Jonathan Kelly in conversation with Tobias Möller (16 min.)

The musical collaboration between Jonathan Kelly and Sir Simon Rattle began back in 1993, when Rattle was music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Kelly became the ensemble’s principal oboe. In 2003, the musician moved to the same position with the Berliner Philharmoniker, where he experienced almost the complete era of Sir Simon as chief conductor. When he returned to the orchestra for two programmes in March 2020, Kelly was the soloist in Richard Strauss’ only Oboe Concerto. In this interview with Tobias Möller, director of marketing and communications at the Digital Concert Hall, Kelly talks about the conditions under which this work was written by the over 80-year-old composer shortly after the end of World War II. Other topics of conversation are the specific sound of the oboe, and the spirit of Mozart, which can be clearly heard in Strauss’ late works.