The Top 75 Conductors #15: Riccardo Chailly

With recommended recordings

The Top 75 Conductors Series

#15: Riccardo Chailly

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Welcome back to our series on the top 75 conductors in classical music history. As a reminder, we are covering the list in alphabetical order from top to bottom, and in spot #15 is Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly. Chailly has had quite a career in the spotlight, and has made many recordings which have also given him more notoriety. Riccardo Chailly was born in 1953, and is now 72 years of age. Currently, Chailly is the Music Director of Teatro alla Scala Opera House in Milan, as well as the director of Lucene Festival Orchestra.

Riccardo Chailly

Riccardo came from a musical family, with his father Luciano being a prominent composer as well as an administrator at La Scala in Milan. Chailly the elder studied under Paul Hindemith, and was highly influenced by his style. After attending his first concert at the age of 6, the younger Chailly became obsessed with music, even to the exclusion of other activities of youth such as sports. The young Chailly studied under his father, but his father was reportedly somewhat disappointed in Riccardo’s lack of interest in the more technical aspects of composition, and it also didn’t appear his son had any great skill with an instrument (although he did play drums in an R & B band as a youth). After studying composition at the conservatories in Milan and Perugia, he switched over to conducting.

At the age of 20, Chailly became Claudio Abbado’s assistant conductor at La Scala, an experience which has shaped the rest of his professional career. He made his professional conducting debut at La Scala conducting Massenet’s Werther in 1978. From 1982 to 1988, Chailly was the Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, also serving as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1983 to 1986. From 1986 to 1993, Chailly was the director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna opera house.

But the first of Chailly’s three major career appointments happened in June 1985 when he was announced as the next Chief Conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, an unbelievable vote of confidence by a major European orchestra for the 32-year-old, and he finally took the helm in 1988 at the age of 35. He remained at the Concertgebouw from 1988 to 2004. Chailly had always been drawn to modern and avant-garde music, and for an orchestra such as the Concertgebouw which was rooted and steeped in the classical and romantic eras, there was understandably a period of adjustment for both the musicians and audiences. Of course, Chailly also programmed somewhat more familiar fare such as Bruckner, Mahler, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich. But music from composers such as Zemlinksy, Varèse, Berio, and Schoenberg was more difficult to digest for some, and his time in Amsterdam wasn’t always smooth. But at the end of the day, it must be seen as a success in terms of how Chailly improved the sound of the orchestra, as well as how Chailly led the production of many good to outstanding recordings with the Concertgebouw for the Decca label. During this period Chailly kept his toes dipped in the opera world as well with healthy doses of Verdi and Rossini.

Chailly had conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig for the first time in 1986, being introduced to the orchestra by Herbert von Karajan at the Salzburg Festival that year, but then he didn’t conduct them again until 2001. Shortly thereafter, he was named the 19th Kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and he was named Chief Conductor in 2005. This was the second major appointment for Chailly, with his initial contract running through 2010. In 2008, Chailly extended his contract until 2015, and then in 2013 he was extended again through the 2020 season. However, it was announced in 2016 he would step down at the end of the season, four years early, at Chailly’s request.

Chailly was announced as the next Director at La Scala in 2013, with his term to begin in 2017, and this has been his third major appointment. His current contract at La Scala runs through 2026. Meanwhile, in 2015 the Lucerne Festival Orchestra announced Chailly as its next director effective 2016 for a five-year contract, and in 2021 this was extended another five years to 2026.

Conducting Style

Chailly is a relatively demonstrative conductor on the podium, dynamic and physical in his movements, but also has an accurate and graceful stick technique. He is not an interventionist as a conductor, and is known to be relatively faithful in following the score. That is not to say he doesn’t step outside the box in his interpretations, as he has often done so and when you listen to his Beethoven and Brahms symphony cycles from Leipzig, there can be little doubt he has been influenced by the historically informed movement to some degree, which encourages swifter tempos, sharper accents, and less vibrato. Clarity and detail seem to be hallmarks of his style if one is to judge by his recordings. Chailly is known to be engaging, intelligent, and spontaneous, but also has a great deal of respect and devotion to tradition.

Chailly has been a strong advocate for late romantic, modern, and contemporary music throughout his career. It would seem Chailly enjoys new ideas and approaches in music, and he has a streak of originality in him which leads to some dynamic performances. Indeed, members of the orchestras he has led have frequently commented on his excellent ability to conduct really modern and avant-garde music. Music that includes jazz ideas such as Shostakovich’s Jazz Suites and the music of Nino Rota such as what he recorded for The Fellini Album are particularly well done. Some other musicians have said he doesn’t conduct the traditional classics or standard repertoire as well. You can judge for yourself. A few have commented on how Chailly has not been immune to showing his vanity at times, something perhaps not surprising given how long he has been in the spotlight and given how that has afflicted many other prominent conductors.

While Chailly has conducted quite a bit of Bach, there is very little Mozart, Haydn, or Schubert. Thus it appears Chailly has chosen specific composers and works where he feels comfortable, and perhaps that is just fine. It does seem a little odd to me to have an Italian conductor trained in the opera house without any notable recordings of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas since they are in Italian. It is also curious that while Chailly’s name has been discussed frequently over his career for open positions at several major orchestras in the United States, that has never materialized and that has not been important for him. Certainly not a criticism, but just an observation.

Recommended Recordings

The recordings I’ve listed below are not necessarily in chronological order but are organized by the orchestra Chailly conducted at the time.