Rafael Kubelík

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Rafael Kubelík (left) 1950
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Jeroným Rafael Kubelík (born June 29, 1914 at Horskyfeld Castle in Býchory , Bohemia ; † August 11, 1996 in Kastanienbaum , Canton Lucerne ) was a Czech - Swiss conductor and composer .

Life

Rafael Kubelík was the son of the violinist Jan Kubelík . His father encouraged his musical education and Kubelík studied violin, conducting and composition at the Prague Conservatory .

During the German occupation , Kubelík was opera director at the Brno Opera from 1939 to 1941 . In 1941 he succeeded Václav Talich as chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic . In 1946 he opened the first year of the Prague Spring Festival .

Together with his first wife Ludmila Bertlová , he left his home country after the February revolution in 1948 and initially worked in the USA for a few years . From 1955 to 1958 Kubelik was Chief Administrator of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden in London . In 1957 he directed the world premiere of an abridged version of the opera Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz , which had been rejected by the Opéra in Paris in 1858 . From 1961 to 1979 Kubelík was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra . In 1973 he acquired Swiss citizenship .

Kubelík was primarily regarded as a specialist in Czech composers, and his interpretations of the compositions by Dvořák and Janáček set standards. He also campaigned for the work of Gustav Mahler and began in the 1960s as the first to record a complete recording of his symphonies (although he was “overtaken” in this undertaking by Leonard Bernstein , whose complete recording, which was started later, was completed first). For this commitment he received the gold Mahler Medal from the International Gustav Mahler Society Vienna in 1960.

In 1983 Kubelík was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize. In 1984 he withdrew from conducting to only compose.

After the Velvet Revolution , he returned to Prague in 1990 at the invitation of Václav Havel to conduct the opening concert of the Prague Spring , Má Vlast by Bedřich Smetana .

Rafael Kubelík is buried in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague.

Operas

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ gustav-mahler.org: The golden Mahler Medal (accessed October 29, 2014)
  2. ↑ Culture Department of the City of Augsburg (ed.): Augsburger Kulturnachrichten , August 1972, p. 4
personal data
SURNAME Kubelík, Rafael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kubelík, Jeroným Rafael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss conductor and composer
DATE OF BIRTH June 29, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Býchory
DATE OF DEATH August 11, 1996
Place of death Kastanienbaum , Canton of Lucerne