Peter Maag, the last living conductor who can say to have been one of the great Wilhelm Furtwängler's pupils, carries his 78 years with enviable freshness, and, although his movements are more moderate when he conducts the orchestra, his cordiality is really without limits.
We could listen for hours and hours to his memories about the most famous conductors, singers and solists of the last fifty years, and be fascinated even if we don't really know much about the subjects of his stories.
However, still today, when Maag speaks about Furtwängler a deep emotion shines through his light grey eyes.

Without any doubts, my meeting with Furtwängler has been the most important event in my life.
In that period I was a pianist, and I had the honour of playing Beethoven's Concert n. 4 under his conduction.
Immediately we established a nice relationship, and as soon as the rehearsals finished, we started speaking about music and interpretation.
To my great surprise, at the end of the concert Furtwängler came to me and said: "Why don't you try to conduct? I have observed you while you were playing the concert tonight, staring at the orchestra more than at the keyboard. It was more you than me that have given the entry .
I answered that I would like to conduct but I didnít know how to succeed in being a conductor. So he told me: "You must do what I am telling you: you must start in a very small theatre and make the whole development from substitute to Repetitor, to chorus master and finally to conductor. It must be a very small theatre that could give you the occasion to conduct".
I followed the advice of Furtwängler and I found a job in a very small Swiss theatre in Biel-Solothurn. There we had 22 musicians in the pit and a chorus of around 20 persons and with these forces we did - you canít believe it - all the main operatic repertoire including Tannhäuser, Don Carlos... It was a bit adventurous: we obviously had harmonum and piano in the pit and we arranged all of these operas. Yes, it was adventurous but it was also a great experience since in the five years that I remained in this small theatre, I had the chance to conduct all those operas that otherwise a conductor in his young years would not be afforded. I would suggest such an experience to all young conductors.
The season in Biel-Solothurn was between October and the beginning of April but in spring and summer Furtwängler asked me to follow him as assistant. I travelled with him, I observed him and I wanted to know his magic, how he succeeded to transform the colours of an orcheste through his person. I discovered that it was not a gesture or a movement which inspired the orchestra but his eyes: sometimes the musicians were joking and they told that when Furtwängler started to beat they counted until twelve and then they came in. The magic was not in effect in his hands or in his arms but in his eyes: he captured all musicians and he controlled the most difficult entries and even the dynamics quite with his sight only. Obviously when Furtwängler was faced with an orchestra that was not accustomed to his peculiar way of conducting, initially the musicians were troubled by his kind of trembling beat which was difficult to locate, but after a few minutes the result was miraculously clean and the whole orchestra was subdued by his eyes. It is always difficult for a conductor to get a perfect _ensemble" in the first chords of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony or of Mozart's Magic Flute, but strangely enough, I never listened to an imperfect chord during a performance conducted by Furtwängler with his indefinite beat.
I spent many years conducting and listening to other great or young conductors but I never experienced the emotion that I felt from Furtwängler and from his enormous and weighty vision of the piece he was conducting, since he was himself the music.

Peter Maag's discussions of great conductors of this century are always interesting but his relating of some of the more curious episodes in his experience is never disappointing:

A curious episode? There are conductors that are really keen in their rehearsals and other conductors that consider rehearsals as a formality. Hans Knappertsbusch didn't like to rehearse: one day he had to play Tchaikovsky No.6 and he came to the rehearsals. He conducted a few bars and he said: _I see you are very well prepared. Let's go to the second movement. Give me letter B." And again he rehearsed for six bars and he said: _Thank you very much and in the Finale be careful that at letter W I go in six but only for two bars then I return alla breve". So, somebody from the orchestra stood up and told Knappertsbusch: _Listen, Maestro, we have never played this symphony. Could you play it once, so that we can have an idea of the whole piece?". Knappertsbusch, a little bit annoyed, agreed and he played the whole symphony. He was in bad humour and before playing the Scherzo he told the orchestra: _This morning no ritornello". The fact was that not all the musicians understood that it was only for the rehearsal, so that at the concert the orchestra was out when they started the ritornello and Knappertsbusch, after trying to get the orchestra altogether loudly said: _To hell with our rehearsals!".

I can assure you that Peter Maag's rehearsals are accurate but always serene. This could be a product of his past experience with the monks of an Himalayan monastery.

You know, initially besides music I studied theology and philosophy and I have always been fascinated by all mystic things and oriental religions. One day, in the sixties, I decided to enter a Buddhist monastery for a few months but then it became two years. I learned all about concentration, meditation, which I believe influenced my music making at a very deep level. However, if it was beneficial to me as a musician, it was likewise detrimental to my career: my sudden dropping of engagements was not understood and even condemned. But I felt I had to go there, far away from my usual life and my travelling from one continent to the other. I said to myself that such a life had nothing to do with music and with theology and that I was just becoming as a business man. So I went to the monastery to cleanse myself, to find again the real spirit of music and not to become victim of the routine. When I returned after the two years break, people had forgotten me and I had to start again from the beginning: one forgets very quickly...

Before disappearing for two years, Peter Maag had already completed most of his famous Decca/London recordings, including Mozart, Mendelssohn and some operas including Verdiís Luisa Miller with Pavarotti, Caballé and Milnes.

I have a pleasant recollection of those recordings, especially Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream and the Mozart symphonies. Mozart's Symphony in A major No.29 is my favourite among the recordings which have been released, but in my opinion my best ever recording was the Symphony no.34 that I recorded in the late fifties with London Symphony although strangely enough, it never appeared on Lp or CD. I never really found out why it went unpublished; it was originally conceived for a coupling with Symphony no.38 conducted by Karl Böhm who, according to Decca, was not happy to have his interpretation of one symphony on one side of the record together with an interpretation of another symphony by a largely unknown conductor on the other side. I don't know if this is the truth although I could probably understand Böhm's viewpoint, but it remains that the master of this symphony is somewhere in Decca's warehouses and nobody, except me and the producers, listened to this recording. I believe that such a situation is frustrating for any conductor. So I am really happy that my next recording with Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto will include Mozart's no.34.

As a conductor Peter Maag is recognized worldwide as a specialist of Mozartís music. It's difficult to enumerate how many times he conducted the trilogy Mozart-Da Ponte, The Magic Flute or The Abduction from the Serail but he is probably the one living conductor who can boast the largest number of performances of these masterpieces.

Mozart's operas were our daily bread when I was in Biel-Solothurn and since that period every year I conducted Mozart, so that I feel myself really involved in this music. When I was still young my big passion was for Wagner but eventually my regard for Mozart's music became deeper and deeper. I am really happy when I can feel that I, through my way of conducting his operas, improved something. And I am by no means at the end.... Nobody asked me in the past to record these operas and I didnít seek the opportunity myself. But now, even though recording may not be a top priority depending on ones view, I would welcome the chance to tape Mozart's operas.

I have met many conductors in their elderly years and with the sole exception of Sergiu Celibidache, each became frantic about making new recordings: Karajan, Bernstein, Böhm... A similar thing is also happening to Peter Maag although during the sessions his enthusiasm and freshness is that of a twenty year-old. Six-hour sessions go by in a flash for him and I remember during the recording of one of the Beethoven's Symphonies for Arts, he remained in the podium, without indicating that he was ill but bearing a very high temperature and a double broncho-pneumonia. _Thanks to the clean air of my mountains" - he told me, referring to his house, high in the Swiss Alps near St.Moritz, implying that the air and the nature fortified his body and his spirit.

I have had a close relationship with nature since my childhood. I like wandering, I like mountains and I think if you are close to nature, you can have a cleaner feeling for music. If you have a cleaner feeling you can better suit your instinct and you can get points otherwise unattainable. The instinct often doesn't follow the logic and it often happens that some of my pupils during my courses of conducting, ask me: _Why do you do this?" I must confess that I hesitate sometimes, simply because I don't know the answer. But if I am obliged to clarify my intuition, if I must give a logical explanation, this process itself helps to deepen my knowledge of that music.

There are a lot of intuitions in his recording of the symphonies of Beethoven. Peter Maag taped these basic masterpieces after his 75th birthday even if he performed all the symphonies for more than 40 years: almost a paradox for a conductor clearly linked to the world of German music who was a pupil of Furtwängler. Again it may seem paradoxical that Maag elected to record the symphonies with an orchestral group that is decidedly smaller than the traditional orchestras of the romantic interpretation, which offer symphonies with a strong sound impact using a wealth of redoubled strings and wind instruments.

I was always a little bit afraid because probably I had to live in the shadow of Furtwängler and I had the feeling that I would never be able to do and to record Beethoven in a such great way. However slowly I gained the courage and I faced the symphonies. I must say that it was a wonderful experience as a conductor to record such masterpieces in the late years of my life, even if Beethoven is a real adventure for all ages. If Furtwängler could listen to these recordings I hope he could find well exposed his teaching but I am sure he would tell me that these interpretations are more rational than he could expect, even if the intuition enjoys for me a special regard.
This is probably the heritage of my collaboration with Ernest Ansermet, who always supported a rational background in music making: he was not by chance an excellent conductor for the XXth Century music. Ansermet gave to my romantic soul the French drops of reason and maybe the decision to record the symphonies of Beethoven with a chamber orchestra is linked with this experience. A chamber orchestra doesn't allow you to hide yourself but gives the opportunity to bring into the foreground the infinite details of the score. The Orchestra di Padova is anyway a special orchestra, because their 8 first violins play as they were 15 and all musicians give 200% when they play in concert or they record. I believe that this orchestra will be a big surprise for most of the critics. So will be the Athestis Chorus in the ninth symphony, a vocal group which is used to perform baroque music that gave a pleasant freshness in the fourth movement. Remember that Beethoven had a romantic spirit, but he was not fully involved in the Romanticism and his music is really bound with the Classicism. So that his symphonies must be not a demonstration of orchestral power.

Strangely enough, Peter Maag is really satisfied with his recordings of Beethoven's symphonies. Usually all conductors or soloists after listening to their recordings find many differences with their present interpretation and if they can they would change a lot of passages and tempos. This is not the case with Maag. Maybe it is due to the tranquillity he experienced during his Himalayan interlude, perhaps his vision of these works is finally affirmed. The fact is that he recognizes himself in these recordings perfectly, is happy with his choice of tempos (and what tempos! Breathtaking, from the fastest Finale in the Seventh, to the peaceful and commode way of his debut of the Pastorale, or the intimate and slow Adagio in the Ninth) and he especially believes in his interpretation and in his Italian orchestra. The same confidence can be found in his new Mozart cyclus which he began in 1996, again for Arts.

I believe that Mozart would have liked to play his symphonies with an Italian orchestra. Obviously we have the wonderful _Viennese" sound of some selected Austrian and German orchestras but don't forget the _Italian" sound for most of Mozart's music because the Italian world was extremely important for Mozart until his late period. The sound of an ensemble like the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto is not swollen but clear. There is always a big tension in their sound and Mozart's music is closer to Vivaldi than to Brahms. Moreover the Orchestra di Padova has just the size I can imagine for this music. I like these new recordings of the late symphonies as I like my previous recordings for Decca with London Symphony. There is only one big difference: I am older today and if the music is always the same unfortunately or luckily I have been changed...

I left Peter Maag to his serenity and to his enthusiasm. I left him leading and managing his "Bottega", a sort of school for young singers in Treviso, an activity that he cannot do without. Even his concerts in Europe, in America, in Japan and in the Far East must take a backseat. He takes his leave of me, as a Himalayan monk might, telling me: _The life is wonderful but if you live within the music you are the happiest of all men".