Young local conductor spares Canellakis tour embarrassment
OrchestrasFrom the Athens website Ekathmerini:
On Friday night, we waited in the packed Christos Lambrakis Hall for conductor Karina Canellakis to take the stage to conduct the London Philharmonic in a much-anticipated concert. The president of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, was also present in the main box.
But instead of the renowned Greek-American conductor, and while the musicians waited in their seats, Janis Vakarelis, the artistic director of the Megaron – as the Athens Concert Hall is known – appeared on stage with a momentous announcement: Canellakis’ sudden illness would unfortunately prevent her from performing.
The news was followed by an exclamation of disappointment from the audience. For a brief moment, we wondered if we should leave as we had arrived. The prelude from Modest Mussorgsky’s opera “Khovanshchina,” which was to open the concert, was not to be played at all; Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin and Orchestra Concerto No 1 was to be performed by solo violinist Christian Tetzlaff, who now also took on the role of conductor.
And what about Brahms’ Symphony No 4, which was to be the second part of the evening? The musical direction would fall to the young Greek conductor Dionysis Grammenos….
Read on here.
“Embarrassment?” It’s embarrassing to be ill??
Possibly because it occurred without warning and left the management scrambling. But gastric (for example), in its two forms, can strike instantly just like that!!
Embarrassing to watch her conduct is probably what is meant.
NYMike, the headline reads “Young local conductor spares Canellakis TOUR embarrassment”. NL rightly observes that it would have been embarrassing for the LPO to have had to cancel a prestigious concert, with a distinguished guest in the audience, at such short notice. He wasn’t suggesting that illness is embarrassing.
“The next day, we were informed that the musicians of the London Philharmonic were also so delighted with Grammenos’ conducting that their representative requested that they work together again as soon as possible.”
In stepping in for an indisposed conductor, Mr. Grammenos is in good company. Fingers crossed!
Maybe he should send a bunch of flowers to Ms. Canellakis.
I read a fuller account on his agent’s website, apparently he was in the gym when the call came through. Careers have been made from such opportunities, perhaps we’ll hear much more of him in years to come!
We attended that concert and the guy was terrific. He conducted Brahms 4 without any rehearsal and it all seemed so natural!! We hope to see Karina on an other occasion here in Athens sometime soon!!
In today’s hyper-trained and hyper-specialized world, why are we still writing stories of Hero Conductors Who Save The Day?
It’s Brahms 4th, it’s the London Philharmonic, it’s a piece you start playing as student instrumentalists and start playing as student orchestras and start studying as student conductors at the conservatory, and keep playing as auditions, and keep playing as professionals, and keep playing season after season under different conductors.
It’s the London Philharmonic, they can play this without looking up once from their stands.
This is only half true, you miserable bugger!
It would be fascinating to hear them play Brahms 4 with no conductor, and never taking their eyes off their music-stands. Mozart just possibly, if you don’t care about nuance, but Brahms?
This brings to mind a story about the great bassoonist Sol Schoenbach playing his debut concert as principal bassoon with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The conductor (I believe it was Beecham) asked the orchestra if it was OK if he didn’t rehearse Brahms Symphony No. 4 since they all knew it so well. Schoenbach, who had just graduated from Curtis, timidly informed Beecham that he had never played the piece. “Oh, you’ll love it tonight” said Beecham.
And in turn, it bring in mind this story Oscar Levant told about Enescu:
‘When a certain progression of programs with the Philharmonic decreed that he conduct the Brahms Fourth Symphony two seasons ago, he disavowed intensive rehearsals with the simple statement to the orchestra: “Gentlemen, you know the work better than I do.” Both the compliment and the attitude endeared themselves so much to the orchestra that they literally forgot themselves in a mass effort to justify his statement—and, as one of those who heard the performance, I can testify that they delivered one of the most powerful and integrated interpretations of the score that New York has experienced in years.’
I read on Intermusica’s website about Grammenos, David Mellor’s piece on Daily Mail… “This is one of the best Bohèmes I have heard in recent years…Grammenos’ command of Puccini’s idiom is impressive.” Kudos to the young Greek for saving the night and a speedy recovery to our beloved Karina.
Shostakovich’ VC 1 was amazing (I was there). Has it ever been performed without conductor (Tetzlaff was so busy with his demanding part that he rarely looked at the orchestra)? I doubt it. A far better experience than the boring Brahms 4th – in any case Tchaikovsky’s 4th (which was also played in the LPO’s actual tour) fits better after the Shostakovich VC 1.
To be noted also that Macelaru took over for the next tour stop at Essen. And then Canellakis returned for Elrangen, Munich and Vienna.
It’s amazing to see how easy it is to get to conduct one of the world’s leading orchestras without having served any kind of apprenticeship these days. Long gone are what were once seen as invaluable years working as an understudy or a repetiteur to learn your craft. This story is no big deal. Brahms 4 is not that difficult to conduct anyway and 9 times out of 10 any orchestra would play it without even thinking!
Interesting.