Christian Thielemann: Don’t call me Maestro
OrchestrasThe Vienna State Opera has published a closely-observed article by conductor Jendrik Springer on working with the intense Christian Thielemann.
First of all: never call him Maestro. That’s what I advise all singers who are working with Christian Thielemann for the first time to do right from the start. Because he absolutely does not see himself as a “maestro”; he prefers “conductor”. For Thielemann, this encompasses numerous virtues that have to do with professionalism, craftsmanship and great seriousness. This is evident in many aspects of his work.
I don’t know many conductors who have studied a score as well as he has at the start of rehearsals. The famous saying really does apply to him: it’s better to have the score in your head than your head in the score. He can literally memorize the pieces. Not photographically by heart, as is said of Daniel Barenboim, for example, but with an enormous level of detail. For example, during rehearsals in the middle of a tutti passage he can draw the attention of a third bassoon to a careless mistake in a musically unexposed place. How does he do it? He just knows it!…
When the orchestra rehearsals begin, he is as efficient as possible. He often lets the whole act play through once without interrupting, but keeps calling out corrections and comments. Only then does he work on individual passages in chronological order. This usually involves a lot of focus on key passages, difficult transitions and technically tricky moments, rather than playing through the whole thing again.
What he doesn’t do is give a kind of general speech at the beginning of the rehearsal in which he explains the work and his view of it. He is absolutely of the opinion that there is no need to explain Beethoven or Strauss to an opera house or orchestra with a corresponding international reputation….
A central theme for Thielemann is volume. For him, it’s not about going through the evening loudly. He often signals “less” with his left hand to get the musicians to play with more nuance. Even with a fortissimo, he makes sure that this is only used when it is really necessary.
His motto is: “You shouldn’t really have more than one place per act where you can really let it rip.” And when you do let it rip, it’s done in an incredibly effective way that culminates in the tension of an entire act…
Full article here.
““You shouldn’t really have more than one place per act where you can really let it rip.” And when you do let it rip, it’s done in an incredibly effective way that culminates in the tension of an entire act…“”
Mandatory reading for the MD in residence at the Metropolitan Opera (with an affinity for glitz and glam and bling over substance); and in residence, too, in about three other theaters or so.
The first step, in avoiding a viola player, is knowing of their existence….
Why?
Bravo Thielemann! I think there is a sort of collective madness in the music profession that says every conductor and every Music Director must be termed “maestro”. I see it everywhere I go and when introduced to Music Directors it seems always to be “Have you met Maestro — —–?” Maestro is a very specific term and should be used only in the case of a very few conductors who actually deserve the term!
That’s very interesting. I like the sound of any conductor who deprecates the use of “maestro”, which I have always thought ridiculous and perfect for those who have bloated egos. On the back of your piece I have also just listened to some of his recordings (on Apple Music) and on a short listening I like them. I cannot listen to most Bruckner renditions these days (most conductors seem to me to put their own egos ahead of Bruckner’s intentions) but his I quite like. Thanks for the piece.
Sometimes, perhaps often, “maestro” is said with an implicit irony. I no longer recall what book where I read this, of a foreign born conductor who flew into a fury because the members of the American orchestra were not calling him “maestro.” One of the musicians said “in this country we call our barbers ‘maestro.'”
More importantly, a conductor learning his craft should always start in a provincial opera house and work his way up like Von Karajan and many others did.
Well, CT exemplifies that.
I still find his work unlistenable, but that’s on me I guess. I don’t know from Bruckner, so… But Wagner, just no. No.
…including Mahler!
Or, given the dearth of opera houses in most of the non-German speaking part of the world, start with smaller, regional orchestras and prove your chops.
He said “Kapellmeister”, not conductor!
He doesn‘t expect people to address him as „Kapellmeister“, or does he? That would be just as ridiculous. Or do you address the flutist as „Hey, Mr. Flutist!“
Just address him/anyone by their name? Herr Thielemann? ‚Herr Dr. Furtwängler‘ worked for Furtwängler. So…
We all love Christian Thielemann.
Do we?
No definitely not though he is a great conductor or Kapellmeister as he likes to be described but he is not a great human being
Like a commenter wrote above, he said Kapellmeister, not conductor!
Kapellmeister is not conductor.
It makes quite a difference.
I admit my ignorance, but then someone should explain the difference between ‘maestro di cappella’ (kapellmeister’) and ‘maestro’. In Italian, at least they mean exactly the same (from the Latin ‘magister’). The former is simply specific to a Chapel choir (‘cappella’) the latter is generic (and used also outside the music world).
At least, this from the ethomological point of view.
If the two terms, in the music world, have nowadays a complete different meaning I don’t know.
Jendrik puts it all very well. It’s that much more interesting when you consider how fine a musician Herr Springer is and how valuable his work as Assistant to CT has been over the years. More, please.
I was at the 12/12 performance just for watching his left hand. Tonight(12/15) l’m going to watch the whole thing
When Karajan ws recording with the Philharmonia, the engineer Christopher Parker tried to phone him with a query, only to have the phone slammed down as he hadn’t addressed him as ‘maestro’.
This is a lot of shite for just a few paragraphs.
Knowing your music is your job description. And it doesn’t automatically make you a good person, either, unfortunately.
It’s true that the first time I ever heard of him was in the 80s in Bayreuth, when he was playing Barenboim’s “Tristan” rehearsals without a vocal score… Or Maestro said, “He doesn’t even look at it” or “He doesn’t need it…”
(I forget now; it was a while ago.)
The above was clearly translated from German into English by Google or an AI tool. The fumbles are glaring.
I have to wonder if this person has watched many rehearsals before. I have not yet played at the professional level (working on my degree currently) but I’ve worked with over a dozen conductors and all of them displayed this level of passion and humility. It’s certainly something to be commended but not all that unusual.
I work with a number of conductors and composers. Absolutely none of them want to be addressed as Maestro, or Maitre.
In the UK no one calls a conductor maestro unless they’re being very sarcastic (I.e. the ‘maestro’ is hopelessly bad). It’s a ridiculous term.