Marin Alsop at the Salzburg Festival: debut in special acoustics | News and criticism | BR CLASSIC
Marin Alsop at the Salzburg Festival
Debut in special acoustics
08.08.2022 by BR-CLASSIC
Marin Alsop makes her debut at the Salzburg Festival on Tuesday. She conducts works by György Ligeti, Georg Friedrich Haas and Leoš Janáček – with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Alsop is particularly curious about the acoustics of the Felsenreitschule. What initially appears to be a snag, it looks like it was built for the program.
Image Credit: Adrienne White
She has often been the first. The first woman to conduct a major US orchestra. Marin Alsop has been Principal Conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2007. She was also the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms at the BBC Proms in 2013. Marin Alsop started her career more than 30 years ago. And as a woman, things were often not easy. Compared to back then, they observed a positive trend today: “We are now going in the right direction,” says Alsop in an interview with BR-KLASSIK. “But there is still a long way to go before a real balance is reached.”
Debut at the Salzburg Festival
In addition to her position in Baltimore, Marin Alsop has also been chief conductor of the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2019 – again as the first woman. And with this orchestra she is now making her debut at the Salzburg Festival. Marin Alsop is looking forward to it. The program includes works by György Ligeti, Georg Friedrich Haas and Leoš Janáček. “We work very hard to create different soundscapes,” says Alsop. You can also hear that in concert.
Special acoustics in the Felsenreitschule
The Felsenreitschule in Salzburg was used for concerts centuries ago. | Image source: picture-alliance/dpa
Marin Alsop will conduct at the Felsenreitschule. A special place. Behind the stage are three-story stone-carved arcades. “I haven’t conducted at the Felsenreitschule yet. But I think that this program is ideal for the acoustic conditions there.” In Janáček’s Sinfonietta, some brass players will play offstage from the arcades. The alphorns in Georg Friedrich Haas’ Concerto Grosso, on the other hand, are supposed to be on stage. “It’s a really great programme, because the traditional is combined with the new – in other words, folk music with concert music,” enthuses Alsop.
How about Wagner?
Marin Alsop does not want to rule out whether she will also conduct in Bayreuth at some point after her debut in Salzburg. At least she would no longer be the first female conductor there. In 2021, Oksana Lyniv will appear at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus as the first woman on the podium. With Wagner, however, Alsop hasn’t gotten that far yet. “His music and his entire aesthetic are a very big, very own world,” she says. His music is phenomenal. However, there will be no opportunity for her to deal more intensively with Wagner in the near future: “My calendar is just too full for that.”
Broadcast: “Leporello” on August 9, 2022 from 4:05 p.m. on BR-KLASSIK