Born on August 5, 1890, in Vienna as the son of a teacher and orphaned at a young age, Erich Kleiber grew up with relatives in Prague as well as in Vienna, where he frequented the Hofoper, at the time under the direction of Gustav Mahler. Kleiber studied philosophy, history, and art in Prague and received an education in music at the local conservatory. He then spent a short time working at the German Theater in Prague before starting his career as music director in 1912 at the Hoftheater in Darmstadt. From 1921 on, he held appointments as music director at opera houses in Barmen-Elberfeld, Düsseldorf, and Mannheim, earning a reputation as an extraordinarily talented conductor with a predilection for contemporary music.
It was his engagement as guest conductor at the State Opera in Berlin that took his career to the next level. After a performance of Fidelio, General Director Max von Schillings honored the orchestra’s vote and named the 33-year-old Leo Blech’s successor as chief music director of the State Opera. With the premiere of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 1925, Kleiber secured his place in music history. “I hadn’t considered it possible,” Alan Berg wrote to his wife, “to be as understood as a musician and playwright as I am by Kleiber.” Over the following years, Kleiber became one of the most distinguished conductors of his time and was a champion of modern works, premiering pieces by composers like Ernst Krenek, Darius Milhaud, and Franz Schreker. International tours also became a part of his job description: he conducted in Argentina in 1926, in the Soviet Union in 1927, and in the USA in 1930 and 1931.
Kleiber did not seem to be immediately at risk when the Nazis came to power in 1933, but criticism in the National Socialist press of his contribution to contemporary music did not relent. Add to this the fact that he was a witness to the Nazis’ brutal treatment of advocates of the artistic avant-garde as well as his Jewish colleagues. Perhaps also because of his wife’s Jewish ancestry, a secret they guarded closely, Kleiber terminated his contract and left Germany in 1935. Over the following years, he made a living through guest engagements, conducting in Brussels, London, and Moscow as well as at the Salzburg Festival, at the Covent Garden Opera in London, and at Téatro Colon in Buenos Aires, where he settled with his family in 1939.
Kleiber returned to Germany after the war. He conducted radio orchestras in West Germany and, in 1951, returned to the State Opera for the first time. His ambitions of becoming the permanent artistic director after the restoration of the building came to a halt, however, due to the hostilities of the Cold War. Erich Kleiber died from a heart attack on January 27, 1956, in Zurich.
1890 Vienna
1956 Zurich