Sergiu Celibidache was one of the most esteemed orchestra conductors of the twentieth century, especially well known in Europe, less well known in the United States. He was also the mentor of our Ensemble's conductor, Ángel Gil-Ordóñez, who studied with him, and served as his assistant conductor from 1985 to 1991, and who remained in touch with him for the rest of his life.

Celibidache was born in Iasi, Romania in 1912. His own great mentor was Wilhelm Furtwängler of the Berlin Philharmonic, one of the finest orchestras in Europe and the world. After World War II, Celibidache himself had risen to become the conductor of the Berlin Philaharmonic. At that time, conductors like Herbert von Karajan and Karl Böhm were undergoing de-Nazification, as both had been tolerated, and even promoted, by various Nazi patrons. This phase, however, lasted for only five years, after which Karajan managed to elbow Celibidache aside and take over the Berlin orchestra.

Celibidache scorned what was known as "tradition", pointing out that there was far more bad tradition than good. He went back to the composer and his period to find the nature of the music to be performed. Similarly, he was adamantly opposed to recorded music. Music had to be presented fresh. As time wore on after the war, it became more and more evident how much the recording industry influenced all conductors, who were listening to each other's recordings and gradually moving toward what we might call a “single interpretation”: agreed-upon tempi, volume, time, etc. This produced bland standard performances, perhaps acceptable, but uninteresting.

Celibidache, on the other hand, insisted on approaching the music fresh, without previous influences, and on discovering the composer's true intentions by studying the score and background materials, understanding the state of instruments at that time (as opposed to the enhanced instruments we have today), and other contemporary aspects. Like Carlos Kleiber, he also wanted extensive rehearsals, which limited the number of cities and orchestras willing to engage him in our recording and television age.

This condemned him to less well known orchestras, but did not prevent him from reaching his audiences in Europe, where he became a cult phenomenon well known to classical music lovers. He was the kind of person who could perform Ravel's well known Bolero, or the Beethoven Fifth Symphony, and make you feel that you were hearing an overly familiar composition for the very first time. Rare opportunities to record his music came when his concerts were broadcast on radio. These were always extraordinarily special events.