Breaking: Finn kid takes Hong Kong Phil
NewsThe Hong Kong Philharmonic has named the Finnish conductor Tarmo Peltokoski as its music director from next year. He succeeds Jaap Van Zweden, who held the job for a dozen years while juggling several other appointments abroad.
Tarmo, at 24, is Music and Artistic Director of the The Latvian National Symphony Orchestra; Principal Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Principal Guest Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic and incoming music direector of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.
In Hong Kong, we are told, he will be younger than the orchestra’s most junior member.
For me, it is ridiculous – but I see a point here: the truth is, every orchestra needs to find a way to secure public and press interest, thus choosing such a conductor as chief. Nowadays, not every orchestra can afford to choose an artist that doesn’t fill this criteria (whatever reason that has nothing to do with music), so that artistic quality becomes rather secondary.
Probably most of the people that really knows something about music will agree, that this conductor is way too young to make a real difference in the arts world right now, but if it sells, it’s good enough for many (and if it is affordable for the orchestra). It is the sad truth, that’s probably why no better conductor was chosen.
Personally I believe that Finland has many good conductors, but this guy is really not the case for me.. I would prefer to hear more about Rouvali, Salonen and Oramo.
Roll up! The Barnum and Bailey circus is coming to town.
https://youtu.be/tmDSG_OQSL0?feature=shared&t=64
Best of luck to them
Richard Strauss and Carlos Kleiber rotate in their graves together.
More Like Achim Mentzel rotates in his grave. The kind of music you know more about.
I am really curious. I do not mind young talented people being guest conductors. It may (or does it?) bring younger audiences. But being a music director of a large institution is a different story. It is about having authority, experience and vision to build not only such a place, but also the community around it and to fight for the future of classical music and musicians. Can anyone imagine people of that age fighting successfully with politicians, educators, business people for the future of music, music education and their place in the modern world? Or are we just making it easier for classical music to be sidelined? Whether we like or not conductors like Karajan or Bernstein, they could speak to politicians as equals or even superiors. This guy’s musical career is shorter than the tenure of many politicians he would have to speak to.
“Can anyone imagine people of that age fighting successfully with politicians, educators,…”
Come on. The only thing these Finns fight for is self-dealing for themselves and their clan. They see Esa-Pekka Sociopath issuing unfundable demands and think they can do the same.
This hapless HK orchestra will now have to endure a crapload of Nordic nudnikkery on their stands as this androgynous sprout flits in and out for his weekends.
Much of Mark’s comments refers to orchestras in the west. He forgets that Asia is not in the west and that the Hong Kong Philharmonic has always been heavily subsidized by the government requiring negotiations with politicians, civil servants and some business people. That group would certainly have agreed on the musicians decision that they wanted to work with Peltokoski, a conductor who is not new to them. Besides, the orchestra’s audience base is already a good deal younger than orchestras in the west. Add to that its CEO Benedict Fohr is particularly experienced in such matters and will actually handle most such discussions and negotiations. Those in the west – and many contributing to this blog – may not like it, but being in Hong Kong this week-end I can see first-hand there is a lot of excitement in the community about this appointment.
In reply to my earlier post about Mark’s comments, I just returned from Peltokowski’s Hong Kong concert. The 2,000 seat concert hall was packed. My guess is that in the stalls the average age of the audience was around 55. Above in the larger area in the tiers that surround the hall, that average will have dropped to somewhere around 35 – and maybe even less. How many orchestras in the west can boast such a young average audience? When Peltokowski first came on stage there was a roar of approval throughout the auditorium. The Hong Kong audience know him and despite all the carping in this thread were clearly happy with the Board’s choice as the new MD. After Seong-Jin Cho had given a simply stunning account of the Prokofiev 2nd concerto, Peltokowski led the orchestra in Mahler 5 from memory. It was a very fine performance.
Saw him conduct the Bremen ensemble recently. Seemed to know what he was doing and had a good rapport with the players. Impressive career building so far. An Oramo protege?
How can such a whippersnapper take on a professional Orchestra at such an age? It’s ridiculous! What happened to the need to spend years as an Understudy/Repetiteur learning the repertoire before graduating to such a Post. This is utter nonsense!
it´s far more important to play an orchestra instrument at top level in an orchestra than being a repetiteur….To know what it means to produce sound, both individually and collectively…..Alas, i have to say, his precedessor in Hongkong was a world class violinist, but a lousy conductor and musician. And a real pain in the ass.
Ideally a stringed instrument, but when it comes to opera a repetiteur does have the advantage of playing entire scores on the piano as well as coaching the singers. More relevant to opera conducting than symphonic but better than being parachuted into positions of responsibility dressed in nothing more than a conservatoire diploma.
More precisely Tarmo will be:
> Music Director Designate in 2025-2026
> Music Director 2026-2027 for four seasons.
So, Tarmo is set to become the Music Director Designate in 2025-2026, and then the full-fledged Music Director starting in 2026-2027. Seems straightforward enough, right?
But wait, what’s this? How exactly are we supposed to refer to dear Tarmo at this very moment in time?Goodness gracious, the powers that be in the Hong Kong Philharmonic must have stumbled upon some ancient orchestral bylaws that dictate one can only be a “Designate” for one year, and not a moment longer!
What a total nonsense post! Many conductors about to become Music Directors are titled “designate” for the first year (and sometimes more than 1 year) when they are too busy with prior engagements to assume all the MD duties immediately. It happens frequently with many ochestras.
Tarmo will succeed Makela at the Concertgebouw and Chicago once Klaus ages out at 35, too old to be fresh.
Meanwhile, Tarmo will hire Riccardo Muti as his assistant conductor.
The 3rd rate communist orchestra deserves him.
He’s the same age as Mengelberg was when he began to helm the Concertgebouw.
The pool of international conductors must be usually shallow…
FYI- Hong Kong is not a democratic commonwealth that it was before 1997 communist takeover. I would boycot any such artistic activities no matter how well paid these Communist jobs are.
He conducted our orchestra (and many of my friends’ orchestras) and is by far the most disliked conductor. His technique is truly below average, and he is not an orchestral musician whatsoever. You feel it in 3 seconds. What is he doing on the podium? This is more the work of managers than anything else! RIP Hong Kong Phil.
He looks like a 12 year old & conducts like one- from what I’ve seen. But hey ho- this is what has become of the classical music business- where age, wisdom & experience count for so little. Gl to the HK Phil in the process.