[Deathwatch] Carlo Maria Giulini, Italian Conductor, 91

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Italian Conductor Giulini Dies at 91

By AIDAN LEWIS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jun 15

Carlo Maria Giulini, the 20th century giant of conducting who
considered himself a reverential servant of the great composers, had
died at age 91.

Giulini died Tuesday in Brescia in northern Italy, son Alberto Maria
Giulini said Wednesday.

Giulini's last permanent post was music director of the Los Angeles
Philharmonic, from 1978 until 1985, when he resigned to spend more time
with his ailing wife. He also conducted at Milan's La Scala, the
Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Symphony.

A young friend of the master Arturo Toscanini, who was impressed by one
of his performances at the podium, Giulini spanned the golden age of
conducting in the early decades of the 20th century and Italy's
contemporary generation of maestros like Riccardo Muti and Claudio
Abbado.

In later years, Giulini stuck close to his home in Milan, conducting
Europe's great orchestras but renouncing opera productions because of
the long rehearsals.

Giulini's profound respect for the masters often produced an almost
religious quality in his work.

In a newspaper interview for his 80th birthday, Giulini said: "I have
to believe in every note, to feel myself immersed. If that doesn't
happen, mere technique would take the field. The appropriation (of the
music) must be rational and emotional, without ever forgetting that the
conductor is a musician in the service of the geniuses of music. ... We
are only interpreters."

"Giulini perceived the mystery of the art and spread it around with his
refined technique and with the enthusiasm of an uncontaminated love for
music," Italian state television RAI said in a tribute to the conductor
on its Wednesday evening news.

In the years just after World War II, Giulini conducted the RAI state
broadcasting orchestras of Milan and Rome.

Giulini led the 1944 concert in Rome that celebrated the city's
liberation by Allied forces. It was his conducting debut.

Giulini studied viola at Rome's Academy of Santa Cecilia. At 19, he won
a viola position in the Santa Cecilia orchestra when it played in
Rome's Teatro Augusteo. Because of the theater's spectacular acoustics,
it was a regular stop for the superstar conductors. Giulini played
under giants like Wilhelm Furtwangler, Bruno Walter, Willem Mengelberg
and Richard Strauss.

His old viola teacher once told Giulini's father that the young
musician would never be a conductor because his elbows were too weak.
But Giulini received a conducting degree in 1941 at Santa Cecilia.

In his career, Giulini concentrated on Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven,
Bruckner and Schubert. For opera he preferred Mozart, conducting little
Puccini or Wagner.

A modest, nearly ascetic man, he saw conducting as a priestly mission,
a ministry for the gods of classical music.

"We have to deal with genius, and we are small men," he once said.

In Los Angeles, where he said his only friend was the comedian Danny
Kaye, his contract specifically exempted him from any part in the
social whirl.

"I would underline that he was a servant of music, a man who did not
worry about outward appearances," said Giorgio Gualerze, an Italian
music critic. "He was devoted to the cause of music, he did not let
himself be distracted by anything else."

Giulini worked with divas like Maria Callas, in "La Traviata" in 1956,
and leading directors like Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli.

Gualerze said that Giulini's decision to concentrate on conducting
orchestras after 1967 reflected his focused approach to his work,
dropping opera where dealing with singers could be distraction.

As Giulini aged, his tempos became considerably more expansive.

"Opinion has been divided about his slow tempos, but there is
widespread acknowledgment of the exceptional mellowness of his
interpretations, the richness of string textures and the seriousness of
purpose with which he inspires both instrumentalists and singers,"
Robert Philip wrote in Giulini's entry in Grove Music Online.

A number of Giulini's recordings, especially Verdi's "Requiem" and
"Falstaff," are treasured by music buffs, and many Mozart-lovers
considered his "Don Giovanni" the best ever. Critics also gave Giulini
high praise for his sensitive accompanying on concerto recordings.

Giulini's search for insight sometimes produced periods when he would
stay away from the podium to find time to read, reflect and study.

"Music is an act of love," he would say, dismissing ambition. Career?
"The word is repugnant to me," he told an interviewer. "I'm not like a
corporal who has to become a captain."

Born in Barletta, in the southeastern region of Puglia, on May 9, 1914,
the conductor as a young man also studied violin.

During World War II, he went to the Yugoslav front with the Italian
army. But he opposed Fascism and later went underground, hiding for
nine months in a secret room in the house of his wife's uncle. A
portrait of Mussolini hung on the wall outside.

The elderly Toscanini heard a Giulini performance and summoned him to
his home. The two became friends, an important source of support for
the budding young conductor.

In 1951, Giulini took over as principal conductor at Milan's La Scala
opera house.

He recorded with major labels and won a Grammy in 1989.

Giulini's wife, Marcella, died in 1995. In addition to Alberto, an
artist, they had two other sons: Francesco, who was his father's
manager and Stefano, a physician.

A private funeral will be held Friday in the northern town of Bolzano.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary