Eliahu Inbal

Eliahu Inbal, conductor

In Inbal, one can trace the clear traits of role models and teachers such as Franco Ferrara and Sergiu Celibidache; he possesses the strength for tranquillity and the sense to create unbridled passion and dramatic effect. (Die Welt)

Since winning first prize in the Cantelli Conducting Competition at the age of 26, Eliahu Inbal has enjoyed a career of international renown, conducting leading orchestras around the world. Over the years, he has been appointed principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester), Teatro La Fenice in Venice, RAI National Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Czech Philharmonic and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, who named him Conductor Laureate in 2014. From August 2019 on, Eliahu Inbal serves as Principal Conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra.

During his tenure with the hr-Sinfonieorchester (1974-1990), where he is still honorary conductor, Eliahu Inbal distinguished himself with his outstanding musicianship. Based in Berlin, the charismatic Israeli conductor has garnered international acclaim for his interpretations of Mahler and Bruckner on a number of award-winning recordings (Deutscher Schallplattenpreis,Grand Prix du Disque), and was the first to record the original versions of Bruckner’s symphonies. He has received special recognition particularly for his interpretations of Dmitri Shostakovich’s symphonies.

After making his extremely successful debut in St. Petersburg in April 2019, he embarked on an extensive summer tour of Japan with the Konzerthausorchester Berin, which he also conducts through Bruckner’s 8th Symphony at the beginning of the new season in Berlin and at the International Bruckner Festival in Linz. In October 2019, Eliahu Inbal will give his first concert in his role as Principal Conductor in Taipei with Mahler’s 8th Symphony, which will mark the beginning of a new Mahler Cycle. In Tokyo, where he has just been awarded a prize for his services to the Japanese musical world, he is set to perform three Shostakovich programmes in November. In early 2020 he will return to Milan's Scala with performances of Bruckner's 5th Symphony, followed by engagements in Beijing, Guangzhou, Monte Carlo, at the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias and with the SWR Symphony Orchestra, whose first Spanish tour he conducted last season.

His operatic engagements have taken him to opera houses in Paris, Glyndebourne, Munich, Stuttgart, Zurich, and Madrid, among others. He celebrated the 2013 Wagner anniversary year with highly acclaimed performances of Tristan and Isolde at the Festival de Opera de A Coruña and Parsifal at the Vlaamse Opera (International Opera Award 2014). Eliahu Inbal has also been awarded the national Italian critic’s prize Abbiati and Viotti for his exceptional interpretations of Wagner’s Ring with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.

Eliahu Inbal’s extensive discography includes the complete symphonic works of Berlioz, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, Ravel, Schumann, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Richard Strauss, and the Second Viennese School. He has recorded these works with the hr-Sinfonieorchester as well as with the Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre National de France, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the Czech Philharmonic. His performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 10 (completed version by D. Cooke), part of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Mahler cycle, was also released on DVD.

Born in Israel, Eliahu Inbal studied violin and composition at the Jerusalem Music Academy before completing his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris on the recommendation of Leonard Bernstein. His teachers there included Louis Fourestier, Olivier Messiaen, and Nadia Boulanger. He was also greatly influenced by Franco Ferrara in Hilversum (Netherlands) and Sergiu Celibidache in Siena (Italy). In 1990, the French government named Eliahu Inbal an officer of the Order of Arts and Letters. In February 2001 he was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit from the city of Vienna. He received the Goethe Badge of Honour from the City of Frankfurt and the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 2006.

2019/20 season

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This work [...] sounded incredibly cohesive under Inbal´s direction. Like a revolution via musical notes. A colourful yet still urgent music. Art that might possibly help -- if only to merely survive. Conductor and orchestra interpreted Shostakovich with thrilling intensity and the highest ability. "
Badische Zeitung, Johannes Adam, 14.11.18

This is no wildly gesticulating maestro, but rather a man who, with a precise baton technique, lets the great late-Romantic storms break loose while always remaining firmly in control. The remarkable thing is that Inbal’s approach still leaves a great deal of room for Bruckner's enigmatic mysticism.
NRZ Düsseldorf, Michael-Georg Müller, 08.05.17