Famed conductor Carlo Maria Giulini dies

ROME — Carlo Maria Giulini, the 20th-century giant of conducting who considered himself a reverential servant of the great composers, has died at age 91.

Mr. Giulini died Tuesday in Brescia in northern Italy, son Alberto Maria Giulini said yesterday.

Mr. Giulini's last permanent post was music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, from 1978 until 1985, when he resigned to spend more time with his ailing wife. He also conducted at Milan's La Scala, the Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Symphony.

Mr. Giulini was a young friend of the master Arturo Toscanini, who was impressed by one of his performances at the podium. Mr. Giulini's career spanned from the golden age of conducting in the early decades of the 20th century to Italy's contemporary generation of maestros such as Riccardo Muti and Claudio Abbado.

In later years, Mr. Giulini stuck close to his home in Milan, conducting Europe's great orchestras but renouncing opera productions because of the long rehearsals.

Mr. Giulini's profound respect for the masters often produced an almost religious quality in his work.

In a newspaper interview for his 80th birthday, Mr. Giulini said: "I have to believe in every note, to feel myself immersed. If that doesn't happen, mere technique would take the field. The appropriation [of the music] must be rational and emotional, without ever forgetting that the conductor is a musician in the service of the geniuses of music. ... We are only interpreters."

"Giulini perceived the mystery of the art and spread it around with his refined technique and with the enthusiasm of an uncontaminated love for music," Italian state television RAI said yesterday in a tribute to the conductor on its evening news.

In the years just after World War II, Mr. Giulini conducted the RAI state broadcasting orchestras of Milan and Rome.

Mr. Giulini led the 1944 concert in Rome that celebrated the city's liberation by Allied forces. It was his conducting debut.

In his career, Mr. Giulini concentrated on Brahms, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner and Schubert. For opera he preferred Mozart, conducting little Puccini or Wagner.

Mr. Giulini worked with divas such as Maria Callas, in "La Traviata" in 1956, and leading directors such as Luchino Visconti and Franco Zeffirelli.

A number of Mr. Giulini's recordings, especially Verdi's "Requiem" and "Falstaff," are treasured by music buffs, and many Mozart-lovers consider his "Don Giovanni" the best ever. Critics also gave Mr. Giulini high praise for his sensitive accompanying on concerto recordings.

He recorded with major labels and won a Grammy in 1989.

Mr. Giulini's wife, Marcella, died in 1995. In addition to Alberto, an artist, they had two other sons: Francesco, who was his father's manager, and Stefano, a physician.

A private funeral will be held tomorrow in the town of Bolzano.