Franz Welser-Möst

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Franz Welser-Möst (born 16 August 1960 in Linz, Austria as Franz Möst), is the seventh and current Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. He has also served tenures with the London Philharmonic, the Zurich Opera, the Vienna Philharmonic, and other orchestras.

1 Early career
2 Cleveland
3 Recordings
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Early career

Welser-Möst studied under the composer Balduin Sulzer. His first major debuts were at the Salzburg Festival in 1985, followed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1986. Other guest conductor appearances comprised the first five years of his career: his American debut with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1989, performances with the orchestras of Atlanta, Boston, New York, Chicago, plus frequent returns to the London Philharmonic. In 1990, Welser-Möst accepted the London Philharmonic's invitation to become its Principal Conductor.

From 1995 to 2000 he was Music Director with the Opernhaus Zürich (Zurich Opera). While there, he led 27 new performances as well as numerous revivals. His most noteworthy performances there included the complete Ring Cycle. He became General Music Director of the Zurich Opera in September 2005, making a commitment to the Opera that extends through 2011. Among his performances at the Zurich Opera for the 2005-06 season, Mr. Welser-Möst conducted Eugen d'Albert’s Tiefland, Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Franz Schubert’s Fierabras. During the 2006-07 season, he will lead performances of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Richard Strauss’ Arabella and Der Rosenkavalier, and Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo and La Traviata, plus staged performances of Robert Schumann’s Scenes from Goethe’s Faust.

[edit] Cleveland

The Cleveland Plain Dealer regularly reviews his performances as does the Akron Beacon Journal. His direction of choral works has been singled out as excellent, with some reservations expressed about other orchestral elements. A lengthy February 2005 article in The New Yorker profiled the conductor and his orchestra and gave both high praise.

[edit] Recordings

From the start of his career Welser-Möst has heavily emphasized the importance of recording his work. While conducting the LPO he established an exclusive recording contract with EMI. This move produced several great successes and awards. His 1996 recording of Franz Schmidt's Symphony No. 4 received the Gramophone Award for "Best Orchestral Conducting." The CDs of Anton Bruckner's Mass No. 3/Te Deum and works of Erich Korngold both received Grammy Award nominations for "Best Classical Album." Welser-Möst struck a similar deal with EMI to record various performances at the Zurich Opera, but EMI's support for Welser-Möst has noticeably waned. EMI has neither produced nor released any recordings since Welser-Möst assumed the helm of the Cleveland Orchestra, and many of his earlier recordings have been deleted from the catalog. It was announced in March 2007 that Deutsche Grammophon will release the first commercial recording featuring the Cleveland Orchestra with Franz Welser-Möst: a Beethoven's Ninth with the high-profile German bass Rene Pape.

[edit] References

Rosenberg, Donald. The Cleveland Orchestra Story. Gray & Company Publishers, 2000. ISBN 1886228248.
Lebrecht, Norman. "He might be smiling now...". La Scena Online, August 16, 2000. Retrieved June 20, 2005
EMI Classics | Biographies | FRANZ WELSER-MÖST. March 2001. Retrieved June 20, 2005
"Franz Welser-Möst Music Director". Cleveland Orchestra website. September 24, 2004. Retrieved July 3, 2005
"Cleveland Orchestra partners with DG" The Gramophone website. March 6, 2007. Retrieved April 3, 2007

[edit] External links

Preceded by Klaus Tennstedt	Principal Conductor, London Philharmonic Orchestra 1990–1996	Succeeded by Kurt Masur
Preceded by Christoph von Dohnányi	Music Director, The Cleveland Orchestra 2002–present	Succeeded by incumbent