Andris Nelsons to lead Leipzig Gewandhaus

[Brian]

...AND Boston.

NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/arts/music/andris-nelsons-named-music-director-of-leipzig-gewandhaus-orchestra.html

The career of Andris Nelsons, the dynamic young conductor who became music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra last season, continued its crescendo on Wednesday when he was named the next music director of the venerable Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Mr. Nelsons, 36, will continue to lead the Boston Symphony, which recently extended his contract through at least 2022, after he begins his five-year contract at the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the fall of 2017. He will succeed Riccardo Chailly at the Gewandhaus Orchestra, which was once led by Mendelssohn and has a storied place in music history, including a lineage of great conductors and the premieres of works by Schumann, Schubert, Wagner and Brahms.

"It's an extraordinary responsibility, an extraordinary joy and a great honor," Mr. Nelsons said in a telephone interview.

His leadership of flagship orchestras on both sides of the Atlantic will come with a somewhat unusual new wrinkle: an alliance between the two ensembles.

Since the dawn of the jet age, it has been common for top conductors to lead more than one orchestra at a time. In the past, as often as not, a conductor's orchestra in the United States would more or less ignore his work with his orchestra in Europe, and vice versa — much as a jealous spouse might studiously refrain from acknowledging a widely known extramarital affair.

But Boston and Leipzig are working to make a virtue of Mr. Nelsons's involvement with both orchestras. The Boston Symphony will perform in Leipzig, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra will perform at Symphony Hall in Boston. They are starting a joint commissioning program that will begin in the 2017-18 season with a new work by the German composer Jörg Widmann that will be played in both cities. And over the course of that season, the Boston Symphony will hold a "Leipzig Week in Boston" and the Gewandhaus a "Boston Week in Leipzig," with each ensemble playing repertoire the other is known for.

[etc.]

[Brian]

One thing that occurs to me is, it's a bit odd that the top-tier orchestras are so lacking in top-tier conductors (lack of talent? lack of imagination-in-hiring? lack of looking-hard-enough?) that one conductor can take charge of two of them at once.

[Karl Henning]

One thing that occurs to me is, it's a bit odd that the top-tier orchestras are so lacking in top-tier conductors (lack of talent? lack of imagination-in-hiring? lack of looking-hard-enough?) that one conductor can take charge of two of them at once.

I didn't like the precedent Levine was setting by directing both the BSO and the Met, as if he had to cobble together two "part-time" gigs.

It's all part of this Superstar mentality. A few conductors have a HUGE name, and none of the American talent gets groomed for the big-time.  The two Great Young Talents hired by high-profile US orchestras are Venezuelan and Latvian.

Well, that was a half-incoherent rant, wasn't it?

[Pat B]

But Boston and Leipzig are working to make a virtue of Mr. Nelsons's involvement with both orchestras. The Boston Symphony will perform in Leipzig, and the Gewandhaus Orchestra will perform at Symphony Hall in Boston. They are starting a joint commissioning program that will begin in the 2017-18 season with a new work by the German composer Jörg Widmann that will be played in both cities. And over the course of that season, the Boston Symphony will hold a "Leipzig Week in Boston" and the Gewandhaus a "Boston Week in Leipzig," with each ensemble playing repertoire the other is known for.

That's pretty cool!

Regarding your later point, I look at it this way: orchestras would prefer to have their first choice part time than somebody else full-time. So while I understand Karl's frustration with the Superstar mentality, I can't really blame the Gewandhaus (or any other specific orchestra) for their decision.

[Ken B]

I didn't like the precedent Levine was setting by directing both the BSO and the Met, as if he had to cobble together two "part-time" gigs.

It's all part of this Superstar mentality. A few conductors have a HUGE name, and none of the American talent gets groomed for the big-time.  The two Great Young Talents hired by high-profile US orchestras are Venezuelan and Latvian.

Well, that was a half-incoherent rant, wasn't it?

Fully coherent.

The precedent isn't new though. Look at what HvK was doing, circa 1955.

[Karl Henning]

Fair enow.

[North Star]

They are starting a joint commissioning program that will begin in the 2017-18 season with a new work by the German composer Jörg Widmann that will be played in both cities.

I think they should also commission a new work from a Bostonian composer. . .

[kishnevi]

I didn't like the precedent Levine was setting by directing both the BSO and the Met, as if he had to cobble together two "part-time" gigs.

It's all part of this Superstar mentality. A few conductors have a HUGE name, and none of the American talent gets groomed for the big-time.  The two Great Young Talents hired by high-profile US orchestras are Venezuelan and Latvian.

Well, that was a half-incoherent rant, wasn't it?

Don't forget that the most recent Big Hire by a Big Orchestra of (literally, in this case)home grown conducting was not a Big Success (Gilbert/NYPO).

What greener pastures is Chailly headed to?

[Brian]

Don't forget that the most recent Big Hire by a Big Orchestra of (literally, in this case)home grown conducting was not a Big Success (Gilbert/NYPO).

What greener pastures is Chailly headed to?

La Scala 2017-2022 and the Lucerne Festival Orchestra 2016-.

[Karl Henning]

Don't forget that the most recent Big Hire by a Big Orchestra of (literally, in this case)home grown conducting was not a Big Success (Gilbert/NYPO).

Mo' betta bean counters . . . .

[jfdrex]

I've read that when Ormandy conducted the LSO, they sounded like the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Similarly, I've read that when Klemperer conducted the Philadelphians, they sounded like the Philharmonia.

This leads me to wonder:  When Nelsons conducts his new charges at the Gewandhaus, will they sound like the Bostonians?  Or will the Bostonians, when he conducts them, sound more like the Leipzigers?

(In any case, from what I've heard with my own ears, today's Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra doesn't sound like it did in Konwitschny's day.  And even less does today's BSO sound like Munch's BSO.)

[vandermolen]

I thought highly of his performance of Haydn, Barber and Shostakovich in London at this year's proms. The Shostakovich (Symphony 10) was a bit too upholstered but brilliantly played. The Barber, unexpectedly perhaps, was wonderful.