- Hello.

I am here.

How are you?

So great to see you.

- Oh Manfred, how nice to see you.

- Nice to see you.

- Thank you so much for doing this with me.

- Absolutely.

It's a pleasure, and an honor to see you today.

- Well, thank you.

It's my honor.

Please sit down.

And we will talk as we have talked so many times before.

- Absolutely.

- Well, I wanna go back a little bit to when you first came to Pittsburgh as music director.

I was on the board of the Pittsburgh Symphony at that point, and I remember very clearly the evening, Dick Simmons, who was the board chair at that point, was taking you to meet the orchestra.

The official announcement that you'd been hired.

The orchestra was in the lowest level of Heinz Hall.

The board was up on the top floor, and we were up there and all of a sudden we heard this tremendous roar and the building virtually shook.

That was the musicians reacting to the official announcement that you were becoming the music director of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

And I never forget that.

- That they kept it secretly.

Normally it's impossible to keep things two years secretly, who will be the new music director, the successor of Mariss Jansons.

And when this happened, nobody knew who except some yeah.

Officials in the, in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

This impressed me, you know, and as in I thought it was a great moment in my life also to go down the stairs and seeing the wonderful musicians and all friends and donors, patrons of the Pittsburgh Symphony.

And I met you then, and this was one of these wonderful moments where I did not know that we kept, keep a friendship for a long time.

- Let's talk a little bit, just briefly biographically.

You started as a violist.

- Exactly.

I was a violist in the Vienna Philharmonic.

I want to say that my family lived in a very small village in, in, in Austria, in the Alps, so to say.

And we have nine kids.

My mother passed away quite early, actually.

I was seven years old.

And my father had, he was a music lover, and he had the idea that all kids playing an instrument or starting an instrument.

And when my mother passed away, I, he decided to move to Vienna, to the capital city of Music.

And just of one reason, he wanted to have the best teachers in the world, even we had no money.

And we moved to Vienna in the capital town and got to study in the, in the music academy in Vienna.

And I always impressed if my father would not make this decision, I would not sit here.

Because of this risky decision to move with, with all the families, with all the kids down, and have no money with all one reason.

I want to do the best for my kids.

And I'm so grateful and thankful that he made this decision.

And always when I make a decision, I remember this moment.

- So why did you decide to change from playing the viola to conducting?

- I remember I went to the standing, I was surrounded by tall adults around me, 300 people in the standing place, and I was in the middle of them.

This is another example, the usher.

An old man saw me and picked me out of this crowd of adults and put me on the front.

And this, I still remember that.

Another example by the way, that this usher changed actually my life, because in that moment I thought, oh, it would be fantastic to be a musician and fantastic to be a conductor.

So my heart was then, so to say, filled with this longing for be a musician, longing for be on the stage as an as orchestral musician.

And finally, actually as a conductor.

I wanted to thank the usher later on when I became a conductor, because he did not know what he did for me.

But he died already.

He was so I could not thank him.

It started always when I played, oh, I would like to be conducting.

I would, it it started to, to the fire in my heart was, was so strong and that I felt it must come the time when I have to make decision.

I got some offers to conduct when I still was member of, of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

So they asked me, come back, I want to give you some weeks to conduct.

And so, so it, it was a conflict constantly and it's starting to grow.

And I was thinking, what shall I do?

I had already three kids at home and I, I, I knew it.

It will come the time I have to make a decision.

Either you are orchestra musician and regard or see the, the conducting life as a hobby or you make a, this radical decision, leave the orchestra and be a conductor.

Somehow in my career, I always had the feeling do the thing what your heart tells me.

And you know what, because I knew some conductors, I asked them, what do you think?

Shall I leave the orchestra?

And one of the conductors was Lenny Bernstein.

So I felt go to Lenny Bernstein and ask him the question.

And he gave me an hour after the rehearsal in Muzikverein in the conducting room.

And we went through all the ideas and he told me about his life in, in as a conductor, what it should could be.

In the end he told me, Manfred, if you feel you should do this, do it.

If you feel it might be not the right time, or you have doubts, don't be worried.

The next offer will come.

He knew exactly.

If I say no the next morning when I wake up, I will regret it.

I still remember how this, he said it with this, with this, this low voice.

You know, he was, you know, drinking a lot of whiskey and, and smoking, you know, so his voice was a little bit low.

But he was so generous with me and, and I'm very thankful for, for his advice.

Even if I knew in my heart I will do it.

But to hear this from a, from such a wonderful conductor authority as it made my life very, very happy.

- To achieve what you want to achieve.

How important is the relationship between you and the orchestra and how much does eye contact contribute to that relationship?

- Enormously.

It is enormously important.

And it's not only the eyes, it's the whole body actually has to reflect the music making and give a message.

Unfortunately, we have only two hands, and the two hands should give signs to the musicians.

Not only when to play, but also how to play.

And my conducting style is absolutely in this way that I try to identify the character of the music.

Look on gesture.

When you do this gesture, it's this gesture, always a down, bring something down.

If you just, with only gesture, this gesture is up through that.

You can already psychological tell the musicians, play more or play less, or you, you paint through the gesture, a melody, you know, when you do this, ya da dump dee dee dump dee dee yada instead of ya da dump dee dee dump.

If you want to be together, then do only this, but bring them a little bit kind of freedom.

So I move some, some of that.

So eye contact is very important, but also the gesture of the hands or the body.

How do we stand and how do we, which kind of identity the music needs at the moment.

Every gesture should reflect the music.

That's what I try to learn and what try to learn in my beginning of conducting.

And I think this is the most I important be with your whole body, with your eye, with your thinking, with your brain into, sink into the music and your musicians will automatically understand what's going on in music.

And if we, if I as a conductor and the orchestra are together, the audience will take this.

- Manfred, one of the things that I've noticed and audiences notice is the seating arrangement that you use for our musicians here where you have first violinists and then the, the basses and the cellos and the violas, and then the second violinists, which is kind of non-traditional, at least from our understanding.

Can you explain why you like to do it that way?

- Yeah, it's a very important question because as a conductor, you always ask yourself what kind of tradition happened, was existing in that time when a composer wrote the piece.

When we say it's a traditional seating, it was not traditional until the year around 1920.

All composers living before had heard their piece, their own piece in this seating, which I prefer at for their pieces.

So that means the first violin on, on my left side and on the opposite, on my right side is the second violin.

And so if, if the composers Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Mahler, they heard their own pieces in that seating and they composed it.

After that in the 20th century, it changed.

And my question was always, why did it change?

Why did it change?

And there is a lot of reasons can be, but we don't know really, but I think one of the reason why it's the recording industry started and there was actually only, only one microphone.

So the, the technicians, the producer, asked can the high string instruments sit together and the low sit together.

So they moved then from year to year, the second violin on, on the other side.

And so, and it became then in the fifties, sixties, the, so to say, the traditional seating what I was used also.

So I changed it and, and I think for me personally, it makes completely sense.

I see the music and I see this as these two violin groups, as separate groups.

And it helps a lot also to create and, and, and own way of playing might be as a section of playing.

It's more strong, I think.

It's not easy to play together sometimes left and right, but it's also whether viola sit there or the cello sit there.

Once again, I believe very strongly, let's go back to, to the idea how the composer has composed the piece in which setting.

And that should be the right setting for me.

- What is the most thrilling concert you have ever played?

- Oh, this is a very difficult question to answer because every concept for me is so to say a gala.

You know, it's actually, I give everything what I have in my life, you know, and, and, and the moment I want to do the best.

There might be one concert might be a lot of concert when I think now very spontaneously.

There was one concert in a series of Music for Spirit, which I did.

We called it the Singing City, where I conducted here in Pittsburgh, 3000 chorus members with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra together and excerpts of, of the symphonic choral repertoire.

It was amazing.

It was the sound of that was so, can you imagine 3000 chorus singing Die Auferstehung symphony, the Resurrection Symphony And it was so beautiful and so overwhelming, I must say.

And still today I, I meet people saying maestro, I was singing this concert, you know, I was singing that, you know, and, and it was for them the most important concert.

I must also say that there sometimes also depends on the reflection, not of your own life.

When somebody passes away and you just conduct a concert, you know, it's also personally, sometimes when I did the Mozart Requiem years ago, somebody passed away and then dedicated this, this music also to the person.

It's always great, great moments for me personally, you know, when I thought, this is the moment where I lost a, a wonderful human.

And, and, and the music strongly connects at with that at the moment, with with, with this passing of this with human.

So I have a lot of wonderful moments, but this specific moment when you have this 3000 chorus and expanded orchestra, I think it was one, a one time life experience for me.

- Your family, you are married to Christiane, whom do I recall that you were students together, you and Christiane when you met?

- Yes, we met each other in a youth orchestra, actually in the second violin.

I was still, still playing violin here and we got to know each other in Salzburg.

We had a summer camp, so to save for the orchestra and here it started my relationship and not knowing that I will have six children with her.

I am married her and she was 18, I was 23 years old and had already a job.

I will get a job in, in the Vienna Philharmonic then.

- I recall once when the Pittsburgh Symphony was playing at the Proms in the Albert Hall, and I think your two youngest were there with Christiane, sitting next to me and in the Albert Hall, the conductor comes up from sort of a tunnel and onto the stage and the audience applauds and goes crazy and so forth.

And I remember thinking, what must it feel like to your children to see their father come up and the audience applaud?

Are they proud?

Are they excited?

- I think, you know, they are used to it, you know, they think it's just normal that a father come on a stage and conduct it's my daily life.

And, and, and they are completely used to it.

What is beautiful that, that they still come to the concert and enjoy the concert.

And we talk about the music.

What, what do they like?

They, because each of them, my kids played an instrument.

Not all of them are musicians, you know, but they played an instrument and they understand the music.

So I think most important is knowing of course, the father and knowing of the musicians, - How many grandchildren now?

- The 12th grandchild was just born three weeks ago.

And so we are blessed.

We have had to buy a new table at home for when they all come together.

Yeah.

So it's beautiful.

- Is there one piece that you haven't yet conducted that you want to especially?

- Oh yes, there are a lot of pieces, actually I must say.

Mahler's eighth symphony.

This is a piece I wanted to do in Pittsburgh in the beginning already, you know, it's the great, the symphony of thousands was never performed here in Pittsburgh.

I'm a big Mahler fan actually, you know, and this, I miss that still.

But we have plans and I'm really looking forward to, to, to conduct this pieces will be a, a sensation actually to do it first time here.

And of course, new pieces from other composers like Tchaikovsky and also favorite Mozart have not conduct all the, all the symphonies yet.

Beethoven we have done all, so it's already done so to say.

But, and also maybe like to conduct an opera and I just played some excerpts from Puccini, Suor Angelica, Manon Lescaut and then so wonderful opera.

I'm a big Puccini fan also.

I never conducted La Boheme, for example.

I would like to do this one time, you know, so a lot of repertoire, which I have not yet presented, but I hope it's still time.

- Conductors conduct for many, many years.

And so you may have many, many, I hope, many, many years yet ahead.

What are your, your dreams, your hopes, not only here in Pittsburgh, but as you move around the world, what do you look forward to or hope that you will be able to do as a musician, as a conductor?

- Well, as a conductor, you have a lot of responsibility.

It, it's not only the music itself.

When you open the score, you know what the composer has written, but you go on stage and dealing with people, you in contact with the management, you are in contact with the audience.

You have to answer letters all the time.

Music lovers send you letters.

And then, so we have to, a lot of other things besides conducting.

I would say my biggest wish in my life, is that I could continue to enjoy that people enjoy the music.

That the people enjoy, the music in the way that they can add something on for their own life.

That the life may be better after hearing the music through our concert or recording or through our presence.

And I see my conducting profession not only as an executor on the stage and making music, I see it also guiding people through their own life and helping them to understand their own life.

Helping them to make their life better and more exciting.

And to have, to have a feeling to serve the people.

This is what I want to, you know, conducting come from conducere, so guide together and this is a thing, what, what I, for the rest of my life, I want it is the main purpose.

To make people happy and give them the feeling, I add something for, for listening to music.

Classic music, classic music is so fantastic and it is, I hope that people in understand it more and more and understand the content of the music more and more and get connected with classic music.

All those people who are doing that will never regret it.

They will always find something in the classic music, which goes deep in their heart.

They will never lose it.

They will might not understand it in the beginning, might be.

Like a Bruckner Symphony or even a Mahler Symphony.

When you hear it, first time you have some questions, second time and third time, then the whole life, you will never lose that.