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ERICH KLEIBER (1890-1956) In Memoriam
All of us, connected with music, owe much to Erich Kleiber. He meant really much for us, the Latin-Americans. For years on end Kleiber had been generously giving away his messages to the people, keeping his behavior unchanged and forming to a high degree the consciousness of the audience in this part of the continent. Due to his hidden perspicacity and his close connection with South America, he contributed to raising the requirements of the connoisseurs. With no reservations and limitations, he made the noble gesture to leave us the completed works of a culture and a civilization, to which he belonged, as he would have done among his compatriots. That is why his activity in Latin America was upheld by a high virtue of his: never to modify his goals or to facilitate his actions, lowering the artistic requirements. For Kleiber this was the great lesson for the purity of art, which with him remained such, in spite of the circumstances. When he was conducting in Buenos Aires or Habana, in Santiago de Chile or in Lima, he showed the same zeal and the same enthusiasm, which he would have shown if he had been in Vienna or Berlin. Wherever he went and no matter what funds he had, his inspiration was maximum, and the efforts - completed. Erich Kleiber never took into consideration the moment or the conditions, in which he had to work. Of course, he was a great Maestro. He con- stantly thought us how to take responsibility. Out of his old Europe, he passed on us something, which could not be passed in some other way, but through his personal example, namely: irreconcilability to mediocre things and pleasure in well done such. The great message that Kleiber left to the Americans, is the sense of alert consciousness in the artist - to be always on the alert and to stay awake tirelessly. This wonderful tirelessness glorifies him as a person and as an artist. The higher he rose to greatness, the greater and inflexible was his exactingness. He made us understand, just by watching him, that art does not allow weaknesses. He contributed, as few people have done in these countries, to looking with distrust on the improvisation and the sudden gleam. For us Erich Kleiber was not an imaginary meteor, crossing the sky and leaving some trace or shadow. His light dispersed on us constantly. Some part of it had left on each of the places, where he had appeared. This light spread among the audience and among his colleagues. Time passes and it does not die away. We remain in his debt for this spiritual light forever.... Jorge D'Urbano, Director of "Teatro Colon" Buenos Aires, July 1958 (preface to the Argentine edition of the book "A Memoir" by John Russell)
1. Preface |
