Rafael Kubelík facts for kids

Rafael Kubelík

Rafael Jeroným Kubelík (born June 29, 1914 – died August 11, 1996) was a famous conductor and composer from the Czech Republic. He was known for leading many great orchestras around the world.

Rafael was the son of a very well-known violinist, Jan Kubelík. He studied music in Prague and first conducted an orchestra when he was just 19 years old. He continued his career even when the Nazis occupied his country. However, after the Communist government took over in 1948, he decided to leave Czechoslovakia. He moved to Britain and later became a Swiss citizen in 1967.

Kubelík was the music director for several major orchestras. He led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1953. He was also the music director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London from 1955 to 1958. From 1961 to 1979, he led the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also often conducted other top orchestras in Europe and America.

As a composer, Kubelík wrote music in a style called "neo-romantic." This means his music had strong feelings and beautiful melodies, similar to music from the Romantic period. He wrote five operas, three symphonies, and many other pieces for orchestras, choirs, and smaller groups of instruments.

Rafael Kubelík's Life and Career

Early Life and Musical Training

Rafael Kubelík was born in Býchory, which is now part of the Czech Republic, on June 29, 1914. This was just one day after a major event that started the First World War. He was the sixth child of the famous Czech violinist Jan Kubelík. Rafael looked up to his father very much. His mother was a Hungarian countess named Anna Julie Marie Széll von Bessenyö.

Rafael learned to play the violin from his father. When he was 14, he went to the Prague Conservatory. There, he studied violin, piano, how to compose music, and how to conduct. He finished his studies in 1933 when he was 19. At his graduation concert, he played a difficult violin piece by Niccolò Paganini and one of his own compositions. Rafael was also a talented pianist. In 1935, he even traveled with his father on a tour of the United States, playing piano for him.

Starting His Career in Czechoslovakia

In 1939, Kubelík became the music director of the Brno Opera. He held this job until the Nazis closed the company in November 1941. The Nazis did allow the Czech Philharmonic orchestra to keep playing. Kubelík, who had first conducted this orchestra at age 19, became its main conductor. In 1943, he married a Czech violinist named Ludmilla Bertlová, and they had one son.

During the war, Kubelík showed great courage. In 1944, he refused to give the Nazi salute to a high-ranking Nazi official. He also refused to conduct music by Richard Wagner during the war. Because of these actions, he had to hide in the countryside for several months to avoid being arrested by the Gestapo. After the war ended in May 1945, Kubelík conducted the Czech Philharmonic's first concert. In 1946, he helped start the Prague Spring Festival, a famous music event, and conducted its first concert.

Leaving His Homeland

After the Communist government took control of Czechoslovakia in February 1948, Kubelík made a big decision. He left his home country and promised not to return until it was free again. He explained that he had already lived under the harsh rule of the Nazis. He did not want to live under another strict government.

He left during a trip to Britain, where he was going to conduct an opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Edinburgh Festival. He told his wife about his decision to leave as their plane flew out of Czechoslovakia. In 1953, the Communist government found them guilty of "taking illicit leave" (leaving without permission) in a trial where they were not present.

Even though the government invited him back in 1956, promising him freedom, he refused. He said he would only consider returning if all political prisoners were freed and all Czech people living abroad had the same freedom he would have. He refused another invitation in 1966. In 1968, after the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia, he helped organize a boycott. Many famous classical musicians from the West joined him in refusing to perform in Czechoslovakia.

Leading Orchestras Around the World

Rafael Kubelík in Amsterdam, 1950

In 1950, Kubelík became the music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the United States. He left this job in 1953. Some people believe he was forced out because a music critic did not like his choices. This critic thought he played too many new pieces of music. There were also concerns about his long rehearsals and his decision to hire several Black musicians. However, many of his recordings with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra are still highly praised today. His recording of Pictures at an Exhibition was so good that a critic said it felt like "being in the living presence of the orchestra."

After Chicago, Kubelík toured the U.S. with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. He then became the music director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden in London, from 1955 to 1958. One of his greatest achievements there was conducting the first nearly complete performance of Hector Berlioz's opera Les Troyens in 1957. He decided to leave Covent Garden partly because some people did not like that he hired foreign artists.

In 1961, Kubelík accepted a new job as music director of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in Munich, Germany. He stayed with the BRSO until he retired in 1979. Many people consider his 18 years with this orchestra to be the best part of his career.

In 1961, his first wife, Ludmilla, died after a car accident. In 1963, Kubelík married the Australian singer Elsie Morison. In 1967, he became a Swiss citizen. He also started working with the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, in addition to his work with the BRSO.

In 1971, the new general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York asked Kubelík to be their music director. Kubelík accepted because he had a good artistic relationship with the manager. However, the manager died in a car accident in 1972, which changed Kubelík's reasons for being there. He resigned from the Met in 1974 after only six months.

After leaving Czechoslovakia, Kubelík worked with many other famous orchestras. These included the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Vienna Philharmonic. His very last concert was with the Czech Philharmonic.

Final Years and Return Home

In 1985, Kubelík's health declined, especially due to severe arthritis in his back. This caused him to retire from full-time conducting. However, when Communism fell in his home country in 1989 (known as the Velvet Revolution), he accepted an invitation to return. In 1990, he conducted the Czech Philharmonic at the Prague Spring International Music Festival, the festival he had helped create.

He recorded Bedřich Smetana's Má Vlast live with the Czech Philharmonic, which was his fifth recording of this piece. He also recorded Mozart's "Prague" Symphony and Antonín Dvořák's "New World" Symphony at the festival. During a rehearsal of the "New World" Symphony, he told the orchestra how happy he was. He said he had always wanted it to sound that way but had never found it with any other orchestra.

On October 18, 1991, Kubelík shared the stage with other conductors like Georg Solti and Daniel Barenboim. They recreated the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's very first concerts from 1891. Kubelík conducted the final piece, Dvořák's Hussite Overture.

Rafael Kubelík passed away in 1996 at the age of 82 in Switzerland. His ashes are buried next to his father's grave in Slavín, a famous cemetery in Prague.

Kubelík's Compositions

Rafael Kubelík was also a composer. He wrote five operas, three symphonies, and three settings of the requiem (music for a funeral service). He also composed many other pieces for choirs, chamber music (music for small groups of instruments), and songs. His music style is described as "neo-romantic," meaning it combined new ideas with the emotional style of the Romantic period.

Selected Recordings

Kubelík recorded a huge amount of music. He often recorded the same piece more than once. He made complete recordings of the symphonies by Johannes Brahms, Robert Schumann, and Ludwig van Beethoven. For his first complete Beethoven symphony cycle, he used nine different orchestras, one for each symphony!

His complete recordings of Gustav Mahler's symphonies, made from 1967 to 1971 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, are highly respected. The famous conductor Daniel Barenboim once said that he felt he was missing something in Mahler's music until he listened to Kubelík. Kubelík showed that there was more to Mahler than just loud excitement.

Kubelík also made popular recordings of operas by Giuseppe Verdi (like his Rigoletto), Mozart, Leoš Janáček, Dvořák, and others. He even conducted music by Richard Wagner later in his life, even though he had avoided it during the war. His recordings of Wagner's Die Meistersinger and Parsifal are considered top choices by many critics.

Kubelík's full list of recordings is very long. It includes music from many different composers, both old and new. In addition to the complete symphony cycles mentioned, he recorded orchestral and opera works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, and many more.

In May 2018, the record company Deutsche Grammophon released a large box set with 66 discs of all his recordings for their label.

See also

In Spanish: Rafael Kubelík para niños