Rafael Kubelik

The sixth of eight children of the internationally famous violinist Jan Kubelík, Rafael Kubelík was born in Bychory, near Prague. He studied violin with his father, and piano, composition and conducting at the Prague Conservatory. At his graduation concert on 23 June 1933, he performed his own Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra and conducted Dvořák’s concert overture Othello. At the age of nineteen, Kubelík made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra on 16 February 1934, accompanying his father in the latter’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor and Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, as well as conducting Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’.

Kubelík was also an accomplished pianist, joining his father as his accompanist on a tour of the United States in 1935. While a teenager, Kubelík had learned much of the symphonic repertoire performing four-hand piano duet versions with his uncle Frantisek, the brother of his father Jan. Kubelík was still performing as a pianist later in his career, including performances of J.S. Bach’s Concertos for 3 and 4 harpsichords in Munich, and as accompanist to Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in a Mahler recital. During 1937-1938 he toured Britain with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and guest conducted in the United States. From 1939 he was chief conductor of the Brno Opera but the Nazis terminated the company in 1941. At this time he was appointed chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra but his opposition to the Nazi regime caused difficulties, resulting in Kubelík having to go into hiding for a short period. After the War, he helped found the Prague Spring Festival but left Czechoslovakia after the Communist takeover in 1948. That year, while on a visit to Glyndebourne, both he and his wife surrendered their passports to the Home Office in London.

Kubelík declined various invitations to return to Czechoslovakia, insisting that his openly expressed demands for the release of all political prisoners and the freedom to travel of all citizens, be met first. He eventually returned to his native country but not until 1990. Although offered the post of conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra to succeed Sir Adrian Boult in 1950, Kubelík decided to accept the offer of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra where he stayed only until 1953 as problems arose due to his programming of many contemporary works and the resulting attacks by critics. He then worked at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden during the late 1950s. In 1961 he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position he retained until 1979, continuing as guest conductor until his retirement from full-time conducting in 1985.

Kubelík worked with all the great orchestras of the world, and he recorded for numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, EMI, Sony and Wergo, with a vast output both live and in the studio, of music ranging from the Baroque era to the 20th century. It includes the complete Dvořák Symphonies and Symphonic Poems with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, hailed by the Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music as ‘among the finest ever recorded’, and his benchmark recording of Smetana’s Má Vlast with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Other symphonic cycles from the classical and romantic eras include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann, the latter recorded by Sony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. His years with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra produced many concerts and recordings by which he is also fondly remembered. They include a highly regarded cycle of all the Mahler symphonies made between 1967 and 1971 for Deutsche Grammophon. 

Aside from conducting, Kubelík was a composer of a substantial body of music, including symphonies, concertos, choral works (among which three requiems and a Stabat Mater, which was premièred in Cologne in 1968), songs and chamber works. He also composed a number of operas including Veronika, which was staged at the National Theatre, Brno, in 1947. There are many recordings of Kubelík's compositions, including the 1967 Deutsche Grammophon recording of Quattro forme per archi with the English Chamber Orchestra (originally released in 1969, it was re-released in 2018), and the Exton recording of his Trio Concertante performed by the Kubelík Trio, released in 2016.

Throughout his life, Kubelík received many notable awards, honorary memberships, honorary doctorates, and knighthoods including, in 1996, the Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire. In 1996 he was also awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society's Beethoven Gold Medal (Kubelík's father Jan also received the award in 1902).
© 2018 FHR