Music director faces trouble over second job
OrchestrasThe Latvian Ainars Rubikis signed on last week as chief conductor of the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck, Austria.
They are not pleased about that in Kassel, Germany, where Rubikis was recently appointed General Music Director of the Staatstheater, starting next summer.
Kassel officials say that in Innsbruck he will only ‘conduct a few concerts’.
Insiders, though, say there is trouble ahead. Rubikis was not the musicians’ choice in Kassel. They voted 91.5 percent in favour of the British conductor Keren Hasan. The selection committee split 3-3 between the two conductors and the casting vote was left to Timon Gremmels, Hesse’s Minister of Art and Culture.
This does not augur well.
We’ve had both in recent years. I thought Rubikis was fine, if not extraordinary, and Hasan was an absolute prick. Seems to be that Innsbruck made the right choice.
Kerem Hasan?
This may seem like a radical idea; ask the musicians whom they want to conduct them.
Hasan’s first name is Kerem, not Keren.
Ironically, the job that Kerem Hasan recently gave up was the Tiroler Symphonieorchester Innsbruck.
For a country with a population smaller than the city of Vienna, Latvia has produced some truly remarkable musicians.
From renowned conductors Mariss Jansons and Andris Nelsons; legendary instrumentalists Gidon Kremer and Mischa Maisky; celebrity singers Elīna Garanča, Kristine Opolais and Aleksandr Antonenko to super-sexy accordionist Ksenija Sidorova and rising-star pianist Georgijs Osokins, the musical firmament in this small but choir-abundant country is nothing short of dazzling.
Ainārs Rubiķis on the other hand seems to be a below-average asteroid in the Baltic cosmos.
Despite guest engagements with the George Enescu Festival, the Staatsorchester Hannover and the NFM Wroclaw orchestra and a four-year tenure as GMD of the Komische Oper Berlin, Rubiķis’ track record is far from stellar.
Having heard him conduct an undemanding chocolate-box programme in the delightful Latvian seaside town of Jūrmala, I was unprepared for one of the worst performances of Der Rosenkavalier at the Komische Oper Berlin I have ever experienced.
Rubiķis seemed totally unprepared and spent the entire performance peering anxiously into the partitura giving little guidance to the orchestra and even less to the singers.
In fact his lack of contact with the latter was so dire that assistant conductors were employed in the wings to give the singers the necessary cues.
The Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck may live to regret his appointment.
From the information in this report, it would appear that the worthy musicians of Staatstheater Kassel already do.
“Partitura”. I’ve learned a new word! Now to learn what it means…..
are orchestral conductors paid so little that they need to work several jobs to get by?
It’s perplexing how Ainārs Rubiķis’ management at Askonas Holt could have advised him to accept the Kassel position when more than 90 percent of the orchestra voted against his appointment. Sending him into such a situation seems almost reckless, as it is bound to lead to conflict and likely disaster. The GMD position in Kassel is supposed to be a full-time commitment, and now, taking on a second job in Innsbruck only adds fuel to the fire. This decision will undoubtedly be seen as a further slight by those already opposed to him in Kassel.
Do Askonas Holt’s artist managers not read the local and national newspapers? It’s baffling that they would risk damaging their client’s reputation so severely by not warning him of the potential fallout. This entire scenario feels like a gross miscalculation on their part.
It is not the first time a conductor at Askonas has been pushed into this – in fact one recent-ish appointment in the UK with a major UK orchestra was a similar situation. Much like you, it’s beyond me how one could take on an MD job knowing the orchestra doesn’t want you. But in the end, money wins, and it must also be said – sometimes and in some instances the orchestra doesn’t make the best judgements or know what is really best for them, and not listening to the orchestra’s preferences is in the long run the best solution. Tricky.
PARTITURA .It’s means SCORE. How could I have gone a lifetime in music without hearing that? I intend to use it often.
Hello Jef
I am happy to have increased your musical vocabulary.
I think the lacuna is due to the fact that whilst the term “score” is more common in the English-speaking musical world, “partitura” is used much more frequently in continental European countries, especially Italy, Austria and Germany and for that matter, Latvia as well.
HAH…..and now I had to look up “lacuna.”