Billy and the Joels--The American rock star and his German family story

by Steffen Radlmaier

  Joel and John played their last concert together in March of 2010. Barely one year later, Elton John caused a stir with an interview that appeared in Rolling Stone’s February 2011 issue. The English pop star was worried about Billy Joel’s alcohol consumption. In the interview, John was also critical of Joel’s decision to stop writing new music. “At the end of the day, he’s coasting,” John said. “I always say, ‘Billy, can’t your write another song?’ It’s either fear or laziness. It upsets me. Billy’s a conundrum. We’ve had so many canceled tours because of illnesses and various other things, alcoholism. He’s going to hate me for this, but every time he goes to rehab they’ve been rehab light. When I went to rehab, I had to clean the floors. He goes to rehab where they have TVs. I love you, Billy, and this is tough love. Billy, you have your demons and you’re not going to get rid of them at rehab light. You’ve got to be serious. People adore you, they love you and respect you. You should be able to do something better than what you’re doing now.”118

  Billy Joel responded calmly: “I’ve worked with Elton for such a long time and I’ve enjoyed our relationship too much to let something as random as these comments change my affection for him,” Joel said in a statement. “Elton is just being Elton.”

  Although the two friends may harmonize so well on stage, they’ve often had their differences: “I’ve had a kind of running disagreement with Elton. ‘Why don’t you put out more albums?’ And I’d say, ‘Why don’t you put out less albums?’ Unless I feel I have something really substantial to add, I don’t feel that I have to keep churning it out like cheese. If you have nothing to say, sometimes the best thing to say is nothing. That’s a lesson more people in the world need to learn.”119

  Father and Sons

  On a late-spring weekend in 1995, fifty years after the end of the Second World War and the Third Reich, a family reunion of a special kind took place in Nuremberg: Invited by the city and liaised by his father, Billy Joel appeared twice at the sold-out Meistersingerhalle. During these two stirring shows entitled “An Evening of Questions and Answers”, which were recorded by the German broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, Billy was joined on stage by his father and brother, while Helmut Joel’s second wife, Helmut’s old school-friends Arno Hamburger and Rudi Weber, as well as a few gray-haired ladies who had worked in Karl Joel’s linen factory in the 1930s were sitting in the audience.

  It was not the expected run-of-the-mill display of concern, nor was it any ordinary concert. In a mixture of intellectual talkshow and personal workshop, Billy Joel showed himself to be a quick-witted, humorous entertainer and storyteller, revealing his funny side in response to the strangest of questions from the audience. And in the process, the ties between his own family history and twentieth-century world history became clear. He spoke about his Nuremberg roots, his relationship to Germany and the Jewish religion, as well as about his work as a musician.

  Before the performance, Joel explained that he had mixed feelings every time he came to Germany: “It’s a difficult subject. When I was young there were a lot of films about the Second World War on TV. We were taught that we Americans were the good guys, and the others were the bad guys. But that’s changed over time. America is no longer considered the only perfect place in the world. In the 60s, my generation started to ask critical questions and recognize that the Americans are also not perfect. When I first came here in the 70s it was a strange feeling. So this was the country where my family came from. But it was also the country from which my family had had to flee from the National Socialists. But then I met people here who thought just the same as the people in the USA did, and had nothing in common with the Nazi guys that I knew from the films. I no longer see things black and white. Fifty years have passed since the war. We must never forget what happened in the past, but we also have to look to the future and repair what was broken. The only way is to talk about it – but maybe music can also play its part.”

  The American rock star, a big fan of beer and Bratwurst, as well as Bach and Beethoven, also spoke about his relationship to German culture. Sturm und Drang is something he considers to be a typically German phenomenon and an expression he likes to use to describe romanticism and spiritual depth. In this context, he is less interested in the literary movement towards the end of the eighteenth century, but more in the idea of a freedom-loving original genius – and perhaps this is partly because he identifies with this idea.

  “Questions & Answers” with Billy Joel, Nuremberg, 1995 · © Helmut Ölschlegel

  In the Nürnberger Nachrichten newspaper of June 6, 1995, I wrote this about the evening: “Billy Joel betrays some secrets confidently and affectionately; the audience astonishingly overcoming their inhibitions and the language barrier to ask all manner of questions – both possible and impossible to answer. The man with a penchant for jeans and designer clothes answers questions like a casual entertainer. There was no end of amusing and thoughtful anecdotes throughout the one-man show. Whether it was about the boredom of life on tour (“You’re no longer human when you’re on tour”) or his Jewish ancestry (“When we were hippies in the 60s we all looked liked orthodox Jews anyway”), the problems of aging (“None so far”), his experiences as a musician (“Making mistakes is an art”), religion (“People should just believe what they want to”) or videos (“Good music doesn’t need visual backing”) – Billy Joel answered all questions patiently and completely wowed the audience.”

  Steffen Radlmaier, Helmut und Billy Joel in Nuremberg, 1995 · © Günter Distler

  Billy Joel at a press conference in Nuremberg, 1995 · © Helmut Ölschlegel

  Between questions, the singer sat down again and again at the piano and gave the audience a taste of his hits. Of course, “Vienna”, the song he had written for his father, was a must. The emotional highlight of the evening was a joint performance by Helmut Joel and his two sons. Sat at two pianos, Helmut and Billy hammered out Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”, and Alexander played the first movement of Beethoven’s 6th Symphony with Billy. During the performances, Billy also surprised the audience with his “Famous Last Words”, and the announcement that he would be retiring from the grueling touring, and ending his career as a rock singer.

  During the day, the Joels took the opportunity to have a look around the rebuilt city of Nuremberg – now also a City for Human Rights – and to visit the Jewish cemetery where some of their closest relatives are buried.

  They stayed at the Grand Hotel, where Karl Joel used to go to treat himself to a Martini every now and then. In the evening, Billy sat down at the piano in the hotel bar and treated the guests to a surprise performance of a few Beatles hits as well as some of his own. He donated the proceeds of his guest performance – a total of 50,000 marks – to the artists of the Jewish Community and Nuremberg’s newly created Human Rights Award. A generous gesture of reconciliation with the past.

  Today, Billy Joel wonders how it can be that he owes his whole existence to the great catastrophes of the twentieth century: “My grandparents on my mother’s side fled to America to escape the horrors of the First World War; my grandparents on my father’s side fled the Nazi terror. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”

  The topic was addressed once again a few years later by the Austrian filmmaker Beate Thalberg: In her award-winning television movie Die Akte Joel [The Joel Files] she documented the ill-fated story of entrepreneurs Karl Amson Joel and Josef Neckermann and its aftermath. While making the film, she had the interesting idea of bringing the grandchildren together. Just like Billy Joel, Julia, Markus and Lukas Neckermann grew up in the USA.

  The meeting between the grandchildren in a Viennese coffee house was strangely formal, and yet extremely enlightening. Visibly uncomfortable, all five of them sat face to face, but had very little to say to each other. The categories of victims and perpetrators seemed no more appropriate here than those of plaintiffs and defendants. They didn’t choose their family histories,
but what was striking was how the Neckermanns sought explanations and excuses for their grandfather’s behavior. “Was he sorry for what he did back then?” asked Alexander Joel. The Neckermann grandchildren answered “Yes”. “Did he feel guilty?” asked Alexander. “No, no. They didn’t know what they were doing. Everyone was doing it”, Julia Neckermann answered. And her brother Lukas added: “We’ve always spoken about the present in our family, and what’s going to happen in the future. But everything that happened in the past, my siblings and I only know from books.”

  History has taught Billy Joel to come to terms with the past without resentment or bitterness, so as not to give hatred a chance. There are winners and losers in every story. Which side you are on is ultimately a question of power and morality.

  To Be a Conductor

  Whilst Billy Joel was contemplating his retirement from the music industry at the height of his career, Alexander Joel was trying desperately to establish himself as a conductor. “Starting out is always the hardest part”, he says, looking back. “The competition is enormous and the selection process merciless. Finding a position as a young conductor is an almost impossible task. After all, who would want to take on an unknown, inexperienced conductor? But you can’t become a conductor without an orchestra. It’s a vicious circle.”

  One person who believed in Alexander Joel from the very beginning is Georg Mark, his professor at the Vienna Conservatory: “Alexander was one of my most talented students, and also one of the most hard-working I ever had. He threw himself into his work like a man possessed. He is a very communicative person and an outspoken leader – both essential qualities for a conductor.” Mark describes this profession somewhat paradoxically: “A prerequisite for conducting is that you can do everything in music – except conduct. A conductor’s instrument is his orchestra.” During training – Mark only takes on four students a year – he puts just as much emphasis on character building as on developing the musical tools of the trade.

  The Joels’ family reunion in Nuremberg paid off for Alexander: thanks to the new contacts he made, he was able to perform his official debut as a conductor in the city of his ancestors in 1995. His parents sat in the opera house, watching proudly as their son conducted a repertoire performance for the first time: Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, which Helmut Joel had once seen here with his own parents.

  The following year, Alexander passed his final exams at the Vienna Conservatory with distinction – and then spent the next few months unemployed. The ambitious musician experienced a streak of bad luck, writing application after application, but nothing seemed to be working: “There are around eighty opera houses in the German-speaking world, half of which I applied to – but to no avail.”

  The crucial turning point came in 1996 in the form of an international conducting competition in the Italian city of Spoleto: Alexander Joel won second place along with the jury’s prize, and upon his return, discovered that a position had opened up as a conductor in the spa town of Baden near Vienna. The 25-year-old managed to emerge top of his 30 competitors and took up his first post in May 1997. “That was one of the happiest moments in my life.”

  But the young conductor’s career came so close to turning out completely differently or even coming to nothing. The day before the competition in Spoleto, Alexander had to participate in an amateur production in Madrid. The schedule was extremely tight, even though the Italian organizers had generously assured him that his turn would come only in the second round of conducting in the afternoon. After his flight from Madrid to Rome, Alexander took a train to Spoleto, where the competition had already started. But then all of a sudden the train came to a halt in the middle of nowhere and didn’t go any further: A rail strike! These tend to last quite some time in Italy. Alexander was on tenterhooks – the longer he was forced to wait, the further his big chance drifted from his grasp. Frantic, he sat on the platform refusing to accept his fate and asking himself: “Why is everything conspiring against me?”

  As if through divine intervention, the train unexpectedly set off again a little later and reached its destination just in time for Alexander to literally rush to the conductor’s stand at the very last minute. “If I hadn’t made it, everything would have turned out completely differently. I wouldn’t have met two key people who helped me a great deal later on – Heide Rabal, then artistic director at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt, and Vincenzo De Vivo, now Managing Director of the Valencia Opera House.” To this day, such momentous meetings have played an important role in the life of the up-and-coming conductor, who has dedicated his whole life to music.

  The newcomer was not at all concerned by the fact that only operettas played in Baden and that he would have to conduct well over 100 spa concerts: “I grew up with operettas and traditional Viennese songs and I like the blend of humor, charm and sentimentality. Baden is a wonderful little place where I learned a lot, especially from conductor and operetta specialist Franz Bauer-Theussl.”

  Years later, when he was already established in his profession, Alexander Joel admitted to Bauer-Theussl: “Professor, there’s something I have to confess to you: I stole quite a lot from your conducting.” The professor replied patronizingly: “My friend, that’s not stealing, that’s called learning …”

  After the baptism of fire in Baden, everything went quickly: just a year or so later, thanks to the organization of Heide Rabal, Alexander got a position as conductor at the theater in Klagenfurt. He left his musical calling card at the end of 1998 with Verdi’s Opera La Traviata. The critics were ecstatic, describing his conducting debut as sensational. The journal Orpheus Oper International wrote in February 1999 about the Klagenfurt performance of La Traviata (produced by Dietmar Pflegerl): “We were lucky enough to have 27-year-old Alexander Joel conducting the performance. How different the orchestra sounded under his direction! He managed to awaken all the hidden feeling and tension in the orchestra with his clear, precise gestures and fascinating interpretation ability. He managed to convey warmth and emotion, and the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra followed his intentions unquestioningly. His interpretation and choice of tempo also demonstrated an ability to show empathy for the singers – a fantastic debut by a highly talented young conductor.”

  Alexander Joel conducting the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, 2007 · © Steffen Radlmaier

  Alexander Joel working in the train between Vienna and Braunschweig, 2006 · © Steffen Radlmaier

  La Traviata proved to be a stroke of luck that opened up more doors for Alexander Joel, leading to his promotion to Deputy Chief Musical Director in Klagenfurt. In the first performance of La Traviata that Joel conducted, Hans Landesmann, Concert Director of the Salzburg Festival under Gérard Mortier, happened to be sitting in the audience. He was so taken by the performance that he immediately recommended the newcomer to Dominique Mentha, the new head of the Vienna Volksoper. Alexander went on to conduct the operetta Wiener Blut [Viennese Blood]” as a guest conductor to open the season there, and was promptly taken on as the permanent conductor for the rest of the run.

  In spite of his initial success at the Volksoper, he looks back on it as an “awful time.” All of a sudden, Mentha became the subject of public criticism and by association, Joel as well. An unsuccessful production of the operetta Der Vögelhändler [The Bird Seller] was the final nail in the coffin. The Austrian magazine News printed a malicious review under the headline: “Billy Joel’s little brother fails miserably at the Volksoper”. It wasn’t entirely true, but it had hit a nerve. “I was treated very badly back then. My self-confidence took quite a blow and I was glad to be able to leave the criticism of the Viennese schemers behind me.”

  But things got better. In 2001, the 30-year-old moved to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where he worked for six years. During this time he was also frequently in demand as a guest conductor, both nationally and internationally. These posts were met with almost entirely positive revie
ws from the outset.

  The Austrian press gave enthusiastic reviews of Joel’s guest conducting of Puccini’s Tosca at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt in December 2001: “An interpretation that could not fail to impress: Colorful and expressive, full of suspense and drama that never subsides; under his baton, the Carinthian Symphony Orchestra plays with tremendous, eruptive crescendos, but also tenderly and emotionally, with resplendent harmonies.” (Kleine Zeitung newspaper). “Under Alexander Joel’s direction, the orchestra plays spiritedly with lascivious piano passages and never too loudly at the points where all hell would break loose in larger theaters.” (Salzburger Nachrichtenn newspaper). “Conductor Alexander Joel’s fiery and dramatic nature pushes the orchestra to achieve its potential when it comes to the rich tones of Puccini.” (Wiener Kurier newspaper).

  The Rheinische Post wrote about his interpretation of Verdi’s opera Macbeth in Düsseldorf: “The music is simply out of this world. Alexander Joel has interpreted the score with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra with extraordinary precision: Perfectly subtle in the dynamic shading, dainty in the rhythmical branches, ominous in the gloomy sections, but always exciting.” (July 21, 2003).

  The Neue Ruhr Zeitung wrote about the “Italian Night” in the Burgplatz Square in Duisberg, describing the “Beguiling sound of the Philharmonic Orchestra, whose conductor Alexander Joel wowed the audience with his wit, enthusiasm and skill.” (August 2, 2004).

  For his stunning interpretation of the operetta classic The Merry Widow at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, the Abendzeitung newspaper bestowed upon the young hopeful a Stern des Jahres (Star of the Year award) in 2005.