24 Facts About Sergiu Celibidache

Sergiu Celibidache frequently refused to release his performances on commercial recordings during his lifetime, claiming that a listener could not have a "transcendental experience" outside the concert hall.

Sergiu Celibidache has nonetheless earned international acclaim for his interpretations of the classical repertoire and was known for a spirited performance style informed by his study and experiences in Zen Buddhism.

Sergiu Celibidache is regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century.

Sergiu Celibidache was born on 28 June 1912 to Demostene Celebidachi, a cavalry officer of the Romanian army and later prefect of the Iasi region and Maria Celebidachi, in Roman, a small city in the Moldavia region of Romania, where his father was a government official.

Sergiu Celibidache grew up in Iasi, where his family soon moved after his birth.

Sergiu Celibidache was already improvising at the piano by the age of four, and after a traditional schooling in mathematics, philosophy and music in Iasi, was sent by his father to Bucharest and then to Paris, where he continued his studies.

Sergiu Celibidache's father had expected him to pursue a political career in Romania, but in 1936 Celibidache enrolled in the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin, where he studied composition with Heinz Tiessen and conducting with Kurt Thomas, Walter Gmeindl and Fritz Stein.

Sergiu Celibidache continued with doctoral studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University, where he studied philosophy with Nicolai Hartmann and Eduard Spranger and musicology with Arnold Schering and Georg Schunemann.

Sergiu Celibidache submitted a dissertation on Josquin des Prez and received his degree in 1944.

From 1945 to 1952 Sergiu Celibidache was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Sergiu Celibidache got his big break shortly after the end of World War II in tragic circumstances: Leo Borchard, who was cleared to conduct by the American forces, was shot during a nocturnal car ride, and no other de-Nazified conductors were available.

Sergiu Celibidache later worked with radio orchestras in Stockholm, Stuttgart and Paris.

Sergiu Celibidache worked in Britain in the late 1940s and 1950s, due partly to the promotional efforts of the pianist Eileen Joyce and her partner, an artists' agent.

Joyce said that Sergiu Celibidache was the greatest conductor she had ever worked with: "he was the only one who got inside my soul".

Sergiu Celibidache regularly taught at Hochschule fur Musik Mainz in Germany and in 1984 taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Sergiu Celibidache appeared in the film Ambassadors of Music, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic in a performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's Egmont overture.

Sergiu Celibidache claimed Conant lacked the "necessary strength" and "emotional empathy" to lead the trombone section.

Sergiu Celibidache was not invited to give testimony at the trials due to lack of substantiated criticism.

Sergiu Celibidache died at the age of 84 on 14 August 1996 at La Neuville-sur-Essonne, near Paris.

Sergiu Celibidache was buried in the Cimetiere de Neuville sur Essonne.

Nevertheless, Sergiu Celibidache paid little attention to making these recordings, which he viewed merely as by-products of his orchestral concerts.

Sergiu Celibidache's focus was instead on creating, during each concert, the optimal conditions for what he called a "transcendent experience".

Sergiu Celibidache believed that transcendental experiences were extremely unlikely to ensue when listening to recorded music, so he eschewed them.

Sergiu Celibidache was well known for his demands for extensive rehearsal time with orchestras.