And not only at the podium at the New Year’s Concert, both sides have already gained a lot of experience, Welser-Möst is one of the regular partners of the Philharmonic. The 61-year-old from Upper Austria is a rare mixture of a contentious artist who is ready to go to extremes in the interests of the matter, and a conciliatory, almost well-behaved demeanor. In 2012, for example, Welser-Möst caused an upset with the then director of the Salzburg Festival, Alexander Pereira, when he announced that he would cancel a planned cycle of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas because of an unreasonable schedule. The maestro also left the State Opera as general music director in 2014 after a dissent with director Dominique Meyer about the artistic direction.
Welser-Möst has two artistic power centers. Since 2002 he has held the position of chief conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. The master of the small, targeted signals instead of the global arm gesture of the desk diva harmonizes excellently with what is perhaps the most European of the large US orchestras. The partnership currently runs until at least 2027. And the second orchestra to which Welser-Möst has a close connection are the Vienna Philharmonic, whose ring of honor he has been wearing since 2014.
Accident led to a career as a conductor
Born on August 16, 1960 as Franz Möst in Linz, he originally wanted to become a violinist, which was prevented by a car accident that ultimately led him to the conductor’s train. After a troubled time as music director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, in which he was dubbed “Frankly Worse-than-Most” by the British press, the young conductor soon took hold. And so in 1992 he went to the Zurich Opera with Alexander Pereira and finally to the Vienna State Opera, to which he returned as a conductor after his break with Meyer under Bogdan Ro ?? cić.
And apart from that, the quiet desk thinker, even if he will now lead the scepter for the third time at the popular New Year’s concert, tends to follow the path of contemplation, as he himself writes in his 2020 autobiography “When I found the silence”: “May the others continue scream, send colorful pictures into the world and think about how else you could attract attention – I prefer to indulge in leisure. “
Source: Nachrichten
