Franz Welser-Möst

Franz Welser- Möst (actually: Franz Leopold Maria Möst, born August 16, 1960 in Linz, Upper Austria ) is an Austrian conductor.

Life and work

Welser- Möst was born as the fourth child of parents Marilies Möst and Franz Möst. The family was very musical. He attended music school in Linz. There Baldwin Sulzer became aware of his talent and became his most important teacher and promoter. Möst studied composition and violin. However, injuries from a serious car accident in 1978 sealed his plans to pursue a career as a violinist. He devoted himself entirely to conducting.

Möst led until 1985, the Austrian Youth Orchestra. At the suggestion of his mentor Andreas von Bennigsen (1941-2000) took Möst this year the artist name Welser- Möst as an homage to the city of Wels, in which he had grown up on. In 1986, he was adopted by Bennigsen; In 1992 he married Bennigsen's former wife Angelika.

First commitments as conductor of a professional orchestra brought him to the city orchestra Winterthur and Lausanne in Switzerland, and to Norrköping in Sweden. In 1986, he caught at a concert of the London Philharmonic Orchestra international attention and led the orchestra in a row from 1990 to 1996, but under staunch opposition of the local press and with unpleasant things end. From 1995 to 2002 he was music director of the Zurich Opera House, where he was committed as a music director from September 2005 until the summer of 2008. Since 2002 he has been chief conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. His contract there for the time being until 2018.

In addition guested Welser-Möst at the Vienna State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Glyndebourne Festival and first time in 2004. At the Salzburg Festival, where in 2008 he conducted the Cleveland Orchestra with Antonín Dvořák's Rusalka celebrated a resounding success Previously, the Vienna Philharmonic had appealed the invitation of an American orchestra for an opera from the old Austrian Space protest.

On 6 June 2007 he was appointed by the Austrian Culture Minister Claudia Schmied general music director of the Vienna State Opera from 2010. He should guide the house with the Frenchman Dominique Meyer as director. Welser- Möst conducted in the fall of 2010, the first premiere of the new era, it was Hindemith's opera Cardillac. He also takes over three more premieres this season: Figaro and Don Giovanni by Mozart and Katja Kabanowa as the beginning of a multi-year Janáček cycle. In March 2010, Welser -Möst was much involved in the occurrence of the collective agreement Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera: The night before the match schedule press conference he obtained in the Republic with a threat of resignation for years promised increase of orchestral covers.

At New Year 2011 Welser-Möst conducted for the first time the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic. In January 2012, Minister Claudia Schmied stated that both the Treaty of Welser- Möst as that is also been extended by Meyer., And due to the success of the current conducted by him New Year's Concert 2011 and the good cooperation on " philharmonic level " at the Vienna State Opera also the New Year's Concert 2013.

Others

• Welser- Möst's great-grandmother 's maiden name was Aloysia Wild Dommayer from the family, from the casino Dommayer originated in the Vienna Hietzinger main street, which was the predecessor of the famous local cafe today Dommayer. In Dommayer the composer Johann Strauss father, Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss son had many of their premieres.
• Aloisia Dommayers mother ( Welser- Möst's great-grandmother ) was Catherine Scherzer, the daughter of the host and operator of the then-known dance hall to Sperl in Vienna's Leopoldstadt. ( The local dedicated Johann Strauss the Sperl hard Waltz, the Sperl -Polka, and the Sperl Galop. By Joseph Lanner comes the " Landler " Welcome to the Sperl. )
• Welser- Möst's paternal grandmother was from the family of game, in the Vienna Inner City gewordenenen the famous delicatessen operation Brothers game on the Neuer Markt.

Awards

• Gramophone Award
• Japanese Record Academy Award
• Two Grammy nominations
• Outstanding Achievement Award of the Western Law Center in Los Angeles in 1995 for his commitment to the Institute Hart Home
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Prize of the Goethe -Stiftung Basel 1999
• Honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland 2003
• Conductor of the Year 2003
• Honorary Professor at the Anton Bruckner Private University Linz