The music world is reeling at the shock announcement that Stefan Soltesz died on Friday night at the age of 73. Considered by many to be the final custodian of the Kapellmeister tradition, Soltesz collapsed on the podium during a performance of Die Schweigsame Frau at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. The renowned Austrian conductor was immediately taken to hospital, however the company’s Director of Communications Michael Wuerges announced his passing a few hours later.

Stefan Soltesz © Jonas Holthaus

A versatile conductor, Soltesz was as much at home with the music of Verdi as he was with Mozart, Reimann or Wagner. This writer had the privilege of witnessing the authority with which Soltesz conducted Antony McDonald’s production of Lohengrin in 2014 and Mariusz Treliński’s staging of Tristan und Isolde in 2016 at the Polish National Opera.

Born in the north-eastern Hungarian city of Nyíregyháza in 1949, Soltesz moved to Austria as a child. He joined the Vienna Boys’ Choir before studying at the Vienna Academy of Music under Hans Swarowsky, whose other students included Claudio Abbado and Zubin Mehta. Through his tutelage under Swarowsky, a direct line can be drawn...