Maestro moves: Dutch sign far-flung baton
OrchestrasThe Residentie Orchestra of The Hague has chosen the German-Japanese Jun Märkl as chief conductor from 2025. He succeeds Anja Bihlmaier who lasted just one contract term.
Märkl, 64, is presently head of the Taiwan Philharmonic. He has also been music director in Saarland, Mannheim, Bilbao, Lyon, Leipzig and Kuala Lumpur.
Good conductor. One important correction, though: Jun Märkl was announced as the next music director in Kuala Lumpur, but he never actually started the gig. The orchestra management (under the instruction of Petronas oil company), gutted the orchestra, and replaced most of its quality international musicians with “homegrown” talent. Märkl never spoke out about this atrocity, and I have to assume he was either contractually obligated to remain quiet OR he was threatened in some other way.
He should never have taken the KL job.
Why not? He was a regular guest in KL for several years, and had a wonderful relationship with the players. At the time he was hired (2020), the MPO was still playing at a high level and was touring frequently. Presumably he would have been paid well for a rather low (10-12 weeks) commitment. KL is close to Taiwan and Japan where he has frequent engagements. Yes, the MPO management is shockingly bad, but there are plenty of other criteria to be considered. No one would have faulted him for coming for several years.
After the MPO dismantled the orchestra in 2021 is an entirely other matter. Hard to believe anyone would consider the post now.
Guest, not true, they are thousands of miles apart…. ‘KL is close to Taiwan and Japan…..”
Mr Ron, KL and Taipei are much closer to each other than NYC and LA, and no one bats an eye when someone works regularly in those two American cities. It’s a 4.5 hour direct flight. Tokyo is further from KL, but can still be reached in 6.5-7 hours, which is similar to the flight time between NYC and Seattle (6 hours 20 min).
My point was this—since Mr Märkl was already working frequently in Taiwan and Japan (and now has a chief post in Taiwan), it made plenty of sense for him to add a music director position in Asia. It is much easier for him to fly from Taipei to KL than to, say, anywhere in Europe.
He’s also recently served in an interim role at the Indianapolis Symphony. I guess they are looking for a permanent music director? Seems they’ve been looking for a while…
Must be an improvement on Bihlmaier. I saw her guest conduct in the UK and felt sorry for the orchestra which received no discernible beat and must have found her leadership thoroughly confusing.
“Anja Bihlmaier’s musical intuition, inspiring charisma and ability to combine passion with precision have made her one of the leading conductors of her generation.”
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
He’s very talented. Good for him.
A gifted, underappreciated musician. Hope he finally gets attention he deserves.
Märkl is a great conductor, who has explored – among other things – quite unknown pieces by Saint-Saëns, and the complete works of Debussy, including the arrangements of piano works made by Debussy’s friend André Caplet. Debussy is difficult to conduct because he music asks for a kind of ‘recreation’ of the music because so much of it cannot be notated. Only truly sensitive conductors with the right kind of imagination can do that. For that reason, good Debussy recordings are rare. But the CD’s Märkl made with the Orchestre National de Lyon are superb, it’s a goldmine of musical experience.
Title of the story seemed nonsensical until I read the article. It’s still not a clear title. My first image was a conductor losing control of his baton and so it flew really far.
He’s the principal guest conductor of the Oregon Symphony as well. I’ve heard him several times, and the orchestra sounds very good. In general, they sound better since Kalmar left. The new conductor, Danzmayr is good too.