Maestro George Wolfgang Cleve, whom poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti called
“one of the great Mozart interpreters of our time and place,” died from liver failure
in his home in Berkeley on Thursday, surrounded by his family. He was 79 years
old. He was born on July 9, 1936 in Vienna, Austria. The family, being Jewish, was
forced to flee Nazi Europe and arrived in New York in 1940.
Cleve, who was Music Director of the San Jose Symphony from 1972 to
1992 and guest conductor of Symphony Silicon Valley from 2001 to 2014, is
probably best remembered as Music Director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival,
which he founded in 1972.
He also conducted other top orchestras in North America and Europe in
performances of Mozart’s music. In 2011, he led a triumphant run of the opera
Idomeneo, a co-production with Opera San José and the Packard Humanities
Institute, which received international critical acclaim.
Other Mozart operas that blossomed under his baton included Die
Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro, Così Fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, and
Die Zauberflöte. In addition, he conducted Mozart’s Requiem as the grand finale of
the International Festival Mozartiana in Moscow and Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony
with the National Philharmonic of Russia.
Maestro Cleve also conducted a wide range of operas by other composers,
including Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Verdi’s Don Carlo, La Traviata, and Rigoletto,
Puccini’s La bohème and Madama Butterfly, Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana;
Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci; and Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex. He made his debut at the
San Francisco Opera with Bizet’s Carmen and also conducted a concert version of
Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice with the Boston Symphony.
Sought after as a guest conductor, Cleve led the Singapore Symphony, the
ABC Symphonies of Australia, the New Zealand Symphony, the Mozarteum
Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic,
the Philharmonia Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Swedish Radio
Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande,
the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Berlin, the Russian National Orchestra, the
Budapest Festival Orchestra, and the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela.
In the USA and Canada, Cleve appeared with the New York Philharmonic,
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh
Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Winnipeg Symphony,
and Montreal Symphony. He also performed at New York’s Mostly Mozart Festival
and at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony, and was a frequent guest
conductor with the New York City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet.
Maestro Cleve was awarded the rank of Officier in the Order of Arts and
Letters of the Republic of France in recognition of his performance of French
music. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University
of Santa Clara, the Gold Medal of Honor of Austria, and the Silver Medal from
the city of his birth, Vienna, Austria, for his role in founding the Midsummer
Mozart Festival.
Cleve is survived by his wife of 29 years, flutist Maria Tamburrino, his son
Jeremiah Wiggins, granddaughter Isabella Miranda Wiggins, and his beloved cats,
Winston and Alfie.
A private funeral service was held at Sunset View Cemetery in El Cerrito.
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