KulturWest highlights Cristian Măcelaru's extended contract with WDR Sinfonieorchester

Cristian Măcelaru has extended his contract as chief conductor of the WDR Sinfonieorchester (Photo credit: Joern Neumann)

KulturWest highlights Cristian Măcelaru's extended contract with WDR Sinfonieorchester
By Christoph Vratz
KulturWest
June 26, 2020

Cristian Măcelaru has extended his contract as chief conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra by another three years - until July 31, 2025. What does it mean to make an orchestra fit for the future? A conversation from our KultureWest archive.

The first impression? "Relaxed." Pause. Then he adds: "Very well prepared." Pause. "Hungry". With these impressions, Cristian Măcelaru describes the mentality of his musicians when he first met them. It was in February 2017 that Măcelaru premiered with the WDR Symphony Orchestra, with music by Avner Dorman and Stravinsky. Now, two and a half years later, he is the head of the Cologne-based orchestra, freshly enthroned since his opening concert in early September. 

It should now steer the traditional orchestra in new directions. The Romanian looks like a counterpoint deliberately chosen by those responsible to his predecessor, the rather quiet Jukka-Pekka Saraste. For Măcelaru, whose answers (still) come almost ready to print in English, communication was a basic value from an early age. Growing up in Timisoara, Romania, he was the youngest of ten children who knew how to make himself heard early, also musically, because each of the ten children played an instrument. Although poverty shaped life in Ceaușescu-oppressed Romania, especially in rural areas, and after school, there was little freedom to work in the fields, the music provided an irreplaceable nutritional value. »Education and free access to music - that was the only positive thing about the system at the time.«

Măcelaru's path did not lead to Central Europe, but first to the United States in order to be trained as a violinist. He became the youngest concert master in the history of the Miami Symphony Orchestra and later sat in the Houston Symphony Orchestra. As a conductor, he is now much better known in the United States than in this country (still) - Măcelaru is a regular guest with the famous orchestras in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, where he was engaged as "Conductor in Residence" for three seasons. Now he is returning home to Old Europe, also because working conditions are different in Germany. “In America, the samples are under greater pressure. You have less time and you have to be faster and more effective, you can try less. There is hardly any air left to penetrate deeply into the music - this is different here.

When Măcelaru conducts, his movements oscillate between prudent and emphatic, always free of cheap effects and constantly switching back and forth with his alert eyes between the score and the looks of his musicians. Măcelaru's musical creed aims to make an orchestra play in the simplest, most natural way possible. But how? "I have a clear order of priority: the composer comes first, the orchestra second, me third." In practical terms: "First I try to understand what a composer wants to convey and how he wants to express what moves him and in what tradition he moves. I then try to convey this to my musicians so that they can derive their own access to this music and are willing to give the best. Only then can I help and readjust 

For Măcelaru, performing as a guest conductor means being dependent on how the musicians are at the moment. “You can help a conductor enormously, but you can also build up resistance on a less good day. As chief conductor, on the other hand, I can help an orchestra to develop in the long term - and vice versa, the orchestra can also help me to improve.” At WDR, he should lead the orchestra into the digital age, as it is officially used. Of course, the job is spongy, Măcelaru knows, too, who sees himself a little like the role of a pilot: Above all, he wants to convey the content and emotions of music that - for the most part - comes from past centuries. “But in the sound language of a Haydn or Mahler, our life today should also be reflected. We can motivate the audience, whether old or young, to better understand the meaning of this music.”

It is a question of listening habits, of balance, of perseverance, of time - and increasingly a question of the media. Streaming, videos, podcasts. A lot is conceivable. Not all of the plans are on the table yet, but if you listen to Măcelaru carefully, it quickly becomes clear that mediating does not mean imposing on him. It seems open to many things as long as the foundation, the music itself, does not groan or runs the risk of bending. Developing and implementing programs for him is also a question of inner attitude and at the same time a social mission that he willingly accepts. These thoughts also resonate when he speaks of a return to Europe ... to better understand the meaning of this music.

Read the original article in German here.