From hiding in a tunnel to the world's most prestigious podiums

Music · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Carlo Maria Giulini was a master of grand opera and symphony, yet his path to the podium was forged in the shadows of war. A pacifist who refused to fire a weapon, he spent nine months in hiding before emerging to become one of the most celebrated conductors of the century.

Born in Barletta in 1914, Carlo Maria Giulini began his musical life as a violist. While performing with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, he gained a front-row education by observing legendary conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler, Otto Klemperer, and Bruno Walter. These formative years provided a deep understanding of orchestral texture that would later define his own baton technique.

Giulini’s career was interrupted by the Second World War. A committed pacifist, he refused to fight for the Fascist regime and eventually went into hiding in a tunnel beneath a private home for nine months to avoid Nazi arrest. Following the liberation of Rome in 1944, his lack of association with the Fascist government made him a natural choice to lead the Accademia’s first post-Fascist concert. He chose Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 for the occasion, a piece he had studied while in hiding and one that would become a cornerstone of his repertoire, receiving 180 performances throughout his career.

After the war, his rise was rapid. He founded the Milan Radio Orchestra in 1950 and soon succeeded Victor de Sabata as principal conductor at La Scala. There, he collaborated with figures like Maria Callas and Franco Zeffirelli, cementing his reputation in Italian opera. By 1967, he shifted his focus primarily to symphonic music, holding major posts with the London Philharmonia, the Vienna Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Known for a Romantic style, Giulini avoided modern works in favor of Verdi, Mozart, Mahler, and Bruckner, leaving behind a legacy defined by profound musical sensitivity.

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