Lampooned conductor bounces back

Franz Welser-Möst, lampooned as "Frankly Worse than Most" when he ran the London Philharmonic, has bounced back to take the baton of one of the world's greatest orchestras.

The Austrian-born conductor is taking over the Cleveland orchestra - arguably America's finest, and among the world's top five - from the legendary Christoph von Dohnanyi.

Welser-Möst, 38, left the London Philharmonic three years ago after critical lashings. "Brittle and unfeeling", "desperately slow, positively lugubrious", "coarse, aggressive, unlovely" were among the verdicts on the dashing young aristocrat's six years in charge.

Even more embarrassing was a row over the dropping of a young German violinist called Jenne Christee after a disastrous rehearsal. Welser-Möst claimed he had never known Christee was his aunt, married to the brother of his adoptive father, Baron Andreas von Bennigsen.

To complicate matters, Welser-Möst lives with the baron's estranged wife, Angelika. Welser-Möst claimed he had been made a scapegoat for the Philharmonic's woes, and pointed to his reputation as a wunderkind on the continent and in the United States.

"History will tell what my role really was," he said.

Welser-Möst, who has been licking his wounds at the Zurich Opera, will take over at Cleveland from Dohnanyi in September 2002.

His appointment is another coup for the Royal Opera House chairman Sir Colin Southgate for whose EMI label he records. Dohnanyi will remain as musical director of the London Philharmonia after his retirement.

"Cleveland is one of the handful of great orchestras in the world," said Welser-Möst, "and I have enjoyed many great moments with it since we first met in 1993. I look forward to building upon that relationship in the future."

• The renowned Scottish composer James MacMillan, best known for his Confession Of Isobel Gowdie and for his percussion work with Evelyn Glennie, is to join the BBC Philharmonic, taking over from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies as composer-conductor.

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