Bald head and a black high-necked concert uniform β the first impression of Christoph Eschenbach confers the mystic aura of a music preacher. In February, Eschenbach celebrates his 80th birthday, but the chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin β in his first season there β is nowhere near retirement.
The musical climate of this cultural metropolis is another magnet for him. Together, they claim to be world class.
She died giving birth to him. After the end of the war, he and his grandmother, who had taken him in, fled to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, but she died in a refugee camp shortly after. His mother's cousin saved the five-year-old Christoph from the typhus-ridden camp and, together with her husband, gave him a new home in Schleswig-Holstein, along with a new surname.
Eschenbach learned to play the piano and quickly proved his talent. A spectacular career as a concert pianist followed. The foundation of a unique artistic relationship was laid. He visited Bamberg nine more times as a pianist. He became assistant to George Szell and was taught by Herbert von Karajan. It means how you can make the music tell a story, how you can make the score transparent. In , he made his debut in Hamburg and soon it got around that Eschenbach could now be invited as a conductor.
In , he conducted the Bamberg Symphony for the first time. The programme featured several works by Mozart, which definitely included the Haffner Symphony, Eschenbach remembers.
