Conductor Nicholas Carter

Nicholas Carter, an ambitious Australian conductor: he is set to take up the post of chief conductor at the long-established Stuttgart State Orchestra for the 2026/27 season. However, his first concert in this role will not take place in Stuttgart, but at Beethovenfest Bonn: featuring a surprising mix of symphonic works and Richard Wagner, whose music is »in the orchestra’s DNA«, as he explains in an interview.

You conduct opera music in a symphony concert setting. How did you decide to put Richard Wagner on the programme?

We first thought what would be a nice thing to present ourselves at Beethovenfest Bonn as being a fantastic opera orchestra. I looked for a piece that highlighted the strengths of Staatsorchester Stuttgart and the many different facets of what they can do. An orchestra of this caliber and of that of that heritage, they play Wagner so often and it’s so much a part of their DNA, playing the ring cycle over many decades, over more than a century now. I chose Act 1 of Die Valküre, as it is perfect to perform in concert as well. It’s also a great opportunity to showcase the orchestra, because it's so symphonically composed and very virtuosic.

What story are you telling by combining the Wagner with the first piece oft he programme by Kaija Saariaho?

The Staatsorchester Stuttgart has quite the reputation for contemporary music as well. It's given world premieres of so many amazing composers over the years. We start the concert with Saariahos Ciel d’hiver, »winter sky«. It is a winter landscape, gorgeously evoked by this wonderful Finnish composer. A very, very still landscape that’s shown to us. It is an evocative, poetic piece, because of the monochrome image she gets out so many unbelievable shades of these colours. I believe that the beauty in this sort of ice-cold landscape was clearly so much a part of her, of her world and her own compositions. 

Now, in Valkyrie First Act there is the central love aria »Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond«, where Siegmund welcomes the spring. So starting with Ciel d’hiver, we sort of get this projection from darkness into light by the end of the concert.

In between, you put Schubert’s »Unifinished« Symphony. Its character is much lighter than Wagner and Saariaho.

The Schubert Unfinished Symphony is just one of the great, great, works, that I often find isn't, funnily enough, performed as much as it really deserves. It's one of those pieces that sometimes suffers from its own fame. It's also just a way to showcase the orchestra in a different repertoire as well, purely symphonic. It is hugely evocative, early romantic music. You can sort of see how Wagner himself was inspired by the music of the early romantics and where he evolved it through the course of his own life. Putting it in the programme results in a nice journey.

I find the three works all quite dark, wouldn’t you say?

I know what you mean. Actually, in the Ciel d'Hiver our job is to make it luminous, however. Even though on first impression, it might seem quite grey. But I want to bring out how the music is illuminated from behind. There's this beautiful warmth in the middle of winter. Also in the Schubert, of course: Yes, it’s a minor key symphony, but there are so many glorious rays of sunshine that come through the second subject in the first movement. It's just one of the most innocent, beautiful, major, optimistic, gorgeous, themes that Schubert ever wrote. Schubert will take you down there, but at the same time, within the space of a couple of seconds, he'll show you the heavens opening. And of course, the beginning of the act one of Valkyrie is certainly dark, very dramatic and very tense, but the transition from darkness into light that you hear by the end of the act is just so exciting to be a part of.

Are you also making a statement as the new General Music Director in Stuttgart with this programme?

It's actually my first, I'm not sure if you're aware, it's my first concert in my tenure as GMD in Stuttgart, which is very exciting. My first outing is not in Stuttgart, it's in Bonn. And that's just the way it worked out. The invitation came for us and we said, yes, of course. And so I kind of think it's nice and a bit funny and wonderful that we start our journey together on the road, so to speak. I certainly, love that we're starting the evening with Sariaho, with a contemporary piece, by a female composer, one of the most influential, of the last decades. I think that's quite a statement, also at the start of my tenure, that contemporary music is going to be something that I'm quite passionate about. The early romantics like Schubert as well is a repertoire that somehow suits my personality, dare I say. There's something about the classicism of form, but at the same time just pushing at the boundaries, pushing at the edges of possibility of structure and harmony and things like this. And Wagner’s Ring cycle is arguably the greatest work of art that a human being has ever created. I think it's certainly up there with Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel and Madonna. I have conducted it a couple of times and now am happy to bring that to life with an orchestra who just understands this music so intuitively, has played it for so long, where so many of the orchestral musicians play in, and have played over the years in Bayreuth as well.