Christoph von Dohnányi, visionary conductor who elevated the Cleveland Orchestra to global prominence, dies at 95

Christoph von Dohnányi, whose transformative 18-year tenure as music director of the
Cleveland Orchestra redefined its international stature, died Saturday in Munich at age 95.
(Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

By Donald Rosenberg

Christoph von  Dohnányi the German conductor whose 18-year collaboration with the Cleveland Orchestra was widely considered one of the finest musical combinations of the 20th Century, died in Munich, Germany on Saturday. He was 95.

Dohnanyi served as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002, a period in which he recorded more than 100 works with the ensemble, making it the most-recorded American orchestra of the time. He was named the orchestra’s music director laureate in 2002. His concert programming was admired for its breadth of repertoire, spanning the late 18th century to recent and commissioned works.

The orchestra issued a statement late Sunday mourning Dohnanyi’s passing.

“Christoph von Dohnányi was a superb conductor and Music Director, respected the world over,” said orchestra President and CEO André Gremillet. “His storied family history gave him a unique musical perspective, and The Cleveland Orchestra was fortunate to have him in Cleveland for such a significant part of its history. Maestro Dohnányi’s artistry and dedication led to a deep mutual respect with our musicians, which was felt sincerely by our audiences who had an enormous appreciation for him. We send condolences to his family and friends, and to all he touched with his music in Cleveland and beyond,” d Orchestra."

During his tenure, Dohnanyi took the Cleveland Orchestra on more than a dozen international tours, performing in Europe and Asia, including the ensemble’s debut in the People’s Republic of China in 1998. In addition, he led the orchestra in numerous concerts throughout the United States. Performances by Dohnanyi and Cleveland at Carnegie Hall were considered highlights of New York’s musical life.

In the 1990s, Cleveland became the first American orchestra in decades to serve as a resident ensemble at the prestigious Salzburg Festival in Austria. Summer trips to Europe also included the Edinburgh and Lucerne festivals, as well as the festive BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

One of the great, if troubled, projects of Dohnanyi’s tenure was Wagner’s massive “Ring” cycle, which comprises four works. Originally, Dohnanyi and the orchestra were supposed to give concert performances of each opera at Severance Hall and then record it for Decca Records. Only the first two, “Das Rheingold” and “Die Walkuere,” were preserved before the collapse of the classical recording industry prompted the cancellation of the second half of the cycle.

Even so, Dohnanyi ended his tenure at Severance Hall in June 2002 with the third opera, “Siegfried,” which was not recorded. There was talk that he would return, as music director laureate, to lead the final opera, “Goetterdaemmerung,” in April 2005. But those performances were canceled, evidently due to budgetary concerns.

Christoph von Dohnanyi acknowledges the applause of the crowd during his last concert as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall Saturday night, June 1, 2002. Dohnanyi's served as music director of the orchestra for 18 years. (Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer)

Dohnanyi’s adventurous programming, allied to ultra-refined and precise orchestral skills, compelled Time magazine to dub the Cleveland Orchestra “the best band in the land” in 1994. While Dohnanyi’s performances were considered by some to be cool and correct, others found his artistry to be deeply probing and alive. No one questioned the lofty standards he maintained in Cleveland, which he viewed as the most satisfying achievement of his career.

“It’s been the main part of my musical life,” Dohnanyi said in 2002, not long before he stepped down as music director.

“I learned so much from this orchestra. This absolutely boosted my understanding of music and music-making. It was a very important time for me. It set standards. If you go to other places, you know what’s possible. Nobody can tell us it’s not possible if I’ve done it here.”

Ironically, the Berlin-born conductor was a long shot ever to become Cleveland’s boss.

The orchestra had been searching for a successor to music director Lorin Maazel for more than two years when Dohnanyi, then head of the Hamburg State Opera in Germany, arrived at Severance Hall in December 1981 to make his debut as a guest conductor.

The outstanding success of those concerts, which featured works by Bartok and Dvorak, largely won him the post. He was named music director-designate in March 1982 and took up his duties full time at Severance Hall in September 1984.

In addition to the “Ring” project, Dohnanyi led several other concert performances of major operas at Severance, including Beethoven’s “Fidelio” and Berg’s “Wozzeck.”

The wildly imaginative production at Blossom Music Center of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” that he not only conducted but also staged in August 1985 was greatly admired, though its cost was exorbitant. The following summer, he led a production of Lehar’s “The Merry Widow” in cooperation with Brussels’ Theatre de la Monnaie at Blossom with German soprano Anja Silja, then his wife, in the title role.

Dohnanyi eventually became disenchanted with Blossom, which he had wanted to transform into a genuine international arts festival. The Musical Arts Association, the orchestra’s governing body, balked at the idea, citing cost. Leonard Slatkin became Blossom Festival Director in 1990. Former resident conductor Jahja Ling held the post from 2000 until 2006, after which the position was eliminated

Dohnanyi had a major impact on Cleveland beyond music-making. He was the catalyst behind the $37 million renovation of Severance Hall, which began with the idea of restoring the Norton Memorial Organ and bringing it down from loft to stage level. The project included the upgrading and expansion of the 1931 building. New aspects of the hall, which reopened in January 2000, were designed by architect David M. Schwarz and acoustician Christopher Jaffe.

Upon his appointment in 1982, the essentially unknown Dohnanyi became a figure of enormous local interest, especially since he had grown up in Nazi Germany. He was born Sept. 8, 1929, in Berlin, the third child of Hans von Dohnanyi, a prominent jurist, and Christine Bonhoeffer, whose brother was the admired Protestant theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Dohnanyi’s father and uncle were part of the resistance movement that attempted to kill Adolf Hitler. For their part in those unsuccessful plots, they, along with several other family members, were arrested and sent to concentration camps during World War II. All of them were executed in different camps on April 9, 1945, weeks before Hitler committed suicide and the Germans surrendered.

Dohnanyi initially intended to do his part for justice in Germany by becoming a lawyer. But he had studied music seriously as a child in an extended family whose descendants had been closely associated with Brahms, Liszt and other 19th-century musical masters. Instead of law, Dohnanyi decided to pursue a career as a conductor.

After winning the Richard Strauss Prize of Munich, he spent a summer studying with his grandfather, the noted Hungarian composer, conductor and pianist Ernst von Dohnanyi, who had joined the faculty at Florida State University in Tallahassee.

On his return to Europe, he became an assistant to Georg Solti at the Frankfurt Opera. Dohnanyi held several posts in small German opera houses before serving as artistic and music director of the Frankfurt Opera from 1968 to 1978, when he left to head the Hamburg State Opera.

With his keen ear and fastidious attention to detail, Dohnanyi became a leading champion of 20th-century music, especially the composers of the Second Viennese School. But his repertoire was wide. He recorded all of the Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann symphonies and many of the Bruckner and Mahler symphonies with the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as works by composers ranging from Mozart to Birtwistle.

In 1997, Dohnanyi was engaged as principal conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, and he became chief conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg in 2004.

Dohnanyi returned to Northeast Ohio several times in the ensuing years as a guest conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, and was widely heralded by listeners and media alike. In 2014, a Plain Dealer reviewer said Dohnanyi “remains a powerful and beneficial influence, fully worthy of his specially created position.

His last appearance with the orchestra was in 2015. He had been scheduled to conduct in 2017, but withdrew upon the advice of his physician.

Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Cleveland Orchestra's music director laureate, made his final appearance with the orchestra in 2015. The Plain Dealer

Dohnanyi’s first two marriages — to German actress Renate Zillessen and soprano Silja — ended in divorce, a situation he attributed in part to his seriousness about his art.

“For whatever reason, I wasn’t so lucky being married,” he said in 2002. “My profession eats you up. In a way, it has to. The profession doesn’t really let you rest. Things grow on you. There are so many things to try to find out musically, and it never stops. Once you’re in it, you’re obsessed with it.”

But Dohnanyi finally found luck when he married Barbara Koller, his former assistant, in 2004. He remained close to his five children, all of whom survive him: Justus and Katja, from his marriage to Zillessen; and Julia, Benedikt and Olga, from his marriage to Silja. He is also survived by a brother, Klaus.

Zachary Lewis, a freelance writer and a former longtime classical music critic of The Plain Dealer, contributed to this report.

First published at cleveland.com, September 7, 2025