ZDF/3Sat

Christian Thielemann – Mein Strauss

2014 we are celebrating Christian Thielemann’s favourite composer: Richard Strauss. “By no means should you be sweating when conducting – only the audience should become warm”, “Conduct ‘Salome’ and ‘Elektra’ as if they were by Mendelssohn: fairy’s music!” Those are words of wisdom from Strauss himself. And Thielemann, what does he think?

Strauss is a contradiction as such, composing opposites of seeming misfits. Christian Thielemann reflects on this: “I often visited Strauss’ home in Garmisch, up to this day nothing has been changed. You still see the beer mugs, you may imagine the bourgeois person living here, sleeping in starched linen, playing cards, and of course he would be enjoying a really good Sundays roast – that is the atmosphere pervading. And that this composer would then drift off to such remote walks of life as for instance with “Elektra” and “Die Frau ohne Schatten” is more than remarkable. To fathom this contradiction in Strauss’ music, wavering between middle class life and artistic excess, between return to the past and holding up traditions as well as overcoming boundaries – nobody could possibly do it better than Thielemann. Thielemann, too, like Strauss is a bourgeois person at the bottom of his heart with a great love for German culture, quite an awe inspiring house at the Griebnitz Lake and a large art collection. “I frankly admit”, he says, “I just love it all. Good wine, good music, wonderful orchestras.”