Claus Peter Flor
Conductor
One of the most admired international conductors of our time, Claus Peter Flor has earned critical acclaim for his definitive interpretations of works especially of the European classical and romantic era, but also for his uncompromising search of excellence in orchestral sound across all eras of music, in both opera and concert.
Among the orchestras conducted by Claus Peter Flor were the Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Bamberg Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Vienna’s Tonkünstler Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and Osaka Philharmonic. He entertains long-standing artistic partnerships with Phion, formerly Het Gelders Orkest and Orkest van het Oosten, with Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “La Verdi.”
A leading opera conductor of our time, Mr. Flor conducted productions of La Traviata, Lohengrin and Die Zauberflöte at Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Johannes Schaaf production of Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Hamburg State Opera, Madama Butterfly with Dame Gwyneth Jones at Bayerische Staatsoper, and the Joachim Herz production of Der Freischütz at Dresden’s Semperoper. With the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse and Opéra Toulouse, where he was permanent guest conmductor for twelve years, Claus Peter Flor conducted groundbreaking performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Die Walküre, of Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland, Meyerbeer’s Le Prophète, Mozart’s Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro and Così fan tutte, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Gounod’s Faust, and at Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg Wagner’s Siegfried, among other works.
From 2003 until 2008 Claus Peter Flor served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano “La Verdi”. From 2008 until 2014 he was the Chief Conductor of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, producing numerous award-winning recordings with the orchestra (with BIS Records).
From 1991 to 1994 Mr. Flor was Guest Conductor of Philharmonia London and, during the same period, Permanent Guest Conductor of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, while the orchestra was without chief conductor. From 1984 until 1992 Claus Peter Flor had served as Chief Conductor, as of 1985 also as Music Director for life of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (later renamed Konzerthaus Orchester), taking the orchestra on some of its first international tours to the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, the United States and France, among others. He was also one of the conductors for the inauguration concert of Berlin’s Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt in 1981. From 1981 until 1984, Claus Peter Flor had been Chief Conductor of Thüringer Philharmonie Suhl.
Claus Peter Flor is a leading advocate of ccontemporary music. He has conducted world premieres of works by Siegfried Matthus, Günther Kochan, Enjott Schneider (Double Concerto for Sheng, Percussion and Orchestra, Beijing 2015), Tom Johnson (Bonhoeffer-Oratorium, 1998 with DSO Berlin), Toshio Hosokawa (trumpet concerto Im Nebel, 2018), Rafael Kubelik (Libera Nos Oratorium, Lucerne Festival), Donnacha Dennehy (Violin Concerto, with Augustin Hadelich and the South Netherlands Philharmonic) and other works.
Numerous standard-setting recordings have been led by Claus Peter Flor, including the critically acclaimed recording of the Asrael Symphony by Josef Suk (with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, BIS Records), Ma Vlast and other works by Smetana and Dvořák with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (on BIS Records), the complete recording of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s orchestral works (on RCA), Pfitzner’s opera Das Christelflein (on cpo, featuring Marlis Petersen), and Bruch‘s Moses with the Bamberg Symphony (on Orfeo). The NDR Symphony He recorded all Beethoven piano concertos with Berlin’s Konzerthaus Orchestra and soloist Peter Rösel (Berlin Records), for SONY Classical he recorded Prokofiev‘s Romeo and Juliet, for RCA Records he conducted the recording of orchestral works by César Franck with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and a critically acclaimed Lyric Symphony by Alexander von Zemlinsky with the NDR Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra. A complete recording of all symphonies by Gustav Mahler with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano is under way (with IDAGIO).
Claus Peter Flor was born in Leipzig in 1953. After completing his studies of the violin and clarinet in Weimar und Leipzig, with his violin exam at Hochschule für Musik Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Leipzig, he studied conducting with Rolf Reuter and Kurt Masur, winning the national Mendelssohn Scholarship for his outstanding academic record. Rafael Kubelik and Kurt Sanderling later became important supporters in his conducting career.
