The Munich Philharmonic have initially found a replacement for their dismissed boss Valery Gergiev (also: Valeri Gergiev). The conductors Manfred Honeck and Andris Nelsons will conduct the orchestra’s next concerts, as the Philharmoniker announced on Thursday. Honeck will conduct the concerts on March 17th and 18th in Munich and on March 20th in the Musikverein in Vienna. The orchestra plays the 8th symphony by Anton Bruckner.
Andris Nelsons will conduct the concerts on March 19 in Munich, March 21 in Vienna and March 22 in Frankfurt. Like Honeck, he takes over the planned program unchanged: the pianist Yefim Bronfman plays the 3rd Piano Concerto by the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, followed by Sergei Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony.
Munich’s Mayor Dieter Reiter had thrown out the 68-year-old Russian Gergiev because of his friendship with President Vladimir Putin. Gergiev did not comply with the request to distance himself from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. It is still unclear who should follow him permanently as head of the Munich Philharmonic.
The director of the Salzburg Festival, Markus Hinterhäuser, had sharply criticized the mayor a few days ago in the ORF program “KulturMontag”. Reiter knew about Gergiev’s closeness to Putin; nevertheless, he extended the Maestro’s contract and described his engagement in Munich as a “stroke of luck”.