BD: You conduct both symphony and opera. Aside from the very obvious, what are the differences between being on the podium and being in the pit?
CK: Being on the podium is no question easier; much easier! Sometimes being in the pit is more interesting! Because first of all, it’s always very challenging to work with singers, and second, when I started to make music at the age of seven, I was playing violin. After many, many years, I decided, okay, violin maybe it’s not something for me. Then I decided to let’s see what happens if I study conducting. And I did it, and now here we are.
BD: Do you ever miss the violin?
CK: Only concerning chamber music. But what I want to say is the only thing for me which is really interesting to spend your whole life in — excluding conducting — is singing. That’s the reason why, for me, to be in the pit is so interesting, because to express yourself with music and to use your own body and your own voice is so overwhelming that I like it very much to work with singers. Another topic which is very important has something to do with breathing. If you don’t breathe, you are not able to make music properly, and let me tell you, if you don’t breathe, you are never able to conduct an opera! [Both laugh] They have to breathe on stage, and if you don’t breathe together, after the performance the singers are going to kill you! That’s a real challenge, and I like it very much!
BD: [With a slight nudge] So the fact that you have survived means that you have done it at least partially right?
CK: I hope so! [Both laugh]
BD: Is there ever a night that most things — or everything — goes right onstage?
CK: I would say everything, never. Never. Even in concerts, which are easier, never.
BD: What advice do you have for younger conductors coming along?
CK: I think it’s funny because I’m now starting to be at the age where I’m not anymore considered one of them. But it’s not going to happen for the next fifteen years that I’m considered one of the experienced guys! Because conductors, if we are good, we start to be really interesting at the age of sixty, sixty-five, seventy.
BD: So now you’re a zwischenfach? [Note: Zwischenfach refers to movement between two categories, notably singers who perform both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles, or, less frequently, basses who also sing baritone parts.]
CK: I’m a zwischenfach conductor, yeah, right! [Laughs] When I was twenty-nine, I was really, really very young. Now I am forty-one and I’m zwischenfachen; but zwischenfachen conducting is fifteen to twenty years, so let’s see what happens afterwards!
BD: Has your progress been always upward and steady so far?
CK: I wouldn’t say so. I wouldn’t say so. It was sometimes difficult, and since the age of twenty-nine, I was always music director — always, excluding one year. I’m now in my third position as Music Director in Dessau, East Germany, which is south of Berlin, and I’m going to be Music Director of Niederosterreich Tonkünstler-Orchester in Vienna in the year 2000. That’s a major symphonic orchestra in Vienna. Maybe not all decisions which I’ve taken considering music directorship were correct, if you see them from my point of view now, but it was an experience. It was not very easy, and let me tell you, to be a music director, is really sometimes very hard. Sometimes it’s fun...
BD: What all is involved in being music director — besides waving the stick?
CK: There is a big difference, as you know, between being a music director in Germany or Austria, and being music director here in America. Certainly I would very much like to experience a music directorship here in America, because I like very, very much to work with American orchestras. Being a music director in Germany means you have to make all your programs. In my personal case, I’m a small dictator because I make not only my programs, I make the programs for all my guests. I invite every soloist and tell him what to play.
BD: You don’t pick from their suggested lists?
CK: No. No, no, because normally the programs I make are not programs thrown together just for fun. I try to use a certain topic and make a program relate to the topic.
BD: And it has to fit into the season as a whole.
CK: It has to fit into the season, yeah. And something which is very important to me, I try to do two things with my orchestras. First of all, if I think it’s necessary I try to increase repertoire.
BD: Both ways — old and new?
CK: Yeah. And second, I try to increase the standards, no question; that’s the reason why I’m there! I try to work with them in very, very different styles. Facing all these topics, for me it’s not really useful if I ask another conductor, “What would you like to conduct?” Certainly I’m not that bad, because I do talk to them, but I’m absolutely used to telling them, “I would very much like if you could do for me this and that.” And most of the time it works. Some other times, the conductor says, “It’s not good. Would you mind if I do this and that?” And I say, “Okay.”
BD: If what they want to do is close enough?
CK: Close enough, yeah. The repertoire of music is so big you can do a lot of things.
BD: Is the repertoire too big?
CK: Well, no, no. It’s not too big. It’s so big that you are absolutely able to spend your whole life only in classical music, and that’s what I’m doing.
BD: I assume that pleases you.
CK: Yes, certainly. Otherwise I wouldn’t do it.
* * * * *
BD: You mentioned that you are now forty-one. Are you at the point in your career that you want to be at this age?
CK: No.
BD: Where would you want to be?
CK: The word “career” is not so important for me because career means that at a certain point in my life I have to be Music Director of Berlin Philharmonic or Chicago Symphony or whatsoever. Why should that happen? If it happens, I certainly will like it! [Both laugh] It’s no question. For me, the most important thing is to make music with an orchestra and to make it as good as I can. Therefore, I don’t think I would ever use the word if I’ve already arrived at the point I want to arrive. You always have to be studying, learning and going far.
BD: Do you like traveling all over the world?
CK: No, no. No, I never liked it, because my family is very important, and as you are traveling, you never see them! My wife and my two daughters are never coming with me. Now they are in Chicago because we are on holiday, so we decided we meet here in Chicago. But normally that does not happen, so I can’t see them very often, and that’s not good. As we say, I’m married to music, but music is not everything in life.
BD: Does your wife like having a second marriage in the family?
CK: Well, what can she say? I was first married to music and then I married her.
BD: So she knew what she was getting into?
CK: No, no, no. Even I didn’t know what I was getting into because what you call career could have been completely different than it is now.
BD: When you’re Music Director of an orchestra, do you select the new players?
CK: Yes.