“Linz years were my best time as a musician”

“It should be a book for people who love music. I am neither a writer nor do I want to teach anyone, “says Martin Sieghart in advance of his biographical” transitions “. Nevertheless, the way the former chief conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz (1992–2000) and former solo cellist of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra (1975–1986) flips through his musical life in 50 chapters is an instructive reading pleasure that combines a lot of truth with a little poetry.

The Bruckner Orchestra in Japan

The native of Vienna, who has found his adopted home in Mühlheim im Innviertel, dedicates a particularly long chapter to his Bruckner Orchestra, “which I love and adore”, as he emphasized in the OÖN conversation, and with which he completed a successful tour of Japan in 1996 , to which a chapter is also devoted: he openly tells of the embarrassment that the maestro, banished to a suite, felt towards his musicians. He counts his eight years in Linz “at the most beautiful time as a musician”, which is why he would be happy to be a guest conductor in the music theater.

How it came that he owes his first name to the small town of St. Martin im Innkreis makes you smile. Just like the description of the organ mystery that was revealed to the ten-year-old jumper on the queen of instruments in the church in Mühlheim. He bows to his mentors like Josef Mertin, but also – as a professor of conducting at the Music University Graz (2001-2016) – to his students and “the wonderful work with young people without nationalisms”, including Giedre Slekyte from Lithuania, now first guest conductor of the Bruckner Orchestra.

“Transitions” opens a treasure trove of musical knowledge and personal experiences behind the scenes of rehearsals, concerts and orchestras to the reader. All of this leads to the confession: “It is better to remain a seeker!”

Martin Sieghart: “Transitions. A musical life in 50 chapters “, Hollitzer Verlag, 315 pages, 22 euros.

Radio Tip: On December 8th (9 am) Sieghart is a guest on Radio Upper Austria in the “Linzer Torte”.