Travels

Usually conductors try to plan their concert programs so that they don´t have to use all their free time for studying scores. This is done by some kind of a musical recycling: playing only a limited amount of pieces during the season. I´ve never been good in this. There seems to be constantly piles of new scores around to study. This is certainly interesting and fascinating but has its downsides: again I had to buy a new, bigger suitcase. A couple of weeks ago a taxi driver in Tampere asked if I was carrying stones for a sauna.

In addition to this, I recently discovered that conducting Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms or Haydn without a score brings lots of joy, freedom and new perspective to my work. This means however that I have to spend hours memorizing these scores which I studied already years ago, I´m practically learning them all over again.

Don´t get me wrong, I´m not complaining. I enjoy my profession more than ever but also realize that I have to learn some time management. This is also one of the reasons why I haven´t been blogging for five weeks.

Since the beginning of March there have been three weeks in the U.S. In Indianapolis I played with Corey Cerovsek who´s got the perfect mind and sense of humor for the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Unlike most American orchestras, the ISO has a very dark and broad sound which seemed to suit well for the Schostakovich´s 11th Symphony. But again I was troubled by the difficulties of this powerful music. Technically it´s easy and emotionally it´s obvious but sometimes the absence of inner layers in the score makes me feel slightly useless. On the other hand the lack of textual complexity leaves the perfomers lots of energy for creating sound and form. No matter what the problems are, I think Boulez was wrong when he said that Schostakovich is "second or even third pressing of Mahler". There´s no point in comparing these composers at all. Mahler´s starting point was personal and Schostakovich´s universal. Certain similarities in musical language only emphasize this difference.

Indianapolis was followed by a week with the Houston Symphony and Alban Gerhardt. It was such a pleasure to play with Alban again. His reading of the Sinfonia Concertante by Prokofiev is something very special, bold and delicate at the same time. The Houston Symphony has sensitivity and ear for Sibelius and we had many happy moments with the 2nd Symphony. I can hardly wait for the "Eroica" with them in October. During my stay in Houston I heard Brinton Smith, the principal cello of the HSO to play a magnificent tour de force solo recital, spent a relaxing and funny afternoon with Alban and my colleagues Brett Mitchell and Ken-David Masur and went to see the Rothko Chappel (I didn´t even know it is in Houston. This information was kindly revealed to me by Angela Hewitt).

Before Easter I spent four jet lagged days in Leeds where I played with the Orchestra of Opera North. The reputation of this opera company is widespread but before my visit I didn´t know much about the orchestra.I have to say they were really good and the Leeds Town Hall is a magnificent concert venue, for the first time the finale of the "Titan" didn´t sound too tumultuous. Amanda Roocroft was a perfect soloist in a set of songs by Richard Strauss. My favorite, Die Heiligen drei Könige aus Morgenland was included.

I´m writing this while traveling from Baltimore to Kuala Lumpur. The last concert with the Baltimore Symphony was on Saturday at the Strathmore Music Center near Washington DC. Percussionist Colin Currie played the U.S. premiere of the "Incantations" by Einojuhani Rautavaara, a new work which Colin premiered in London and which has since October been played in Rotterdam and Tampere. After three concerts in Baltimore we felt that the piece has finally found its shape. Colin is always an admirable soloist, concentrated and reliable. Also the BSO was a new orchestra for me. I´ve always been told that they are exceptional and it was great to notice that they really are equal to their reputation. It was easy to connect with this fine ensemble and it´s enthusiastic audience. Beethoven´s 7th with them was one of the highlights of my season.

Funny thing... the Baltimore concerts opened with Sibelius´s Finlandia. This was suggested by the orchestra (probably to eliminate a possible box office catastrophe caused by a contemporary percussion concerto) and I realized that I´ve never conducted this piece as a part of a symphonic program! I´ve played it dozens of times but never as what it really is: a symphonic poem with enormous musical gravity, not a national monument or a flamboyant encore.

Knowing that American orchestras have had difficult and depressing times economically, I´m always surprised to find these groups full of enthusiasm and joy of music making. Quite remarkable really.

In Easter, squeezed between all these trips we made a brave and acceptable performance of Beethoven´s Missa Solemnis in Tampere. I have been waiting for an opportunity to perform it since I borrowed the miniature score from the Sibelius Academy library in the mid 90´s (I can still remember the librarian looking at me, amazed. "What do you need this for? It´s not a very good piece, you know", she said). Knowing that it´s not an easy piece to approach I was moved by the supportive observance and warm enthusiasm of our audience.

I´ve been reading quite a lot about Beethoven and his life but his religiousness has always been an enigma to me. As an offspring of the enlightenment he was probably a deist: he accepted the concept of God as a creator but thought that the universe is in the hands of the human beings only, especially in the hands of the great minds like himself. I think he considered himself as a supreme being in a deistic sense. He must have been absolutely sure that like universe, his own works would live their own life after he had created them. He was convinced that they were to become the essential part of the Western canon.

There is a clear sigh of this in the Missa: the turning point of the whole piece is the coda of Credo, the glorious Grave which ends the long fugato "et vitam venturi saeculi". In that moment Beethoven seems to be finally convinced that his work will live for centuries after his death. This joyful moment changes the character of the remaining movements. Sanctus and Agnus Dei seem to be filled with gratitude and peace.