CONDUCTORS from Poland

Top 5

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Polish Conductors of all time. This list of famous Polish Conductors is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Otto Klemperer (1885 - 1973)

With an HPI of 60.51, Otto Klemperer is the most famous Polish Conductor.  His biography has been translated into 35 different languages on wikipedia.

Otto Nossan Klemperer (14 May 1885 – 6 July 1973) was a German conductor and composer, originally based in Germany, and then the United States, Hungary and finally, Great Britain. He began his career as an opera conductor, but he was later better known as a conductor of symphonic music. A protégé of the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, from 1907 Klemperer was appointed to a succession of increasingly senior conductorships in opera houses in and around Germany. Between 1929 and 1931 he was director of the Kroll Opera in Berlin, where he presented new works and avant-garde productions of classics. He was from a Jewish family, and the rise of the Nazis caused him to leave Germany in 1933. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chief conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and guest-conducted other American orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and later the Pittsburgh Symphony, which he reorganised as a permanent ensemble. In the late 1930s Klemperer became ill with a brain tumour. An operation to remove it was successful, but left him lame and partly paralysed on his right side. Throughout his life he had bipolar disorder, and after the operation he went through an intense manic phase of the illness and then a long spell of severe depression. His career was seriously disrupted and did not fully recover until the mid-1940s. He served as the musical director of the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest from 1947 to 1950. Klemperer's later career centred on London. In 1951 he began an association with the Philharmonia Orchestra. By that time better known for his readings of the core German symphonic repertoire than for experimental modern music, he gave concerts and made almost 200 recordings with the Philharmonia and its successor, the New Philharmonia, until his retirement in 1972. His approach to Mozart was not universally liked, being thought of by some as heavy, but he became widely considered the most authoritative interpreter of the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler.

2. Kurt Masur (1927 - 2015)

With an HPI of 59.49, Kurt Masur is the 2nd most famous Polish Conductor.  His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.

Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He left many recordings of classical music played by major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations in the 1989 anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig; the protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall.

3. Kurt Sanderling (1912 - 2011)

With an HPI of 53.12, Kurt Sanderling is the 3rd most famous Polish Conductor.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Kurt Sanderling, CBE (Russian: Курт Игнатьевич Зандерлинг, romanized: Kurt Ignatyevich Zanderling; 19 September 1912 – 18 September 2011) was a German conductor. Sanderling was born in Arys, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Orzysz, Poland) to Jewish parents. His early work at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he served as repetiteur (rehearsal director) for Wilhelm Furtwängler and Erich Kleiber, was cut short when the Nazi regime removed him from his post because he was Jewish. He then left for the Soviet Union in 1936, where he worked with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1939, he became conductor of the Kharkiv Philharmonic Orchestra. During the siege of Leningrad, he worked in Novosibirsk, Siberia. From 1942 to 1960, he was joint principal conductor with Yevgeny Mravinsky of the Leningrad Philharmonic. Around 1942–1943, Sanderling first met Dmitri Shostakovich, which marked the start of their professional working relationship and personal friendship.In 1960, Sanderling returned to East Germany to take up the chief conductorship of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he remained until 1977. From 1964 to 1967, he was chief conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle. He made his British debut in 1970. His first guest-conducting appearance with the Philharmonia Orchestra was in 1972, as a substitute for Otto Klemperer. Their working relationship further developed after a January 1980 series of performances of the complete Beethoven symphonies at Wembley, and a subsequent commercial recording of the Beethoven symphonies for EMI. The Philharmonia appointed Sanderling its Conductor Emeritus in 1996. He was also Emeritus Conductor of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. In the US, he worked with particular frequency as a guest conductor with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.Sanderling announced his retirement from conducting in May 2002. In September 2002, Sanderling was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and awarded the Ernst Reuter Plaque of Berlin, the city's highest honour. In addition to his Philharmonia Beethoven symphony cycle, his commercial recordings include the Beethoven piano concertos with pianist Mitsuko Uchida, Nos. 3, 4 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Nos. 1, 2 and 5 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He was among the first conductors to perform and record Deryck Cooke's completion of Gustav Mahler's 10th symphony, which his friend Berthold Goldschmidt had premiered. Sanderling died on 18 September 2011, one day before his 99th birthday in Berlin. He was married twice. His first marriage to Nina Bobath was in 1941, and produced a son, Thomas Sanderling, who became a conductor. His first marriage ended in divorce after his return to East Germany. His second wife was the former Barbara Wagner, a double bassist in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. They married in 1963, and their marriage produced two sons, the conductor Stefan Sanderling, and the cellist/conductor Michael Sanderling. His second wife and his three sons survive him.

4. Marek Janowski (b. 1939)

With an HPI of 52.26, Marek Janowski is the 4th most famous Polish Conductor.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Marek Janowski (born 18 February 1939 in Warsaw) is a Polish-born German conductor..

5. Paul Kletzki (1900 - 1973)

With an HPI of 51.07, Paul Kletzki is the 5th most famous Polish Conductor.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Paul Kletzki (born Paweł Klecki; 21 March 1900 – 5 March 1973) was a Polish conductor and composer.