|
A rehearsal under Karl Böhm! This was a prospect that prompted
distinctly mixed feelings among orchestral musicians in Vienna, Berlin,
Bayreuth and New York! The Austrian conductor was respected and feared
by his musicians as an uncompromising but expert orchestral trainer and
an unassailable authority of the first order. Home viewers now have the
opportunity to watch the unforgotten Maestro in rehearsal and concert
of Don Juan, the popular tone poem by Richard Strauss. When Karl Böhm
was appointed general manager of the Dresden State Opera in 1933, he
began an intensive and fruitful collaboration with Richard Strauss,
which led to his conducting the world premieres of Die schweigsame Frau
and Daphne. Böhm set standards with his interpretations of the works of
Strauss. The unofficial curator of his musical legacy, Böhm knew his
friend's music inside and out - and he knew just how Strauss wanted his
works to sound. When writing down an opera Strauss naturally had a
precise idea of how certain passages were to sound, and if, at
rehearsal, one passage or another did not completely correspond to what
he had imagined, he ceaselessly criticized it and made corrections, but
nothing satisfied him. On such occasions he really did not show his
best side, but I willingly accepted it from such a personality because
I learned such an enormous amount from him Karl Böhm |
