Thielemann makes La Scala return after 28 years
NewsChristian Thielemann has jumped in to open the Symphonic Season of the Teatro alla Scala on 25, 26 and 27 November. He replaces Esa-Pekka Salonen ‘who is indisposed’.
Thielemann has not conducted the musicians of La Scala since 1993, although he has visited twice with German orchestras.
He will conduct Richard Strauss 4 Last Songs with soprano Camilla Nylund, followed by Brahms’ 4th Symphony.
Now that Thielemann has some free time on his hands, he should do a tour of the major US orchestras, which he hasn’t conducted in decades either, some of which are looking for a new dance partner.
No. Thielemann has good taste. And thus he will not tour with US orchestras. He is a European Great Man. And he knows that music is only performed well in Europe with European orchestras.
OMG. What a silly yet deeply offensive comment. Frightening.
Hehe, I kind of like the dialectics of your paradoxical posts. But did you know that great musicians are not more often great men, than great men are amonge the average man? Meaning rarely?
Oscar Meyer…?
Ooh A EGM ! Wow I am in awe.
Even the most chauvinist viennese wouldn’t dare to talk such drivel !
No US orchestra with any self-respect is going to invite him.
The ‘self-respect index’ is in an all-time low in America.
Didn’t a principal player once said to his face during rehearsal “don’t bother, you’re not coming back” in the 90s? I imagine the situation is similar in every American orchestra he conducted. He would need to have some fantastically thick skin to want to try it out again in the US. Luckily for all he is rather thin skinned, so they won’t have to reject him again.
Dear ‘anon’,
Thank you. There is something in it. That’s because I don’t buy recording of American orchestras unless there’s no choice or they have a great European conductor (just now I can’t name any American-born conductor from whom I buy records) or soloist involved. American orchestras would be nothing, and I mean nothing, zero, nichts, without Karl Munck, Arturo Toscannini, Bruno Walter, George Szell and other (unrecorded) European conductors (Gustav Mahler inter alia).
Yours,
🙂 Pff
Well, your last point is true. But we are talking about Thielemann here, not some conductors in the past that were far superior to him. Unlike Thielemann, they were obviously very welcomed in the US.
Let’s also not forget some of these conductors you mentioned did not have a choice but to leave for America to look for jobs. Your lot *really* didn’t want them.
So since ~ 1950 Bernstein, Zinman, Slatkin, MTM, Levine (ouch!), DePreist, Falletta, Alsop, Gilbert… have offered nothing to American orchestras? The first 2 also revived the fortunes of prominent European orchestras.
Slatkin – Lol!
Gilbert – Haha!
Alsop – Double-Haha!
Bernstein was worshipped in Vienna.
Exact opposite: errybody demands respekt for whatever they do, regardless of how silly the reason could be.
Lol ! CSO bore Barenboim for seventeen years. Seventeen years !!!!
Yet he could have left at any moment. You don’t need to tell us again—we already know Barenboim loves money more than anything else. The last time he came back to Chicago I heard the tickets sold poorly. I suppose the feeling was mutual.
I’m not sure he’s the (far) right man for the job
Mr Thielemann is nor far right, he’s just right.
We all love Christian Thielemann.
The greatest of the greatest.
I respect your entusiamr, but no, Mr Thielemann is not the greates of the greatest. He’s just one of the greatest, and in his core repertoire arguably the greatest, by now. Every great ‘condottieri’ cannot be greater that his resourses (in Mr Thielemann’s case singers).
When the Viennese loudly claim they love you, be careful !
That’s nice. You can have him.
This might be his big break! …just kidding..
He seems a better choice in this repertoire than the indisposed.
I dare to predict that it will be a memorable concert.
I dare to predict that it will be wonderful and boring in equal measure.
It is no longer “the iron repertoire” but the “solid concrete repertoire”….and it keeps me out of the concert hall.
could be. If he is not as lazy as usual lately and rehearses a bit.
Consistent, excellent program. And Camilla Nylund is a wonderful, wonderful singer. I wish I could be there.
Looks like a very short program though – not much more than around 66 minutes of music if tempos are reasonable.
Good for him to have works outside of Austria and Germany. He has to be open to new kinds of music a thing he didn t do enough. that s a fact. It would be interisting to see him on big opera productions also in London or Paris as guest conductor. Even if outside of Bayreuth he s not always very popular.
Well the concert may be in Italy, but the repertoire is Strauss and Brahms…
Yes. It would good for him to do Carmen.
Agree. But would it be good for Carmen? 😉
I had the opportunity for my years in Munich back in 2005 to attend many concerts with Thielemann with the Munchner Philarmoniker and you could actually see they resonated in the “traditional” repertoire. As his career at Bayreuth and in the rest of “old” Europe proved, he is definitely mastering the “tradition” and as such is a conservative conductor. His past experience in the US was not particularly successful, even in the recordings, maybe because he was too quickly sent to conduct important orchestras. Maybe today he is bringing more “old Europe” charm to his sound. However, he is a strong believer of a traditional concept of society and culture. A great Conductor where you need these values to guide you.
I have seen him in Bayreuth for Tristan it was excellent but his new year day in Vienna.
It will never happen, but I would love to see him as successor to Muti in Chicago. They would record for sure an astonishing Ring Cycle and do some memorable Bruckner and Strauss in concerts!
I’m not sure that Mr Thielemann would like to live in Lori Lightfoot’s Chicago.
This could even be the most important argument why it never will happen!
They say Thielemann is limited in range, but he is still broader than Muti, who’s really just good in Verdi.
Thielemann can do a decent Verdi, but I don’t think Muti can do a decent Wagner.
I doubt he would have any facility at all in Verdi – or Italian opera generally. Certainly no one seems to be hiring him for that. And Muti is also excellent in Mozart, Beethoven and other symphonic repertoire, not to mention almost all Italian opera.
Forget it. CT hates staying in the US. Particularly being asked from the outset at the hotel reception for his credit card number.
Has he requested to begin with Giovinezza?
I could see Thielemann as Muti’s successor in Chicago.
Not if he is supposed to replace Barenboim in Berlin.
Could do both jobs, though.
excellent ! hopefully not only concerts !