Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is one of the greatest contemporary conductors. The German was music director of the New York Philharmonic from 1991 to 2002, and he built the orchestra's modern image and prestigious reputation, which fell into severe crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Masur was born in Brzeg, Germany (now Poland) on July 18, 1927, and served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. He built his musical career in East Germany and, as a public figure, played a key role in avoiding bloodshed around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of the country.

Masur later stated that a lot of blood would have been shed on October 9, 1990, if he and five others - a satirist, a clergyman and three politicians - had not come together and issued a public statement calling for calm and dialogue.

In his career, Masur has led the Leipzig Philharmonic for 26 years and also conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the celebration of German reunification. Masur has conducted several of the world's largest orchestras, including the Orchestre National de France and the London Philharmonic.

He performs works by the Romantics (Beethoven, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Bruckner) with particular insight, and from the music of the 20th century - works by Britten and Shostakovich. He premieres some works by Sofia Gubaidulina ("Two Roads" - premiere recording), Kancheli ("Light Sorrow"; "And Farewell, the Sighing Leaves..." - premiere recording), Schnittke (Symphonies Nos. 3 and 7). Masur has twice (in the 1970s and 1990s) recorded the complete cycle of Beethoven's symphonies with the Gewandhaus Orchestra; the 1970s cycle also includes overtures. He has also made other audio and video recordings of symphonies, concertos, and other works by Beethoven. He has twice recorded the complete cycle of all symphonies by Johannes Brahms (video set with the Gewandhaus Orchestra; audio set with the New York Philharmonic), as well as all symphonies by Anton Bruckner, Max Bruch, Felix Mendelssohn, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, and Robert Schumann.