Josef Krips

Josef Alois Krips (April 8, 1902 – October 13 1974) was an Austrian conductor and violinist.

Krips was born in Vienna, Austria, and went on to become a pupil of Eusebius Mandyczewski and Felix Weingartner. In 1921 he became Weingartner's assistant at Vienna Volksoper and chorus master. Afterwards he became conductor of several different orchestras. In 1933 he returned to Vienna as a resident conductor of the Volksoper. He also became a professor at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1935.

After the Anschluss of 1938 he was forced to leave Austria. Krips moved to Belgrade, where he worked for a time with the local symphony orchestra, until Yugoslavia also became involved in World War II. For the remainder of the war he worked in a food factory.

Upon his return to Austria at the end of the war in 1945 Krips was one of the few conductors who were allowed to work, since he had not worked under the Nazi regime. He was the first conductor to lead the Vienna Philharmonic and the Salzburg Festival in the post-war period.

From 1950 to 1954 Krips was principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Afterwards he led the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony (from 1963 to 1970). He made his Covent Garden debut in 1963 and his Metropolitan Opera in 1966, becoming a frequent guest conductor from then on. In 1970, he became conductor of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin. Between 1970 and 1973, he was the principal conductor of the Vienna Symphony.

Krips died in Geneva, Switzerland in 1974 at seventy-two. [cite journal |year=1974 |title=Josef Krips: Obituary |journal=The Musical Times |volume=vol. 115 |issue=no. 1582 |pages=pp. 1071 |accessdate=]

His brother was Henry Krips, who moved to Australia and was the chief conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for a record term of 23 years (1949-1972).

Recordings

In 1957, Krips led the Symphony of the Air in stereo recordings of the five Beethoven piano concertos with Artur Rubenstein and the Symphony of the Air for RCA Victor.

In 1960, Krips recorded Beethoven's nine symphonies for Everest Records. For this set of recordings, Krips conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, and for the Beethoven "Symphony No. 9", the soloists included Donald Bell, baritone, Jennifer Vyvyan, soprano, Rudolf Petrak, tenor, and Shirley Carter, mezzo soprano. The BBC Chorus, under the chorusmaster Leslie Woodgate also performed in this recording of the 9th symphony. This series of recordings was popular with music critics and the public, and the recordings have been reissued several times in authorized and in bootleg editions.

During the 1970s, Krips, conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra recorded, for Philips Records, Mozart's late symphonies. These have been reissued over the years by Philips and latterly Decca.

Curiously, Krips did not make any commercial recordings with the San Francisco Symphony, although many of his concerts were broadcast in stereo by San Francisco station KKHI. His successor, Seiji Ozawa, made a series of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips Records, beginning in 1972.

References

External links

*allmusic|41:8225
* [http://www.dra.de/online/hinweisdienste/musik/2002/bilder/krips.jpgColor photograph of Josef Krips conducting] the Vienna Philharmonic
* [http://www.music.buffalo.edu/bpo/s-kr-far.jpgJosef Krips' farewell letter] to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra