Interview with Hubert Soudant

The principal conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg is the Dutch-born Hubert Soudant, who led the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique de France in Paris from 1981 to 1983 and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra from 1983 to 1986. In addition to his activities in Salzburg, Soudant is also the principal conductor of the Orchestra and Opéra des Pays de Loire in Nantes and Angers, France. In this interview conducted by Horant H. Hohlfeld, Hubert Soudant speaks about the orchestral work "An die Königin der Nacht" by Alexander Mullenbach, the world premiere of which he subsequently conducted. "An die Königin der Nacht" was commissioned by the International Mozarteum Foundation and written in 1997. It was given its world premiere on 23 January 1998 at the opening concert of the 1998 Salzburg "Mozartwoche" by the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg under Hubert Soudant. Alexander Mullenbach was born in Luxembourg in 1949. As with so many composers of today, the composer's work catalogue mirrors a strong interest in the music of earlier eras. The relationship to the past is clearly evoked in the titles of pieces such as the violin works "Für Orlando di Lasso" (1993) and "Capriccio per Niccolò Paganini" (1994), for example. In other pieces, one notices a strong affinity to Johann Sebastian Bach, Romantic music and the French impressionists.