I have an abiding memory of meeting Wolfgang Sawallisch, who died on February 22, 2013 at the age of 89, in his home town of Munich. I happily recall his quiet manner, his perceptive words and, on the evening of our conversation, his typically persuasive way with Richard Strauss (as I recall, Die Schweigsame Frau) at the Munich opera house.

The night before writing this I had been chatting to Tully Potter who recalled, quite coincidentally, Sawallisch’s significant skills as a pianist, specifically in lieder and chamber music. Of particular note were his records of Mendelssohn lieder with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, another great artist recently lost to us, while recorded cycles of Mendelssohn and Schumann symphonies have long been considered benchmarks. For me, and I’m sure for many other readers, Sawallisch represented a sort of Golden Mean of the baton, someone who although capable of generating considerable excitement in performance, never allowed his ego to distort the larger perspective. In 2006 illness forced him to retire after 57 years of concert and opera conducting.

Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich on August 26, 1923. Beyond studying in Munich he moved to Augsburg and then to Salzburg where between 1952 and 1953 he was personal assistant to Igor Markevitch at the International Summer Academy Mozarteum. Later appointments included the principal conductorship of the Vienna Symphony, the musical directorship of the Bavarian State Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra and the position of Honorary Conductor Laureate of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. Another of those strange quirks of fate found me listening to an excellent NHK/Sawallisch Brahms cycles (a review due for publication in the June edition of Replay) as well as a superb Brahms Second Piano Concerto with Bruno Leonardo Gelber as soloist.

Sawallisch’s discography is impressive. Among his many fine opera recordings are deeply satisfying versions of Wagner’s The Ring, Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman, Tannhäuser and Die Meistersinger, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Strauss’s Capriccio, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Schweigsame Frau, Die Frau ohne Schatten and Arabella, while in the realm of symphonic music, we have the complete Brahms symphonies and piano concertos (Stephen Kovacevich) with the London Philharmonic, the complete Beethoven symphonies with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as Strauss and Hindemith horn Concertos with Dennis Brain, a significant corpus of Schubert choral music and much, much more.

Sawallisch’s passing, though obviously very sad, might help focus the enormous achievement of a humble but great musician and fire our enthusiasm for his substantial recorded legacy.

Wolfgang Sawallisch: born August 26, 1923; died February 22, 2013