About
German conductor and pianist who first rose to fame as the Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony in 1960, a job he held for ten years. From 1961 to 1970, he conducted at the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and from 1970 to 1980, he was music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. From 2003 until his death in 2013, he held the title of Conductor Laureate with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Before Fame
At the age of five, he became interested in playing the piano and by the time he was ten, he had decided he wanted to become a concert pianist.
Trivia
He was 30 when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where Herbert von Karajan was the principal conductor. When he debuted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus conducting Tristan und Isolde in 1957, he was the youngest conductor ever to appear there. He was also Honorary Conductor Laureate of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo. In 1993, was the recipient of a Suntory Music Award in 1993.
Family Life
He is the son of Maria and Wilhelm Sawallisch. His father was director of the Hamburg-Bremer-Feuerversicherung insurance company in the city. He has an older brother named Werner. He was married to Mechthild Schmid from 1952 to 1998.
Associated With
As a child, he was greatly influenced by Richard Strauss.
