2023-09-26 17:00:43
The announcement of the decision about Daniel Barenboim’s successor is imminent: As the Berliner Zeitung learned from several independent sources, Christian Thielemann is to be Daniel Barenboim’s successor. Barenboim resigned from office a few months ago for health reasons. The Senator for Culture wants to announce the decision on the new general music director at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Thielemann has negotiated the contractual details with the board of trustees in recent weeks. Due to the change in the Senate, Senator for Culture Joe Chialo was able to form his own opinion some time ago. After working with Thielemann, the young and extremely ambitious Staatskapelle came to the conclusion that the orchestra could best continue its development into a top international orchestra with Thielemann as sound educator. The excellent quality of the orchestra is also said to have been a decisive factor in Thielemann’s decision.
The new director of the State Opera, Elisabeth Sobotka, was significantly involved in the discussions. According to the law, “the artistic directors have the right to propose the general music directors working at their company and the artistic director of the ballet”. Sobotka will begin her duties on September 1, 2024. She succeeds Matthias Schulz, who is moving to the Zurich Opera House.
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In any case, Thielemann meets the requirements of a sound teacher for the Staatskapelle: the conductor had mastered with flying colors the repeated replacements as conductor of the Staatskapelle, which was internally referred to as “show-walking”. Thielemann took over the performance of Anton Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony at very short notice because Herbert Blomstedt was injured. Then came Richard Wagner’s “Ring,” which was unanimously described by critics as phenomenal. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote that the performance was a “musical triumph”. Thielemann “gave more than just his artistic calling card here”.
Finally, Thielemann conducted, among other things, Johannes Brahms’ four symphonies on the Staatskapelle’s South Korean tour. The orchestra is said to have been very impressed by how well Thielemann conveyed his ideas about the most important works of German Romanticism without much rehearsal time. According to reports, the conductor was literally celebrated on the return flight from South Korea.
Recently it was not clear whether Thielemann even wanted the position. He is in demand as a conductor all over the world and can choose his conductors. He has commitments with the Vienna Philharmonic until 2030, and he will conduct the “Ring” at La Scala in Milan in 2024. Only recently did he leave his future open in an interview with the Sächsische Zeitung and did not resist the impression that he would “initially work as a guest conductor” worldwide.
However, Thielemann feels very connected to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Before a press conference before the “Ring” premiere, Thielemann pointed with admiration at the black and white photos of the historical conductors and exclaimed: “That’s an incredible tradition!” As general music director, he wants to turn down several international engagements in favor of the State Opera.
Thielemann still has a score to settle with Berlin. As general music director of the Deutsche Oper 20 years ago, he was unable to convince the Senate of the need for maximum quality. He demanded more money for the orchestra. The Senate stalled him. 17 top musicians left. Thielemann left the house on Bismarckstrasse. At that time there was still an open conflict between the opera houses in Berlin. The then Senator for Culture, Christoph Stölzl, wanted to turn the State Opera into a purely baroque opera, a plan that Barenboim resisted energetically and ultimately successfully.
Seen this way, it would be logical if Thielemann Barenboim, of all people, inherited. The two have had a long artistic and friendly relationship. Barenboim told the Berliner Zeitung before the “Ring” premiere: “I have known Christian Thielemann for almost forty years, when he was my assistant at the Deutsche Oper. Of course, I value him very much, not only, but especially as a Wagner interpreter.” The Neue Zürcher Zeitung writes that the artistic closeness between the two is no coincidence: “Thielemann and Barenboim rely on the same tradition of a musical tradition that comes from Furtwängler Thinking in large, harmoniously founded arcs of tension.”
Christian Thielemann was born on April 1, 1959 in Wilmersdorf. His father was a businessman, his mother comes from a Pomeranian family of civil servants and officers. Thielemann attended the Steglitz Humanistic High School, where he also took his Abitur. He was actually supposed to become a pianist, but was briefly fascinated by the sound possibilities of the organ. After seeing Wagner’s “Tristan and Isolde” staged by Wieland Wagner and conducted by Heinrich Hollreiser at the Deutsche Oper, Thielemann decided to become a conductor.
As a student of Hans Hilsdorf, Thielemann achieved world recognition primarily with his Wagner interpretations, performances of German Romanticism and selected works from the 20th century. He regularly conducts the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics. For many years, Thielemann was musical director of the Salzburg Easter Festival and the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. He will lead the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden until 2024, which, under his aegis, has become one of the leading orchestras in the German-speaking region.
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