Erich Kunzel dead at 74

Conductor Erich Kunzel died today, at the age of 74, in a hospital near his home on Swan's Island, Maine.

Four months ago he announced to a stunned classical music world that he had been diagnosed with liver, colon and pancreatic cancer.

Born in New York City, Maestro Kunzel began his conducting career with Santa Fe Opera in 1957, but he will be remembered best for his stewardship of one of America's most successful and active pop programs, The Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.  It came with over-sized flags, indoor fireworks, circus animals and Hollywood stars, but Erich introduced and welcomed untold numbers of new concert-goers to the world of classical music.

 An inductee into the classical music Hall of Fame, he sold more than 10 million records and was awarded the classical crossover artist of the year by Billboard magazine for four consecutive years.  A search under his name will give you some idea of how diverse his reach was. Choosing a favorite from all these is next to impossible, but I'm shamelessly fond of his version of Ron Goodwin's score for the 1969 film "The Battle of Britain."

Here are a couple of the most complete website tributes, currently.  The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra website.

Comments

[Yi-Peng on April 02, 2010 at 09:56 PM]

Although Kunzel made many records with the Cincinnati Pops I treasure the Kunzel offering of the Rodgers & Hammerstein orchestral suites. I have an autographed copy of this recording that I obtained at his concert in Singapore. It's so marvellous and the music-making is glorious that I think if Rodgers himself were attending the recording session he would have chosen this disc as his favourite in the afterlife.

[batterie ordinateur portable on September 15, 2009 at 03:59 AM]

Our city will greatly miss this incredible and talented man. We send our condolences to his wife, family and friends. I along with many of my high school classmates were fortunate enough to sing with Mr. Kunzel and the CSO from 7th thru 12th grade starting when he first arrived in Cincinnati. We sang pieces like the Chichester Psalms in Music Hall and Battle Hymn of the Republic at our school when he brought the orchestra. He was always entertaining. Good Bye to a wonderful man.

[Hugo Munday on September 02, 2009 at 08:10 AM]

The 1812, with "real cannon," deserves a mention, and helped Telarc's early CD reputation no end. I don't know his "Music Man", but I can imagine he offers a great reading. Thank you David.

[David Horiuchi on September 01, 2009 at 11:12 PM]

Thanks for remembering Erich Kunzel. My favorite recordings were probably Christmas at the Pops and Round Up, but his Music Man was very good also. His 1812 Overture was a landmark of the early CD era.