Franz Welser-Möst studied the violin and piano as a child and also sang in a choir. When he was fourteen he entered the Linz Music School, and two years later began to conduct its orchestra and chorus, doing so in public for the first time in 1977. He survived a serious motor accident in 1978, when his car skidded on ice, but was left with permanent nerve damage in his left hand which destroyed any chance of a future career as an instrumentalist. In order to retain his relationship with music he concentrated wholly on conducting, and became a conducting pupil of Balduin Sulzer. He was a finalist in the 1979 Herbert von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin, and went on to study at the Music High School in Munich between 1980 and 1984, but did not graduate. Welser-Möst’s professional début as a conductor was in 1983 with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra; and his first permanent appointment came early in his career in 1986, when he took up the post of chief conductor of the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in Sweden, a position he retained until 1991. During 1986 he also substituted for Jesús López-Cobos in an all-Mozart concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, led it during a tour of Europe, and gained favourable critical coverage. As a result he received numerous offers of guest engagements, and he made his débuts at the Vienna State Opera, with Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, in 1987, and in the USA, with the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, in 1989.

In the following year, Welser-Möst became the chief conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His six-year tenure of this post was not without controversy, although in retrospect he viewed it as a valuable experience, commenting about it in an interview with Norman Lebrecht thus: ‘After London you learn to take criticism the right way. You learn the political side of our business—who has power, who abuses it. You learn to trust your instincts. The experience made it easier for me to deal with the world, to be stronger in my beliefs. I don’t regret one second of it.’ One notable feature of Welser-Möst’s period with the LPO was the production of an interesting discography with the orchestra for EMI, the record company with which he has been most closely associated to date.

Welser-Möst made his début at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera with Lehár’s Die lustige Witwe in 1993, returning to conduct Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Britten’s Peter Grimes. Before leaving the London Philharmonic Orchestra he was appointed chief conductor of the Zürich Opera House with effect from 1995, having first appeared there in 1992 conducting Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier. Here he was again able to explore a wide repertoire and in many ways to develop his career along the lines of the major conductors of the earlier part of the twentieth century, although he himself has said, ‘I’m not the old type of conductor. I try to live in the 21st century.’ This parallel with the past was further reinforced in 1999 when he was appointed to succeed Christoph von Dohnányi as chief conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, with effect from the 2002–2003 season. His musical direction of this great orchestra has been marked by a consistently adventurous approach to repertoire, as well as by ambitious touring plans, which have seen the orchestra performing in Europe more frequently than in the past, as well as undertaking exchange programmes with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Having learnt early in his career the dangers of accepting too many engagements, Welser-Möst now spends three months each year away from conducting. His guest-conducting is limited to appearances with the major orchestras in Berlin, Munich and Vienna, although he also maintains links with youth orchestras in both Europe and America.

In his performances Welser-Möst emphasizes clarity and a singing line. His interpretative character, as revealed by his work with the Cleveland Orchestra, is individual and distinct from those of his distinguished predecessors Szell, Maazel, and Dohnányi. To the virtuosity which is taken for granted in the USA, he has added a more European finesse and elegance. In the words of the critic of the Financial Times, writing in February 2005, ‘…avoiding exaggeration and refusing to acknowledge the possibility of vulgarity, he has persuaded his musicians to perform as if chamber music were a universal goal.’ Welser-Möst’s recordings have been made predominantly for EMI. In addition to music by canonical composers such as Bartók, Beethoven, Bruckner, Kodály, Lehár, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Stravinsky, his discography includes more unusual repertoire such as Korngold’s Symphony, Gruber’s Frankenstein!!, Kancheli’s Symphony No. 3, Pärt’s Fratres, Franz Schmidt’s Symphony No. 4 and oratorio Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, and Johann Strauss II’s rarely-heard operetta Simplizius.

© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).

Born in Hamburg, the son of a double bass player and his older seamstress wife, Brahms attracted the attention of Schumann, to whom he was introduced by the violinist Joachim. After Schumann’s death he maintained a long friendship with the latter’s widow, the pianist Clara Schumann, whose advice he always valued. Brahms eventually settled in Vienna, where to some he seemed the awaited successor to Beethoven. His blend of Classicism in form with a Romantic harmonic idiom made him the champion of those opposed to the musical innovations of Wagner and Liszt. In Vienna he came to occupy a position similar to that once held by Beethoven, his gruff idiosyncrasies tolerated by those who valued his genius.

Orchestral Music

Brahms wrote four symphonies, massive in structure, and all the result of long periods of work and revision. The two early serenades have their own particular charm, while Variations on a Theme by Haydn—in fact the St Anthony Chorale, used by that composer—enjoys enormous popularity, as it illustrates a form of which Brahms had complete mastery. A pair of overtures—the Academic Festival Overture and the Tragic Overture—and arrangements of his Hungarian Dances complete the body of orchestral music without a solo instrument. His concertos consist of two magnificent and demanding piano concertos, a violin concerto and a splendid double concerto for violin and cello.

Chamber Music

Brahms completed some two dozen pieces of chamber music, and almost all of these have some claim on our attention. For violin and piano there are three sonatas, Opp 78, 100 and 108, with a separate Scherzo movement for a collaborative sonata he wrote with Schumann and Dietrich for their friend Joachim. For cello and piano he wrote two fine sonatas: Opp 38 and 99. There are two late sonatas, written in 1894, for clarinet/viola and piano, Op 120, each version deserving attention, as well as the Clarinet Trio, Op 114, for clarinet, cello and piano, and the Clarinet Quintet, Op 115, for clarinet and string quartet, both written three years earlier. In addition to this, mention must be made of the three piano trios, Opp 8, 87 and 101; the Horn Trio, Op 40 for violin, horn and piano; three piano quartets, Opp 25, 26 and 60; the Piano Quintet, Op 34; and three string quartets, Opp 51 and 67. Two string sextets, Opp 18 and 36, and two string quintets, Opp 88 and 111, complete the list.

Piano Music

If all the chamber music of Brahms should be heard, the same may be said of his music for piano. Brahms showed a particular talent for the composition of variations, and this is aptly demonstrated in the famous Variations on a Theme by Handel, Op 24, with which he made his name at first in Vienna, and the ‘Paganini’ Variations, Op 35, based on the theme of the great violinist’s Caprice No. 24. Other sets of variations show similar skill, if not the depth and variety of these major examples of the art. Four Ballades, Op 10, include one based on a real Scottish ballad, Edward, a story of parricide. The three piano sonatas, Opp 1, 2 and 5, relatively early works, are less well known than the later piano pieces, Opp 118 and 119, written in 1892, and the Fantasias, Op 116, of the same year. Music for four hands, either as duets or for two pianos, includes the famous Hungarian Dances (often heard in orchestral and instrumental arrangement) and a variety of original compositions and arrangements of music better known in orchestral form.

Vocal and Choral Music

There is again great difficulty of choice when we approach the large number of songs written by Brahms, which were important additions to the repertoire of German Lied (art song). The Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op 52, for vocal quartet and piano duet are particularly delightful, while the solo songs include the moving Four Serious Songs, Op 121, reflecting preoccupations as his life drew to a close. ‘Wiegenlied’ (‘Cradle Song’) is one of a group of five songs, Op 49; the charming ‘Vergebliches Ständchen’ (‘Vain Serenade’) appears in the later set Five Romances and Songs, Op 84, and there are two particularly wonderful songs for contralto, viola and piano, Op 91: ‘Gestillte Sehnsucht’ (‘Tranquil Yearning’) and the Christmas ‘Geistliches Wiegenlied’ (‘Spiritual Cradle-Song’), Op 91, based on the carol ‘Josef, lieber Josef mein’(‘Joseph dearest, Joseph mine’).

Major choral works by Brahms include the monumental A German Requiem, Op 45, a setting of biblical texts; the Alto Rhapsody, Op 53, with a text derived from Goethe; the Schicksalslied (‘Song of Destiny’), Op 54 (a setting of Hölderlin); and a series of accompanied and unaccompanied choral works, written for the choral groups with which he was concerned in Hamburg and in Vienna.