Harnessing tradition, harvesting innovation: Matthias Naske on life as a Viennese Intendant

Matthias Naske is in reflective mood. The Intendant of the Wiener Konzerthaus is brewing a pot of afternoon tea with quiet precision, setting a timer on his phone, which is then placed carefully next to a cup and saucer. Softly spoken, considering his responses carefully, he is the epitome of a calm hand on the tiller. Naske has been at the helm of the Konzerthaus for nearly a decade. “It’s been ten years,” he tells me, “but the time has flown. A lot of work, but also a lot of joy. It’s an amazing house and I still feel privileged to be here.” 

Naske almost fell into the job by accident. He was Director General of the Philharmonie Luxembourg when, in 2011, he was commissioned by the Konzerthaus to assess the management of the organisation. “I analysed the structure,” he explains, “and then I made certain recommendations that could be done in the specifically challenging economic situation in which the house found itself. And the board simply said ‘Do it!’ ‘But I don’t want to.’ ‘You have to.’” 

Around a year later, Naske left Luxembourg to take up his Konzerthaus role in July 2013, just a few months before the house’s centenary. “I had always had sympathy towards this house because, in former times, I collaborated with Christoph Lieben-Seutter, now General Manager of the Elbphilharmonie, who was one of my predecessors at this house, when I was in charge of Jeunesse Musicale here in Vienna.”  

But the economic situation Naske mentioned was a significant one, with the organisation still facing a 6.4 million euro deficit after substantial renovation works around the turn of the century. “The house is bankrupt, but strangely no one says so,” he said in a plain-speaking interview when he took over in 2013. “Why did I say that?” Naske asks. “When you take charge of an organisation, you have to be honest – the best thing is to remain honest too – but there was no reason to pretend not to call things as they are. It’s not what the politicians and my board wanted me to say, so it was a little bit tricky but, on the other side, I think it was the right thing to do. From that moment on, my team and I simply did our best and worked hard, enlarging the number of concerts that we presented and earning the money to pay off the loans completely a couple of years later.” 

For a house that only receives around 12% of its income from public subsidy, that was quite a turnaround, involving a two-year process of reorganisation. Naske’s calm approach makes it all sound like the most natural thing in the world. He expands on what it takes to be a successful Intendant. 

“The basis is a passion for music. Understanding the fundamentals of the business is also quite essential. Sometimes people only focus on one dimension, but if you look at what we do from an abstract perspective, you easily discover that it’s basically about communication. You have to focus on the quality of this communication exchanged between two partners – the ones in the audience and the others on stage. We have to mirror the desires of the people we want to bring into the house, but we have to curate them very carefully and develop new desires or new expectations by stimulating them. It’s skills, it’s communication, it’s mediation. It sounds complicated, but actually it isn’t.” 

By the 2018-19 season, Naske had increased the number of concerts presented at the Konzerthaus from 469 in his first season to 652, but then the 2019-20 season was derailed – as everywhere around the world – when the pandemic struck. 

“The disruptive power of the pandemic was enormous,” he confesses, putting it into context. “This house started its activity in 1913 and we performed all the way through to 1933, when there was a civil war in Vienna and the house was shut down for 11 days. Then there was a second shutdown towards the end of World War 2 and that was 24 days. Then we had the first Covid lockdown of 88 days in 2020 and then further lockdowns. During these two years, we were locked down for 305 days. Unimaginable. We live by being a service provider to people, but if the people are not allowed to come, it’s simply dramatic.” 

Visitor numbers are gradually recovering but, in common with many halls and opera houses around Europe, people are leaving it later to book tickets. For the current season, subscription numbers at the Konzerthaus are down around 5,000 from the 33,000 sold in the 2018-19 season. 

The popular perception of Vienna, especially to someone who lives in a city like London, is that, culturally, it is built on tradition. It is the city of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler. It is home to the Staatsoper and the Musikverein. I wonder how important Naske sees tradition versus innovation. “That’s a very good question,” he nods. “As you know, tradition only has value if it is filled with innovation. There are formats, for example, where you can break the procedure of the usual concert.”

We talk about the Wiener Symphoniker’s Fridays@7 series, “an idea I saw in Cleveland – it’s an officially stolen idea,” where a shorter programme than usual is presented in the main hall, followed by a more informal gathering in the foyer where audiences can mingle with the players while enjoying chamber music or jazz. 

Another example is the house’s Gemischter Satz festival, a concert format Naske developed with Andreas Schett of Musicbanda Franui that is analogous with one of the methods of harvesting grapes around Vienna. Naske explains how Gemischter Satz is the term for the cultivation of wine consisting of different grape varieties grown together within the same vineyard which, after the joint harvest, are also pressed and fermented together. 

“There is a natural cuvée created by the mountain itself and this wine is called Gemischter Satz, so this is an expression. And now you transfer this idea into a concert house, so at this festival we present literature, all kinds of music and visual arts in a format that is extraordinary. It takes place in all four halls in parallel and people walk from hall to hall where the performers repeat their 40-minute sets. As you move around there are tastings of the fresh Gemischter Satz of the Viennese winemakers, which is very lovely. 

“We present a very dynamic, well developed programme mix within the different artistic genres. For examples, a Franz Schubert song sung by Florian Bosch, then attaca into a piece played by a folk music ensemble performing the folk song that Schubert referenced, or perhaps a poem read by an actor from the Burgtheater then maybe a reflection on Schubert by Gubaidulina – a sequence that you would never usually hear, but it’s so well curated, with a lot of love, that people really enjoy it.” 

But Naske also values tradition. “I do love the traditional matinee concerts. There is a German word, Lebendigkeit – liveliness. We have to keep the liveliness of what we love. And that way we have much more freedom than we think we have.”

There is plenty of competition from other culture providers in Vienna – namely the Staatsoper and the Musikverein, which are big tourist draws, although the Konzerthaus’ audience is mostly drawn from Vienna itself and the surrounding regions. “The Musikverein and the Staatsoper are the bigger brands,” Naske concedes, “but we can actually live with that quite well because we have other niches; we have young talents and different genres of music which gives us quite a lot of freedom.”

Does he see the Musikverein as competition or complementary? “It’s both. They are the competition, but I don’t want to lose my energy in fighting, it doesn’t make sense. We both serve the people of this city and hopefully a greater environment beyond Vienna.” 

He considers the difference between the two venues, both of which present the Vienna Philharmonic and the Symphoniker. “Acoustically, we have the privilege of having been constructed about 50 years later, so when you have larger ensembles, it is easier to be clearly understood in this house. It simply has more space, more air. There is repertoire that I prefer to listen to in the Musikverein, and there is repertoire that I prefer to listen to in this hall. But without doubt, we do have the better chamber hall, the Mozart-Saal. It’s a privilege to have two houses of equal acoustical qualities in the same city – it’s such a shame that the LSO’s plans for a new hall fell through. You see how much a city like Luxembourg gained from the investment into infrastructure, Hamburg and Paris too. Infrastructure is the base of development and music needs spaces like this.” 

When it comes to programming, Naske has championed exciting young artists like Klaus Mäkelä, who appeared at the Konzerthaus several times last season. He also cites Raphaël Pichon as a fascinating artist. “He triggers so much for me from a musical point of view, he is one of the most interesting conductors.” 

Another conductor he has championed is Teodor Currentzis, an artist who has come under intense scrutiny since the invasion of Ukraine because of Russian funding for his orchestra, musicAeterna. “I had a long tradition presenting Teodor Currentzis. As with many others, I do have struggles now. At this stage, the political dimension of hiring Currentzis is not in the right balance for me, because of the funding of his orchestra and his decision not to express his opinion about the situation. We certainly accept that decision, I will not judge him on that, but I will not hire him at this stage, so we will simply pause.” 

In the newly announced 2023-24 season, Naske is proud of the Konzerthaus’ diverse programming. “From a traditional point of view, we have a cycle focused on Franz Welser-Möst who will come with The Cleveland Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Bavarian Radio Symphony. We also have a Verdi Requiem with the new Chief Conductor of the Volksoper, Omer Meir Wellber.” Egyptian soprano Fatma Said, an exciting talent, will feature as a portrait artist in the season. 

Audiences will also hear Bach’s Goldberg Variations… twice. “After Fazıl Say’s latest recital with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, I asked Fazıl what he wanted to do next and he said the Goldbergs, but I already had the Goldbergs with Vikingur Ólafsson… so I have programmed them both. I specifically look forward to Samara Joy who is one of the most interesting young voices in the world of jazz.” 

But after ten years in charge, what, I ask, lies next for Naske. “I have just extended my contact here to 2028. It was announced, but it was done discreetly. Yes, I do take myself seriously but not that much! I love my job. I am simply working with passion for this house and as long as my board trusts me, I am happy to work here for as long as I am fit enough. I want to stabilise it more and give it more freedom and security for tough times. It is a privilege to work for music in Vienna.” Under Naske’s quiet leadership, the house remains in very good hands.