Riccardo Chailly to step down at Leipzig

[Demetrius]

New York Times says it's Nelsons.

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

"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."

This looks more informed than everything up to now. And answers the question as to what the reaction in Boston would be.


Edit:

There he is

http://www.gewandhausorchester.de/

[subcontrabass]

Appointment of Nelsons confirmed via Twitter (https://twitter.com/gewandhaus) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/Gewandhausorchester)

[bluestateprommer]

This looks more informed than everything up to now. And answers the question as to what the reaction in Boston would be.

Indeed, yes, and this would also explain why Nelsons took his hat out of the ring regarding the Berlin Philharmonic.

Peter Korfmacher in the Leipziger Volkszeitung has updated the opening of his article:

"Die Entscheidung ist gefallen. Der 36-jährige Dirigent Andris Nelsons wird 21. Gewandhauskapellmeister. Er tritt in Leipzig die Nachfolge von Riccardo Chailly an."
(The decision has been made. The 36-year-old conductor Andris Nelsons is the 21st Gewandhauskapellmeister. In Leipzig, he succeeds Riccardo Chailly.")

Well, at least it's not Alan Gilbert. Granted, it will still be a huge physical strain on Nelsons, so fingers crossed for him, Leipzig & Boston. The Boston Globe hasn't yet posted this on their page.

Edit: however, the Boston Symphony is putting their positive spin on the situation:

http://www.bso.org/brands/bso/features/2015-16-bso-season/gewandhaus-orchester.aspx

"The Boston Symphony Orchestra and BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons will enter into a unique multidimensional partnership with Leipzig's Gewandhausorchester in connection with Mr. Nelsons' appointment as that orchestra's Gewandhauskapellmeister, starting with the 2017-18 season. Mr. Nelsons takes on this new title with the Gewandhausorchester in addition to his long-term commitment as the Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director through 2022 and beyond; the GWO appointment also plays a role in consolidating Mr. Nelsons' European activities. The BSO/GWO Alliance will explore the many historic connections between these two world-famous orchestras, inspire new cultural exchanges, and create a wide spectrum of performance and educational programs designed to bring a new dimension of concert experience to each of the orchestra's respective audiences. As the central figure in bringing the BSO and GWO together, Andris Nelsons will be intricately involved in the planning and implementation of all the programming initiatives between the two orchestras.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Alliance will informally begin in May 2016 when the BSO, as part of a European tour to the major musical capitals of Austria, Germany, and Luxembourg, makes its debut performance in Leipzig's Gewandhaus, one of the great European halls after which Boston's Symphony Hall was modeled (1884 version). The BSO/GWO Alliance officially takes place over a five-year period beginning with the 2017-18 concert season."

So hopefully both sides are going in with eyes wide open.

Edit 2: full statement from the Gewandhaus Orchestra is at this link:

http://www.gewandhausorchester.de/medien/detail/news/andris-nelsons-soll-21-gewandhauskapellmeister-werden-boston-leipzig-kooperation/

[Demetrius]

Well, the one concert with Nelson last year I attended was obstructed by abysmal neighbors to both my sides, so I only remember the distinct urge to axe-murder both of them. Seems like I will get a few more chances to be impressed, so I am quite happy for that.

[Darkbloom]

I hope he doesn't end up burning out with all of this work. The pool of real talent is so shallow that I suppose it's inevitable that the same names are going to keep on popping up, but I wish him well because he is obviously a major talent. There are some conductors who are just empty careerists like Zubin Mehta, but Nelsons is obviously not of that breed. There is surely a chance that you stop growing as an interpreter under this sort of pressure and your performances become ossified because you have not given yourself time to do anything. I thought the striking thing about his Proms Beethoven was the way that he managed to make it sound fresh in an unexpected way, with an orchestra that obviously hung on his every gesture. When you start to spread yourself thin like this it is hard to see how this kind of rapport is going to be easily maintained with different ensembles.

Oh well, let's hope for the best.

[Barbirollians]

It would also explain why he clearly has no time to make guest appearances in Brum !

[gurnemanz]

Critical view on Chailly's Leipzig tenure from a contributor to the Leipziger Internet Zeitung. Referring to some great music making but also: "zu viele Enttäuschungen" (too many disappointments.), "zu vielen Wiederholungen, zu wenig echter Innovation" (too many repetitions, too little real innovation), too frequent cancellation ("Zu oft hat Herr Chailly abgesagt"). Comparing him to Blomstedt, the writer claims he was never really committed to the orchestra - he had to be persuaded not to walk out in 2008; he recently took on two additional posts at Lucerne and La Scala. His connection with the orchestra was "ein Lippenbekenntnis, nie aber ein Herzensanliegen" (lip service, never an affair of the heart). The reader looks forward for a new beginning.

[VodkaDilc]

I think Nelsons is wonderful - and I know that he was adored by the CBSO. However I can recall two concerts in Oxford during recent years when he had to withdraw at the last minute - once with the Philharmonia and again, very recently, with the CBSO. It seemed to be suggested that this was due to illness/overwork, and I know that he has also had to withdraw from other concerts elsewhere.

I hope he can cope with these added pressures. Nevertheless, hearty congratulations to him.

[bluestateprommer]

Apart from the missive that gurnemanz noted (which has no name attached to it, BTW - one wonders then about just who wrote it), some critical reaction can be gleaned from:

(a) Tom Service, The Guardian
(b) Anne Midgette, Washington Post
(c) Manuel Brug, Die Welt blog (obviously he was right earlier about Nelsons, and I was wrong)

There's also this "brief comment" by Alex Ross at his blog, which puts him in the Brug & Service camp that this doesn't sound like a good move for either orchestra:

'Reviewing Andris Nelsons's first concerts as the music director of the Boston Symphony last fall, I wrote: "What Boston requires most from this hugely gifted, still maturing conductor is his full attention." With the announcement today that Nelsons will become the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 2017, it's clear that Boston won't be getting it.'

Midgette is more sanguine than Brug, Ross and Service:

"The announcement of the partnership is certainly a great PR move, nipping in the bud what promised to be abundant speculation about Nelsons’s future with Boston should he get a plum European gig. It’s also a progressive example at a time when many international conductors hold multiple and seemingly competing music directorships with different orchestras, and when collaboration and co-production seem to be productive buzzwords in a field reexamining its financial structures. For music-lovers in both Boston and Leipzig, it’s a win: not only do they get an exciting music director, but also the prospect of more visits from another one of the world’s leading ensembles."

One wonders what the CBSO administration must be thinking now.

[richardfinegold]

I hope that Nelsons has a good Cardiologist. He'll be needing it.

[Demetrius]

I hope that Nelsons has a good Cardiologist. He'll be needing it.

On the other hand, he is still young. Plenty lawyers around the globe his age work 70 or 80 hours a week, and some of them survive.

Let him do his thing for a while. He has a year to reduce his other commitments and make his schedule work. The CBSO and Boston Seasons of the last years show him as a conductor of the same material that has been championed by the Gewandhaus: Central European, well known, romantic. Plus quite a bit of Mozart and Haydn, which fits well to a (re)new(ed) strand of repertoire that the Gewandhaus picked up this year. The BSO has him conducting more pieces off the beaten path. If he brings that to Leipzig, that would be lovely.