Obituary: NZSO Conductor Laureate Franz-Paul Decker is remembered
Maestro Franz-Paul Decker
June 22, 1923 – May 19, 2014
Maestro Franz-Paul Decker was a conductor of international reputation who was appointed the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra’s first Conductor
Laureate in 1995.
This unique honour recognised his 40-year association as Guest Conductor, Principal Conductor, and Chief Conductor of
the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and his significant influence on orchestral performance in New Zealand.
Franz-Paul Decker had a “love affair” with the NZSO since he first conducted it in 1966, when he was “very positively
surprised [by its] highly professional musicians. It is the longest relationship I have had with any orchestra in the
world”. Bravo! The NZSO at 50, Joy Tonks.
Under his baton, the NZSO scaled new heights, most notably in works by Richard Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner and Wagner, and
he gave several outstanding first performances, in keeping with his aim to extend the NZSO’s repertoire. These included
Bruckner’s Ninth (1976), Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony (1987) and Schoenberg’s Pelleas and Melisande (1990).
NZSO Chief Executive Christopher Blake says: “Maestro Franz-Paul Decker is much loved by the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra family. His insatiable musical appetite, since he first took up his post as Principal Guest Conductor in 1984,
will continue to impact the musical life of the NZSO for many years to come.”
Born in Cologne, where he made his conducting debut at 22 with the Cologne Opera, Franz-Paul Decker has conducted some
of the world’s finest orchestras, dividing his time between Cologne, Barcelona, Ottawa, Montreal and New Zealand.
In 1990, following four years as Chief Conductor of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona, he took up the post of NZSO Chief
Conductor. Two years later he conducted the Orchestra with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa in an outstandingly successful concert to
celebrate New Zealand Day at Teatro de la Maestranza, part of the 1992 Seville Expo.
In 1989, his NZSO performance of Wagner’s Die Walküre (Act III) was declared a “stand-out” by Radio New Zealand as was the highly successful 1997 Das Rheingold premiere concert performances in Auckland, Wellington andChristchurch.
NZSO TIMELINE:
• 1984 - Franz-Paul Decker is appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra for a two-year
term, later extended to 1989.
• 1990-1994 - NZSO Chief Conductor.
• June 1992 – NZSO’s third tour to Seville with assistance from the NZ Lotteries Commission and Expo ’92 organisers.
Concert at Teatro de la Maestranza, conductor Franz-Paul Decker, soloists Kiri Te Kanawa. Also outdoor concert in the
Plaza de San Francisco.
• In 1995, Franz-Paul Decker is appointed the NZSO’s first Conductor Laureate.
Former NZSO violinist Robin Perks remembers the impression made by Decker on his first visit as “awe inspiring. He was
more demanding in those days. He required string players to play desk by desk a difficult passage and this really
frightened many of us, but the results in concerts were probably the best achieved to this point.” Bravo! The NZSO at 50, Joy Tonks.
Biography:
Franz-Paul Decker studied composition and conducting at the Cologne Hochschule for Musik while pursuing parallel studies
in musicology, ethnology, and psychology at Cologne University.
At 26, he was appointed to the Staatsoper, Wiesbaden, where he directed performances of major operas from the German,
French, Italian, and British repertoires. He became director of the Wiesbaden Symphony Orchestra three years later and
General musikdirector in Bochum (he conducted the opening concert at the 1957 Brussels World Fair with the Bochum
Symphony Orchestra). In 1962 he became Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
As the result of his European tours with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Dr Decker was engaged by many of Europe’s finest
orchestras, including the major London orchestras, the Vienna Symphony, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, the
Leningrad Philharmonic, the Moscow State Orchestra, the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, Berlin, the Berlin Philharmonic, the
French National Radio Orchestra, and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
This recognition led to his North American debut in 1966, when he succeeded Zubin Mehta as Music Director of the
Montreal Symphony Orchestra, a position he held for nine years. During this time he consolidated his reputation as an
authoritative interpreter of the music of Mahler, Bruckner, Richard Strauss, and Wagner.
Dr Decker undertook many operatic engagements, including productions of Tristan und Isolde, with the great Canadian heldentenor Jon Vickers in Chicago, Dallas, Montreal, Rio de Janiero and Barcelona. He has
conducted 85 different operas during his distinguished career including Parsifal, Ariadne auf Naxos, and The Flying Dutchman in Buenos Aires, where he also undertook a three-year complete Mahler cycle.
In 1986, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona.
Franz-Paul Decker died at the age of 90.
ENDS