Carlo Maria Giulini

Italian conductor Giulini led a slow-burning career that straddled the operatic and symphonic worlds and stood well apart from the podium autocrats of his era. Born in 1914 in Barletta, Italy, he studied at Rome’s Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music before being drafted into the army during World War II, where he spent nine months in hiding due to his anti-fascist beliefs. Giulini made his conducting debut in 1945 with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and, at age 37, rose to become principal conductor of Milan’s La Scala (1953-58), where he introduced neglected repertory and made a landmark recording of Verdi’s La Traviata (1853) with soprano Maria Callas in 1955. Giulini’s international reputation grew with his recordings of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro (rec. 1959) and Don Giovanni (rec. 1961), yet he grew frustrated with strong-willed directors and singers and shifted his focus to the symphonic literature. He worked as a guest conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Vienna Symphony, and, from 1978 to 1984, he served as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He came late to the Beethoven symphonies, but conducted them with an aura of spirituality. After a career noted for its collegiality—and few full-time posts—Giulini died in 2005 at age 91.