Nagano has timed his OSM departure just right
Kent, we hardly knew ye. On the other hand, Montrealers have three more years to make the acquaintance of this enigmatic conductor, who arrived at Trudeau airport on Feb. 29, 2004 to a paparazzi welcome of flashing cameras and will leave the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at the end of the 201920 season, probably with his mystique intact.
For the OSM to make such an announcement on a summer afternoon in 2017 might seem premature, but it is typical of the chronology of classical music, where bookings are arranged years in advance and decisions, once taken, are not easily contained. “We intend to continue the relationship with Maestro Nagano at the end of his term,” OSM chairman Lucien Bouchard said in a statement, without specifying what this relationship might be. Such titles as “conductor laureate” are now common in the symphonic world, where an unceremonious exit can invite speculations of hard feelings.
There is no evidence of this in Nagano’s case. The OSM wanted to extend his contract, and naturally enough. He still sells tickets. Why mess with success?
Nagano noted in a statement that “following a decade and a half as music director, it seems like a natural transition point.” Fair enough. He started as music director in September 2006. That was a while ago.
And he has achieved much, with or without the approval of critics. His decision to program more Beethoven and less of the lavish repertoire for which the OSM was famous under Charles Dutoit was much discussed by the experts, but clearly had no deleterious effect on attendance.
One of the great joys of covering the OSM during the Nagano years was release from the need to write “crisis” stories of the type that were depressingly common in cities with less artistically accomplished orchestras led by less popular conductors.
The obvious supreme highlight of Nagano’s term was the opening in 2011 of the Maison symphonique. Would this facility, dreamed of since the early 1980s, have been built had the OSM not retained its good name and consequent credibility among the political and economic elite?
Endowed with an instinct for the tastes of the larger public and the need to make the OSM a symbol of the city, Nagano masterminded (or co-operated with) such projects as Les Glorieux, the 2009 love-in with the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre, and more recently, the multimedia Symphonie Montréalaise program celebrating the city’s 375th anniversary.
Nagano the populist has made time for a free concert dedicated to the victims of the flood in the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough. It was at a Thursday morning rehearsal for this concert that Nagano informed the OSM musicians (shocking almost all of them) of his decision.
Public consciousness is well and good, but there are also classical perfectionists to appease. Early in his tenure, Nagano managed to sell the administration on such ambitious projects as concert performances of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde (2007) and Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise (2008). That he managed to revive the orchestra’s relationship with the Decca label — and attract worldwide critical praise for the OSM recording of the rare opera L’Aiglon — demonstrated that the conductor had not yet run out of ideas.
All the same, next season begins with Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, which Nagano presented in 2008 as an observation of the OSM’s 75th season, and concludes with a Beethoven cycle — in effect, reprising music he has already documented on the Analekta label. No conductor can lead an orchestra for more than a decade without incurring some sense of déjà vu. And no conductor in the world is less interested in repeating himself than Kent Nagano.
Keep in mind that his career has reached a certain stage and he, a certain age. Part of Nagano’s appeal to the Montreal public is his strangely youthful appearance. Sure, 65 is barely middleaged in conductor years. Still, Nagano might wish to spend less time on airplanes and concentrate more of his activities in Europe (although it is interesting that his contract at the Hamburg State Opera also lasts until 2020).
Who might follow Nagano? Forget about his principal rival in Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is booked as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra through the summer of 2026, starts a little job at the Metropolitan Opera in 2020 and has often pledged his eternal loyalty to the Orchestre Métropolitain.
Vasily Petrenko? This Russian is appearing as a guest conductor next season for the second year in a row. Good things are said about Juanjo Mena. Miguel Harth-Bedoya impressed the musicians less than two months ago.
None of these conductors speaks French as a first language.
Another interesting problem facing the OSM search committee is the fact that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra will be seeking a music director at exactly the same time. A joint appointment! That would make a great statement about Canadian unity.
Kidding.
There is time, though not much, to hear the candidates and speculate on the options. Happily, we have a good conductor to compare them to. Kent Nagano.