RAFAEL KUBELÍK

18 ENGLISH
adequately, but his decision was probably prompted by the fact that he was
being criticised for his longer periods of absence from New York and somewhat
unorganised style of leadership – and last but not least, health reasons finally
tipped the scales. Kubelík had been suffering with gout for some time and his
arthritis was getting worse and worse. He decided to spend the colder months
in his winter residence in Palm Springs (the hot, dry desert climate would at
least slow down the progress of his illness) and live the rest of the year near
Lucerne with his second wife; he had married the Australian soprano Elsie
Morison in 1963.
When he reached retiring age in 1979, Kubelík wanted to step down as director
of the Bayerische Rundfunk symphony orchestra – his arthritis was making
conducting an ordeal – but his designated successor Kiril Kondrashin died
unexpectedly and Kubelík remained in office until he was replaced by Sir Colin
Davis in 1983. His last concert in Munich was as guest conductor in the summer
of 1985. He had to break off the performance of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony
after the Scherzo when he suddenly felt unwell; he decided never to conduct
again but political events had other plans in store for him. The memorable
and moving concert given in Prague with the Czech Philharmonic – Kubelík
returned to conduct Smetana after forty-one years in exile – was broadcast live
on both radio and T.V.
“I don’t conduct in public anymore but I couldn’t live without composing, just
as I couldn’t conduct without composing.” Several of the most important 20 th
century conductors were also composers (Leonard Bernstein was perhaps the
most famous) and there are numerous historical role models, such as Mozart,
Mendelssohn and Mahler for example. Kubelík’s works are not mere pieces of
music director music but played a central role in his understanding of himself
as an artist; Kubelík himself called his works “his own private language”. As
opposed to his life’s work as a conductor, which has been well documented
by his recordings, his compositions remain almost unknown. It comes as no
surprise that his early works, written in the 1930s, were influenced by working
together with his violinist father: these works included a violin sonata, a fantasia
for violin and orchestra and a violin concerto.
During the 1940s he added piano and chamber music works, lieder and further
solo concertos with orchestra to his works – works written in the 1950s included
two masses and the opera Tagesanbruch (1958). During Kubelík’s period in
Munich he wrote more operas (such as Cornelia Faroli about the life of Tizian
– the work was composed in 1966 and enjoyed its premiere performance in
1972, on the occasion of the Olympic Games held in Munich). In many of his
works, from all the different genres, Kubelík devoted himself to the final things
in life, dealing with religiousness and death’s close proximity. His style could
perhaps best be described as late expressionistic, and composers like Mahler,
Bartók, Janáček and Schönberg have all left their mark. Kubelík’s is a music that
reflects and analyses the 20 th century but unlike the second Viennese school,