Daring to try something new with Mozart

Franz Streuber

"Young and impatient" is how Franz Streuber describes himself when he first launched the small Mozart Festival in Chemnitz 25 years ago. With music in his heart, he has found fellow campaigners and supporters over the years. Today, the Saxony-wide music festival captivates classical music lovers from all over Saxony and interprets Mozart's work in a variety of ways. The 25th Saxon Mozart Festival traditionally begins on 13 May in the Kreuzkirche, and this year the French violinist Gilles Apap will conduct the opening concert recorded by MDR Kultur. Until 29 May, 27 events will be performed in twelve different cities, 17 of them in Chemnitz alone.

How do you go about putting together such an extensive programme of events?
Franz Streuber: The conceptual preparations have been going on for years. There are now traditional forms that have proven themselves and provide a framework for the festival. New formats are added. Most of the programme is created in close partnership with the cultural players. For example, I am very pleased that the ballet company is showing Mozartbriefe by Reiner Feistel at the municipal theatres. It is important for our city that we know each other well, help each other and inspire each other. Together, we ensure that we also receive impulses from outside so that we don't stew in our own juices. In Chemnitz, many people work with the intention of creating a special quality that is unique to Chemnitz.

For example, what was something memorable in the past?
A lot has accumulated in 25 years. I immediately think of the three-part performance in the Markthalle when it was still being remodelled. The very first concert in the Villa Esche also took place before it opened, when it was still being renovated. The Villa Esche was still being gutted. These are very exciting things.

Moods of change seem to inspire you. Was it the same 25 years ago?
Yes, absolutely. I wanted to make a difference. I was at the round table on culture and witnessed how the Lothar Buchheim Museum didn't come to Chemnitz. Back then, we realised an analysis that looked at the cultural substance in Karl-Marx-Stadt / Chemnitz. We deduced from this what was missing and the question arose: who would realise this? It was clear to me that you can't always point the finger at others. The political change and the new democratic structures gave us the opportunity to realise something ourselves.

Franz Streuber owes his first musical and cultural education to his time in Dessau. It was the theatre musicians there who trained him as a horn player. At the Franz Liszt School of Music in Weimar, he encountered the alert, free spirit of Professor Karl Biehlig, who passionately entrusted him with his musical heritage. Franz Streuber still remembers his political statement today: "I only love one flag. And that's the frying pan," the professor would have said when asked about the GDR's pledge of allegiance. Franz Streuber interprets it this way today: to stand up for the immediate life.

What are you looking forward to at this year's Mozartfest?
This year we are presenting an exhibition entitled "Mozart in Kursachsen" for the first time. As part of the 9th symphony concert of the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra, the exhibition will be on display for visitors to the concert in the foyer of the Chemnitz City Hall on 4 and 5 May.
After 25 years of the Saxon Mozart Society, we are also reflecting on our own work here. Not in the form of self-congratulation, but with a view to the future. For example, our goal is to actually have 100 Mozart children in our programme in 2018. 56 children are currently being supported, and we want to increase this number. We have this guiding principle: fulfilment through music - experiencing it together. And it is rewarding to work towards this goal.

Every year you find a motto for your festival. This year it is "Genius and Generations". How is this approach reflected in the programme?
The Mozartfest is now a quarter of a century old. The first "Little Mozart Festival" took place in spring 1992. While analysing the 25-year history, we came to the conclusion that 250 years ago Mozart created a composition with the Köchelverzeichnis 25, in which he varied a Dutch folk song. This prompted us to look at Mozart's predecessors, his contemporaries, but also the impact of his work over the generations. We also create a programme that spans generations. We have included musical collages from the municipal music school in our formats, the Mozart children are taking part and the long piano night will be a special highlight. Max Reger, the 100th anniversary of whose death this year, also drew heavily on Bach and Mozart and is included in the programme. Trumpeter Ludwig Güttler will play the programme "Mozart's Fathers" in the Freie Presse printing house, which will be an exciting venue. The German-Serbian band Uwaga will play at the Saxon Archaeological Museum. That shows: we know no borders.

Franz Streuber's first time in Karl-Marx-Stadt was in 1978 for Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the opera house. "That was at the beginning of my studies and I thought: what if I could gain a foothold in an orchestra like that. That was beyond the realms of possibility at the time, but it was a secret goal," he reveals. He joined the orchestra as a trainee in 1983. Two years later, he took up his position as horn player.

To what extent is your professional career responsible for the Saxon Mozart Festival?
The opera and the philharmonic orchestra are an essential basis for the development of the Mozartfest. My professional life makes it possible for me to be so involved in voluntary work. And this is also true for many other members of the Saxon Mozart Society. Many of them have their professional anchor elsewhere in our city and want to create something that touches people's hearts where they live and work. I also see many of my colleagues at the Philharmonie involved in very different exemplary forms of civic engagement.

They started out as a small music festival, but quickly grew beyond the city limits.
We clearly focussed on our city. But we didn't want to make the mistake of centralising everything. From the very beginning, we wanted an interaction between the regional centre and the region as well as between the regional centre and the metropolises of Leipzig and Dresden. And we have already been everywhere with the Mozart Festival: in the Schloßbergmuseum, in the moated castle Klaffenbach, in the Villa Esche, in the Tietz, in the Industrial Museum, in the Saxon Archaeological Museum. We also had a piano on the market square for two days. Actually, "we" are just a small office in Hartmannstraße. A small team of knowledge carriers, preservers and new creators. I have seen all these things grow over the past 25 years. That's what makes it worth living for me.

Today, your goal is to be recognised throughout Europe. How do you intend to achieve this?
We have good international relations, for example with Romania, the Czech Republic and Italy, Austria, France and the Netherlands. In mid-April, we received a grant for our German-Czech project Viva la Musica, which will enable us to tackle several joint musical projects with Chemnitz's twin city Usti nad Labem. Here, too, professionals will meet up-and-coming musicians from both cities, so that we do not promote pigeonholing, but instead achieve a multi-layered encounter between our own, inner-city forces and foreign influences. We can cook up a tasty soup here locally and at the same time think outside the box. Such endeavours have made my life in Chemnitz very rich.

The Mozart Festival is certainly the highlight for the Saxon Mozart Society. But you are also active beyond that. Which other projects are particularly close to your heart?
In addition to the Mozart Children, these include the European Summer Philharmonic Orchestra and Summer Choir on the Küchwaldbühne and the Labyrinth of Lights on the Brühl.

What is so special about Mozart that he has given your festival its name for 25 years?
It certainly has to do with my own biography. I played a lot of Mozart as a horn player. At the international instrumental competition in Markneukirchen, I won awards for the Mozart horn concertos. His music inspires me and is genius in the truest sense of the word. On the one hand, it is the genius itself that has fascinated me with its quality. Appreciating Mozart and being inspired by him has nothing to do with whether he actually lived in the city. The veneration of Mozart and our own intensive engagement with his works takes place all over the world. Chemnitz was not as strongly associated with the musical tradition as Leipzig is with Bach, for example. That's why we were able to approach the concept very freely.

Were there any setbacks?
Even the things that didn't work out are part of it. We wanted to package the Karl Marx head as a Mozartkugel. Even if it didn't work out, we were still in talks about it. And there was even a project that dared to package it, albeit not as a Mozartkugel. The Marx memorial has long since arrived in society and is often shown when relatives and friends come to the city.

Has the veneration of Mozart always existed in Chemnitz?
Mozart has a long tradition here. The first performance of Mozart's "Abduction" took place in Chemnitz on 9 January 1801. I've known how much Mozart's music is appreciated in the city since I played in our orchestra. The Magic Flute, for example, has been on the programme almost continuously and has delighted generations of audiences at the Chemnitz Opera House. It was first heard when the opera house reopened in 1951 after the Second World War and again after the renovation in 1992. Richard Tauber Junior made his breakthrough on 2 March 1913 as Tamino in The Magic Flute. There is a very strong line there. Our first Mozart Prize winner Jana Büchner interprets Pamina in The Magic Flute and Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro superbly. It is very touching how Mozart emphasised the images of women in Cosi fan tutte. But the really important thing for me is what people themselves associate with the music.

Can you describe the fascination of Mozart in more detail?
Even though other composers, such as Wagner or Bruckner, naturally have a strong influence on me as a horn player, Mozart is something special in his lightness, his heavenly universal closeness, his sensuality and his love. Some say that Mozart is sometimes even too sweet. And then we add the Mozartkugeln on top. But anyone who studies the Mozart letters realises that although an incredible amount of Mozart has been handed down to us on the outside, we can only gain direct access to his essence through the substance of his music. It is his life-affirming attitude that he retains despite the blows of fate. Despite his awareness of the imminent proximity of death, as only one of his six siblings survived, he was able to compose with such light-heartedness and human depth. How grateful we can be for our own, yet mostly richly blessed time.

Is this an attitude that the people of Chemnitz have?
What we have been able to experience in Chemnitz over the past 25 years is worth cherishing. We can savour every moment of it. Mozart shows us how to draw strength from what we have and not succumb to what we don't have.

Do you need to encourage the people of Chemnitz?
Sometimes I wish they had a little more pride, and that they were more vocal about it. I've been a Chemnitz resident myself for over 30 years and I've long noticed that many people don't wear their pride on the tip of their tongues, but they have it in their hearts.

How do you notice that?
You can even see it in the applause at concerts. The applause for good performances in Chemnitz always starts a little quieter, then swells and then rises. The artificial, hysterical applause led by claqueurs would not be honest and would seem strange to me. The people of Chemnitz first take in the work as a whole. And they are very self-critical and modest in a sympathetic sense. For me, that's the real quality. Constantly scrutinising yourself and working on yourself makes change possible. Of course, there is always something that could be done better. And yet we can trust in our inner substance from which we can draw.
I am very happy to experience growth in its newness and openness. The fact that we have been able to develop the Saxon Mozart Festival in this way simply makes me happy. And you don't have to lay it on too thick if you want to reach people; it's better to do something based on your own self-image.