Lorin Maazel, conductor and composer, dies aged 84 — theguardian.com

Lorin Maazel, one of the most high-achieving and highly paid orchestral conductors of the past half-century, died on Sunday at his home in Virginia in the United States, after suffering complications from pneumonia. He was 84. Maazel was music director of a gallery of top orchestras in Europe and the United States – including Cleveland, Paris and Munich – for more than 40 years, and had been chief conductor of opera houses in West Berlin and Vienna too. His last major post was as music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 2001- 2009, during which he led the orchestra on a controversial and ground breaking visit to Pyongyang, North Korea.

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