The artists in residence of the Orchester Métropolitain (OM) follow one another… and are not alike. After flautist Emmanuel Pahud last year, it is Austrian clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer who takes over… without his instrument.
At the end of August, the OM announced that its artist in residence, who was to participate in the concerts from October 11 to 14 (at different locations in the metropolis) as soloist and conductor, would only play the supporting role “for medical reasons.” This will be his Canadian debut on the podium.
His French colleague Pierre Génisson, Warner Classics/Erato artist, will replace him in the concert arrangement of the Clarinet Sonata in F minor, op. 120, no. 1, by Brahms, but also for the chamber music concert in which Ottensamer was to take part in the Bourgie Hall on October 18. The latter will nevertheless give the master classes usually entrusted to the artist in residence.
The artist, whose 70,000 Instagram subscribers can admire the magnificent costumes and swimsuits, is not very talkative about the reasons which pushed him to temporarily put away his instrument.
Coming from a veritable dynasty of clarinetists (his older brother Daniel replaced their father as first chair at the Vienna Philharmonic), does the musician intend, at only 34, to devote himself full-time to The direction ?
“The clarinet is an important part of my life and I see no reason why I would stop playing,” warns the man who officially remains co-principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic, while still under contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
It is only since 2021 that Ottensamer has frequented the podiums. But the baton had attracted him for a long time, he having taken conducting lessons during his studies, in addition to having played the piano and the cello, a significant asset.
“COVID-19 gave me space and time to return to studying conducting very intensively, especially in Weimar, Germany,” says the adopted Berliner.
Then followed various master classes and assistantships for aspiring chefs, notably with veterans like Riccardo Muti and François-Xavier Roth, and even a competition in Switzerland where he won a prize.
“I’m not sure it’s any easier. It’s a different challenge. Maybe people don’t question my musicality, but they put me in a box. They say, “Okay, another instrumentalist who thinks he can lead!” In many cases, some musicians tell themselves that they can do it, that it’s easy. But this leads to poor results and frustration for the orchestra. My challenge is for people to understand that I take this very seriously,” warns the artist.
And he adds: “You have to go through all the necessary process. You can’t have experience without having done the mileage. »
The conductor, who has natural affinities with Germanic romanticism, will conduct at the OM, with whom he played as soloist in 2016, the Symphony No. 1 in B flat major, “Spring”, op. 38, the Tragic Overture by Brahms and Night and Love by the Frenchwoman Augusta Holmès. But he is far from wanting to limit himself to it.
“I want to play everything,” he says. My repertoire goes from Haydn to Ligeti, Bernstein and others. The only thing I haven’t touched yet is very contemporary music. This is something that will undoubtedly come later, perhaps with an orchestra that already has a relationship with this music. It’s a totally different world for me. But I don’t put limits on my repertoire. »
