Photo: IMAGO/Maurizio Gambarin
“I only conduct pieces that I believe I have something to say about them,” can be read on the website of Sir Donald Runnicles, who, as it was announced on Wednesday, is the new chief conductor as the successor to Marek Janowski (84). the Dresden Philharmonic. Apparently the 69-year-old Scot wants to say something with Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss: the two German romantics have been part of the core of his repertoire for a long time, and he repeatedly performs their works with orchestras from all over the world. According to his own statements, Runnicles was already enthusiastic about Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelung” cycle in his youth – and, after studying in Edinburgh and London, began his career in Germany, including as an assistant at the Bayreuth Festival.
After many short and long engagements at home and abroad, Runnicles has been general music director of the Deutsche Oper in Berlin since 2009, as well as artistic director of the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson (USA) and principal guest conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. A worldly Germanophile who promises Dresden an international flair. Runnicles, who was knighted by the British Queen Elizabeth II in 2020, is also looking forward to his new task: “I encountered excellent musical quality, great trust and a type of interaction that I have hardly encountered anywhere before “I experienced,” he is quoted by the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. He will officially take up his position in the 2025/26 season, but will be the designated chief conductor at the Elbe from next season. However, the maestro is probably in New York right now: Next Saturday, Wagner’s “Tannhäuser” will be performed at the Metropolitan Opera under his musical direction. Runnicles completely in his métier.
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