Features
Welser-Möst in Vienna
An ambition fulfilled
As if the pressure of a new Staatsoper Ring cycle wasn’t enough for any conductor, Franz Welser-Möst comes to it this month—Sven-Eric Bechtolf’s production begins with Die Walküre, and Rheingold will be added last—knowing that even more attention than usual is focused on the event. This is his first big operatic appearance in Vienna since it was announced in June that he would become Generalmusikdirektor of the house in 2010, succeeding Seiji Ozawa. The start of the 2010-11 season also sees Dominique Meyer take over from Ioan Holender as Intendant, and this summer’s news put end to months (if not years) of speculation about the Viennese succession: Holender himself had publicly backed Welser-Möst as a candidate for his own job, and previously tried to talk him into accepting the music directorship. No long ago the conductor had also been mentioned in connection with the top job at the Salzburg Festival. Hugely talented, well connected and, crucially, Austrian, Welser-Möst was in everyone’s view the heir apparent.
Everyone, that is, except for Welser-Möst himself. In previous conversations over the years, he told me that he was far too aware of how Viennese musical politics worked for him to want to enter that particular lions’ den. He has also been deeply committed to his two present posts, as Generalmusikdirektor of the Zurich Opera (where he arrived in 1995 as Chief Conductor) and Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra (since 2002). Currently signed to Cleveland until 2012, he steps down from Zurich next summer, though will return to conduct several new productions there.
The turn of events that led to accepting Vienna came as something of a surprise even to Welser-Möst himself. He began to consider it seriously only when the possibility of musical rather than administrative responsibility opened up, but even so he didn’t fully expect to get the job. Other possible contenders being mentioned in the Austrian press until the very last minute included Christian Thielemann, Neil Shicoff and Alexander Pereira—the last name putting Welser-Möst in a slightly embarrassing position. Pereira, who boasts impeccable Viennese credentials, hired Welser-Möst for Zurich and remains there (a little jealously, perhaps?) as Intendant.
‘I didn’t apply for the job, and no one really offered me it,’ says Welser-Möst. ‘But I must say that the solution we’ve arrived at is really great. It takes a lot of burden off my shoulders. I don’t want to have to give up my profession, I still want to conduct, but if you’re running a house with 1,000 employees, it’s tough. Earlier this year I had three long meetings with the arts minister, and in March I had one with the Austrian chancellor, but we simply talked about the operatic world in general and the Staatsoper in particular—which I must say I got to know a lot better last winter during the new Arabella. The chancellor was the…
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