra whose sound has resisted internationalization. He built the new hall Gewandhaus, inaugurated in 1981, the orchestra was no room of record since the bombing of the old Gewandhaus in 1943! In 1989, it plays a vital role in the peaceful conduct of the reunification of Germany during the “Monday demonstrations”, it is alongside the population and its quiet appeals are heard. It is head of state he welcomes François Mitterrand in Leipzig released.

It takes 1991 to 2002 as Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of New York and 2000 the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2007. Father of five children, he was married since 1975 to the Japanese Tomoko Sakurai , who had saved him from despair after the loss of his second wife, died in a car accident caused by him.