Pappano at the Met: It’s been 24 years
NewsFrom today’s New York Times interview with a man who hasn’t a bad word for anyone:
Has your absence as a guest conductor at the Met simply been a case of being too busy?
Well, I didn’t conduct any opera elsewhere either! I take the music directorship job very seriously, in the sense that the idea is to create a musical family, a family in general. With all the competition that there is for people’s attention, for fund-raising, even for survival for classical music institutions, the job has become much more than just conducting.
I had to cancel a Met production way back, and Peter Gelb was very honorable about it, so I felt I needed to pay him back somehow. So many of my colleagues are privileged to work with the chorus and orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, why not me?
The New York Times writer calls him ‘reliably inspired’, which deserves to be shortlisted for Oxymoron of the Year.
I wish he had gotten the Metropolitan Opera instead of Nezet-Seguin. Heck, he could have been made GMD of New York and be given the NYPO also.
When Philly was looking for Eschenbach’s replacement, he did a guest conducting audition conducting Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2. It was an extremely exciting concert and from the audience perspective, seemed like a perfect match.
“I take the music directorship job very seriously, in the sense that the idea is to create a musical family, a family in general.”
Well, there’s a refreshing and welcome comment. Focus and commitment are rare commodities these days with music directors of major houses. Blame jet planes and greed and feckless general managers and boards.
I like his recording of Mozart with Barenboim!!
“Reliably inspired” isn’t an oxymoron. People talked that way about Abbado and Haitink in their last years — every performance seemed to be a transcendent experience, for the musicians and audiences alike.
I’ll be there tonight, Row J Center orchestra!
I’ll be with the gods way up in Family Circle at the matinee on Saturday.
I’ll be with the gods in Family Circle at Saturday’s matinee.
the worst technique both in conducting and in running a rehearsal, and he’s an arsehole. Hope he doesn’t come back for another 24 years.
Oh, so you know the man, do you? Strange, he is so widely liked and admired, what did he do to upset you so? The trouble is, if you cannot or won’t justify your remarks you just come across as a poisonous, embittered arsehole.