Sergiu Celibidache, for those of you who knew him personally, was not exactly what we would call an “easy-going” character.
There was an unmistakable finality, a kind of absoluteness, to everything he said. For example, he was not joking at all when he declared: “Karajan? He is the most tragic appearance of all conductors” … ”I know, he inspires the masses, but so does Coca-Cola!”
Obviously, this kind of comment did not go down well with other artists, but the great moments in many of Celibidache’s performances would usually more than make up for his verbal excesses. For me, one of those unforgettable moments was a concert in November 1992, when Celibidache conducted the Munich Philharmonic
in Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. The soloist was
Jessye Norman.
Fast forward to 2004. Jessye had cooked dinner, and we were sitting at her dining room table in Belgravia. She asked about my time in Munich, and without hesitation I said that in all of my years as a music student, the one, unique, life-changing experience for me was her 1992 performance of Four Last Songs with Sergiu Celibidache. Hearing the word “Celibidache”, she frowned. For a while, she remained silent, an incredulous look on her face, before contemptuously exclaiming: “That dirty old *****!!!”
I was in shock. My great memory of perfection, grace and beauty had completely evaporated, and I was speechless. But Jessye continued: “I had heard about his slow tempos, but the rehearsal was an absolute disaster. Afterwards, I went to his dressing room to tell him that it was physically impossible to sustain certain phrases
in his tempo. He immediately rejected my remark and insisted that there was only one “true” tempo, so I asked him to sing a phrase for me: O weiter stiller Friede! So tief
im Abendrot…! “
Celibidache sang the phrase, and Jessye went on torecall him coughing and gasping for air about three times—it must have been quite a moment! Still, he refused to change his mind, so Jessye gave up and went back on stage to look for Sreten Krstić, the Concertmaster. A violinist of great integrity, he immediately understood what was at stake. Jessye told him to watch her during the concert: “I won’t let this man ruin MY concert!
When I make this gesture [she slightly moved her right hand], you will follow ME, and no-one else! Do you understand me?!?”
After listening to this disturbing story, I had lost my appetite. I went home, decided to forget the whole thing, and didn’t listen to Four Last Songs for a long, long time. Until recently, when I found that there is now a YouTube recording of this particular concert. The quality is not very good, but it still gives me goosebumps even today. You can still hear the incredible phrasing of Jessye Norman in this terrific concert—controversial maybe, but truly a performance to die for.
Florian Riem