Biography

Born on 29 June 1914 in the family castle in Býchory, 60 km from Kolin, next to Prague the day after Sarajevo. Died in Kastanienbaum, near Lucerne on 11 August 1996, Rafael Kubelík was the 6th of the eight children of one of the most famous violinists at the beginning of the XXth century, Jan Kubelík (1880-1940) and Marianne Csaky-Szell, previously a Hungarian countess, and grand' child of an amateur musician. He became one of the most important figures of conducting in the second part of the XX century.

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Childhood
From 1921 to 1929 he studied daily the symphonic repertoire, playing four hands on the piano with his uncle Frantisek Kubelík. R. Kubelík followed piano, violin and composition studies at the Prague conservatory (1929-1933). His father declared in 1926: "My oldest son is the most gifted. He could realize great things. He is eleven, plays splendidly violin, piano, sightseeing scores and has a good knowledge of the orchestra. Some time ago he had a look to one of my orchestration works and asked me to add a horn to a particular part: he was right!"
He joined the Prague conservatory at 14 and concentrated on composition, violin and conducting, studying the piano on the side. Four years later, in 1933, he completed his studies; in his two final concerts, he played a Paganini concerto, his own Fantasy for violin and orchestra and Dvořák's Othello Overture.

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Beginnings
He began at the head of the Czech Philharmonic at 20 on January 24th, 1934, with Beethoven's Violin concerto, his own Fantasy op.2 played by his father and Tchaikovsky's Fourth symphony. He accompanied his father, on piano, in 1935/1936 in United States, Italy and Romania.

In 1936, on his return to Prague, Rafael Kubelík was appointed permanent conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, which was still headed by Vaclav Talich. In 1937, Talich, ill, put him on a journey towards England, Scotland and Belgium, conducting the Czech Philharmonic for a prestigious 20 concerts series, which will be redone the year after. Thus, he will stay Czech orchestra's permanent conductor from 1936 to 1939. In 1937, he gave a concert tour with American orchestras, invited to become permanent conductor there, which he did not accept.

In 1939, he was appointed Chief of the National Theater ("Janackova opera Zemskeho divadla") in Brno and will stay in this position until its closure by the Nazi in 1941. His father, Jan Kubelík, died on 5 December 1940, Rafael was then 26. He became Musical director of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, from 1939 to 1948. On 20 June 1945, on occasion of the end of the 2nd World War, he conducted Smetana's Ma Vlast in a concert on Old Town Square. He gave among many other works: the Bartered Bride, Dalibor and the Kiss by Smetana, Jacobin and Rusalka by Dvořák, Zauberflöte, Jenufa and the Troyans. Kubelík had to struggle with the Nazi regime and was accused of at least passive resistance - he refused to conduct Wagner music for instance. In 1944 he even disappears from Prague so as not to fall in the clutches of the Nazis.

He will get married in 1942 with the violinistLudmila Bartlova, with whom he had one son, Martin. He fought to maintain the Czech Philharmonic during the war, supporting Czech music in his programs. He contributed to its nationalization (10/22/45) and to the transformation of the Musical May of Prague, created by Talich, for the Czech philharmonic 50th anniversary (1946). He conducted the Czech repertoire, for example Slavonic Dances for workers in plants. He conducted for the last time Ma Vlast on July 5th for the Sokol assembly. One can notice his support to contemporary Czech composers, as Vitezslava Kapralova.

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Harder times?
He left his country on 17 July 1948 to escape from the communist regime installed in February - taking advantage of a tour in England to conduct Don Giovanni in Glyndebourne, on Bruno Walter's recommendation. ''I had lived through one form of bestial tyranny, Nazism,'' he told an interviewer about his decision to leave after the Communist takeover. ''As a matter of principle, I was not going to live through another. I left Czechoslovakia in 1948 vowing that I would never return until Communist rule was driven from my homeland. They have invited me back several times -- in 1956 and 1966 -- with promises of freedom to do anything I wanted. But so long as that system of government rules anywhere, I refuse to set foot on that soil.'' He will appear with the Concertgebouw orchestra in Amsterdam. One thing was to conduct under the Nazis but he estimated it was even worse that his country became totalitarian. "I am an anti-communist and anti-fascist. I do not think that artistic freedom can cope with a totalitarian regime. Individuals cannot do anything in a totalitarian country; people who think they can - from their own merits are really naive". Since the early 1950s, he had numerous invitations to return to Czechoslovakia, which he always refused with the insistence that his return would only be possible if all political prisoners were freed and the same freedom promised to him would be granted to all citizens of Czechoslovakia. He made many recordings in London for EMI, till 1952, under Walter Legge, then recorded exclusively for Decca for some years. He was asked for by young players from the Philharmonia which considered him as the most talented conductor besides Karajan and the BBC was considering him as Adran Boult's successor. But he then became for three years (11/17/1949 - 1953) chief of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (he was 36 years old when nominated), creating 70 works in 3 seasons and recording the first high fidelity recording, and then would be put away. His plan to remake the orchestra by replacing 22 of its players met immediate opposition. So did his ambitious programming of contemporary music. During his three years, he conducted 60 new works in Chicago, including pieces by Lukas Foss, Roy Harris, William Schuman and Aaron Copland. He failed to win champions among the critics; indeed, his departure from the post is often ascribed to the implacable opposition of Claudia Cassidy, the chief critic of The Chicago Tribune.. He will return several times in Chicago,  his last appearance being in October 18, 1991, with the Hussika overture by Dvořák for the last commemorative concert of the orchestra centennial, a re-creation of the first concert in October 16, 1891. He had been in charge for two years of Covent Garden (1955 -1958) ; season begun with Katia Kabanova with a great success. But his London career had not be helped by the son of the creator of the Beecham's pills...
After EMI, Kubelík made records with Vienna for Decca (1st recording: Slavonic dances in 1954). Ha had a serious car accident in spring 1956. From 1957, he will regularly conduct the Berlin philharmonic.

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Accomplishments
After having refused to conduct in Germany for more than 20 years, he gave his first concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestra on 12 February 1960, with the Sinfonia concertante by Martinů, Mozart and Beethoven's 7th. In 1961, he is nominated Director of the Bavarian Radio symphony orchestra until his dismiss in 1979; he will though stay its principal conductor until 7 June 1985; he will then resign for illness reasons, judging his health could not allow him to fulfil his artistic goals anymore (I remember seeing this colossus completely worn out after a Mahler concert in Paris in the 80's). He gave with the Bavarian forces a first concert tour in Japan in 1965. In 1968, he gathered around 150 world famous musicians to boycott all communist countries after the military occupation by the Warsaw Pact Countries of the Czechoslovak Republic on 21 August 1968. In 1969, he gave commemorative medals to all members of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on occasion of their visit to the Lucerne International Festival as commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Czechoslovak Republic (these medals were confiscated by the Czechoslovak authorities upon the return of the Orchestra...).
He acquired the Swiss nationality in 1973, having lived there from 1953 in Lucerne, and later, from 1968 in nearby Kastanienbaum, directly on lake Lucerne. He will marry the Australian soprano Elsie Morison after his first wife's death from sequels after a car accident.  
Mutual understanding between Kubelík and the Munich orchestra has been immediate. He gave in Munich the most varied and intelligent programs for that period. His repertory extended from Palestrina to XX century music, oratorios from Bach to Britten, operas from Haendel to Janáček, symphonies from Zelenka to Hartmann or Henze. (A brief passage to the Metropolitan Opera has to be mentioned, since he became its Musical director from august 1973 to 1974; he will give up after a memorable version of Les Troyens.). One can hear his clear and singing voice on the Bavarian Radio site, during a rehearsal of Beethoven 1st in 1966, or during this interview. Numerous musical cycles have been done during that blessing period: in 66/67 the Beethoven symphonies cycle in chronological order, in 67/68 religious pieces from Palestrina to Stravinsky, in 68/69 Hindemith's Kammermusic and Bach suites, in 69/70 concertos by Mozart, ending with the Requiem in 70/71, each concert presented a symphony by Haydn, in 71/72 each concert was dedicated to a single composer, 72/73 season was dedicated to XX century music, 73/74 to symphonic poems, and so on. Programs included also Britten's War Requiem, Les Béatitudes by Franck, Manfred by Schumann, From House of dead by Janáček, Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher by Honegger, and Pelléas by Debussy, Gurrelieder by Schoenberg, Oedipus Rex by Stravinsky, Xerxès by Haendel, Iphigénie en Tauride by Gluck, Les Maîtres chanteurs, Lohengrin and Parsifal by Wagner, Oberon by Weber, Dalibor by Smetana, Palestrina by Pfitzner, Mathis der Maler by Hindemith, Prometheus and Œdipe le Tyran by Orff, Die Lustige Weiber von Windsor by Nicolaï.He created numerous works as Martinů's Field Mass (1946), Les Fresques (1956) and the 5th symphony (1947), the Six monologues de Jedermann by F. Martin (1949), Jacob's Leiter by Schoenberg (1961), the 8th symphony (1963) and the Symphonic Hymns (1975) by K. A. Hartmann. Musical Prize Mme-Léonie-Sonning (Danemark) in 1984, two years before Pierre Boulez (and the gold medal from The Royal Philharmonic Society in 1995). He gave several concerts in Paris, specially the beginning of a memorable Mahler symphonies cycle in the 80' with the Paris orchestra;. We tried to get in touch with Him at that period but without success. He was very critic about his own talent: "there has not been a single concert in my life from which I could say every thing matched my hope, and I gave thousands!". 
He was a friend of numerous conductors: Szell, Sawallisch, Neumann, Ansermet, Kempe amoung others like Klemperer with whom he used to play chests

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Composing
His own works include five operas (Veronika, 19/4/47 - Brno, Tagensanbruch, 1958, Cornelia Faroni, 1972), two symphonies (Séquences, Orphikon), three Requiems: Pro memoria patris (1941), Pro memoria patriae (1955), Pro memoria Uxoris (1962) and , several cantatas (Libera nos, 1963), two masses (1955 et 1957), a Fantasy for violin and orchestra (1932/1933), two violin concertos (1932/33 et 1951), a concerto for flute and chamber orchestra (1943), a cello concerto (1944), a piano concerto (1950), six string quartets (cf. 2nd), a piano trio (1988, created in 1989 in Cologne by the Altenberg Trio), chamber music (sonata for piano and violin, 1931/1932), songs, three Stabat Mater, a Symphonic Peripeteia for organ and orchestra and a Sonatine for piano (1957).

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The end
So he will retire in 1985, going often in California ("La Quinta") for health reasons. His "Indian spring" of 1990 apart, he just made public appearances to attend to some of his works creation.

He will only go back to his homeland in 1990 for the greatest Czech event, musical and emotional, since the War: his conducting of Ma Vlast on May 12, 1990 at the head of the Czech Philharmonic. He was then named "honorary conductor of the Czech Philharmonic" and doctor honoris causa of the Charles University and also Honor citizen of Prague; he gave also later on some concerts in Japan).
He gave on June 9th another concert, in the Saint Venceslas plaza, which gathered musicians from Prague, Slovakia and Brno, a remake of a concert given in 29 June 1945. ("A bird does not song in a cage. I left my homeland not to have to quit my people. Spirit should not be tied by politic"). He gave a last concert on 11 October 1991 (Mozart and Dvořák's New world symphony), to the Olga Havlova foundation's profit.

Died on 8/11/1996, he is buried in the VyŠehrad cemetery, besides Dvořák, Mucha, Smetana and his father... Vaclav Havel wrote: "I admired Rafael Kubelík at the highest level, not only for all the glory he brought to Czech music, but also because he was an extraordinary character and a patriot".

© 2001- 11/11/2008 - Thierry VAGNE