Yannick Nézet-Séguin Goes to Philadelphia

This article originally appeared in the Fall 2012 issue of Queen’s Quarterly, a journal published by Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
by Colin Eatock
This year, St. Patrick’s Day was unusually warm and sunny in Montreal – and streets were full of people enjoying the outdoors in their summer clothes. But deep within the windowless bowels of Montreal’s Place des Arts, Yannick Nézet-Séguin spent the afternoon preparing his Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal for a concert the following evening. As he stepped off the podium after the rehearsal, he was in a buoyant mood, and happy to talk about his life in music.
Although not a physically commanding figure – he stands about halfway between five and six feet tall – he has a fit, athletic build. Gone is the spiky hairdo of his 20s, replaced by a close-cropped, more conservative look. Yet at 37 he retains a youthful openness and directness: he’s in a profession where people are considered young until they’re 40, and he seems to be in no hurry to enter middle age.
Nézet-Séguin – or “YNS,” as some people have taken to calling him – can be a hard man to track down. Currently he’s the Music Director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, is also the Music Director of Holland’s Rotterdam Philharmonic, and is the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic. Add to these responsibilities a full slate of guest-conducting engagements around the world, and he’s rarely in one place for more than a week.
As though all this weren’t enough, this fall Nézet-Séguin will be thrust into the greatest challenge of his meteoric career. That’s when he officially assumes the position of Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He’s only the eighth conductor to hold this title in the renowned orchestra’s 112-year history – and he’s the first Canadian conductor to ever hold a position of such prestige in the classical music world.
So how does he feel about stepping into the shoes of such esteemed figures as Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti? “It’s something I dreamt of – but didn’t expect so early,” he modestly begins. But he’s quick to point out that his appointment is by no means unprecedented. “All of those conductors started in Philadelphia in their 30s. In Philadelphia it’s part of their history to be groundbreaking and daring.”
Nézet-Séguin is well aware that he bears the weight of a grand tradition on his shoulders. Yet he also bears another, perhaps even heavier, weight. Despite its lofty stature as one of the leading American orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra is in bad financial shape, and is currently operating under bankruptcy protection. While the organization’s structural deficit of $14.5 million is none of Nézet-Séguin’s doing, it’s now his job to lead the orchestra back to solvency. If all does not go well in the coming years, he could conceivably be the last music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
This isn’t the first time Nézet-Séguin has stepped into a difficult situation. In 2000 he was appointed Music Director of Montreal’s second orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain. He was just 25, but already his résumé was impressive: the native-born Montrealer had studied conducting privately with the renowned Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini, and had already directed several local ensembles, including the chorus of the Montreal Opera and his own Chapelle de Montréal choir.
However, at the time of his appointment, the Orchestre Métropolitain was in a state of disarray. The previous conductor had left the organization before the end of his contract and was suing for lost income. Furthermore, it was unclear where responsibility and authority rested, with regards to repertoire and personnel. Nézet-Séguin’s response was to take charge of the situation with alacrity. “The programming is mine,” he told the Montreal Gazette, two years into his tenure. “And it is the same for how I will make the orchestra better. Firing people or not, this is totally my responsibility.”
What seemed like an impressive but purely local career soon blossomed into a whirlwind of international exposure: in the last decade, as Nézet-Séguin has appeared with orchestras all over the globe. In Canada he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony, and made guest appearances with the orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and other cities.
In the USA, he made a series of debuts in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington. He’s conducted several orchestras in the UK, and his engagements with continental ensembles have taken him to Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, Zurich, Stockholm and a host of other cities. As though all this weren’t enough, he’s done opera, too – leading performances in Toronto, Vancouver, Salzburg, Amsterdam, London, and at the Met in New York. If, as Woody Allen once remarked, “Showing up is 80 percent of life,” Nézet-Séguin spent the last ten years showing up furiously, and living a conductor’s life in a big way.
Soon, surprising things started to happen – things that spoke of his instinct for quickly establishing a strong rapport with an orchestra, beyond the abilities of the average jet-setting maestro. Orchestras without music directors started to offer him jobs.
“On my first visit to Rotterdam, in 2006,” Nézet-Séguin recalls, “I didn’t think of myself as a potential candidate for the position. And I’m pretty sure the orchestra didn’t think this, either. But there was an initial surprise – that maybe it could work. So I was re-invited a year later, and straight after the second visit, the musicians asked for me. Then I met with the management.”
In accepting the position of the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s music director, he found himself with a tough act to follow: Valery Gergiev. The star-conductor had done much to raise the Dutch ensemble’s profile, but was moving on to better things (directorship of the London Symphony Orchestra) – and Nézet-Séguin’s appointment gave rise to the rumour that the Canadian had been hand-picked by the Russian as his successor. But according to Nézet-Séguin, he is in no way a protégé of Gergiev.
“We barely ever met – just briefly, to shake hands,” Nézet-Séguin gently protests. “He didn’t know me before I got the job in Rotterdam, and I’m not sure that he’s ever seen me conduct.” (For the record, Nézet-Séguin acknowledges the mentorship of two other prominent conductors: Carlo Maria Giulini and Charles Dutoit.)
For a Canadian to be appointed the music director of a European orchestra is a rare and remarkable thing, and Nézet-Séguin’s appointment in Rotterdam turned heads. But what looked like a crowning achievement turned out to be the beginning of a trend. The following year, he debuted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra – and on the strength of just one successful concert, was offered the position of Principal Guest Conductor. (The LPO, which is run by its member-musicians, has no permanent music director, only guest conductors.) This catapulted Nézet-Séguin into the premier league of conductors.
With three orchestras on two continents, he was suddenly a very busy man. Yet in 2008, when he debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the “YNS effect” worked its magic once again, and he was immediately asked back. Aware that the orchestra was currently sans director, he understood the potential significance of the request. Yet he describes how events unfolded in very simple terms.
“The concertmaster in the Philadelphia Orchestra likes to say at that he looked at his stand partner at the first concert and said, ‘Maybe this is our guy.’ I was invited to do another program a year later. And after that visit, I was approached to become music director.” He signed a contract in June 2010, during a highly publicized visit to Philadelphia, in which he also met the mayor and took in a baseball game. And that, in a nutshell, is how a young conductor from Montreal rose to become the new Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Back in the 1950s, American music critics coined the term “big five” to describe the country’s foremost orchestras. The term isn’t as useful now as it was back then – there are more than five top-rate orchestras in the USA today – but the label has stuck. For this reason, the orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland will probably enjoy a special cachet as long as they exist.
The “Fabulous Philadelphians” were a shoo-in for big-five status. From humble beginnings in 1900, the orchestra quickly established itself – in 1912 entering into a 29-year relationship with the flamboyant maestro Leopold Stokowski. He, more than any other conductor, was responsible for creating the distinctive “Philadelphia sound.”
Stokowski was succeeded by Eugene Ormandy, who served as music director for 44 years. During his tenure, the orchestra worked with the best soloists in the world – pianist Arthur Rubinstein, violinist Fritz Kreisler and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, among many others – and developed a long association with the pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. And the orchestra made international headlines when they became the first American orchestra to tour China, in 1973.
As well, during the first half of the 20th century, the Philadelphia Orchestra was in the forefront of technological innovations that made it known well beyond the banks of the Delaware River. The orchestra’s first recording for RCA in 1917 marked the beginning of an outpouring of discs. In 1929 the Philadelphia Orchestra was heard on NBC Radio, and in 1948 it was the first American orchestra to appear on national television. And when Walt Disney decided to make an animated film about classical music, he turned to the Philadelphia Orchestra to record the soundtrack for Fantasia.
The post-Ormandy era began auspiciously, with the appointment of the dynamic Italian conductor Riccardo Muti in 1980. He was popular: during his 12-year tenure, concerts at the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music on Broad Street were virtually sold out on subscription. During the ensuing decade, the orchestra’s high standards and prestige were maintained under Wolfgang Sawallisch. Under his reign, the orchestra moved from the Academy of Music to the glittering new Kimmel Center.
But with the next conductor, Christoph Eschenbach, problems arose. Things got off to a bad start: in 2003, when the orchestra’s board of directors announced Eschenbach’s appointment, the news was greeted with consternation by orchestra members, some of whom had never played under him. When they protested that they hadn’t been consulted in the decision, they were glibly told, “You’ll see, you’ll like him.” Just three seasons later, the German conductor announced his resignation – amid reports that 80 percent of the orchestra’s players were unhappy with his leadership.
Addressing the situation, Philadelphia Inquirer critic Peter Dobrin wrote a controversial article, in which he listed some of the musicians’ complaints against Eschenbach: “getting lost in the score at concerts; leading disorganized rehearsals and then asking for overtime; and insisting on a peculiar rushing and slowing of tempos.” In 2007, Eschenbach fired a parting shot, remarking that the orchestra’s management was “amateurish.”
What followed was a four-year interregnum, without a music director, but with Charles Dutoit serving as Chief Conductor and Music Advisor. And during these years the orchestra’s financial problems grew. As revenues declined, contributions to the musicians’ pension fund went unpaid. As well, the Great Recession of 2008 exacted a heavy toll on the orchestra’s substantial endowment fund.
In April 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra – with only two month’s worth of operating cash left in the bank – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This was not as dire as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would have promptly liquidated the organization; rather, the purpose of filing for Chapter 11 was to allow the orchestra time to reorganize. Nevertheless, the idea of a “big five” orchestra filing for any kind of bankruptcy status sent shock waves through the classical music world.
“I like to focus on solutions,” says the orchestra’s President and CEO, Allison Vulgamore, when asked about the reasons for the orchestra’s financial woes. “But there were many reasons: they include losing a quarter of our audience, and also some financial decisions that cost more money than we could have afforded. Also, we had perhaps lost sight of conversations with philanthropists in Philadelphia. And we had changes in our leadership that were very publicly talked about – and I think that created an impression of the orchestra that was dark, instead of the joyous impression that we are headed for now.”
It may be a bit premature to use words like “joyous”: the musicians are still smarting from the 15 percent pay cut they incurred last fall as a cost-saving measure. But ironically, bankruptcy protection has been good to the Philadelphia Orchestra in some ways. In the last year, audience attendance has risen, and $33 million in new private funds have been raised. A legal dispute with the musicians’ pension fund has been settled out of court, on terms favourable to management. And a plan for the financial reorganization of the orchestra has been prepared. It’s possible that the orchestra may extricate itself from bankruptcy before its next season begins.
Yet for all the Philadelphia Orchestra’s efforts to put its house in order, its future success depends very much on Nézet-Séguin. Is he the right man for the job? According to Dobrin, some early signs are auspicious. “He’s demonstrating a strong willingness to participate in fundraising, audience development and all the public-face functions of a music director that are expected in a U.S. orchestra,” the critic observes. “Also, he’s very charismatic on a personal level – and he has a happy, welcoming persona that the orchestra is advertising and marketing.” However, on the question of Nézet-Séguin’s artistic potential, Dobrin is cautious. “He’s a promise yet to be fulfilled. He’s certainly not as developed as other contenders for this job were, in terms of interpretive sophistication or his demands on the ensemble. So we’ll have to see.”
While Nézet-Séguin downplays the idea that he’s stepping in as some kind of saviour, he has strong views on what the orchestra needs to do – and on what he can do to make these things happen. “What the orchestra needs now is to reconnect with its audience,” he states. “For various reasons – change of halls, certain tastes in previous music directors – many people in Philadelphia who are proud of the orchestra have stopped going to concerts. So it’s not only about finding a new audience, but about re-connecting with the audience that left us a few years ago. And this is my first task. It’s a big responsibility for me – but it’s not a question of saving the orchestra. It’s more about understanding that the orchestra can’t move ahead unless there’s someone at the helm who understands the challenges.”
Also on his to-do list is a restoration of the “Philadelphia sound”: the lush timbre that for many years made the orchestra immediately recognizable. “It’s something that Stokowski cultivated,” he points out. “The homogeneity of the sound came from a certain freedom in the strings – using lots of bow, and without any break between bowings. To do it, the last-stand players must be as committed as the first-stand players – the involvement has to come from everyone. In the concerts I’ve done with them so far, I could identify moments when the sound came back. One of my goals is to make sure that it’s there on a more regular basis.”
And there’s also talk of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. Nézet-Séguin has already conducted Germany’s Mahler Chamber Orchestra for the “yellow label” – and if he can facilitate a deal, it would mark the return of the Philadelphia Orchestra to a major recording company. (Currently the only American ensemble with an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon is the Cleveland Orchestra.)
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 113th season – which Nézet-Séguin says was entirely planned by him – begins in October with a big splash. Superstar soprano Renée Fleming will appear on opening night, followed immediately by three evenings of Verdi’s Requiem. Other highlights of the season include a staged production of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (with New York’s Ridge Theatre Company) and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
These performances will be led by Nézet-Séguin – but the same can’t be said for most of the other concerts that the Philadelphia Orchestra will play next year. As with many major orchestras, a steady stream of guest conductors will pass across Philadelphia’s podium. And as with many popular maestros, Nézet-Séguin must measure out his time in weekly increments. In the first year of his contract, 2012-13, he’ll spend just seven weeks in the City of Brotherly Love.
And what of his other orchestras? While it’s not uncommon for a conductor to have two orchestras, juggling three or four makes for a demanding schedule. However, Nézet-Séguin plans to keep them all – at least, for the foreseeable future. “From the second year of my contract in Philadelphia, I’ll be there for about 15 weeks a year,” he explains. “Rotterdam is 10 to 12 weeks, Montreal is 4 to 5 and London is only 1 or 2.” To accomplish all this, he plans to limit his engagements at the Metropolitan Opera to one production per season, and curtail his guest conducting elsewhere. As well, he acknowledges that he may make some changes down the road. “Will I sustain all this, with so many groups at the same time?” he asks, rhetorically. “I’m not sure how long I will. But I’m only 37, so I have time to change and take a different approach.”
So far, Nézet-Séguin’s approach – to just about everything – has served him spectacularly well. In Montreal he built up a modest orchestra into a widely respected ensemble. In Europe he has secured prestigious appointments in Holland and the UK. And now he’s taking charge of the Philadelphia Orchestra, making him the first Canadian to serve as music director of a “big five” American orchestra. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s future remains uncertain – but it has chosen a new conductor who doesn’t seem to know the meaning of the word “failure.”
© Colin Eatock 2012
by Colin Eatock
This year, St. Patrick’s Day was unusually warm and sunny in Montreal – and streets were full of people enjoying the outdoors in their summer clothes. But deep within the windowless bowels of Montreal’s Place des Arts, Yannick Nézet-Séguin spent the afternoon preparing his Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal for a concert the following evening. As he stepped off the podium after the rehearsal, he was in a buoyant mood, and happy to talk about his life in music.
Although not a physically commanding figure – he stands about halfway between five and six feet tall – he has a fit, athletic build. Gone is the spiky hairdo of his 20s, replaced by a close-cropped, more conservative look. Yet at 37 he retains a youthful openness and directness: he’s in a profession where people are considered young until they’re 40, and he seems to be in no hurry to enter middle age.
Nézet-Séguin – or “YNS,” as some people have taken to calling him – can be a hard man to track down. Currently he’s the Music Director of Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, is also the Music Director of Holland’s Rotterdam Philharmonic, and is the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic. Add to these responsibilities a full slate of guest-conducting engagements around the world, and he’s rarely in one place for more than a week.
As though all this weren’t enough, this fall Nézet-Séguin will be thrust into the greatest challenge of his meteoric career. That’s when he officially assumes the position of Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He’s only the eighth conductor to hold this title in the renowned orchestra’s 112-year history – and he’s the first Canadian conductor to ever hold a position of such prestige in the classical music world.
So how does he feel about stepping into the shoes of such esteemed figures as Leopold Stokowski, Eugene Ormandy and Riccardo Muti? “It’s something I dreamt of – but didn’t expect so early,” he modestly begins. But he’s quick to point out that his appointment is by no means unprecedented. “All of those conductors started in Philadelphia in their 30s. In Philadelphia it’s part of their history to be groundbreaking and daring.”
Nézet-Séguin is well aware that he bears the weight of a grand tradition on his shoulders. Yet he also bears another, perhaps even heavier, weight. Despite its lofty stature as one of the leading American orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra is in bad financial shape, and is currently operating under bankruptcy protection. While the organization’s structural deficit of $14.5 million is none of Nézet-Séguin’s doing, it’s now his job to lead the orchestra back to solvency. If all does not go well in the coming years, he could conceivably be the last music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
This isn’t the first time Nézet-Séguin has stepped into a difficult situation. In 2000 he was appointed Music Director of Montreal’s second orchestra, the Orchestre Métropolitain. He was just 25, but already his résumé was impressive: the native-born Montrealer had studied conducting privately with the renowned Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini, and had already directed several local ensembles, including the chorus of the Montreal Opera and his own Chapelle de Montréal choir.
However, at the time of his appointment, the Orchestre Métropolitain was in a state of disarray. The previous conductor had left the organization before the end of his contract and was suing for lost income. Furthermore, it was unclear where responsibility and authority rested, with regards to repertoire and personnel. Nézet-Séguin’s response was to take charge of the situation with alacrity. “The programming is mine,” he told the Montreal Gazette, two years into his tenure. “And it is the same for how I will make the orchestra better. Firing people or not, this is totally my responsibility.”
What seemed like an impressive but purely local career soon blossomed into a whirlwind of international exposure: in the last decade, as Nézet-Séguin has appeared with orchestras all over the globe. In Canada he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony, and made guest appearances with the orchestras of Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, and other cities.
In the USA, he made a series of debuts in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Washington. He’s conducted several orchestras in the UK, and his engagements with continental ensembles have taken him to Vienna, Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt, Zurich, Stockholm and a host of other cities. As though all this weren’t enough, he’s done opera, too – leading performances in Toronto, Vancouver, Salzburg, Amsterdam, London, and at the Met in New York. If, as Woody Allen once remarked, “Showing up is 80 percent of life,” Nézet-Séguin spent the last ten years showing up furiously, and living a conductor’s life in a big way.
Soon, surprising things started to happen – things that spoke of his instinct for quickly establishing a strong rapport with an orchestra, beyond the abilities of the average jet-setting maestro. Orchestras without music directors started to offer him jobs.
“On my first visit to Rotterdam, in 2006,” Nézet-Séguin recalls, “I didn’t think of myself as a potential candidate for the position. And I’m pretty sure the orchestra didn’t think this, either. But there was an initial surprise – that maybe it could work. So I was re-invited a year later, and straight after the second visit, the musicians asked for me. Then I met with the management.”
In accepting the position of the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s music director, he found himself with a tough act to follow: Valery Gergiev. The star-conductor had done much to raise the Dutch ensemble’s profile, but was moving on to better things (directorship of the London Symphony Orchestra) – and Nézet-Séguin’s appointment gave rise to the rumour that the Canadian had been hand-picked by the Russian as his successor. But according to Nézet-Séguin, he is in no way a protégé of Gergiev.
“We barely ever met – just briefly, to shake hands,” Nézet-Séguin gently protests. “He didn’t know me before I got the job in Rotterdam, and I’m not sure that he’s ever seen me conduct.” (For the record, Nézet-Séguin acknowledges the mentorship of two other prominent conductors: Carlo Maria Giulini and Charles Dutoit.)
For a Canadian to be appointed the music director of a European orchestra is a rare and remarkable thing, and Nézet-Séguin’s appointment in Rotterdam turned heads. But what looked like a crowning achievement turned out to be the beginning of a trend. The following year, he debuted with the London Philharmonic Orchestra – and on the strength of just one successful concert, was offered the position of Principal Guest Conductor. (The LPO, which is run by its member-musicians, has no permanent music director, only guest conductors.) This catapulted Nézet-Séguin into the premier league of conductors.
With three orchestras on two continents, he was suddenly a very busy man. Yet in 2008, when he debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the “YNS effect” worked its magic once again, and he was immediately asked back. Aware that the orchestra was currently sans director, he understood the potential significance of the request. Yet he describes how events unfolded in very simple terms.
“The concertmaster in the Philadelphia Orchestra likes to say at that he looked at his stand partner at the first concert and said, ‘Maybe this is our guy.’ I was invited to do another program a year later. And after that visit, I was approached to become music director.” He signed a contract in June 2010, during a highly publicized visit to Philadelphia, in which he also met the mayor and took in a baseball game. And that, in a nutshell, is how a young conductor from Montreal rose to become the new Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Back in the 1950s, American music critics coined the term “big five” to describe the country’s foremost orchestras. The term isn’t as useful now as it was back then – there are more than five top-rate orchestras in the USA today – but the label has stuck. For this reason, the orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Cleveland will probably enjoy a special cachet as long as they exist.
The “Fabulous Philadelphians” were a shoo-in for big-five status. From humble beginnings in 1900, the orchestra quickly established itself – in 1912 entering into a 29-year relationship with the flamboyant maestro Leopold Stokowski. He, more than any other conductor, was responsible for creating the distinctive “Philadelphia sound.”
Stokowski was succeeded by Eugene Ormandy, who served as music director for 44 years. During his tenure, the orchestra worked with the best soloists in the world – pianist Arthur Rubinstein, violinist Fritz Kreisler and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, among many others – and developed a long association with the pianist-composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. And the orchestra made international headlines when they became the first American orchestra to tour China, in 1973.
As well, during the first half of the 20th century, the Philadelphia Orchestra was in the forefront of technological innovations that made it known well beyond the banks of the Delaware River. The orchestra’s first recording for RCA in 1917 marked the beginning of an outpouring of discs. In 1929 the Philadelphia Orchestra was heard on NBC Radio, and in 1948 it was the first American orchestra to appear on national television. And when Walt Disney decided to make an animated film about classical music, he turned to the Philadelphia Orchestra to record the soundtrack for Fantasia.
The post-Ormandy era began auspiciously, with the appointment of the dynamic Italian conductor Riccardo Muti in 1980. He was popular: during his 12-year tenure, concerts at the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Academy of Music on Broad Street were virtually sold out on subscription. During the ensuing decade, the orchestra’s high standards and prestige were maintained under Wolfgang Sawallisch. Under his reign, the orchestra moved from the Academy of Music to the glittering new Kimmel Center.
But with the next conductor, Christoph Eschenbach, problems arose. Things got off to a bad start: in 2003, when the orchestra’s board of directors announced Eschenbach’s appointment, the news was greeted with consternation by orchestra members, some of whom had never played under him. When they protested that they hadn’t been consulted in the decision, they were glibly told, “You’ll see, you’ll like him.” Just three seasons later, the German conductor announced his resignation – amid reports that 80 percent of the orchestra’s players were unhappy with his leadership.
Addressing the situation, Philadelphia Inquirer critic Peter Dobrin wrote a controversial article, in which he listed some of the musicians’ complaints against Eschenbach: “getting lost in the score at concerts; leading disorganized rehearsals and then asking for overtime; and insisting on a peculiar rushing and slowing of tempos.” In 2007, Eschenbach fired a parting shot, remarking that the orchestra’s management was “amateurish.”
What followed was a four-year interregnum, without a music director, but with Charles Dutoit serving as Chief Conductor and Music Advisor. And during these years the orchestra’s financial problems grew. As revenues declined, contributions to the musicians’ pension fund went unpaid. As well, the Great Recession of 2008 exacted a heavy toll on the orchestra’s substantial endowment fund.
In April 2011, the Philadelphia Orchestra – with only two month’s worth of operating cash left in the bank – filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. This was not as dire as a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would have promptly liquidated the organization; rather, the purpose of filing for Chapter 11 was to allow the orchestra time to reorganize. Nevertheless, the idea of a “big five” orchestra filing for any kind of bankruptcy status sent shock waves through the classical music world.
“I like to focus on solutions,” says the orchestra’s President and CEO, Allison Vulgamore, when asked about the reasons for the orchestra’s financial woes. “But there were many reasons: they include losing a quarter of our audience, and also some financial decisions that cost more money than we could have afforded. Also, we had perhaps lost sight of conversations with philanthropists in Philadelphia. And we had changes in our leadership that were very publicly talked about – and I think that created an impression of the orchestra that was dark, instead of the joyous impression that we are headed for now.”
It may be a bit premature to use words like “joyous”: the musicians are still smarting from the 15 percent pay cut they incurred last fall as a cost-saving measure. But ironically, bankruptcy protection has been good to the Philadelphia Orchestra in some ways. In the last year, audience attendance has risen, and $33 million in new private funds have been raised. A legal dispute with the musicians’ pension fund has been settled out of court, on terms favourable to management. And a plan for the financial reorganization of the orchestra has been prepared. It’s possible that the orchestra may extricate itself from bankruptcy before its next season begins.
Yet for all the Philadelphia Orchestra’s efforts to put its house in order, its future success depends very much on Nézet-Séguin. Is he the right man for the job? According to Dobrin, some early signs are auspicious. “He’s demonstrating a strong willingness to participate in fundraising, audience development and all the public-face functions of a music director that are expected in a U.S. orchestra,” the critic observes. “Also, he’s very charismatic on a personal level – and he has a happy, welcoming persona that the orchestra is advertising and marketing.” However, on the question of Nézet-Séguin’s artistic potential, Dobrin is cautious. “He’s a promise yet to be fulfilled. He’s certainly not as developed as other contenders for this job were, in terms of interpretive sophistication or his demands on the ensemble. So we’ll have to see.”
While Nézet-Séguin downplays the idea that he’s stepping in as some kind of saviour, he has strong views on what the orchestra needs to do – and on what he can do to make these things happen. “What the orchestra needs now is to reconnect with its audience,” he states. “For various reasons – change of halls, certain tastes in previous music directors – many people in Philadelphia who are proud of the orchestra have stopped going to concerts. So it’s not only about finding a new audience, but about re-connecting with the audience that left us a few years ago. And this is my first task. It’s a big responsibility for me – but it’s not a question of saving the orchestra. It’s more about understanding that the orchestra can’t move ahead unless there’s someone at the helm who understands the challenges.”
Also on his to-do list is a restoration of the “Philadelphia sound”: the lush timbre that for many years made the orchestra immediately recognizable. “It’s something that Stokowski cultivated,” he points out. “The homogeneity of the sound came from a certain freedom in the strings – using lots of bow, and without any break between bowings. To do it, the last-stand players must be as committed as the first-stand players – the involvement has to come from everyone. In the concerts I’ve done with them so far, I could identify moments when the sound came back. One of my goals is to make sure that it’s there on a more regular basis.”
And there’s also talk of recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. Nézet-Séguin has already conducted Germany’s Mahler Chamber Orchestra for the “yellow label” – and if he can facilitate a deal, it would mark the return of the Philadelphia Orchestra to a major recording company. (Currently the only American ensemble with an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon is the Cleveland Orchestra.)
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s 113th season – which Nézet-Séguin says was entirely planned by him – begins in October with a big splash. Superstar soprano Renée Fleming will appear on opening night, followed immediately by three evenings of Verdi’s Requiem. Other highlights of the season include a staged production of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (with New York’s Ridge Theatre Company) and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion.
These performances will be led by Nézet-Séguin – but the same can’t be said for most of the other concerts that the Philadelphia Orchestra will play next year. As with many major orchestras, a steady stream of guest conductors will pass across Philadelphia’s podium. And as with many popular maestros, Nézet-Séguin must measure out his time in weekly increments. In the first year of his contract, 2012-13, he’ll spend just seven weeks in the City of Brotherly Love.
And what of his other orchestras? While it’s not uncommon for a conductor to have two orchestras, juggling three or four makes for a demanding schedule. However, Nézet-Séguin plans to keep them all – at least, for the foreseeable future. “From the second year of my contract in Philadelphia, I’ll be there for about 15 weeks a year,” he explains. “Rotterdam is 10 to 12 weeks, Montreal is 4 to 5 and London is only 1 or 2.” To accomplish all this, he plans to limit his engagements at the Metropolitan Opera to one production per season, and curtail his guest conducting elsewhere. As well, he acknowledges that he may make some changes down the road. “Will I sustain all this, with so many groups at the same time?” he asks, rhetorically. “I’m not sure how long I will. But I’m only 37, so I have time to change and take a different approach.”
So far, Nézet-Séguin’s approach – to just about everything – has served him spectacularly well. In Montreal he built up a modest orchestra into a widely respected ensemble. In Europe he has secured prestigious appointments in Holland and the UK. And now he’s taking charge of the Philadelphia Orchestra, making him the first Canadian to serve as music director of a “big five” American orchestra. The Philadelphia Orchestra’s future remains uncertain – but it has chosen a new conductor who doesn’t seem to know the meaning of the word “failure.”
© Colin Eatock 2012