FRANZ WELSER-MÖST UNOFFICIAL WEBSITE
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Il curatore di questo sito (laureto@rodoni.ch) ringrazia vivamente la rivista Northern Ohio Live, l'editore Kathryn DeLong e l'autore dell'articolo Charles Yannopoulos per il cortese permesso di pubblicazione.


When Franz Welser-Möst conducts Haydn's oratorio The Creation this month at Severance Hall, a new era will begin for the Cleveland Orchestra. At 42, he's three decades younger than Christoph von Dohnányi, who was at the helm for 18 years. Dohnányi's world-view was shaped by the tumult of World War II. By contrast, Welser-Möst led a relatively sheltered life in his native Austria, but that placid existence was suddenly changed by a serious car accident when he was 18.
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I all of a sudden had to realize that you cannot take life or anything life offers you for granted,» he said in a phone interview from his home in Zurich. He took away from that experience a profound belief in holding on to one's naiveté. «It might sound a little funny and strange,» he admits, «but I hope I can keep that until my dying breath – that I still can be stunned by things, that I can wonder about things. That is what I mean by naiveté. To be like a child; to enjoy things like a child. That is what, for me, life is about.»
Once an aspiring violinist, he had taken an interest in conducting even before the accident, which left him with three broken vertebrae, damaged disks and two numb fingers on his left hand. Afterward, it was clear what his career path would be. While in school, he conducted the Austrian Youth Orchestra, then went on to his first professional symphonic posts in Norrköping, Sweden, and Winterthur, Switzerland. A year later, in 1986, the London Philharmonic called – first to invite him to fill in for an ailing conductor and then, ultimately, to take the position on a permanent basis.
Much has been written about his stormy tenure in London, where he had conflicts with both the administration and the musicians. He was only 30 when he became music director (32 when he first conducted the Cleveland Orchestra). He's never shied away from talking about the problems he faced in London. «
Every crisis and problem is an opportunity, and those London years of mine were probably the most valuable and most important in my life, because I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. Nonetheless, I had to learn them.
«That is not a time I would like to have missed. People say, 'Oh my God, you know he had a difficult time.' I don't think so. I think of it as a time that was important to me.
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Still, the situation got so bad he was ready to quit. «There was a time in February of '94 when I told them that I would leave, and I thought maybe I would stop conducting altogether. I was upset at that time, and things were not working the way I wanted them. Looking back, it was the right way to end. Two months later, I was asked to become music director of the Zurich Opera.»
He's been in Zurich since 1995 and has been universally praised. «That was the best decision – careerwise or professionally – that I ever took in my life, so far. So, having done so much in the symphonic world, I went into opera and buried myself in the pit. And that was the wisest and best idea I took in my career.»
His next career move, of course, is to Cleveland. He's already had a substantial say in the programming for the 2002-03 season.
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I take great pleasure in making programs,» he says. «We have a great team at the orchestra with Tom Morris [Thomas W. Morris, executive director of the orchestra] and Peter [Czornyj, artistic administrator]. It's almost like a hobby. I have to say that we throw ideas at each other. We live in a time when we are fortunate in the variety we can do. There are different questions you must watch: the needs and expectations of the audience; the question of what the orchestra needs. Then there is the question of what I like, and a mix of all that makes a good program.»
An example would be the May 15 program, when he'll start with the Rossini String Sonata no. 3, then go to Richard Strauss' Burleske and close with Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (the Pathétique). The first two pieces are from early in their respective composers' careers, while the symphony is the last thing Tchaikovsky wrote.
This was by design. «
Either you show one side of one thing, or you try to get opponents of something. Rossini and Strauss, with that lighthearted spirit early in the career – and then, on the other side, you show the end of the career, when it goes in a different way.»
Cleveland audiences will get a healthy dose of contemporary fare as well, thanks to Welser-Möst's belief in maintaining a sense of childlike wonder. «
When you have that as a basic philosophy in life – to wonder about things – then of course you are curious, and you look out for what is new, what is out there. And also the approach you have to all things, what does it mean for us today? That massive passion of Beethoven Five or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring – these masterpieces mean something today. Otherwise, we would not play them anymore. But it is also important to say, OK, who are the really interesting young composers today?»
One of those young composers is HK Gruber (a descendant of Franz Xaver Gruber, the composer of the well-known Christmas carol Silent Night). The younger Gruber will be on hand October 3-6, when the orchestra plays Frankenstein!!, his darkly witty take on pop culture figures.
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The piece is 25 years old, and it is one of the most-heard contemporary pieces by a living composer in the entire world,» says Welser-Möst. «It has received more than a thousand performances, and it sort of breaks down barriers between classical and pop music somehow. It is a deeply sincere and serious piece. Gruber is in the tradition of Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, which means his music is very politically charged in many ways. He is a politically very observant and critical man.»
Welser-Möst also considers himself a politically observant and critical man. «
Simply,» he says, «because I cannot help it. I grew up in a very political environment. My mother was a member of the Austrian Parliament for 10 years. And when you are 12 years old, you talk about what your mother is doing, and so I think I am somebody that walks through his life and through this world, hopefully, with open eyes. An open mind and open eyes, and with a desire to watch and observe what is going on. And that is what I try to do, as I said, with contemporary music. Nevertheless, I am also 100 percent sure that I miss a lot.»
His world-view was shaken by the events of September 11. «
I always describe myself as a hopelessly optimistic guy who tries to see the positive side in this world, and of course a terrible event like September 11 challenges that view enormously. All of a sudden, everything has a question mark, and it is not easy to get back to saying – No! Not everything is bad in this world. There is a lot of good out there; it is just that you have to find it.»
He returned to Cleveland last October and attended a concert commemorating the tragedy, given by the orchestra members. «
I took a little part in it, and I listened to most of it,» he says. «It was a very moving experience. I've always said that music and culture – the arts – is about communication, and that it is even more so in a situation like the one we find ourselves in today.»
He believes that making music in times of crisis is as important as silence and personal reflection.
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You come down to the philosophical question: Does everybody live on his own island, or does everybody live with other people? I believe in the second one. I believe togetherness is what life is all about.»

What had been planned as a 15-minute interview turned into an hourlong conversation that ranged from the Beatles to Beethoven.

Q. What sort of music did you listen to as a teenager?
A. Sorry, I listened mainly to classical music. It is funny. Right from the beginning, from my early years (though I did not grow up in a musician's family), music was the thing that interested me. My brothers and sisters were interested in other kinds of music, so I did hear some pop music and rock. Because I mainly listen to classical music does not mean that I do not have interest in other music. Gruber himself [laughs], you know what he did a few years ago? He gave me several CDs with Beatles music.

Q. What did you think of the music?
A. I loved it. Gruber said, «You have to hear this; it is an important part of our culture.« So you know, I listened to it, and I liked it.

Q. I loved your recording of the symphony by Erich Wolfgang Korngold with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Some people look down on him, because he also wrote film scores in Hollywood.
A. I had a fantastic teacher between the ages of 14 and 19, and we would play in the school orchestra, which he conducted. When we would play – let's call it light music – we students would make jokes about it. When you are 16, you think you know everything. And he said, «As long as you cannot write one single measure of that, shut up.« That has stayed with me until this very day.

Q. What are your reading interests? Also, do you go to movies and the theater?
A. I like movies, but only when I am in America. It is a different culture, and I enjoy it there. Here, in Europe, I prefer to go to plays. Reading: I have wide interests. Right now, I am reading three books – entirely different from one another, all interesting. One is about Gustav Mahler and the anti-Semitism in Austria since he died. The author shows this with the example of Mahler, because his music w,as rediscovered in the mid-'60s in Austria. The Vienna Philharmonic hated that music, and they had to play it with Leonard Bernstein! It is a new book. Very interesting. I'm also reading a rather esoteric book by an Egyptian Catholic monk, and I am reading also Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.

Q. What do think of the musicologists who complete unfinished works? We had the realization of the first movement of Beethoven's «Tenth Symphony« several years back and also a completion of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony. Do you agree with the idea that investigations like that should take place?
A. If you complete them, they are incomplete. What I mean by that is, when you interpret a piece like Beethoven's Fifth or any masterpiece, you are never going to complete it, because it is a work by a genius. And as a reproducing artist like me, I'm not a genius. I can just try to get as close as possible to the masterpiece, which will always remain an enigma. I think that is why we play them over and over again. To attempt to complete an unfinished work by such a master – you're not going to make it, sorry!

Q. What do you think of music education? Will that be a priority for you?
A. Yes, definitely. Education in some sense only means exposing someone to something. That is all it is. We should not forget that not everyone will like classical music, and that is OK. Classical music has always been appreciated by a small percentage of the population, and this will remain so. That is not a problem, I think, as long as we have a solid minority. But at least children should get exposed to it, and that is where the failure is. Also, when we talk about jobs today and the fact that people must be creative in any job they undertake – well, creativity is mainly stimulated by artistic programs for children and not by counting two plus two and getting four. This has its place, too, but it is not creative.

Q. Does this mean that in your children's concerts, you would want to expose them to complete works like the Mozart G minor symphony, and not bits and pieces of this and that?
A. You see, what I think is, don't underestimate your audience – and the younger it is, the less you should underestimate them. And also, give them the best possible, because quality is something that people get addicted to. I know this from my own experience. We all like to get spoiled, right? If you have drunk a wonderful wine, you don't just go back and forget about it and say OK, so what? You will try to get it again the next time. Or, if you have worn cashmere, you are not going back to rough stuff again. So if you have been exposed to great quality – even if you are four years old or nine years old, whatever – you might forget about it when you are 16 or 17, but when you get older, the chances are great that it will come back to you and that you will look for it. And especially with an orchestra like the Cleveland, give them the quality.

Q. When you go on stage, are you nervous?
A. Sometimes. But not because of the people out there, but because of the piece I am about to conduct.

Q. Which pieces are the most stressful?
A. It changes, you know.

Q. I remember reading an interview with Herbert von Karajan [music director of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1955-1989] in which he said that the Sibelius Fourth Symphony, which I think you have programmed this year, was a very draining piece. I was wondering: Do you have the same experience?
A. It's not an uplifting piece [laughs]. You see, I think if you take music really seriously and try not to be superficial and try to get to the bottom of something, then of course the Sibelius Fourth is a draining piece. I remember my program in Cleveland, which started with Kurtág, moved on to Bach and closed with the Shostakovich 14th Symphony. There was this joke in the management, which went like this: «And after that, we hand out ropes for people to commit suicide.« I mean, it's a little joke we made, but nevertheless there is a core of truth to it. If you take it seriously, after the Shostakovich 14th Symphony, you are depressed – it is the meaning of the piece!

Q. So in that respect, it is like your experience in London – not something to be shied away from, but rather something that should be confronted.
A. Yes. I think everyone would agree with me, I hope, that life is so full of expression and impressions, and why say, «It is only this expression I want, and nothing else exists for me? Sorry, that is neglecting something. It is not for nothing that, when you get married, you have the phrase «in sickness and in health.« There is a meaning in that – and also in the arts. There are pieces of art which make you sad and pieces of art which make you happy. I can't imagine, after Mahler's Ninth, walking out and being happy.

Q. Is it disturbing for you to hear applause at the end of a piece like Mahler's Ninth?
A. The greatest applause for this piece is silence. I remember a performance of the Schubert Unfinished Symphony in Vienna – we had 25 seconds of no applause. That's wonderful. I remember a Mahler Ninth in my early days in Sweden, when we had more than one minute of no applause. And when you have achieved that … it means more than a standing ovation. And in that sense, I hope we have that communication with the people in Cleveland as well – that they will be open to that, that they will express what they feel. In the beginning of March, we did Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, and the management said this was one of the biggest successes ever of any piece. And that is the way it should be and the way it is meant to be. And I hope that the Cleveland audience – and I think they are open-minded enough – that they will cry and laugh, so to speak, in performances and be silent when necessary and be cheerful when necessary.

Q. You have faith in your audience.
A. Again, like what I said about children: Don't make the mistake of underestimating audiences. And, you know, we professional musicians are so caught up in looking for perfection, and for when there is a tiny little mistake, I exaggerate now, we nearly commit suicide. But I always say 95 percent – and I don't mean this disrespectfully – will not hear that. But 100 percent of the audience will catch an atmosphere, and that is what we have to give them. That is what it is about. Of course, for our self-respect and also for that 5 percent, we need to be as perfect as possible – no question – but we must not forget to keep the balance between emotion and perfection. As we say in German, at least, the balance between the head and the belly. It is a lifelong task to achieve that, and I might never achieve it, but at least it is something to go for.

Q. There are many scholars now who look at something like the Schubert song cycle Die Winterreise, and they try to psychoanalyze the protagonist. They say, for example, that in the course of this or that song within the cycle, he is going mad. Or that, at the end, when he meets the organ grinder, the organ grinder isn't really there, but all in his head. Do you think this is a productive way of viewing these masterpieces, or do you think something is lacking?
A. There is something lacking. There is a moment when you have to forget all that and just be. You know, when you are a performer, you can study things and have images of something and try to know more, more and more about everything. But there is a moment when you have to put that all aside and just be.

Q. Music speaks to something essential in the human condition?
A. Yes, it speaks to some unconscious level that we can't reach with our intellect. That is the great thing about music. And you know, like all these simple things, which are so damn hard [laughs]. In January, I had several concerts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, and we did the Dvorak Seventh Symphony. It is a great orchestra, and they have a fantastic woodwind section – one of the best in the world, I would think – and the opening of the slow movement they played wonderfully, but it was not right. And I stopped and talked about phrasing. And we did it again, and then I stopped them again and said, «There is one thing missing – simplicity.« And they looked at me as if to say, «What?« We got nearly there, but some of the players came to me and said, «We have never heard that before: just to play simple, not to make anything of it, just to let the music speak for itself.« It doesn't work with everything, of course, but that is what I mean: Sometimes, you start trying too hard to make something of it, and it does not work.

Q. Are you interested in contemporary Cleveland composers?
A. Yes. I don't really know them yet. To be absolutely frank, the Cleveland Orchestra is one of the best orchestras of the world, and it should play only the best music, whether that is politically correct or not. We should not play music simply because it is American, by a Cleveland composer, etc. I believe strongly that the Cleveland Orchestra should only play the best music. I might be wrong with my judgment, but that is life.

Q. How do you relax?
A. I enjoy being lazy. I go hiking, swimming, jogging, reading, and I especially enjoy spending time with friends and family, mainly with my wife [Angelika]. During the time I work, she is with me mostly, but everything is sort of focused on my job, and she is very dear, because she supports me there enormously. Also, there have to be times when she has her interests, and as a partner, I have to pay attention to that as well.

Q. What are some of her interests?
A. Shopping, for one! She likes beautiful things, and we have two different houses, and now we will have an apartment, too, and she loves the domestic things. As a husband, I have to pay attention to that, too, so to keep a good balance.

Q. This balance of head and belly that you spoke about earlier –
A. Yes, and that is why I am not a workaholic. I love my work, and I enjoy it enormously, but to keep up the level of enjoyment, it is important that you leave for a while and that you get completely distanced to it. And now, when I am in our summer house near Salzburg, I don't have to be the maestro [chuckles]. You know, I cook, clean, I do all sorts of normal things and we just have fun. Just normal, boring life – but as a balance, that is important. It is wonderful and enjoyable. I can't stress it enough. As a student in the early '80s I saw Karajan, and I saw how lonesome he was, and I thought to myself, if ever I make a big career in this profession, I don't want it at that price.

Q. Why was Karajan so lonesome?
A. Everything around him was sacrificed for his professional path. And I think that's simply not me. I want to have time for close friends. I have friends who have nothing to do with music. They know what I
do, but it's not their main interest. You lose friends so easily – you know, all of a sudden, five years have gone, and you haven't even talked. To keep relationships alive is up to yourself, and that is what I try to do – to have enough free time so that I can spend time with close friends who mean a lot to me. I think it is always about not losing the right priorities.

Charles Yannopoulos is an award-winning arts writer in Cleveland.
charles.yannopoulos@clevescene.com