Considered one of the greatest conductors of the post-war era, Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) was also a brilliant pianist who began his apprenticeship at the age of five, before going on to study at the Munich Conservatory. First prize in duet at the Geneva International Competition in 1949, he moved on to conducting at the Augsburg Opera and then the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, where he was appointed in 1960. In his heyday, Wolfgang Sawallisch successively led the Munich State Opera Orchestra (1971-1992) and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1972-1980), the Bavarian State Opera (1983), with whom he recorded his second Wagner Tetralogy (1989), and the Philharmonia Orchestra, his last mandate from 1993 to 2003. Renowned for his many recordings and concerts of works by German composers, in particular Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert, Anton Bruckner, Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner, Sawallisch remained discreet, evolving in the shadow of star conductor Herbert von Karajan. He died on February 22, 2013 at the age of 89, at the end of a busy career.
