World-renowned conductor dead at 78
International award-winning conductor and composer Gary Bertini, one of Israel’s most famous musicians, passes away at age 78
Award-winning Israeli conductor Gary Bertini, who has received worldwide recognition, died on Thursday at age 78.
Bertini was born in Russia and lived most of his life in Israel. He is considered by many to be one of the most important musicians and conductors in Israel and received worldwide recognition.
He spent his earlier years in Milan and Paris, where he studied orchestration, musicology and composing. He then made his home in Israel and began a long and successful career in music.
A wide range of talents
Between 1987 and 1997, Bertini worked for the New Israeli Opera Company, first as an artistic adviser and then as a music adviser. He also served as the musical director of the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra for many years.
He was a conductor, a composer and a music professor at Tel Aviv University.
He founded many music organizations, including the Rinat Choir in 1965 and the Israeli Cameri Ensemble - known today as the Israeli Cameri Orchestra.
Bertini also served as a music director and artistic manager at the Israel Festival.
He managed and conducted many different orchestras around the world, mainly the Detroit Symphonic Orchestra in the United States and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra in Germany. He also served as general manager of the Frankfurt Opera.
Bertini conducted leading ensembles around the world regularly, as well as famous opera houses such as those in La Scalla, Munich, Hamburg and Paris.
In his final years, he served as a musical director of the Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra in Tokyo.
During his long career, Bertini conducted many premieres of many important composers of our time.
On September 17, 2001, days after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, he conducted the German Symphonic Orchestra in Berlin, who performed Mozart’s “Requiem” in honor and memory of the victims of the disaster.
The concert was broadcast all over Europe.
His repertoire ranges from the Renaissance until today’s contemporary music and includes symphonies by many important Israeli and European composers, such as Darius Milhaud, Mauricio Kagel, Gyorgy Ligeti, Luigi Dalapiccola and Mordechai Setter.
Bertini won numerous awards such as Italy’s “Franco Abbiati Prize” for “best conductor of the year” and an award for “best production” from France’s music critics association for his conduction of Benjamin Britten’s opera “Billy Budd” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “War and Peace.”
In 1978, he was the recipient of the “Israel Prize”, the most highly regarded award in the Jewish state.
'The Israeli Leonard Bernstein'
Yaacov Mishori, presenter of a classical music show on Army Radio, said Bertini “was not only a conductor, but also a talented composer who wrote many pieces.”
“I played for him for many years at the Israeli Broadcasting Authority Orchesta and the Philharmonic Orchestra, and to me he was the Israeli Leonard Bernstein,” Mishori said, adding that Bertini made a “great impression” at the Philharmonic Orchestra when he was merely 28 years old.
“I remember I listed to him for three years in 1958, when he conducted (Franz) Schubert, and it was wonderful," Mishori said. "He also never missed an opportunity to conduct Israeli symphonies and given them much respect. Musicians are sometimes unconfident when playing under a composer, but when he went on that stand, we knew there was nothing to fear – and that we’d always know how to follow his lead.”
“He was meticulous on stage and wanted the music to be respected," Mishori said. "But backstage, he was such a nice man with a sense of humor."
