Interview with František Preisler – Windows Bring Me Bad Luck!/Being only twenty-years old, Preisler became the youngest conductor in the history of Prague’s National Theater. His curriculum also displays a long list of foreign activities, ranging from Slovenia’s Ljubljana through Moscow’s Kremlin to Taiwan. In the Czech Republic, he made his mark as a conductor who pulls down the limits between music genres to bring them closer together.
FRANTIŠEK PREISLER (31) gave an exclusive interview to the Lucky Jim magazine in which he speaks of his life journey and of the artists who influenced him with their skills and helped him grown as a person.
You are said to come from a count’s family in which music was handed over from generation to generation.Four of my ancestors were conductors. The only exception was my father who is an opera director and used to works as an art director of the Brno Opera House. However, he liked conducting too and practiced it but not professionally. As you see, all members of our family always had something do to with music. The roots of our family reach back to František Velebicky who was a band master at Vienna’s imperial court. His lifelong merits led to his promotion to the hereditary title of the count. Due to the then Germanization process he had to have his surname changed. My name is František Preisler VI (from the German verb Preislen=to praise). I would also like to mention that my great-grandfather – František Preisler III – studied composition at a conservatory class of Antonín Dvořák. It was at the time when Dvořák was the principal of Prague’s Conservatory.
Reportedly, your grandma from your father’s side of the family also had interesting ancestors.
I was born in Olomouc. My mother sang in the local opera house where my father was a director, my grandfather was a conductor and my grandma was a dramatic actress. And this grandma – from my father’s side of the family – was born in Bruck an der Leitha, the then territory of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, and her father was Colonel Ludvík Černohorský, the bandmaster of the 91st imperial and royal regiment. I still keep his baton as a relic. Even the writer Jaroslav Hašek used to push a pram carrying my grandma who also knew in person the real first lieutenant Lukáš as well as other characters portrayed in the second part of the famous novel “Good Soldier Švejk“.
And what about your children? Will they follow in your and your forefathers’ footsteps?
I have two sons. What’s really funny and interesting about them is the fact that every boy in our family named František was always a first-born child, i.e. the eldest, and always had a son or sons. Every František would always be a musician and I hope that the seventh generation will be no exception to this rule.
What do your siblings do?
My sister Jana is eighteen years older than me. She is married to an Italian opera tenor, Gaetano Bardini, with whom she has son Giuseppe who’s only three years younger than me.
How famous is your brother in law as a tenor?
He is really famous as he sang at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, for seven years. His engagement there was during the glorious era of the general manager Rudolf Bing. My father in law is 74, he still sings all over the world and is a wonderful voice pedagogue. He is a true natural phenomenon. And when he returns to Italy from his tours abroad he starts his tractor and plows family fields. When I was a little boy, my parents and I used to go and visit my sister and her husband. My parents have pictures from those family reunions in which I am nursed in the arms of the famous soprano Renata Tebaldi or I stand next to Galliano Massini, a famous world tenor and a legendary persona of the bel canto era.
How old are your sons?
They are three and five years old. Their names are Matěj and Václav.
Why did you not name either of them František?
I did not want to make them confused in case either of them wanted to devote himself to music. I guess it was the right decision since both of them begin to show distinct music inclinations.
Little is known of the full range of your studies.
I studied at the Organ Department of Brno’s Conservatory and then I attended the Conducting Department at the JAMU Music College in Brno. I completed my studies in Vienna where I took a one-year course in conducting under the guidance of Professor Kalmar, a BBC conductor. I also studied trombone and opera singing.
Why should a conductor be familiar with trombone playing or opera singing?
I was fascinated with conducting perhaps from three years of age and I felt on top of the world when I conducted an imaginary orchestra, waving a wooden skewer in my hand. When I was about eleven, my grandpa, conductor František Preisler IV, told me: “If you are serious about becoming a really good conductor, you should everything related to the world of conducting. You must be perfect at piano playing and you must study the organ to become familiar with the timbre of the orchestra”. I took his words close to my heart and even began to attend private singing lessons. I had a chance to sing on the stage of Olomouc’s opera house and of Brno’s operetta house. In 1993, I won the the Franz Lehar International Singers Competition in Komárno, Slovakia. Recently I came back from Italy where I had several signing lessons under the tutelage of my brother in law Gaetano Bardini. While being engaged in the opera and operetta departments of the National Theater in Brno, I played the celesta, organ, piano and trombone. Simply put, before going in for conducting myself I was eager to perceive a conductor’s position from the stage and from the orchestra pit. In Brno, I also worked as a répétiteur for nearly three years. But I have to admit that I do prefer conducting and I do not intend to devote myself to signing or trombone playing. Nevertheless, I think that the saying ‘the number of languages you speak shapes the vastness of experience as a man’ applies, figuratively, to music as well.
You are said to have been very close to a becoming a musical singer.
That’s true. In 1992, I passed an audition for the role of Mário in Prague’s performance of the musical Les Misérables (Bídníci) that was given at the Vinohradské Theater for three months. In the end, I did not play the role as the timing clashed with my high-school leaving exams at Brno’s Conservatory and my then teachers thought I’d spend more time commuting to rehearsals in Prague than studying. A In 1994, I staged the music of and conducted two hundred and fifty performance of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar. During my work on this rock opera I saw for myself the verity of the words of my great music model Leonard Bernstein who claimed that music is either good or bad. I believe that if one has the capacity and skills he should try everything in life offers. Naturally, I mean this as a figure of speech as there are certain limits that a man cannot exceed. However, my work on Jesus Christ Superstar showed me direction to what I have been applying myself to until now. I counterbalance my involvement in the world of classical music with trips to the world of pop music, swing or musical. Such trips are incredibly wondrous and I am happy to be accompanied on them by one of the best Czech musicians, the then member of Ladislav Štaidl’s orchestra and today’s member of the Žofín Palace Grand Orchestra, and my teacher and friend, trumpeter Václav Týfa.
You mentioned Andrew Lloyd Webber. You rendered outstanding services to the premiere performance of one of his principal work in the Czech Republic.
In the mid 1990’s, I was asked to pay tribute to my model of conducting, Mr. Zdeněk Košler, by arranging the premiere of Lloyd Webber’s Requiem which he composed for his erstwhile wife Sarah Brightman and his friend, the opera tenor Placido Domingo. I chose Leo Marian Vodička to sing the tenor part and Lucie Bílá Sto sing the soprano role and thus enter, for the very first time, the world of classical music and broaden her repertoire. First, Lucie was rather afraid of the task and we spent six months studying this very demanding part. Looking back, I am glad we embarked upon the challenge. Since that time Lucie and I have been working together on a regular basis and very few people known that the aria Pie Jesu that belongs to her backbone repertoire was adopted precisely from the Requiem by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The musical Jesus Christ Superstar also marked the beginning of your cooperation with Karel Gott whom you helped to get on his dreamt-of trips to the world of opera and Italian canzonets.
In my opinion Karel Gott’s strong point is the fact he studied opera singing. After all, his tutor was nobody less than Schaljapin’s student and opera tenor Konstantin Karenin. He taught Karel to acquire the proper singing technique and thus avoid the fate of many opera singers who damaged their career rather early owing to their own unfamiliarity with proper singing techniques. Believe me it is a true natural phenomenon and miracle that Karel is still an excellent singer even though he cut hundreds of records and gave thousands of concerts in life. I learnt a lot from him and his responsibility, diligence, politeness, concentration and wonderful rapport with other people made him a great example of professionalism in my eyes.
There is a rumor that on one occasion Karel Gott put you off your stroke.
That’s true. Indeed. Once we spent three hours playing the piano at his home while practicing for a concert. We went through his entire repertoire. When I began to run out of steam I told Karel we would see each other the next day during our practice with an orchestra. Looking really surprised, he answered we had not been finished yet and we had to go through everything again. He simply wanted to be absolutely certain that we had not neglected anything and were thoroughly prepared for the concert. One thing I’d like to add is that musicians are well known for their reluctance to praise others. But speaking for the members of the Žofín Palace Grand Orchestra who play under my baton I can say that all of us always look forward to our sessions with Karel Gott because they are immensely inspiring and enriching. To us Karel is live water that fills us with appetite for more work and life in general.
Have you met a world star you will never forget?
I enjoyed all of my meetings and cooperation with a multi-instrumentalist and currently one of the best trumpeters James Morrison who also masters the trombone, flugelhorn and all kinds of saxophones. When I think of the world of classical music, I can’t help remembering my several-day meeting with the baritone Lee Nucci, a soloist of La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera. Although sixty-two he is he the prime of his musical career. He was one of Herbert von Karajan's favorite singers and recorded all the great opera baritone parts together with Luciano Pavarotti or Placido Domingo. During his stay in Prague in 2003, Maestro Nucci and I became really good friends and he expressed his wish to work with me on the public recording of Verdi’s Macbeth in Prague this year. I recall one moment from his visit. We had just finished our practice and I wanted to call him a taxi to take him to the Hilton hotel but he told us: “Sirs, don’t worry about me. I speak five languages and can get a tax on my own. Besides, I don’t feel like going back to the hotel yet. My wife and I would like to go for a walk in Prague at night. I do not want to bother you. I only wish my tomorrow’s Prague debut were perfect”.
Is there anything else you’d like to achieve in your professional life?
Naturally, I have many dreams. But I am not going to disclose them as I would not like to speak too soon. I am the principal conductor of the Žofín Palace Grand Orchestra and of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra in Olomouc, I also cooperate with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, SOČR, FOK or PKO. A half year ago, I staged Dvořák’s opera Dimitrij at the State Opera House in Prague. Those were wonderful opportunities for me. The more I look forward to the 2005 Grand European Stars Tour featuring Karel Gott, Lucie Bílá, Štefan Margita, Kateřina Brožová and the Ukrainian soprano Marina Vyskvorkina. The tour will take us to several European capitals in May 2005, starting in Brussels on May 2 fro where our concert will be televised live by Czech Television. The final tour concert will be held in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, on May 26.
You have not yet talked about the National Theater in Prague where you, at the age of 20 years, became the youngest conductor in the theater’s rich history in 1994.
I did not speak about the Golden Chapel (i.e. the National Theaer) where I really enjoyed my 10-year engagement, because I no longer work there. Based on my staging of Jesus Christ Superstar I was invited to apply for an audition to become a conductor in the National Theater. I passed the audition and conducted and studied a number of wonderful opera and ballet pieces. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity, during my ten-year contract, to conduct Smetana’s Bartered Bride and Dvořák’s Rusalka. These are the dreams of my love that are yet to come true.
Why did you leave the National Theater?
There were several reasons. First, I believe that changing a routine environment is quite advisable after a certain time. Second, if one has ideals and concepts about what his own, his superiors’, and colleagues’ work should be like, he should not make unnecessary compromises if he is still young. He should not make concessions and give up his ideals too easily. So, I left. And I make it no secret that I desire to come back one day, because I believe that’s the ultimate goal of every opera conductor in our country. I prefer our National Theater to all La Scalas of the world. Definitely, it is superb to be a guest on such renowned stages, but I am Czech and I am proud of it. I can only hope that the time will ripen and I will return to the National Theater with delight. As a boy I used to dream of conducting one performance in the National Theater when in my sixties. And I succeeded in doing that when I was only twenty!
However, for two years you worked simultaneously as a National Theater conductor and as the principal conductor of the Hudební divadlo (Musical Theater) in Karlín.
Yes, it was a schizophrenic period in my life and I still wonder today how I managed to handle and control that situation.
Were there any mistakes?
You bet. At one moment I conducted Smetana’s opera The Two Widows in the Stavovské Theater and Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow in Karlín’s Theater.
One day I marked a certain date in my planning calendar with the word ‘Widow’, being convinced I was going to conduct the Merry Widow in Karlín. At 6.30 in the evening I put on my tailcoat and went to greet the soloists. To my shock I found an absolutely different group of people than I expected. The explanation was simple: Instead of the Merry Widow the musical Zasněžená romance (Snowy Romance) was on. In a split second I realized that I had only twelve minutes to get to the Stavovské Theater where they were giving the opera The Two Widows. With my tailcoat still on, I called a taxi and arrived at the Stavovské Theater one minute later. This experience taught me that a man should not serve two masters.
It is not usual for classical music protagonists to get on tabloid covers where you appeared at end of the last year in response to your openly pronounced opinion of the case of another conductor, Bohumil Kulínský.
I do not feel like talking about the matter and I do not really want to get back to it. The only thing I can say is that I was upset and offended by the words of the former general manager of the National Theater Jiří Srstka who proclaimed all artists to be ‘bonkers’ in a way, thus every single one of them sometimes fully employing even nonstandard methods to accomplish good results at work. I was approached by a leading Czech tabloid magazine and I answered its questions according to my best convictions. Unfortunately, the published wording of my opinion was much rougher than my original response. Even though my cooperation with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is only occasional, the magazine presented me as the conductor of our most significant symphonic orchestra. I have never held myself up as one and I admit that this misrepresentation of my person stirred things up a lot. In fact, the conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is Vladimír Válek. That’s really all I want to say about this. I only tried to defend my colleagues – musicians who do not deserve some of the statements and attitudes that fall upon their heads.
Jan Adam, Šťastný Jim 2004