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The Artistic Director

Enoch zu Guttenberg

He has never made it easy for himself. Enoch zu Guttenberg has always followed his convictions and has often enough swum against, rather than with, the tide. As one of the outstanding conductors of our time he has been exploring music in a way that has shaken up his audiences and critics alike and, at the same time, has established his international reputation.

With his performances of both symphonic music and the great sacred works he has set high standards in his own career as well as on major international stages. Alongside his engagements as guest conductor (e.g. with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the MDR Leipzig as principal guest conductor or the NDR Symphony Orchestra Hamburg, the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the Nouvelle Orchestre Philharmonique Paris and many other orchestras at home and abroad), Guttenberg has been forging a particularly close relationship with two ensembles which, as he puts it, are "100 per cent dedicated" to realizing his artistic ideas and musico-philosophical approaches together with him as a joint endeavour: the Orchester der KlangVerwaltung whose artistic director he has been since 1997, and the Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern, which he has been running since 1967.

For Enoch zu Guttenberg and the ensembles with which he works, their interpretations are founded on a symbiosis of well-founded knowledge of the relevant historical performance practices with unconditional orientation to content and the emotionality that derives from this. This applies to all of the major works of the Baroque era, of Viennese Classicism, of the Romantic and Late Romantic periods right through to the compositions of the 20th century. Guttenberg enjoyed his most recent successes together with the KlangVerwaltung and the Chorgemeinschaft Neubeuern in October 2009 in China. At the joint concerts held in the contexts of the Hong Kong Music Festival and the Beijing Music Festival, the focus was on works by Joseph Haydn. One of the highlights – not just of the concert season 2010 but of the long-standing cooperation of these ensembles – was the performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Messa da Requiem" in honour of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, in Rome in October 2010.

In 2000, Enoch zu Guttenberg was appointed artistic director of the International Herrenchiemsee Festival. Together with dramatic advisor Klaus J. Schönmetzler, Guttenberg has created a singular concept here, which not only bears the stamp of his own personality and convictions, but at the same time integrates the particular history of the location.

Although music has always been at the focus of his activity and creativity, Guttenberg has never lost sight of the world around him. Whether as a persistent warning voice and visionary in the field of environmental policy or as a successful promoter of cultural collaboration between East and West, as a result of his upbringing Enoch zu Guttenberg has always seen the link between artistic and political commitment as a duty. For his work he has received a number of awards over the years, including the German Culture Prize and the Federal Cross of Merit, first class. For his recording of Bruckner's Symphony No. 4 in E flat major, "Romantic", he received, together with the Orchester der KlangVerwaltung, the sought-after ECHO Klassik 2008 in the category "Symphonic Recording of the Year", Music of the 19th Century. His musical work has been documented in numerous radio and television productions and CD recordings.