theartsdesk Q&A: Donald Runnicles | reviews, news & interviews
theartsdesk Q&A: Donald Runnicles
theartsdesk Q&A: Donald Runnicles
Scotland's greatest conductor explains why he's returned home
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Conductor Donald Runnicles: 'I approach each and every concert with intensity, curiosity, also with a joy of knowing that it is unique'Hardy Wilson
Who's the greatest living British exponent of the late Romantic repertoire? Many would say Edinburgh-born conductor Donald Runnicles (b. 1954). Runnicles has spent the last 30 years quietly forging a formidable name for himself abroad, first, as a repetiteur in Mannheim, then as an assistant to Sir Georg Solti at Bayreuth, as guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera and, for the past two decades, musical director of San Francisco Opera. In 2007 the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra announced that Runnicles would return home to become their new chief conductor. This week he performs Strauss, Wagner and Mahler in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. He tells me how he came to work with Solti, how opera moulded his style and how a few remarks about how he was considering leaving America if Bush won another election got him into serious hot waters.
Who's the greatest living British exponent of the late Romantic repertoire? Many would say Edinburgh-born conductor Donald Runnicles (b. 1954). Runnicles has spent the last 30 years quietly forging a formidable name for himself abroad, first, as a repetiteur in Mannheim, then as an assistant to Sir Georg Solti at Bayreuth, as guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera and, for the past two decades, musical director of San Francisco Opera. In 2007 the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra announced that Runnicles would return home to become their new chief conductor. This week he performs Strauss, Wagner and Mahler in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. He tells me how he came to work with Solti, how opera moulded his style and how a few remarks about how he was considering leaving America if Bush won another election got him into serious hot waters.
If you believe the good reviews you deserve to believe the bad ones.
Share this article
more Classical music
Bevan, Williams, BBCSO, MacMillan, Barbican review - inspirational journey from darkness to light
UK premiere of 'Fiat Lux' alongside other works evoking transcendence and revelation
First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra
From watching Handel's 'Israel in Egypt' on TV to conducting it
Hughes, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - Clyne shines, Grime fragments
Playing and programming admirable, but this concert bulged at the seam
Classical CDs: Cigars, cognac and tarantulas
Concertante works for cello and orchestra, plus music for pianos, winds and solo strings
Winterreise, Clayton, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, QEH review - new maps for the great journey
A mighty tenor surmounts obstacles on stage and in score
Esther, London Handel Festival, St George’s Hanover Square review - a lopsided celebratory oratorio
Anniversary acclaim rooted in the honorary Londoner's first concert drama
First Person: Laurence Cummings on his 25th and final year as Musical Director of the London Handel Festival
A blockbuster month begins tomorrow, mixing starry casts with new talent
Theresienstadt-Terezin 1941-1945, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - memorial music of stunning impact
Masterpieces from composers murdered by the Nazis in a rich day of offerings
Osborne, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - an orchestra at the top of its game
Another Bruckner symphony for the 200th anniversary year
Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium review - making a move
Music and motion combine for an engaging performance
Morison, Big Noise Wester Hailes, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - shimmering delicacy and surging swell
Fine Impressionism from resident orchestra, but young players bring the broadest smiles
Murray, Vlaams Radiokor, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - visual ‘interpretation’ blunts sonic brilliance in Szymanowski rarity
Sterling work from conductor and orchestra couldn’t save an incoherent evening
Add comment