In the 25 years since his early death in 1976, aged 66, the reputation of the German conductor Rudolf Kempe has remained at the highest level, especially through the series of orchestral recordings of music by Richard Strauss, made for EMI with the Staatskapelle Dresden in the years 1970-75. These interpretations remain the bench-mark for all subsequent recordings. Born near Dresden in June 1910, Kempe studied the oboe and at the age of 19 was named first oboe of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In 1933 he became a répétiteur at the Leipzig Opera and made his conducting debut three years later. After war service, he was named Chief Conductor of the Chemnita Opera (1945-48), moving to the Weimar National Theatre (1948) and then to the Staatsoper Dresden (1949-52). Between 1952-54 he was at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. It was with the later company that he made his auspicious debut at Covent Garden where in the following years he was a highly respected visitor. Kempe first conducted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York in 1954 and between 196-63 conducted the annual cycles of Wagner¹s Ring at the Bayreuth Festival. 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 Zürich, Switzerland and the Munich Philharmoniker. In 1975 he was appointed the Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The first of Kempe¹s many recordings for EMI was in 1955 and these include Smetana¹s The bartered bride, Richard Strauss¹s Ariadne auf Naxos, Wagner¹s Lohengrin and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg plus the Beethoven and Brahms symphonies. He died in Zurich, Switzerland in May 1976.