Thomas Schippers
Thomas Schippers was one of the most talented of American conductors and was a particular champion of the music of Samuel Barber.
He showed musical gifts early. He played at a public piano recital at the age of six and was a church organist when he was fourteen. He continued his piano studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (1944-1945). He also studied privately with Olga Samaroff (1946-1947). He went on to Yale University, where he had some lessons in composition with Paul Hindemith.
In 1948 he took second prize in the Philadelphia Orchestra's young conductor's contest. He took a job as organist of the Greenwich Village Presbyterian Church in New York. He and group of other young musicians formed a group called the Lemonade Opera Company, which he conducted for several years.
In 1950 shortly after composer Gian-Carlo Menotti opened his opera The Consul. On Broadway, Schippers began conducting it shortly after the world premiere. This began a strong association with Menotti, and with Menotti's house-mate, Samuel Barber. This led to Schippers conducting the premiere performance of Menotti's short Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors, the first opera commissioned especially for television broadcast, on the NBC-TV network on December 24, 1951.
On April 9, 1952, he conducted Menotti's The Old Maid and the Thief at the New York City opera and remained on that company's conducting roster into 1954. He made his first appearances with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, La Scala in Milan, Italy, and at the Metropolitan Opera were in 1955. When Menotti organized his new Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds he chose Schippers as its music director.
He frequently guest conducted the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and made some classic recordings of music of Samuel Barber with them. When the orchestra made its historic tour of the Soviet Union under Leonard Bernstein in 1959, Schippers also went as its alternate conductor. It was he who was conducting at the Metropolitan Opera on March 4, 1960, when baritone Leonard Warren died on stage.
In 1962 he conducted the world premiere of the late Manuel de Falla's cantata Atlantida. In 1964 he made his first appearance conducting at the Bayreuth Festival. The Metropolitan Opera often called upon him to lead newer operas, including the world premiere of Barber's Antony and Cleopatra, which opened its new house in Lincoln Center.
In 1970 he accepted the position of Music Director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, becoming one of the few American-born conductors to hold such a post at a major American orchestra. He also became a faculty member at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1972.
His wife died of cancer in 1973. He was himself struck by lung cancer and unable to open the Cincinnati Orchestra's season in 1977. The management gave him the title of conductor laureate. He died before the year was over, and bequeathed the orchestra five million dollars.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
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Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde - Mendelssohn: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Op. 61 - Schubert: Symphony No. 8, D. 759 "Unfinished"
Richard Cassilly, Lili Chookasian, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, Walter Susskind
Klassiek - Released by Vox Box on 1 jan. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pavarotti – The Opera Collection 6: Puccini: La bohème (Live in Rome, 1969)
Luciano Pavarotti, Mirella Freni, Sesto Bruscantini, Nicola Ghiuselev, RAI Symphony Orchestra Rome, Thomas Schippers
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Amahl and the Night Visitors (Original Album 1953)
NBC Orchestra, Thomas Schippers
Pop - Released by Christmas Time on 1 jan. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jacques Offenbach: Les Contes D'Hoffmann
Orchester der Metropolitan Opera, Chor der Metropolitan Opera, Thomas Schippers
Klassiek - Released by Cantus Classics on 14 mei 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La Bohème (Intégrale)
Volledige opera's - Released by Myto Historical on 29 jan. 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas Schippers Edition, Vol, 10: Giuseppe Verdi: Macbeth; Spoleto 1958
Klassiek - Released by IMD MUSIC & WEB on 15 jan. 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas Schippers Edition, Vol. 7: Tommy & Shirley; Schippers & Verrett, Live 1962/1966 (Live)
Klassiek - Released by IMD MUSIC & WEB on 16 dec. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Donizetti: Don Pasquale
Thomas Schippers, Cesare Valletti, Fernando Corena
Opera - Released by Urania on 9 feb. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas Schippers Edition, Vol. 1. Symphonies, Concertos & Songs
Alternative en Indie - Released by IMD MUSIC & WEB on 2 aug. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Thomas Schippers Edition, Vol. 3; Thomas Schippers soloist & conductor
Alternative en Indie - Released by IMD MUSIC 6 WEB on 12 sep. 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Night Visitors
NBC Orchestra, Thomas Schippers
Pop - Released by Savoy Records on 1 okt. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'elisir d'Amore (L'elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love))
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Opera - Released by Unchained Melodie on 1 okt. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo