Sergiu Celibidache (Romanian: [ˈserd͡ʒju t͡ʃelibiˈdake]; 11 July [O.S. 28 June] 1912 – 13 August 1996) was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Radio France, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and many other European orchestras such as the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra or the London Symphony Orchestra.
Considering teaching as one of the most important activities, he taught music and musical phenomenology at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy as well as at Mainz University in Germany, at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany and towards the end at the Schola Cantorum in Paris.
Celibidache categorically refused to release his performances on commercial recordings during his lifetime, claiming that a listener could not have a "transcendental experience" outside the concert hall. Many of the recordings of his performances were released posthumously. He has nonetheless earned international acclaim for his interpretations of the classical repertoire and was known for a spirited performance style informed by his study and experiences in Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.
Sergiu Celibidache was born on 28 June 1912 to a father of Greek descent and a Romanian mother. His father, Demostene Celebidachi, born in Galați, became a cavalry officer of the Romanian army and later prefect of the Iași region. His mother, Maria Celebidachi (née Brăteanu), was born in Roman, a small city in the Moldavia region of Romania, where his father was a government official. He grew up in Iași, where his family soon moved after his birth. He was already improvising at the piano by the age of four, and after a traditional schooling in mathematics, philosophy and music in Iași, was sent by his father to Bucharest and then to Paris, where he continued his studies. His father had expected him to pursue a political career in Romania, but in 1936 Celibidache enrolled in the Hochschule für Musik (Academy of Music) in Berlin (German authorities erroneously changed his surname from Celebidachi to Celibidache, the form he was known under), where he studied composition with Heinz Tiessen and conducting with Kurt Thomas, Walter Gmeindl and Fritz Stein. He continued with doctoral studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University (Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität), where he studied philosophy with Nicolai Hartmann and Eduard Spranger and musicology with Arnold Schering and Georg Schünemann. He submitted a dissertation on Josquin des Prez and received his degree in 1944. Throughout the 1940s, he accompanied and was romantically involved with Romanian-born dancer and choreographer Iris Barbura. During his studies in Berlin, Celibidache was introduced to Zen Buddhism by his teacher Martin Steinke, and Buddhism informed Celibidache's worldview and work for the rest of his life. In a 1986 interview, he said, "I was born a Christian Orthodox, and studied philosophy, but I still couldn't find solutions to my problems. It was through Steinke that I found [...] the way of Zen. All I can say is that without Zen I couldn't have known this strange principle that the beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning. Music is nothing but the materialization of this principle."
While Wilhelm Furtwängler was unable to perform until his denazification trial was complete, Celibidache was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1945 to 1952. He received this position shortly after the end of World War II, due to tragic circumstances: Leo Borchard, who was cleared to conduct by the American forces, was shot during a nocturnal car ride.
Celibidache just won the contest organised by the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In search of a replacement, the Berlin Philharmonic plucked Celibidache from the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra to become the youngest Generalmusikdirektor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Following Furtwängler's denazification in 1947, Furtwängler was able to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic in alternation with Celibidache.
Celibidache had begun making waves with the orchestra's management regarding the age of some of the musicians as well as his controversial views regarding recordings.
Following the death of Furtwängler in 1954, Celibidache was overlooked to be his official successor of the Berlin Philharmonic. Instead, the management chose Herbert von Karajan. It took 37 years before a collaboration could once again take place: the concert of Bruckner's Symphony No. 7 happened only at the instigation of the West German president at the time, Richard von Weizsäcker.
Celibidache later worked with radio orchestras in Stockholm, Stuttgart and Paris. He also worked in Britain in the late 1940s and 1950s, due partly to the promotional efforts of the pianist Eileen Joyce and her partner, an artists' agent. Joyce said that Celibidache was the greatest conductor she had ever worked with: "he was the only one who got inside my soul". In 1970 he was awarded Denmark's Sonning Award. From 1979 until his death he was music director of the Munich Philharmonic. He regularly taught at Hochschule für Musik Mainz in West Germany and in 1984 taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Teaching was a major focus throughout his life and his courses were frequently open to all without any fee. Among his notable students are Enrique García Asensio, Konrad von Abel, Françoys Bernier, Raffaele Napoli, Rony Rogoff, Bernhard Sieberer, Markand Thakar, and Nils-Göran Areskoug.
He appeared in the film Ambassadors of Music (1952), conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont overture. Later, he was the subject of two major documentaries: "Celibidache, let it evolve" by Jan Schmidt-Garre and "Celibidache's Garden" by his son Serge Ioan Celebidachi.
A controversy arose over discriminatory behaviour that came to light during a 12-year legal battle during his tenure at the Munich Philharmonic with trombonist Abbie Conant. Celibidache claimed Conant lacked the "necessary strength" and "emotional empathy" to lead the trombone section. She was asked to sit in the second chair. Celibidache was not invited to give testimony at the trials. Finally, the courts found in favour of Conant. As a consequence, Conant was paid the same as her male colleagues.
After 37 years of absence, Celibidache was asked by Federal President Richard von Weizsacker to return to West Berlin and conduct the Berlin Philharmonic one more time, in order to symbolise the end of communism in Europe and the German Reunification. Celibidache conducted Bruckner 7th, on 31 March 1992 with the Berlin Philharmonic.
Celibidache died at the age of 84 on 14 August 1996 at Nemours, near Paris. He was buried in the Cimetière de Neuville sur Essonne.
Celibidache's approach to music-making is often described more by what he did not do instead of what he did. For example, much has been made of Celibidache's "refusal" to make recordings even though almost all of his concert activity actually was recorded – having accepted live radio broadcasts – with many released posthumously by major labels such as EMI and Deutsche Grammophon with the consent of his family. In his view, music is made of the cumulation of thousands of "Nos" and one final "yes" when the conditions are eventually all gathered during a concert. It was all about the live experience, the ability to be "in the now".
Celibidache's focus was indeed on creating, during each concert, the optimal conditions for what he called a "transcendent experience". Aspects of Zen Buddhism, such as ichi-go ichi-e, strongly influenced his music making. He believed that transcendental experiences were extremely unlikely to ensue when listening to recorded music, so he eschewed them. As a result, some of his concerts did provide audiences with exceptional and sometimes life-altering experiences, including, for example, a 1984 concert in Carnegie Hall by the Orchestra of the Curtis Institute that New York Times critic John Rockwell described as the best of his 25 years of concert-going.