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MEET THE NEW KID IN TOWN
By Kate Molleson
The Herald (Glasgow)
October 3, 2012 Wednesday
Scotland
by Peter Oundjian gets ready to conduct the RSNO for the first time.
The orchestral season is officially upon us. The Scottish Chamber
Orchestra gives complete performances of Cosi fan tutte tomorrow
and Friday, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra delivered its first
instalments of Tristan und Isolde last week. But even alongside these
heavyweight programmes, it s the Royal Scottish National Orchestra s
opening night of Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich s 11th Symphony
that s the big event on Scotland s classical calendar.
Why? In his own words, there s a new kid in town . Tomorrow Peter
Oundjian conducts the RSNO for the first time as its new music
director. We ve had fleeting visits from him as a guest conductor and
music-director designate. Now the real work begins: the long-term
technical building blocks, the search for that crucial, mysterious
chemistry between conductor, orchestra and audience.
Posters have been up all over Glasgow for months: the bright smile,
trim figure, crisp concert gear and bushy grey crop. A quick skim of
his biography tells you Oundjian was born in Canada to an Armenian
father and a mother from Newcastle; his family returned to England
when he was five and he was educated there; his siblings are Olympic
skaters and sailors, and his cousin is Eric Idle. Oundjian s first
career was as a violinist, and a rather good one at that: he led
the Tokyo String Quartet for 14 years before developing repetitive
strain injury and turning his attention to conducting. He s been music
director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2004 and will juggle
that role and others alongside his post in Scotland.
In person Oundjian is just as the pictures show him. We meet late on
Monday afternoon; he s flown in on a red-eye that morning, attended
a full day of meetings and is still suave and chipper. He s cheerful
with our photographer I ve spent a lot of hours in front of the camera
after so many years, he says. His accent is classic mid-Atlantic:
English at its core, softened by years in the US and Canada (he
tellingly pronounces Toronto like a local, a kind of slurred Trna).
Oundjian seems, above all, a nice guy. He s courteous and laughs
easily. He reciprocates my questions in a way most interviewees would
never think to do.
The horror of losing muscle control in the hands would break the spirit
of many musicians. Over the course of our conversation Oundjian does
refer to the experience as terrifying and acknowledges friends and
colleagues whose advice helped him through. He talks about various
difficult aspects of his career, but always with a breezy silver
lining. For example, he doesn t sleep well. My body is quite used to
sleeping sporadically, he says and that s a handy way of operating for
someone who spends his life travelling. The mind operates quite well
in the middle of the night. There s nothing to interrupt it. Nocturnal
thoughts can be a bit alarming He laughs. So then you just go back
to sleep. Problem solved.
Or there was the time when he found himself performing Ravel s String
Quartet for the 100th time. I was so tired. It was a little town in
Iowa, the last place I wanted to be. But then I noticed a woman in the
second row looking at us with such anticipation. I can still see her
face. She d probably been looking forward to this concert for a year.
She d probably driven 150 miles to get there from some lonely farm. My
attitude turned a complete 180 in that moment.
During his time with the Tokyos, Oundjian performed in 130 cities
a year. After 14 years you ve really seen the world. You d get very
homesick if you didn t make yourself feel at home wherever you found
yourself. Now I feel comfortable pretty much anywhere. But he does
have a special feel for the UK, especially Scotland: his grandfather
was Scottish a Sanderson but died when his mother was eight. When
I left England at the age of 19 I made New York my home. I married
a girl from there, my kids are American. I lost my connection with
the UK and started redeveloping my connection with Canada. So when
I started coming to conduct in Scotland it felt right. There was a
magnetism for me to fill the void I d left at 19.
If Oundjian feels comfortable working in most countries, the same is
true when it comes to music. He is, by admission, a generalist. I ask
whether there s any particular repertoire he d like to develop with
the RSNO. Not really, he says, and describes his programming as a good
eclectic balance that challenges listeners to hear new things but also
gives spontaneous renditions of the classics. What repertoire does he
feel most at home with himself? The cheap answer is that old cliche:
the piece I like most is the piece I m playing at the moment. To be
honest I don t really know. I ve played so much music all my life.
He goes on to describe Brahms as a composer whose language I adore
beyond description. But I could say the same about Beethoven and
Mozart and Haydn and Shostakovich and Bartok and Janacek We re doing
some American music with the orchestra this year, (two all-American
programmes include a pops selection of Gershwin, Barber, Copland,
Bernstein and Adams) and some Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending
and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis).
He promises more contemporary music in forthcoming seasons, and
more rarities. But we have to find ways of programming this music so
people feel comfortable. What audiences can be assured of when they
buy an RSNO ticket, he says, is commitment, emotional engagement,
a lot of excitement, something that s visceral. Fine goals, but
surely applicable to every orchestra. Does it matter? Can a conductor
stand out as an all-rounder? That s what we ll begin to find out this
week and over the course of this season. Certainly Oundjian radiates
optimism about the relationship he s taken on. This orchestra has a
fantastic character, he says. There s no barrier between the podium
and the musicians. That much is probably helped by the fact he was
a musician for so long, but the power shift can be tricky.
Still, Oundjian starts his new job keen to be a buddy rather than a
boss. In rehearsals I ve taken to saying things like: That series of
chords needs a bit of work so I ll leave it with you . Why should I
single out an individual in front of 100 colleagues and tell them
they re messing up? Like in life, I figure out how I d like to be
treated if I was one of the musicians. Of course I ve got to demand
the results. But with sensitivity.
Peter Oundjian conducts Shostakovich at Music Hall, Aberdeen, tomorrow;
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on Friday; and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
on Saturday.
From: A. Papazian
By Kate Molleson
The Herald (Glasgow)
October 3, 2012 Wednesday
Scotland
by Peter Oundjian gets ready to conduct the RSNO for the first time.
The orchestral season is officially upon us. The Scottish Chamber
Orchestra gives complete performances of Cosi fan tutte tomorrow
and Friday, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra delivered its first
instalments of Tristan und Isolde last week. But even alongside these
heavyweight programmes, it s the Royal Scottish National Orchestra s
opening night of Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich s 11th Symphony
that s the big event on Scotland s classical calendar.
Why? In his own words, there s a new kid in town . Tomorrow Peter
Oundjian conducts the RSNO for the first time as its new music
director. We ve had fleeting visits from him as a guest conductor and
music-director designate. Now the real work begins: the long-term
technical building blocks, the search for that crucial, mysterious
chemistry between conductor, orchestra and audience.
Posters have been up all over Glasgow for months: the bright smile,
trim figure, crisp concert gear and bushy grey crop. A quick skim of
his biography tells you Oundjian was born in Canada to an Armenian
father and a mother from Newcastle; his family returned to England
when he was five and he was educated there; his siblings are Olympic
skaters and sailors, and his cousin is Eric Idle. Oundjian s first
career was as a violinist, and a rather good one at that: he led
the Tokyo String Quartet for 14 years before developing repetitive
strain injury and turning his attention to conducting. He s been music
director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2004 and will juggle
that role and others alongside his post in Scotland.
In person Oundjian is just as the pictures show him. We meet late on
Monday afternoon; he s flown in on a red-eye that morning, attended
a full day of meetings and is still suave and chipper. He s cheerful
with our photographer I ve spent a lot of hours in front of the camera
after so many years, he says. His accent is classic mid-Atlantic:
English at its core, softened by years in the US and Canada (he
tellingly pronounces Toronto like a local, a kind of slurred Trna).
Oundjian seems, above all, a nice guy. He s courteous and laughs
easily. He reciprocates my questions in a way most interviewees would
never think to do.
The horror of losing muscle control in the hands would break the spirit
of many musicians. Over the course of our conversation Oundjian does
refer to the experience as terrifying and acknowledges friends and
colleagues whose advice helped him through. He talks about various
difficult aspects of his career, but always with a breezy silver
lining. For example, he doesn t sleep well. My body is quite used to
sleeping sporadically, he says and that s a handy way of operating for
someone who spends his life travelling. The mind operates quite well
in the middle of the night. There s nothing to interrupt it. Nocturnal
thoughts can be a bit alarming He laughs. So then you just go back
to sleep. Problem solved.
Or there was the time when he found himself performing Ravel s String
Quartet for the 100th time. I was so tired. It was a little town in
Iowa, the last place I wanted to be. But then I noticed a woman in the
second row looking at us with such anticipation. I can still see her
face. She d probably been looking forward to this concert for a year.
She d probably driven 150 miles to get there from some lonely farm. My
attitude turned a complete 180 in that moment.
During his time with the Tokyos, Oundjian performed in 130 cities
a year. After 14 years you ve really seen the world. You d get very
homesick if you didn t make yourself feel at home wherever you found
yourself. Now I feel comfortable pretty much anywhere. But he does
have a special feel for the UK, especially Scotland: his grandfather
was Scottish a Sanderson but died when his mother was eight. When
I left England at the age of 19 I made New York my home. I married
a girl from there, my kids are American. I lost my connection with
the UK and started redeveloping my connection with Canada. So when
I started coming to conduct in Scotland it felt right. There was a
magnetism for me to fill the void I d left at 19.
If Oundjian feels comfortable working in most countries, the same is
true when it comes to music. He is, by admission, a generalist. I ask
whether there s any particular repertoire he d like to develop with
the RSNO. Not really, he says, and describes his programming as a good
eclectic balance that challenges listeners to hear new things but also
gives spontaneous renditions of the classics. What repertoire does he
feel most at home with himself? The cheap answer is that old cliche:
the piece I like most is the piece I m playing at the moment. To be
honest I don t really know. I ve played so much music all my life.
He goes on to describe Brahms as a composer whose language I adore
beyond description. But I could say the same about Beethoven and
Mozart and Haydn and Shostakovich and Bartok and Janacek We re doing
some American music with the orchestra this year, (two all-American
programmes include a pops selection of Gershwin, Barber, Copland,
Bernstein and Adams) and some Vaughan Williams (The Lark Ascending
and Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis).
He promises more contemporary music in forthcoming seasons, and
more rarities. But we have to find ways of programming this music so
people feel comfortable. What audiences can be assured of when they
buy an RSNO ticket, he says, is commitment, emotional engagement,
a lot of excitement, something that s visceral. Fine goals, but
surely applicable to every orchestra. Does it matter? Can a conductor
stand out as an all-rounder? That s what we ll begin to find out this
week and over the course of this season. Certainly Oundjian radiates
optimism about the relationship he s taken on. This orchestra has a
fantastic character, he says. There s no barrier between the podium
and the musicians. That much is probably helped by the fact he was
a musician for so long, but the power shift can be tricky.
Still, Oundjian starts his new job keen to be a buddy rather than a
boss. In rehearsals I ve taken to saying things like: That series of
chords needs a bit of work so I ll leave it with you . Why should I
single out an individual in front of 100 colleagues and tell them
they re messing up? Like in life, I figure out how I d like to be
treated if I was one of the musicians. Of course I ve got to demand
the results. But with sensitivity.
Peter Oundjian conducts Shostakovich at Music Hall, Aberdeen, tomorrow;
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, on Friday; and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
on Saturday.
From: A. Papazian