The Canadian music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin has cancelled the next two weeks with a recurrence of the wrist injury that afflicted him in the summer.
He has pulled out of Messiaen’s Turangalila with the Rotterdam Philharmonic this weekend, replaced by the Estonian, Olari Elts.
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Olari Elts is 46.
Well, there goes the Metropolitan’s new MD. So relatively young and already so sickness prone so frequently. The same folks who like to promote barihunks are surely behind their new boytoy (divorced from musical merit) but they will soon move on to the next best thing. I have heard this group imploring for the installment of Philippe Jordan, for obvious reasons (again, divorced from musical merit).
I have heard this group imploring for the installment of Philippe Jordan, for obvious reasons (again, divorced from musical merit).
What does this mean, Monster?
Another hate-filled breeder. Probably end up on a tower somewhere with a rifle.
Breeder, really ? Bitchy queen much ?
The problem is that Yannick [Unpronouncable French Name] is a mediocre conductor not worthy to shine Jim Levine’s shoes – nobody gives a damn about his extracurricular activities
“Yannick [Unpronouncable French Name]”?
Bitchy queen much?
The name is quite easy to pronounce. Even by non-francophones.
Yannick, I thought your hand was troubling you, what are you doing posting here ?
He has his nerve to cancel on the Rotterdam Phil next month and show up later the same month in its hall with his Montreal orchestra.
Really. He couldn’t have had the decency to wait a couple weeks before injuring his wrist?
Seriously, though, he probably is giving priority to Orchestre Metropolitain, Montreal’s second orchestra, which gave him his first big break (hiring him at about age 25), to which he remains devoted even after becoming a global superstar. It’s their first European tour, and while Rotterdam can replace him easily enough for a subscription program, OM’s tour rests entirely on a healthy YNS (I bet the deal with the promoters is “No YNS, no concert).” I’m sure there are a lot of engagements he would cancel to be sure he’s healthy for it.
I bet he also conducts the mid-month Haydn program in Philadelphia, given the fine singers he has lined up for it.
Although no physical instrument is involved, conducting is a taxing profession with much physical danger involved. One thinks of the many stories of conducting accidents, like the one about Furtwängler who, after conducting two times Also sprach Zarathustra and injuring his wrist both times at the first tutti, avoided the work for the rest of his life, or Walter’s arm getting stuck midway Götterdämmerung in Chicago and had to be carried away on a stretcher, or Bernstein beginning Beethoven V so enthusiastically in New York that his baton escaped his hand and landed in the audience, and Monteux – in his last years – after being carried onto the rostrum, found that he could only move his left arm so that the performance severely suffered from rhythmic deviations in Ravel’s Daphnis (this happened in Amsterdam). In Joan Peyer’s biography Boulez admitted that he always conducted without any baton after he had badly wounded his left hand with it during his conducting Pli selon Pli in 1960 in Baden Baden.
I was in a rehearsal once where our conductor stabbed himself in the nose with his baton giving the preparatory beat for “Carnival Overture.” It wouldn’t stop bleeding right away, so he had to go lie down for awhile.
In 1951 Paul Paray, who was a guest conductor, slipped on the ice in Philadelphia and
sprained his right wrist. He conducted the orchestra’s New York concert with his left
arm, his right one in a sling.
Perhaps he should use a baton.
Yannick, take your time and have a full recovery. You are the best and we never doubt a second that the future of classical music is yours!
Moreover, you shouldn’t be too worried about such kind of minor injury. With today’s state of the art technology in neuroprosthetics and brain-machine-interface, you can even conduct without your arms, as long as you can still use your brain. In case you need some advice from a leading expert in these fields, I would be more than happy to help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxIgdOlT2cY
Stand in Olari Elts did a great job in Rotterdam. A very impressive Turangalila!!
I hope he (Elts) will return soon at the RphO