Sicklist: Chailly cancels his Leipzig farewell
mainRiccardo Chailly, outgoing Gewandhaus music director, has pulled out of this week’s three valedictory performances of Mahler’s third symphony on unspecified health grounds.
He will be replaced by the incoming m.d., Andris Nelsons.
Chailly, 63, has cardiac history. He will not have cancelled these concerts lightly.
We wish him well.
Not so simple. He had cancelled his three previous concerts in the same way. Now, he conducted sunday evening in Milan and cancelled on monday morning. Here in Leipzig the news came definetly not as a surprise – you can have a taste of it in the comments at GWO’s post in Facebook.
Perhaps the Puccini family, bitching publicly last week about Chailly’s (poor) choice of edition for the upcoming Madama Butterfly at La Scala, has given him palpitations.
Maestro Chailly was in fine form when I saw him in Vienna a few years ago and in Leipzig last year. I do wish him well and hope he isn’t suffering anything serious.
It’s a double whammy – these were presumably the three concerts that were to be recorded by Accentus to complete the Mahler DVD cycle! Would be odd to had his cycle finished off by Nelsens
I don’t know whether the Gewandhausorchester will complete their Accentus Mahler Cycle or not but whatever their decision, it seems it will not be happening with Chailly.
In May, when asked about returning to conduct the Gewandhausorchester after his last concerts as Gewandhauskapellmeister, he said that “[o]ne should never say never – but Leipzig is not on the agenda” (Man soll niemals nie sagen – aber Leipzig steht nicht auf der Agenda). Sounds more like ‘Adieu!’ than ‘Au Revoir!’.
http://www.lvz.de/Kultur/News/Riccardo-Chailly-Leipzig-steht-nicht-auf-der-Agenda
Chailly was the biggest problem for the music and culture in Leipzig during his service there. He is EGO driven and nobody believes his illness. He denied the official farewell ceremony by Leipzig’s Lord Mayor, he invited the press to an farewell interview to Milan six weeks ago. Why? It was his plan to cancel the concert.
He destroyed the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, his next job, before the first rehearsal together. He replaced a lot of musician – including almost ALL Leipzig musician!
It seems part of his character. But why plays Lucerne his game?
Completely overrated conductor, although clever and well connected. Nothing more than that. And the problem he is not aware of that, so it brings him problems, naturally.