In Wednesday’s (3/12) Wall Street Journal, David Mermelstein interviews the German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi in Boston, where he was conducting Beethoven concerts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. “After departing this city … he journeys to Cleveland, where he is music director laureate of that city’s orchestra, having been its maestro between 1984 and 2002. Then it’s off to ensembles in Philadelphia, New York, San Diego and Chicago before returning to Europe in early May.… At age 84 Mr. Dohnányi … shows no signs of slowing down…. Mr. Dohnányi … is the subject of a recent book [that concludes] in the waning days of World War II, when the conductor’s father, Hans, a German jurist, and three uncles … are executed for plotting against Hitler.… ‘I don’t know if I’d be courageous enough to do what my father did,’ he said.… Yet for Mr. Dohnányi there’s a difference between risking one’s life and taking a stand. ‘I don’t like the idea that artists should keep out of politics,’ he said. ‘The more you know and understand art, the more you have to defend values.… You should speak up—and early enough to matter. That’s the only thing I would say about Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwängler.… These people should have spoken up earlier.’ ”
Posted March 14, 2014
