Scramble for Strauss batons as Thielemann pulls out
NewsMusic director Christian Thielemann has withdrawn from Dresden’s Richard Strauss Days festival at the end of this month on sudden health grounds.
The Semper Oper has been flailing frantically for replacements.
Cornelius Meister, General Music Director of Stuttgart State Opera, will take over two performances of Rosenkavalier.
David Afkham, chief conductor of Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España, will be responsible for Arabella.
And the unattached Tugan Sokhiev steps in for the orchestral concerts.
We all love Thielemann.
No. We don’t:)
We all love Richard Strauss.
No we don’t 🙂
We all love thielemann, and well, this happens
Very best wishes to Thielemann if he’s had to pull out on health grounds. Gute Besserung!
As Barenboim has retired from opera performances, Thielemann, Gatti and Salonen are the best Wagner and Strauss conductors alive, imho.
No. Kirill Petrenko is the best. With or without Barenboim.
No.
Yes!
sorry but L. is right and you are wrong
couldn’t agree more but Thielemann for Wagner is in this league also
you forgot Kiril Petrenko and Gatti was awful with Wagner
Thielemann and Staatskapelle with Wagner and Strauss are among the most amazing things I have heard in my life
Much success recently for CT and the Vienna Phil in Carnegie Hall.
http://www.colinscolumn.com/vienna-philharmonic-strauss-family-encores/
I drove 500 miles to see the VP repeat these performances in Berkeley last week. Well worth the effort and I echo the kudos.
Isn’t he done with Dresden anyway?
Exactly.
It’s not that he de-priorizes Dresden, it’s that since his contract was not renewed he had to take on high-visibility guest conducting (Vienna, Berlin, and their world tours, Chicago), such that he gets exhausted (he’s in his 60s, the globetrotting exacts a toll), and consequently Dresden pays the price for his health issues that arise from such a punishing schedule (for any age, his Vienna tour in the US took him through 4 time zones in 2 weeks, no one can adjust to the jet lag in such a short period of time and still have to perform at their best).
Hopefully he can settle down somewhere soon in some capacity in Berlin or in Chicago or both.
Thielemann is also a great conductor of Bruckner! Recently in Chicago, he conducted the 8th Symphony.
Franz Wesler-Most is very good with Strauss too, IMO.
Of course, if at all possible : the concert must go on !!