Blomstedt Gewandhaus Ansprache

[@tomaxi007]

Herrlich, so eine ehrliche Ansprache, so ein souveräner Mann und doch einfach geblieben. Überaus bewundernswerter Mensch! Dirigenten haben eine große Gabe mit großem Wissen. Herbert Blomstedt ist ein Menschenkenner par excellence und ein wunderbarer Musiker. Danke!

[@klausimausischmidt5791]

Ich liebe Herbert Blomstedt!

[@walterkleewein9948]

wann war die Übertragung auf ARTE? Insgesamt unglaubliches Detailwissen von Blomstedt, er kann Dinge aus der Geschichte erzählen, die sonst keiner mehr weiß. Fast jeder Satz hat eine Aussage, es gibt meist nur 5 % der Menschen, die so bedeutsam sprechen können. Ein Genuss.

[@carljonsson9964]

Es war "Live" Samstag 15 September 2018. Ich bin deiner Meinung. Er ist außergewöhnlich.

[@rousseau1able]

Carl P pp

[@bfriebe2]

Herbert Blomstedt ist ein Ausnahmedirigent. Seine fachliche Kompetenz, seine tiefe Religiosität ist beeindruckend. Man muss diesen uneitlen, bescheidenen und charmanten Menschen einfach lieben!

[@sivakumarvakkalanka4938]

Can someone please post a summary of what he is saying in English? He is a conductor i admire a lot.

[@RogerBesst]

I would like a translation also. He is a wonderful musician. Bravo!

[@ruthlau9182]

I am learning German, but I could not understand everything he said. I tried my best and I came up with this: First, he talked about the enormous will-power and strength of Beethoven’s Egmont overture. He compared the downbeats of different conductors like Toscanini and Furtwängler. He went on saying that this overture is short but very moving. He then mentioned about there were about 100 players on stage, and used it as a transition to talk about Berlioz. The orchestral force needed by Berlioz (for the Symphonie Fantastique) is much greater than Beethoven. How such a big orchestra works, he said the most significant aspect is that all players listen to each other as if they were players in small chamber ensembles. When the players listen to each other, they don’t need someone to count beats or cue them. He said sometimes he does not conduct at all in rehearsals, he just let the players have an atmosphere to work in. He had an orange pamphlet on the score stand (programme notes, I think?) There were quotes from Berlioz’s memoir. “What Berlioz thought about this symphony as he came to Leipzig”. He recounted about Mendelssohn met Berlioz eralier in Rome, Mendelssohn and Berlioz have very different musical styles, Mendelssohn heard the symphony before but didn’t like it. He invited Berlioz to Leipzig in spite of this, because he was convinced that Berlioz was a great artist, and an original and educated person. Blomstedt mentioned that Mendelssohn was a wonderful role model. He went on quoting from Berlioz’s memoir, how he praised the orchestra, the Gewandhaus, the players able to play a difficult programme with just two rehearsals, etc. Blomstedt added that a good orchestra has the ambition to be better each time, the strife for beauty shared by every member of the orchestra. He recounted how he came to Leipzig, which was at that time part of East Germany. At the end, he mentioned that some orchestras in the USA rate success as making a big article in the newspapers, but he stressed once again the growth in quality and getting a little better every week. I hope it helps. :)

[@adrianhille8037]

He is basically saying how the beginning of the overture sounds different coming from different conductors as well as different orchestras but it's still always very powerful and then interpreting the piece. How after or in between the power there may be the question of mercy and at the end the light wins. Then, for Berlioz, there is the orchestra way bigger (about 100 musicians). Two more tubas, harps,...because Berlioz had fantastic visions. He says that he is conducting for roughly 100 years now, is still fascinated about it and still doesn't really understand how it works. :D The most important thing is that the people in the orchestra needs to listen to each other and then it can become music. They need a conductor who gives them space to start fantasizing about the piece and how to play. He then welcomes musicians from Dresden who joined the orchestra just for this piece. (As a Saxon, I can assure you, that to swap musicians between Dresden and Leipzig usually doesn't happen and only with Blomstedt that's possible.) He speaks about his experiences with rehearsals. How he arrives, the orchestra is already there and everybody is very well prepared. The rehearsal starts at 10am. He says the difference between the Saxon orchestras and other orchestras is: already 10 minutes before 10am, everybody is there and ready to start. 3 minutes before 10am, the first violin gets up so the orchestra can do the tuning. After the tuning, there is completely silence. Nobody says anything. It's kind of this atmosphere asking how will it go? will it be a good/interesting/boring rehearsal/...? Blomstedt says: That's an incredible feeling. He asks the audience to get the written program for the evening and to read the document no. 2. There is written what Berlioz was thinking about this symphony when he came to Leipzig. He actually was waiting to come to Leipzig and Dresden when Mendelsohn asked him to come there and play the "Symphony Fantastique" with our orchestra. The reason for the waiting of Berlioz to come to Saxony was that after 1831, when Berlioz and Mendelsohn met in Rome, he thought they were going on with such different kind of lifestyles and music-styles that he wouldn't get any sympathies there. After he gave the concerts Mendelsohn wrote Berlioz how great it has been. Back in Rome Mendelsohn didn't like the Symphony Fantastique at all and he called it disgusting because of the opium taking to suicide himself, failing and getting psychologically ill. But still Mendelsohn invited him and wanted him to perform in Leipzig. -> "That's a way to life together and that should be an example for us. For me, as a foreigner, the orchestra still works like that and even when we are playing pieces which we don't like so much, we will appreciate them if they are played well."--Blomstedt. Berlioz was fascinated of the audience, the "Musikverein", the orchestra and the acoustics of the Gewandhaus. Berlioz arrived when the orchestra was playing the "Walpurgisnacht" from Mendelsohn and he stated that he felt like it's a miracle, because of the singing, the playing and the beauty of the piece...so he had a huge respect for Mendelsohn as a colleague. He observed that the respect between the orchestra, the conductor/composer, and the concertmaster is so high that 2 rehearsals are enough to practice that difficult, new piece. (Blomstedt said that they needed 5 rehearsals and would actually like to have even more sometimes.) "To have the ambition to never be good enough and to play it even better than before is what makes a good orchestra."(Blomstedt)...just that thinking to be able to make it even better....that makes a perfect atmosphere. "Imagine how much talent there is on stage. As I was young, I was able to play a little bit violin. But I have never been so good as they are."(Blomstedt) He says how much work and effort it takes to be part of the Gewandhausorchester and the Staatskapelle Dresden. It's incredible. There is a special connection between Blomstedt and Saxony: I have been principle conductor in Leipzig and Dresden which wasn't always easy. He said that he also was waiting to go to Dresden because of the political system (DDR/GDR) which he was not familiar with at all. As he was a kid he had a radio and was usually listining to the Staatskapelle Dresden Sundays where he heard a nice symphony, didn't know the name but recognized the melody. It was the Mozart variations of Max Reger played by the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Karl Böhm. "Oh! More beauty isn't possible!!"(Blomstedt) He made it his ideal way of life and music. Now, 30 years later, he can is standing in front of the orchestra and can listen to that sounds live. He was very impressed by that idea but still upset because Dresden still wasn't well reconstructed after World War 2. One year later, he was asked to become the principle conductor but he refused. Two and a half years later, he thought, he gotta do that! The orchestra welcomed him warmly and invited him to little trips in Saxony for example where Weber composed the "Freischütz", Wagner "Lohengrin". Later in Leipzig, the same with Bach. In Leipzig he visited the music store Becker because it's unique he was told. It was kind of hard to find but he found the place and Becker opened it for him. Becker asked him what he was looking for and Blomstedt didn't know exactly what to say, but then he said he heard of a sonata by Albrecht Berger for 4 trombones. Becker just went up a letter pulled on a score without even searching and gave Blomstedt that exact rare piece. Blomstedt couldn't find that piece in either Paris or New York City, but now he found it in Leipzig. -> Saxony is a land of culture! Two days ago, they performed the "Symphony Fantastique" where the whole audience happened to be teenagers. Blomstedt said it was amazing how those young people enjoyed the music and he is assured that with that the future of culture is saved. In this orchestra, there are people from 20 different nations and they are so happy and opened to welcome other nations to the orchestra. The father of the concertmaster was a solo-cellist in this orchestra. So, there is a big tradition in the orchestra. There is a from Switzerland, a viola player from France, a lot of Germans, oboe from Italy, clarinet from Germany, bassoon from Italy.....and they play together very well because they all want to give there best. He loves the orchestras and respects them. He especially loves to conduct in Dresden and Leipzig.

[@frantark2535]

​@adrianhille8037 Thanks so much to you and preceding person for this detailed translation and effort to put it down here as well, it enlightens and helps me appreciate Blomstedt more as well

[@sivakumarvakkalanka4938]

@@adrianhille8037 Thank you for translating