Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra in the US, the Philharmonia in London and at major opera houses
A number of high-calibre conductors, including Kurt Masur, Klaus Tennstedt and Carlos Kleiber, born in the years leading up to 1930, came to prominence around the middle of the 20th century, maturing during the years of Herbert von Karajan’s dominance. Christoph von Dohnányi, who has died aged 95, was among them, rising like the others through the ranks of the German opera houses to major posts in the UK and US.
Following appointments as general music director at Lübeck, Kassel and Frankfurt, Dohnányi made his British debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1965, his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1972 (with Falstaff) and at Covent Garden in 1974 (with Salome). Then in 1984 he began an 18-year period as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra, during which he elevated it to new heights.
He took the orchestra on more than a dozen international tours, to Europe and Asia, including China. In the 1990s Cleveland became the first American orchestra in decades to serve as a resident ensemble at the Salzburg festival. He also took them to the Edinburgh and Lucerne festivals and to the BBC Proms, and it was under his directorship that the Cleveland became the most-recorded US orchestra of the age. He was the catalyst behind the $37m renovation of Severance Hall, dating from 1931, which reopened in January 2000.
