9 QUESTIONS FOR CHRISTIAN STEINER

WILLIAM PARKER

Director, ccSCOOP
07-20-10

WILLIAM PARKER: You come from a musical family, you're a musician yourself and music is a large part of your life.  What drew you to photography originally?

CHRISTIAN STEINER: My 9 year older brother Peter, who had joined the Berlin Philharmonic as a cellist (at 18 years of age) always showered me with gifts after a tour with the orchestra. When I was 13 he gave me a camera not knowing what a significant present it became. I soon learned that I was only interested in photographing people, but only regarded it as a hobby.

 WP: You've photographed most of the greats of the classical music world.  Who was your first big-star subject?

CS: Franco Corelli, for Angel Records.

WP: I have a feeling that Nikolai provides a lot of the inspiration for you.  You always bring him onstage before concerts.  How does he influence your creative choices?

CS: His musical taste, though he loves music, is not very discriminating and he is pleased with all of the choices I make. He does notice new instruments as in our last concert with percussion. He was not quite sure about the playing of Cyro Baptista, but he relaxed after a while. He was the most attentive at the performance of a solo Sonata for Cello by Ligeti some time back.

WP: How do the two of you cope with the reality of putting together a season?  Classical artists are often booked years in advance.

CS: As you can imagine, it is very complicated. 

I will first try to establish a date with an artist who is very much in demand. Once that is done, I will approach younger ones who are not quite as busy to fill up the missing dates. It is always a long process and often very frustrating. A lot depends on my personal relationships but I have to start earlier and earlier each year. In addition I have to work around the dates of the Tannery which is often booked for other events.

WP: Tannery Pond is as intimate a venue as possible.  Did you ever have anyone you thought was too big, sound-wise, for the place?

CS: Not one person alone. But I have found that having more than 10 people on stage is acoustically not good for the space. Crowding the stage muffles the sound.

 WP: Not even Jessye Norman?

CS: Jessye is a consummate artist and can scale her voice to any size room.

 WP: Who, of all your subjects, comes to mind as a joy to photograph?

CS: Christa Ludwig, Gwynneth Jones, Ricardo Muti, Alicia de Larrocha, James Levine,  Maria Callas, Renata Tebaldi,    Yo Yo Ma and, of course, Jessye Norman. 

These are only a few of the big names that come to mind, but you have to realize that all people like to end up with a wonderful image of themselves and therefore usually put their best foot forward and only on very rare occasions do I not have a great time.

WP: Has any subject ever told you how they want to be photographed?

CS: Rarely, but yes. Callas wanted to be photographed from underneath. She thought it would shorten her nose. As I looked at her from that angle I realized that it diminished her great bone structure and I disregarded her request. She did not notice. 

WP: Have you gone digital?  I understand you've always worked with a Hasselblad.

CS: As of 2002 I went digital. I do not miss the darkroom after having been in it for 35 years. Especially, developing film is not very interesting. For record companies who required square format, I used the Hasselblad. 

WP: Your portraits of Callas are, I think, the best ever taken of her.  They're both elegant and glamorous and are the ones we and a new generation of fans remember her by.   But up till then, she had always insisted on being photographed in full stage makeup, or, at least, full eye makeup.  How did you get her to take off the eyeliner?  Was there a struggle?

CS: One does not struggle with a legend. In my first session with her in Paris she still used a lot of eyeliner but was otherwise asking me about everything else. Which dress shall I wear, how should my hair be done, etc. And once I chose, she always said: "That is what I thought.”

VIEW CHRISTIAN STEINER'S PHOTOGRAPHY - GALLERY/SLIDESHOW