The luxembourgish conductor Pierre Cao is winner of a Special Achievement Award in this year’s International Classical Music Awards. Guy Engels (radio 100,7/Luxembourg, member of the jury) had the opportunity to talk with Pierre Cao.
– Pierre Cao, you came to music relatively late, after you had already taken a different path professionally.
– I was never meant to be a musician. After finisning my normal school, I worked in a washing machine factory. It was only when I spent a longer time in a sanatorium in Switzerland for health reasons that I decided to make music. My parents agreed, although it wasn’t easy for them because they didn’t have the financial means.
I also had a hard time in this new world for a long time. I lacked classical studies, and I moved in circles that were not my world. I suffered a lot from that. As a young conductor, I avoided official appointments as much as possible. I soon realised that it was the functionary rather than the person who was invited. It was only much later that I saw this more calmly and could come to terms with it.
– You then became a conductor at an early age with the former Symphony Orchestra of RTL – today the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra.
– Indeed, but I quickly realised that this post was not for me. I lacked repertoire and experience. Yet the working conditions were ideal. I had been given a lifetime contract – which basically put me on a par with Herbert von Karajan.
However, I did not feel comfortable in what was happening. And because I was always honest with myself, I decided to resign in 1976. It was the right decision. It then took me a long time to return to conducting. I certainly made many mistakes in my musical career, but in the end I was also very lucky…
