Erich Leinsdorf

Erich Leinsdorf was born in Vienna in February 1912 and studied piano, composition and conducting at the University of Vienna and the Vienna State Academy. His pianistic training was foundational rather than performance-focused: he made his early professional career as Bruno Walter’s and Arturo Toscanini’s coaching and rehearsal pianist at the Salzburg Festival in the mid-1930s, where his command of the keyboard reduction was central to his apprenticeship in operatic interpretation.

Across his subsequent career as one of the leading American conductors of the post-war era — at the Metropolitan Opera, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra (which he led from 1962 to 1969), the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera — his pianism remained present but largely behind the scenes. He continued to coach opera singers from the keyboard, made occasional recital appearances as a partner in chamber music, and worked from the piano in many of his rehearsal and educational settings. His writing on conducting — particularly *The Composer’s Advocate* (1981) — drew on a keyboard-rooted understanding of operatic and orchestral score-reading.

Leinsdorf died in Zurich in September 1993. Music Preserved’s archive includes a selection of his work as pianist alongside the substantial conductor entries in the archive.