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November 10, 2018

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Maestro on the move: challenges and joy in leading urban culture

AN orchestra, as part of the city it serves, should work at more than just playing music, but contribute to the cultural wellbeing of the city in a meaningful way, according to Alan Gilbert.

Having worked as musical director of the New York Philharmonic for eight years, the US conductor is ready to start a new chapter with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany, next year as chief conductor.

Though living in Stockholm, Sweden, Gilbert, 51, will spent at least 12 weeks a year in Hamburg for NDR concerts, and some more time for administration work. As a conductor, Gilbert has worked with a series of top orchestras like Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Staatskapelle Dresden.

“It is not I who picked conducting, but conducting that picked me,” said Gilbert. With both his parents being violinist, the violin was his first choice until high school where he started helping to conduct students’ groups in the 1980s and his talent for conducting was born.

Gilbert has occupied some kind of conducting position ever since. Recently in Shanghai together with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, they presented two concerts with works by Mahler, Brahms, Beethoven and Bruckner.

He talked with local media about his views on an orchestra’s role in a city and his plans for the NDR.

Q: Do you feel different when working with New York Philharmonic and NDR?

A: It is completely different and it is also completely the same. It is like talking with different people. When you say the same thing to different people, you get different answers, and there is different chemistry. Orchestras are composed of people. Essentially, I do the same thing either working with New York Philharmonic or NDR — making music together with the orchestra members. But it comes out differently because I am working with different people.

It is like a river. It is always the same river, and it is always a different river.

I feel lucky to have conducted many great orchestras. The NY philharmonic is a great one, and now I am starting a new chapter with the NDR. I have known this orchestra for a long time.

Q: What is your current impression of the NDR?

A: I like many things about the orchestra. I particularly enjoy their sound culture, the way they make sound, and the way they love sound.

The element, rhythm, the color of the orchestra is very unique. They have this ability to keep a sound continuous and constantly living. Their sound has a life.

Q: Do you have any particular plans for working with the NDR? Will you bring any changes?

A: I think it is important to do a wide range of repertoire, including different styles of music. Different styles in music are like different accents in language, such as how to pronounce, phrase things and articulate things.

You cannot play Bach the same way you play Stravinsky, Bruckner or Brahms. Each composer, each piece, has its own world to really develop. The NDR was already working on that. So, it is not actually a change I brought them, but I want to be specific about the type of color, type of articulation, whether it is bright sound or dark sound, dry sound or resonance.

There are many different ways to approach different music. I think that specificity of approach is crucial.

Q: How do you see the connection between an orchestra and the city it serves, such as the New York Philharmonic for New York and the NDR for Hamburg?

A: Orchestras are part of the city they serve. It may be a dream or practically impossible for every single citizen in the city to experience our concert, but what an orchestra does should make the city better. We have duty to improve life of every citizen even though they may not have listened to our music.

NY philharmonic is part of the city features. I did projects that called attention to the orchestra and added to the cultural landscape in a meaningful way. That is hard as New York is such a culturally-diverse place.

Now in Hamburg with the NDR, we have a well-accepted cultural landmark — the Elbphilharmonie concert hall. We are the orchestra that plays the most in the hall.

When the hall opened, Hamburg was a city transformed overnight. Before that, orchestras sometimes stopped at Hamburg when they toured Europe. But now almost always they come to Hamburg.

That is both a challenge for local orchestra like us, and also an opportunity because it makes the whole music scene so exciting and so rich.

All the other orchestras are just passing through, but we are there all the time. So, we are the orchestra that builds the relationship with the public in Hamburg. That means what we do can shape the taste of the audience, can help them get to know a number of pieces.

Lots of orchestras today are carrying out series of music education programs, which is also what we do.

But the fact is that everything we do is in some way music education. For example, by choosing to do Beethoven’s symphony the way we play for our concert, we may hopefully teach people something about Beethoven; and by combining Beethoven with another composer, we may hopefully help audiences learn about the context.

Shaping taste and helping people get close to music is important, and we are now given a great opportunity to do it.




 

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