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PHOTO Philippe Jasmin
PORTRAIT
NÉZET-SÉGUIN
Yannick Nézet-Séguin
A Musical Journey
by WAH KEUNG CHAN
Yannick Nézet-Séguin has
made it to the top. He was
recently named the young -
est recipient of Quebec’s
highest prize for an artist,
the Prix du Québec’s Denise Pelletier
award, usually given for lifetime
achievement. The 36-year-old conductor,
however, says: “I still feel that I’m
at the beginning of my musical journey.”
But it’s not only this prize; the true
measure of success for an artist is international
demand, and on December
10 th , Nézet-Séguin will be doing a double
header normally reserved for the
likes of Gergiev and Maazel. In the
afternoon, Nézet-Séguin will be conducting
Gounod’s Faust live at the Met,
broadcast to millions on the radio and
in HD cinemas, and then immediately
driven by car to Philadelphia for an
evening concert (Tchaikovsky’s Second
Symphony will be on the program).
With Nézet-Seguin at the helm, reviews
have been superb for the financially
troubled Philadelphia Orchestra.
Less than a year from officially taking
over as Music Director, Nézet-Séguin is
full of optimism. “The energy is really great,”
said the young maestro. “I believe now that in a
few months’ time, we’ll be forgetting those
financial troubles.” It helps that the orchestra’s
home, the Kimmel Centre (an Artec hall) has
undergone a recent refurbishment that has improved
the way the orchestra can hear itself on
stage. It has made a noticeable difference.
However, nothing seems to beat the Maison
symphonique de Montréal (another Artec hall),
in Nézet-Séguin’s opinion. He conducted his
Orchestre Metropolitain in two different programs
at Montreal’s new concert hall for the
first time in October 2011. And he has
only good things to say. “I have been in
many Artec halls recently,
and I feel this one is quite
special. It’s such a pleasure
to play on stage and I was in
the audience a lot during
the rehearsals, listening and
adjusting,” said Nézet-
Séguin, who believes once
the adjustments have been
made in a few years, this
will be one of the finest halls
in North America.
How does it feel? “It’s very rare to say that
an orchestra is able to hear themselves and
each other so well. You don’t have to make up
for the lack of clarity on stage. This is really
rare. In special halls like Amsterdam and Vienna,
it’s not so easy on stage. They are wonderful
[in] their own right because they create
a magnificent sound, but it’s also a little bit
capricious. Walt Disney Hall is praised as a
great hall, but to me it is a bit too clear and
clinical. In Montreal, I felt that there is always
a certain resonance to the sound and atmosphere,
which is also something I like.
“We hope to connect with the audience with
NÉZET-SÉGUIN ON BACH’S CHRISTMAS ORATORIO
“I think the Christmas Oratorio is a mixture
of music that is folkloric, not spiritual. The
opening chorus in unison is almost a vulgar
effect for Bach. It’s something that
really represents all the people rejoicing.
Yet you have so many numbers
where the intimacy of the
soloists is really extreme. I’m thinking
about many of the mezzo arias, and the
fourth cantata has two of my most favourite
arias. There is a soprano aria with an echo of
oboe. It’s such a pure manner of expressing
the music and yet it creates such a big effect.
The other is the tenor aria with two violins.
We go to a more varied
emotional journey than [with Handel’s]
Messiah because of the contrasts,
which are so wide with the
intimacies and the big chorus and the
trumpets. Once we are immersed in the
world of Bach, I think you can get every
human emotion.”
much less effort compared to playing
in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier,” Nézet-
Séguin explained. “We have to learn
to [perform] at pianissimo and piano
level. The quality has to be very different
because we have to play softer.
So there is a learning curve for every
musician that will [perform] in this
hall. In the second rehearsal, everyone
said that if they played a wrong
or imperfect intonation, they would
hear it so much that it became intimidating
individually. This is in a way a
good thing, but it’s a bad thing if it
starts to have a thinner sound, so I
had to encourage them to play
slightly more, instead of being more
timid with the playing.”
Those two concerts in October
showed Nézet-Séguin and the OM in
perfect accord. The performance of
Strauss’s Alpine Symphony showed a
sumptuous orchestra sound, almost
equaled in Nézet-Seguin’s new
recording of Bruckner’s Fourth
Symphony on ATMA. What’s the secret?
“Nothing replaces time,” said
Nézet-Séguin. “There still are many
areas when I come to my players in
OM, they already know what I want. I
have developed [a relationship] with the musicians
and it’s beautiful to see how a partnership
and relationship over time is better.”
For a young conductor, it seems odd that
Nézet-Séguin would excel in the colossal works
of Mahler and Bruckner. “I sometimes ask myself
why I’m so attracted to and comfortable
with these end-of-life and end-of-civilization
works. I was attracted to Mahler’s Second and
Bruckner’s Ninth and I decided to go with what
I love most. In order to one day do them justice,
it would be a good idea to start and have a
fresh take on the way I did them when I was
still in my 20s. Zubin Mehta did the
same. The way I did them 10 years ago
is different from the way I
would do them now, and
hopefully very different in
20 years’ time.”
LSM
Yannick-Nézet Séguin conducts
l’Orchestre Métropolitain in Bach’s
Christmas Oratorio: December 11,
16, 17, 18 and 21.
www.orchestremetropolitain.com
18
DECEMBER 2011 / JANUARY 2012