{"id":50781,"date":"2024-12-12T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8f79ab94-c453-4fd9-817a-9d8badd46c00"},"modified":"2024-12-12T11:09:19","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T10:09:19","slug":"a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur\/","title":{"rendered":"A passionate and sometimes volatile perfectionist… What was it like to study with conductor Kurt Masur?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Thursday, 12 December 2024 at 09:30 AM<\/p>

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Read on to discover what it was like to study with legendary German conductor Kurt Masur, as remembered by new Hall\u00e9 principal conductor Kahchun Wong…<\/strong><\/p>

Conductor Kurt Masur could be a volatile perfectionist…<\/h3>
I first met Kurt Masur in 2011, at a conducting<\/a><\/strong> masterclass in New York. Kurt was very passionate about music \u2013 he was a perfectionist, and could be volatile on the podium.<\/p>

Obituary: Kurt Masur (1927-2015)<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul>
Each time I was conducting at that first masterclass he seemed very unhappy with me. In fact, I did four masterclasses with him that year, and each time Kurt would seem upset with me \u2013 more so than with any other student. But I think this was his way of showing love and interest in\u00a0his disciple.\u00a0<\/p>

<\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Kurt Masur conducts the Gewandhaus Orchestra, of which he served as principal conductor for 26 years, in Beethoven’s <em>Egmont Overture<\/em> <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/20-greatest-conductors-all-time\">Greatest conductors of all time: 30 of the finest baton wielders in classical music history<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Musur believed in being a good human first, and a musician second<\/h3> <p>Kurt really believed that before being a good musician, one has to be a good human being. You can see this from his actions during the 1989 protests against the East German Communist government, when he went onto the radio to calm the protesters and the police. He also opened the doors of the Gewandhaus, Leipzig\u2019s historic concert hall, and invited the protesters in for a peaceful, meaningful dialogue.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/conductor-types\">The 15 types of conductor. Which of these have you spotted?<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <p>He believed that we are not just making pretty music for the concert hall: there is something deeper about being an artist and connecting with people.<\/p> <h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Conductor Kurt Masur \u2013 the unlikely matchmaker!<\/h3> <p>He was also matchmaker to my wife and me! During one masterclass, in Japan, I went to see him every break-time with a list of questions. I think by the third or fourth day he was tired of this.<\/p> <p>He said to me, \u2018Kahchun, you have to get a life\u2019. My wife was in the orchestra, and Kurt suggested we get a coffee together. That was the start of our story together.<\/p> <ul class=\"wp-block-list\"> <li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/articles\/conductors-orchestra\">The conductors’ orchestra: meet the all-star orchestra made up of the world’s great conductors<\/a><\/strong><\/li> <\/ul> <figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"> <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Passing the baton: what sets Kahchun Wong apart as the new conductor of The Hall\u00e9 Orchestra\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/THBnjsXMpFA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/> <\/div> <figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"> Introducing Kahchun Wong, the Hall\u00e9 Orchestra’s new principal conductor <\/figcaption> <\/figure> <p\/> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Thursday, 12 December 2024 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover what it was like to study with legendary German conductor Kurt Masur, as remembered by new Hall\u00e9 principal conductor Kahchun Wong… Conductor Kurt Masur could be a volatile perfectionist… I first met Kurt Masur in 2011, at a conducting masterclass in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":50782,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/12\/a-passionate-and-sometimes-volatile-perfectionist-what-was-it-like-to-study-with-conductor-kurt-masur.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Thursday, 12 December 2024 at 09:30 AM Read on to discover what it was like to study with legendary German conductor Kurt Masur, as remembered by new Hall\u00e9 principal conductor Kahchun Wong… Conductor Kurt Masur could be a volatile perfectionist… I first met Kurt Masur in 2011, at a conducting masterclass in New…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/50781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}