Rudolf Kempe was associated with the Royal Philharmonic (RPO) from 1955. In 1960 he was selected personally by Sir Thomas Beecham to be his successor with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, a position he held until 1975. Concurrently he was Music Director of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich and the Munich Philharmoniker. In 1975 Rudolf Kempe, one of the most admired artists, was appointed the Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
A member of the RPO later said of Kempe, “He was a wonderful controller of the orchestra, and a very great accompanist … Kempe was like someone driving a racing-car, following the piano round the bends.” Kempe abolished Beecham’s male-only rule, introducing women into the RPO: an orchestra without them, he said, “always reminds me of the army”. In 1970, the RPO named him Conductor for Life, but in 1975, he resigned his post with the orchestra and died the following year, aged 65. His distinguished career in both the opera house and concert hall led to the first quadraphonic Beethoven cycle with the Munich Philharmonic for EMI in the mid ’70s.
