In 2024, Christian Thielemann will conduct the New Year’s Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, who already has experience with it. In 2019, the 63-year-old German led through a New Year’s morning at the Musikverein in Vienna. And the Philharmoniker have already worked a lot together with the Wagner expert and chief conductor of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, who will remain in office until 2024.
“Deep artistic partnership”
“We have a deep artistic partnership with Christian Thielemann, especially in the symphonic field. He is one of the Philharmonic conductors who are particularly close to the orchestra,” said orchestra director Daniel Froschauer in a broadcast today, explaining the choice of the maestro for the coming year.
Born on April 1, 1959, Thielemann’s career began at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he was later to work as general music director from 1997 to 2004. In 1985 he became First Kapellmeister at the Rheinoper and in 1988 he became Germany’s youngest general music director in Nuremberg, where he finally achieved his breakthrough with Wagner’s “Tristan”.
But success does not make you tame, as an artistic and political figure Thielemann repeatedly caused a stir: the sacking from the Nuremberg theater in 1992 (and the conductor’s victory in the ensuing legal dispute) is an example of this, as is the excitement surrounding Thielemann’s defense of the music of Hans Pfitzner despite its involvement with the Nazi regime.
