The storied German conductor, a survivor of three dictatorships, died in Berlin over the weekend, just short of the age of ninety-nine. The late Ernest Fleischmann once spoke to me about the overuse of the word "Maestro," and how very few living conductors deserved the reverential title. The one exception that he offered was Sanderling.
Update: William Grimes's New York Times obituary ends with some extraordinary words from Sanderling about the Shostakovich Fifteenth Symphony. I treasure a recording he made of the Fifteenth with the Cleveland Orchestra, for Erato — lugubriously slow at times, but haunting no end.
