Kurt Masur, great conductor who led New York Philharmonic, dies at 88

Kurt Masur, great conductor who led New York Philharmonic, dies at 88

Kurt Masur conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra at a concert in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, in 2010. Photograph: Wolfgang Kluge/EPA

Kurt Masur, the German conductor who led the New York Philharmonic orchestra for 11 years, died on Saturday. He was 88.

In praise of... Kurt Masur
Leader: One of the last old-style maestros, Kurt Masur, is a conductor in the great German symphonic tradition that not long ago commanded the leading concert halls of Europe and America, but which has given way to a varied range of styles.
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Matthew VanBesien, president of the New York Philharmonic, issued a statement on Saturday in which he said: “Maestro Masur’s 11-year tenure, one of the longest in the Philharmonic’s history, both set a standard and left a legacy that lives on today.”

Masur was born in Brieg, Germany – now Brzeg, Poland – on 18 July 1927, and served in the Wehrmacht during the second world war. He made his musical career and his name in East Germany and as a public figure played a key role in the avoidance of bloodshed around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the country.

Masur later said “blood would have flowed” on 9 October 1990, if he and five others – a satirist, a cleric and three party officials – hadn’t banded together and issued a public statement calling for calm and promising dialogue. Security forces and troops were massed in the streets and young people “were ready to die”, he said.

Masur spent 26 years leading the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and conducted Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the celebration of German reunification.

He was director of the Philharmonic from 1991, a year after German reunification, to 2002. The terror attacks of 11 September 2001 occurred during his tenure in New York.

“What we remember most vividly is Masur’s profound belief in music as an expression of humanism,” VanBesien said in his statement.

“We felt this powerfully in the wake of 9/11, when he led the Philharmonic in a moving performance of Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem, and musicians from the Orchestra gave free chamber concerts around Ground Zero.

“Today, New Yorkers still experience this humanist mark through the popular Annual Free Memorial Day Concert, which he introduced.”

The current music director, Alan Gilbert, said: “Masur’s years at the New York Philharmonic represent one of its golden eras, in which music-making was infused with commitment and devotion – with the belief in the power of music to bring humanity closer together.”

Masur also worked with orchestras around the world, including the London Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France. In July 2007, he marked his 80th birthday by conducting the two orchestras together at a concert in London.

After his retirement as director of the New York Philharmonic, he became only the second man, after Leonard Bernstein, to be given an honorary title – in his case, music director emeritus. He was given official honours in the US, France, Poland and Germany.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/19/kurt-masur-conductor-new-york-philharmonic-dies-88

Labour peer Lord Greville Janner has died after a long illness

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/12059939/Labour-peer-Greville-Janner-has-died-after-a-long-illness.html