Boy soprano to ace conductor

5:00AM Thursday April 10, 2008
By William Dart

Eckehard Stier's debut with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra last year was an evening with an unexpected coda. After a programme of Prokofiev, Saint-Saens and Beethoven, the German conductor put down his baton and took to the keyboard, entertaining at the post-concert function with his own piano stylings.

This year Stier has two appearances with the APO; the first tonight with works by Strauss, Dvorak and Smetana on offer, the second next Friday when he will oversee the ambitious concert performance of Strauss' Salome.

Strauss' tale of Old Testament lust and revenge is a far cry from Stier's beginnings as a boy soprano in Dresden's famous Kreuzchor. "As early as 12," he says, "I wanted to be a conductor."

Now, all these years later, he still finds himself caught up by the balancing of the psychological and musical that conducting involves.

"The appeal is the opportunity to work with 50 or 60 musicians, to give them your ideas and then hear them bring them to life. After all, I am not the one making the notes, it's the players who must do that."

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