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Giuseppe Sinopoli 1946–2001

Felled by a sudden heart-attack while conducting the third act of Aida at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Giuseppe Sinopoli was a conductor-composer whose performances were rarely greeted with indifference. A curious amalgam of the intellectual and the passionate, they were often accused of a less than perfect fidelity to the composer’s intentions – although his absorbing Elektra recording, for instance, shows an almost pedantic deference to the letter of the score.

Trained in medicine as well as music, Sinopoli was initially drawn to composition. Having studied with Maderna, Stockhausen and Donatoni, his sympathies naturally inclined him towards the avant-garde. Thus, in 1975, he founded the Bruno Maderna Ensemble to bring contemporary music to a wider audience. His subsequent career as a composer climaxed, perhaps, in 1981, with a production of his opera Lou Salome at the Munich Opera.

Meanwhile, having studied in Vienna with Hans Swarowsky, his conducting engagements increased. In 1983, he was appointed principal conductor of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome. The same year he made his debut at the Met with Tosca, at Bayreuth with Tannhäuser, and at Covent Garden with Manon Lescaut. Although his international experience was still limited, he nevertheless succeeded Riccardo Muti as principal conductor of the Philharmonia, a controversial yet artistically fruitful liaison which lasted from 1984 to 1995. He was also music director of the Dresden Staatskapelle orchestra, and had been due to conduct the Ring cycle at Bayreuth this summer.

Giuseppe Sinopoli: born Venice, 2 November 1946; died Berlin, 20 April 2001.