Conductor Hazing

It's been relatively rare in recent seasons that the Minnesota Orchestra has welcomed an unfamiliar guest conductor. This is partly because Osmo has been conducting more concerts each season than most music directors of US orchestras, and partly because we tend to ask conductors we know and like (Gilbert Varga, Yan Pascal Tortelier, etc.) to come back year after year, so there aren't a great number of weeks available for new faces.

Still, it's always important to find places in the schedule to slot in conductors we haven't seen before, because you just never know when lightning will strike, and a conductor and an orchestra will click in a meaningful way. (Osmo was appointed music director after only one guest appearance with us, because the chemistry was just that immediate.) So it's refreshing that, over the next month, we'll be working under the batons no fewer than three conductors we know only by reputation.

The first of these is Xian Zhang, who has been building quite a career for herself since winning a major conducting prize in 2002. We had our first rehearsals with her today, and it's always interesting to jump into a week of major repertoire with a boss you've only just met. Our orchestra tends to be somewhat active, sometimes bordering on chaotic, during rehearsals with conductors we know well, but when a new face is on the podium, we quiet down and wait to see how s/he likes things to go.

Xian comes across as very serious and efficient at first blush, which you'd expect from a young conductor leading her first rehearsals with an unfamiliar orchestra. But as we made our way through the finale of Tchaikovsky's fifth symphony, I realized that we were likely about to test the depth of that ultra-serious facade. See, the last movement of Tchaik 5 has this moment where everything builds to a shattering climax, then stops dead before launching into the coda. But because of the huge pause after a loud (albeit dominant, not tonic) chord, audiences have a habit of assuming the piece is over and starting to applaud. So, being the immature twits we are, we have made a habit of clapping and cheering wildly at that same moment the first time we play it in rehearsal.

Naturally, we don't feel any need to warn conductors about this. We just do it, and see how they react. In fact, how they react often gives us a pretty good indication of whether this is a conductor who we're going to get along with. If they scowl, or ignore it entirely, or worst of all, fail to get the joke, we're probably not a great match.

When we got to the big moment today, Xian almost didn't notice at first, because after cutting off the huge B-major chord, she had already whirled around to start telling the first violins something about the previous passage. But as the cheering, clapping, and stomping drowned her out, she turned back towards us, dropped her guard, and flashed a wide grin. Three seconds later, she was back with the firsts, telling them how she wanted the runup to the climax phrased. Nice moment. I think we're gonna like working with this one...