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Tradition Stays Fresh With Kurt Masur
| Article
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11215 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1986 |
1,660 Words |
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Tom Pniewski
Tom Pniewski is a musicologist at Hunter College in New York. |
As music director of the Leipzing Gewandhaus Orchestra since 1970, Kurt Masur is a successor to such legendary figures as Mendelssohn, Mahler, Walter, and Furtwangler, all of whom also led the orchestra. Conducting in the Gewandhaus itself, as well as in the Leipzing Opera and St. Thomas Church (where he occupies the position once held by J.S. Bach), Maestro Masur heads an ensemble of some 200 musicians who form the core of performers for this artistically bustling city. Maestro Masur spends more than half of each year with the Gewandhaus Orchestra; much of the rest of his time is spent touring internationally, and he is a frequent guest in the United States, where he has led every major orchestra. Born in 1927, Maestro Masur was trained at the Leipziger Hochschule fur Music before going on to a variety of prestigious appointments in Halle, Dresden, and Berlin. This current tour with the Gewandhaus Orchestra will take him to fifteen American cities. Maestro Masur is a large-framed man, with a hearty, open manner and a full beard that makes him quite Brahms-like in appearance.
In an exclusive interview with Tom Pniewski for The World & I, he discussed the special obligations that his prominent position brings.
Tom Pniewski: Maestro Masur, you know that symphony orchestras have been called "living museums," devoted to a repertoire a century old or more, out of touch with current tastes. You are here in New York to perform a "Brahms Festival," with an orchestra considerably older than Brahms' own works. How do you keep fresh?
Kurt Masur: If you don't want to talk to people through your music, you will of course become a museum.
... (1995 of 9310 Characters)
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