ABSTRACT
Carlos Kleiber has been immensely sought after by orchestras, opera companies, and music lovers since the early 1970's, and most people agree that he exerts an individual influence on the music that is instantaneously recognisable as his own. Hitherto Carlos Kleiber had been hardly known other than to a relatively small number of connoisseurs and musicians who had heard him or worked with him in small opera houses in Germany. Carlos Kleiber suddenly rose to international acclaim in 1973 at the age of 43: a relatively advanced age for a conductor to become famous, especially these days. It happened when his first commercial recording appeared. Conducting Weber’s opera Der Freischutz with a distinguished cast and the Dresden Staatskapelle, his results made a tremendous impact, and overnight people began to talk about music making that sounded inspired. Kleiber’s beat was a remarkable mix of tautness and freedom and his left hand communicated minute little details with almost pictorial vividness.
