Word: gewandhaus
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...more ceremonial than musical. So the German maestro began with a polite bow to America, conducting two short pieces by contemporary composer John Adams and a set of Old American Songs by Aaron Copland (winningly sung by baritone Thomas Hampson). Then Masur, who has led Leipzig's venerable Gewandhaus Orchestra since 1970, reached under his tailcoat and produced his own credential: an authoritative, warmly expressive version of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. This served to remind the Lincoln Center faithful (and a national TV audience) that his roots lie deep in the European romantic tradition. Clearly Masur...
Last week, in a stunning surprise, the Philharmonic's quest finally came to an end with the selection of a relative unknown: East German maestro Kurt Masur, currently the conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Masur, 62, is a Kapellmeister in the best Central European tradition, and it was exactly this quality that appealed to the Philharmonic's search committee, which for the first time also included some of the orchestra's musicians. "He had an institutional commitment to the Gewandhaus that he was prepared to bring to New York," said orchestra chairman Stephen Stamas. Translation: Masur, whose five-year...
...Philharmonic has some fantastic musicians," says Masur, who has guest-conducted the New Yorkers nearly two dozen times since 1981. "But this idea of a musical family that we have at the Gewandhaus I miss somehow. I want the musicians to have the feeling that they are at home, that they are playing together, that they are at the musical center of that big city." After seeing the Leipzig orchestra through its 250th birthday in 1993-94, Masur is expected to make New York his principal base...
What kind of conductor is New York getting? As he showed last week in leading the Gewandhaus Orchestra though performances of Beethoven's Fidelio and Bach's St. Matthew Passion at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Austria, Masur is capable of drawing passionate, powerful playing from his musicians. Neither a disciplinarian nor one of the boys, Masur favors a let-us-reason- together approach that prizes loyalty and enthusiasm over virtuosity. Not surprisingly, his repertoire is centered on the classics from Mozart to Mahler, which he conducts with short punchy gestures, usually without a baton. In Leipzig...
Kurt Masur, conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and a leader in last year's peaceful revolution, is named music director of the Philharmonic, America's most fractious ensemble...