Kurt Masur

Kurt Masur is one of the great European conductors of our time, having celebrated 60 years as a maestro. For 26 years he was Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, following in the footsteps not only of Wilhelm Furtwangler and Bruno Walter but of Felix Mendelssohn himself, who was in charge of the orchestra for twelve years until his death in 1847.

From 1991 to 2002 he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic; following his eleven-year tenure he was named Music Director Emeritus, becoming the first New York Philharmonic music director to receive that title. In September 2002, Mr. Masur became Music Director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris, with whom he holds the title of Honorary Music Director for Life. From 2000 to 2007 he was Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic, and he has been professor at the Leipzig Academy of Music since 1975.

That direct lineage back to Mendelssohn makes him the ideal guide to this course: working through the first two movements of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 4 in A Major, the "Italian", Masur shares the conducting insight and interpretive understanding behind one of the best-loved symphonies in the repertoire.