Andris Nelsons to Boston Symphony Orchestra

[bluestateprommer]

Looks as though AN won't be going to Berlin, at a guess:

http://www.bso.org/brands/bso/press/press-releases/archived-press-releases/031213/pr_andris-nelsons-music-director.aspx

I'm sure there must be heightened concern in Birmingham now, wondering how much longer he'll stay with the CBSO. I read somewhere that AN would like to be with the CBSO through at least their centenary season (2020), but who knows now. In any case, this is good news for Boston, to be sure.

[french frank]

Looks as though AN won't be going to Berlin, at a guess:

http://www.bso.org/brands/bso/press/press-releases/archived-press-releases/031213/pr_andris-nelsons-music-director.aspx

I'm sure there must be heightened concern in Birmingham now, wondering how much longer he'll stay with the CBSO. I read somewhere that AN would like to be with the CBSO through at least their centenary season (2020), but who knows now. In any case, this is good news for Boston, to be sure.

Thanks for that, bsp (I think ). OTOH, for these international conductors jetting from one place to another is part of the job ...? Where does he currently live?

[MrGongGong]

Where does he currently live?

here ?

http://goo.gl/maps/tOZGn

[amateur51]

here ?

http://goo.gl/maps/tOZGn

[Zucchini]

The CBSOs chief exec, Stephen Maddock, has said:

“Andris’ rolling contract with the CBSO is currently in place until the end of the 2014/15 season, and there will be no change to his commitment to Birmingham during this time. It is not unusual for a conductor of Andris’ stature to hold more than one position, and we will make an announcement about future seasons beyond 2015 later this year. In the meantime, we all congratulate him on his success and look forward to our next concerts with him in May and June, including an eight concert European tour.”

[Roslynmuse]

An unfortunate misprint in one Northern newspaper had him taking over the Bolton Symphony Orchestra... ...just one letter...

[Barbirollians]

Well CBSO - Sir Simon will be looking for a job by then !

[verismissimo]

here ?

http://goo.gl/maps/tOZGn

[MrGongGong]

Looking forward to some gigs in here

[BBMmk2]

I was thinking the same Barbs!!

[Petrushka]

Well CBSO - Sir Simon will be looking for a job by then !

Not outside the bounds of possibility and, remembering his cracking Birmingham programmes, I'd certainly welcome it! Rattle's future looks ever more intriguing

Nelsons must be the hottest property in classical music right now, hotter than Dudamel whom I've never really rated that high, and he must have been in the frame for LSO and BPO as well. Well done Boston in getting there first. I would now expect Theilemann for Berlin and Harding for London.

[BBMmk2]

Not outside the bounds of possibility and, remembering his cracking Birmingham programmes, I'd certainly welcome it! Rattle's future looks ever more intriguing

Nelsons must be the hottest property in classical music right now, hotter than Dudamel whom I've never really rated that high, and he must have been in the frame for LSO and BPO as well. Well done Boston in getting there first. I would now expect Theilemann for Berlin and Harding for London.

Hmmm, yes I expect your right, petrushka.

[bluestateprommer]

Not outside the bounds of possibility and, remembering his cracking Birmingham programmes, I'd certainly welcome it! Rattle's future looks ever more intriguing

I would respectfully disagree with Petrushka, if only on the principle that music directors should not trod old ground. In John Drummond's Tainted by Experience, JD actually quotes SSR in another context (namely, the Aldeburgh Festival), but which seems appropriate here:

"You cannot ever go back, nor should you want to. It is a recipe for death and decline."

This isn't to say that the CBSO wouldn't continue to welcome back Rattle as a guest conductor, at the very least. Plus, the CBSO has a principal guest conductor who could potentially be a successor to Nelsons when the day comes, namely one Edward Gardner.

Nelsons must be the hottest property in classical music right now, hotter than Dudamel whom I've never really rated that high, and he must have been in the frame for LSO and BPO as well. Well done Boston in getting there first. I would now expect Theilemann for Berlin and Harding for London.

I would agree that among the aficionados, including the music administrators who want to look a bit beyond the hype, Nelsons probably indeed ranks very high musically, as much so, if not more than, Dudamel. I'll admit that I've not seen Nelsons live, but I have seen Dudamel live, finally, this year, in NYC with the NY premiere of John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Dudamel led the proceedings very, very well, proving to me that there is substance behind the media glitz and hype.

But getting back to AN, and in keeping with what Petrushka said, I also would not be surprised if the Concertgebouw Orchestra also had AN in mind long-term as a potential successor to Mariss Jansons, given the mentor-apprentice relationship between the two, and Nelsons' recent load of guest appearances with the KCO in recent years. As well, I recall reading some random blog post somewhere on a thread about Nelsons that the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich was eyeing him a few years back to take over from David Zinman, but that AN turned them down. So Nelsons has definitely been on several orchestras' radars for a while now.

The one reservation that I have about Nelsons in general is that I don't associate him as having any sort of interest in contemporary music, the way that Rattle or Jurowski does. This recent NYT commentary by Zachary Woolfe expresses that idea with this passage:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/20/arts/music/andris-nelson-is-latest-of-orchestras-young-leaders.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

"But Mr. Nelsons has thus far conducted Mahler, Ravel, Sarasate, Stravinsky, Brahms, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky with the orchestra. Coming up next year are Wagner, Mozart, Brahms, Strauss and Verdi: more standards. The living composers he has said he favors — including John Adams and Mark-Anthony Turnage — are themselves close to standards at this point."

This would have been a huge weakness in Berlin, especially after Rattle, and is also a comparative weakness with an orchestra like Boston, with its past legacy of 20th century classic commissions from Koussevitzsky, and Levine's strong advocacy of modernist composers in Boston (when he had the health to do so, that is, but that's a digression for another day). This is the same weakness that Thielemann has, if even more pronouncedly than Nelsons, as obliquely noted in another NYT article by Woolfe recently, but this one on CT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/arts/music/christian-thielemann-conductor-at-wagners-bicentennial.html?ref=music&pagewanted=all

I can well see Petrushka's point that the Nelsons appointment might move CT closer to the Berlin Phil. This would cause my heart to sink, in all honestly, partly for the reason noted above about his extreme conservatism and limitations in his choice of conducting repertoire, but also because of what we Americans would call "bad attitude". Example from Woolfe's article:

"At a Salzburg rehearsal of Brahms’s Fourth Symphony with the Dresden orchestra, a horn player opened the slow movement with a note that went badly awry. Mr. Thielemann’s hands dropped to his sides, and he stared at the brass section for what felt like several long seconds. Then, without a word, he raised his hands and began again.

It was a distasteful moment, but a guiltily irresistible one at a time when conductors are assumed to be unable to act like the crusty, magisterial maestros of old."

If the BPO wants to lurch backwards, then they can vote for Thielemann, and reap the firestorm/whirlwind. A commentary in a recent BBC Music Magazine mentioned Esa-Pekka Salonen as a potential dark horse candidate for Berlin. Given a choice between those two, I'd take Salonen any day of the week. But that's not my choice, of course, so we'll all see.

Regarding the LSO, again following on Petrushka's commentary, I'll admit that I've only seen Harding conduct once, and wasn't all that thrilled. But that was almost 7 years ago, and obviously he's had time to grow. I've no idea how good his relationship with the LSO as principal guest conductor is, but if it is a good relationship, then I can see P's prediction readily come to pass. Unless, of course, the LSO vote for Rattle .... :)

[bluestateprommer]

New York Times article on Andris Nelsons from James R. Oestreich, sympathetic but not fawning:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/arts/music/andris-nelsons-gets-ready-to-lead-the-boston-symphony.html