Going on tour with Nielsen’s 4th Symphony.

All of Nielsen’s symphonies bring surprises: Nielsen’s very personal language, the instrumentation, the proportions, the courage to break boundaries, the irony, the wit, and the deepness. We find all this in his 4th Symphony, which the Danish National Symphony Orchestra will bring on tour in January under my direction. It started in 2016 with Kim Bohr, the orchestra’s general manager, asking,” Would you conduct Nielsen with us?” I said, “Why not?” although Nielsen was almost unknown to me (I had performed before only his 4th Symphony in Bregenz with my Vienna Symphony Orchestra, but I didn’t remember much of it). My first project was his Second Symphony, and I soon realized that it was me learning from the orchestra rather than the opposite. Those musicians – my musicians – have Nielsen in their DNA, and they were nevertheless surprised about my approach; new to them, probably fresher, more central European, ignoring traditions, and very hardcore towards the text and the pacing of the phrases. We performed all of them and recorded them for Deutsche Grammophon, even winning the Gramophone Prize for best recording of the year 2023. Now, we present this Symphony at some of our tour concerts in different European cities.

Read more about our European tour here.

So glücklich wieder bei “meinen” Tonkünstlern in Wien zu sein, noch dazu mit einer meiner geliebten Bruckner Sinfonien. Ich habe so viel von diesem Orchester gelernt, in den Jahren meiner “echten” Ausbildung, vor allem mit Bruckner, ein Komponist der zum DNA aller Wiener Orchester gehört.

After a rather long hiatus, I am again going to perform this symphony (with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo next week), which I conducted for the first time for my “Kapellmeister-Diplomprüfung” with the Slovenian Philharmonic in Ljubljana in 1983.

There is no point in talking about this symphony, one of the most popular symphonies ever, and rightly so. I was so surprised to hear the “slow” movement (actually an Allegretto in dactylic rhythm, in my personal opinion, a sort of “Trauermarsch,” very much in contrast to the other movements) as a soundtrack in one of the weirdest, and most interesting, movies I know—Zardoz by John Boorman, a 1974 film with Sean Connery and Charlotte Rampling. Once described as “one of the worst movies ever made,” it is now a “cult movie.” And Beethoven is part of it!

I have conducted and still perform both versions of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8. The 1887 version (Urfassung) has a longer Adagio, which Bruckner unfortunately cut in the 1890 version. The coda of the first movement in the 1890 version is a beautiful, lyrical, and soft farewell (a different character than the triumphant closing in the first version). Scherzo and Trio are different. Hard choice. However, since I conducted the 1887 version for the first time some 15 years ago, the Adagio in the 1890 version seems to have been “cut” and lacks the proper proportions. Yes, it’s a tough choice. But I don’t want to miss this Adagio of the 1887 version.

Soon, the 1887 version with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo.

I also recorded the 1887 version with Philharmonia Zurich.

Together with his 9th Symphony, Gustav Mahler’s masterwork Das Lied von der Erde is somewhat enigmatic; not a symphony, not a song cycle, not a cantata, with the unbelievable, incredible, essential “Der Abschied” as probably the highest point in Mahler’s work. Soon, to be performed in Copenhagen with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. On the program is another Farewell Symphony, Schubert’s immortal and no less enigmatic “Unfinished” symphony.

A small, nice tour to Taiwan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, conducting Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony and Bruch’s Violin Concerto with Paul Huang. Sorry for putting the cover of this beautiful, old recording by Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic (even if I make different tempo and phrasing choices)… But Mravinsky could be so essential, intense, straight to the core, especially in his late years—a conductor I love and admire.

With the wonderful Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.