Maestro move: Bonn grabs Prick

Maestro move: Bonn grabs Prick

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norman lebrecht

July 02, 2015

After tearing itself apart over the next music director – the bosses wanted one man, the players another – the Beethoven Orchestra of Bonn has hired an interim chief conductor for the 2016/17 season.

He is the seasoned Christoph Prick.

Once upon a time in America, where he was music director in Charlotte, North Carolina, he used to spell it Perick.

For some reason.

chris prick

Comments

  • Joel Levine says:

    Oh Norman! Greatest headline ever.

  • Max Grimm says:

    Speaking of different names, his name is Christof, not Christoph.

  • Theodore McGuiver says:

    In Germany he’s known as Schewanz.

    • Olassus says:

      It was a marketing mistake to change his name, a lost opportunity. “Perick” was probably the idea of a London agent.

      As music director in Nürnberg a few seasons ago, he led a propulsive Tannhäuser.

  • harold braun says:

    Maestro Schewanz…..as one member of the Staatskapelle Dresden called him once…..

  • Andreas B. says:

    At the time maestro Prick used to work with the National German Youth Orchestra quite frequently. As a reaction to his american pseudonym, they came up with a german nickname: Schewanz…

  • Bystander says:

    Nice headline.

  • Stuard Young says:

    Norman, your sense of humor is becoming darkly American.

  • SergioM says:

    I was about to say that’s not exactly the headline that i have would have chosen

  • Furzwängler says:

    On couldn’t make this up if one tried.

  • TATTERS1232006@YAHOO.CO.UK says:

    YES I LOVE THE HEADLINE

  • Larry Fried says:

    He was also music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra

  • David Boxwell says:

    And then what happens?

  • May says:

    Nice to see a very talented conductor landing a post commensurate with his abilities. Not a lot of glamour, but some very tasteful music making. Prick has more experience in his little finger than most conductors in their whole body. Bonn should be so lucky!

  • CA says:

    Perick (as he is known in the US) was music director of the Charlotte Symphony for ten years up until about 2010. He is an amazing artist!

  • Stuard Young says:

    He also conducted at least one production at the Met – Die Frau Ohne Schatten?

  • Fred Plotkin says:

    Things were even more problematic when he was a member of a trio with Josef Suk and Yo-Yo Ma.

  • Stephen says:

    You may think I invented this but I heard an announcer say after the interval in a performance of “Fidelio” at the Met in the early 1980s : “Now Maestro Prick is on the stand again.” (Isn’t it the musicians who have stands and the conductor a podium?)

  • Jack O'toole says:

    After awhile the mockery will peter out.

  • Jack O'toole says:

    This will all peter out after awhile.

  • DESR says:

    Tell me, does this Prick take things quick?

  • Mark A Bauman says:

    If he composed a couple of pieces of music, would they be Schwanzstücke?

  • Gerhard says:

    It seems never too late to still be in puberty.

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