He shaped Viennese musical life for decades: the Russian conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev celebrates his 90th birthday on Friday.
Vladimir Fedoseyev has had a special position in Viennese musical life since the early 1990s. That he was at the helm for ten years Vienna Symphony Orchestra and gave the orchestra an artistic high, was no coincidence: since his early guest performances with the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, the audience had taken him into their hearts as one of the most passionate and idiosyncratic interpreters of romantic music in particular.
The fame of the orchestra teacher was already enormous, especially in professional circles. The audience at the Jeunesse concert had no idea of this, but were amazed when Carlos Kleiber appeared in the management’s box, overcoming his shyness to experience Fedoseyev and his orchestra live. Towards the end of the suite from Prokofiev’s ballet music “Romeo and Juliet” that was offered at the beginning, the die was cast: the escalating waves of the funeral march in “Tybalt’s Death” had an almost hypnotic effect on the entire auditorium.