Maestro move: Paris fills its other vacancy
mainThe Orchestre National de France has found a successor to Daniele Gatti, who has been upgraded to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.
The new music director (gentle drumroll) is a Frenchman (louder), Emmanuel Krivine (as you were).
He takes over in September 2017.
Krivine, 69, has been in charge of the Luxembourg Philharmonic for most of the past decade. He is the ONF’s first French chef for more than 40 years; Jean Martinon was the last, 1969-73.
The Orchestre de Paris recently appointed Daniel Harding to succeed Paavo Järvi.
Harding vs Krivine? Let’s see.
It had been Gatti vs. Chung vs. Järvi.
And it’ll be Krivine vs. Mikko Franck vs. Harding.
Well, it’ll be really gripping to see how it turns out.
Don’t forget Jordan at the Paris Opera. In my view, he and Harding are head and shoulders over the other two. But it’s a bit silly to frame it as a competition, really. No Paris music lovers, as far as I know, consider it such, even if we do have our preferences. It’s our great good fortune to have such a wealth of talent here.
Krivine? A really good conductor. Maybe not so good in public self-representation (glossy photos and all…) but a old-school Kapellmeister – please read this as a great compliment!
Krivine followed Baudo at the Lyon National Orchestra which he turned it into a world-class ensemble. He’s a brilliant conductor.
He was a taskmaster and not the pleasantest of characters when he was in Lyons, but nevertheless the musicians of this orchestra regard Krivine’s period with them as their golden age, the likes of which they haven’t seen since. He has since, mellowed considerably.
Krivine was a turning point for the orchestra. ‘Not the pleasentest of characters’ is putting it mildly. In fact, he was verbally very abusive. Some see this as a consequence of his ruined violin career which was caused by a car accident – he was one of the very best French violin players ever.
Since then, the orchestra has seen David Robertson, Jun Märkl (another brilliant period) and Leonard Slatkin.