Richard Wagner published the first major treatise on conducting and interpretation in 1869. His ideas on how to interpret the core Classical and early Romantic orchestral repertoire were declared the benchmark by subsequent generations of conductors, making him the originator of a conducting tradition by which those who came after him defined their art – starting with Wagner’s student Hans von Bülow and progressing from him to Arthur Nikisch, Felix Weingartner, Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and beyond.

A symposium on 2-3 november 2018 in the Bern University of the Arts brought together leading experts in the research field in question. In a paper 'Willem Mengelberg, high priest of Beethoven and Mahler' Frits Zwart explained how Mengelberg was promoting Beethoven en Gustav Mahler's music whole his life and what characterized his interpretations.

http://www.hkb-interpretation.ch/annotated-scores

Read the program and a review of the symposium.

5 juli 2019