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MaestroWith

The TurtleTattoo

By DANIELJ. WAKIN

MONTREAL

T1K1NG Bruckner to the people last

. month, the compact maestro arrived ata cultural center on the blue-collar out­skirts of this city.The hall had the ambi­

ence of a glorified high school auditorium, withdust-dry acoustics and concrete walls. But the400 seat s were packed with families and cou­ples and groups of retirement-age friends.

That maestro, Yannick Nezet- Seg uin, pickedup a microphone and spoke to audience mem­bers, seamlessly switching from French to Eng­lish, and reassured them about all the emptychairs onstage for the Bach suite opening theprogra m. For Bruckner, he promised, "you willsee all the chairs filled."

So they did. And the standing ovation wasimmediate for shapely performances of Bach'sOrchestra l Suite NO.2and Bruckner 's Sympho­ny NO.6.

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ifh e conductor Yannick Nezet-Sezuin.

January 13, 2013

The listeners were clearly delighting in thepresence of Mr. Nezet-Seguin, their native son,at the helm of the ensemble he had led for 12years, the Orchestre Metropolitain of Montreal., The circumstances in December were a farholler from what Mr. Nezet-Seguin will experi­ence on Thursday evening. The stage then willbe Carnegie Hall and the musicians membersofthe storied Philadelphia Orchestra, which hetook over as music director in the fall, after oneof the roughest patches since its founding in1900.

Mr. Nezet-Seguin (pronounced nay-ZAY say­GHEN) has reached the top of the orchestragame. In addition to Philadelphia, he is musicdirector of the Rotterdam Philharmonic in theNetherlands and principal guest conductor ofthe London PhilharmonicOrchestra.

Major orchestra s around the world book himas a guest. Equally at home in the pit, he has along-term relationship with the MetropolitanOpera, where he has been talked about as acre dible successor to James Levine as mu­sic director.

When asked about such speculat ion, Mr.Nezet-Seguin said he could see himself asthe mu sic director of a major opera housesomeday.

"It's too ea rly now," he added. "I'm only_ 37. It 's been going so wonderfully, 1need to

live for the momen t." Mr. Nezet-Seguin iswha t the orchest ra world is desp erate for:a young, charismatic maestro who can winthe respect, eve n affection, of gri zzled or­che stra vete ra ns, the enthus iasm of audi ­ences and the praise of critics, which hasfor him been pretty exa lted.

Top, YannickNezet-Seguin leadi ngth e PhiladelphiaOrchestra at hisCarnegie H all debutin October.

Parti al to skinny jeans and tigh t V-necksweaters, with a turtle tattoo on his rightshoulder acqu ired while on vacation in Ta­hiti, Mr. Neze t-Seguin ha s the techn icalwherewit hal and the musical knowledge ofan es tablished maestro. He also com­mands an almost supernatural amount ofenergy ,..- the kind that drives him to turnscore pages with a crack, the kind thatkeeps him ebullien t even after long hoursof rehearsal, picture-taking session s, in­terviews and meetings with music indus­try operatives.

He mad e a rousing Carnegie debut withthe Philadel phians in October. The nex tday he was back in Philadelphi a, re hears­ing , offering suggestions to the composerof a work awaiting its prem iere, doing de­tai led wor k on Brahms 's Symphony NO.4.He was bouncing off his stool.

" I should be glued to that thing," he sa id.Mr. Nezet-Seguin sometimes seems not

so much to conduct as to mold his gesturesto the flow of the music. His motions arelarge, exte nding from his upper tor so.Often his shoulde rs seem hunched, likethose of a cougar waiting to poun ce. At5-fo?t -5 he has a power ful upp er body from

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working out. (Mighty Mouse, the sopranoJoyce DiDonato called him.)

He is deft and sure in leading largeforces and has a keen sense of climaxesand endings, making them seem inevitableyet often gripping. He draws an uncorn­man sweep and suppleness from orches­tras . He also works well with singers.

"He's able to walk the line between ac­commodating the singer and keeping hisvision as the conductor of the piece," saidMs. DiDonato, who sang Donna Elvira in arecent recording of Mozart's "Don Giovan­ni" conducted by Mr. Nezet-Se guin forDeutsche Grammophon. "He brought con­fidence and reassurance."

It seems a dizzying rise for a former boychorister who made his European conduct­ing debut only in 2004 and his New Yorkdebut at Mostly Mozart in 2009.

But before he came to international at­tention, Mr. Nezet-Seguin served a fruitfulapprenticeship in Canada, conducting inplaces like Winnipeg, Manitoba ; Ki tchener;Onta rio; and Victoria , British Columbia.Above all he was molded by an extraordi­narily fertile classical music world in hisnat ive province, Quebec. Time spent withhim, his family and his friends in Montreal,where he lives, made clear the powerful in­fluence of his roots and his long tie with theOrchestre Metropolitain, founded in 1981for the sake of Quebecois musicians. It iswith that orchestra that he "puts on hisslippers," in the words of Lise Beauchamp,the orchestra 's principal oboist for 20years. "Here we are like family,"she said.

Mr. Nezet-Seguln knows many of itsmembers from their time at the conserva­tory together. His companion of 16 years,Pierre Tourville, is the ass istant principalviolist. One of his oldest and closestfriends, Jennifer Bourdages, is the orches­tra's pianist.

It was also with the Orchestre Metropo l­itain that he plowed through the heart ofthe symphonic repertory: Mahler, Beetho­ven, Bruckner. By 26 he had conductedmammoth staples like Mahler' s SymphonyNo.2 and Verdi's Requiem. He and the or­chestra have made 13 recordings.

Mr. N~zet-S~gujn is repeare:<fJ sk~,

now that his career is on an internationallevel, whether he wiIJ move. He alwayssays no. "Do you want me to leave?" heonce erupted when the orchestra 's boardasked him the same question.

Quebec'S unusually rich class ical musicculture results par tly from generous gov­ernment spending on the arts and a strongRoman Catholic tradition that creates aheavy demand for church choirs and or­ganists. The province, home to eight mil­lion people, has 12 orchestras, 7 conserva­tories (in addition to university music pro­grams ) and high classicalmusic recordingsales.

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Top , YannickNezet-Segu in leadi ngthe PhiladelphiaOrchestra at hisCarnegie Hall debutin October.

The young a ndcharismatic M r.Nezet-Seguin is what .the orchestra wo rld isdesperate for. Left a ndabove, conducting th eOrchestreMetropolitain.

"We claim a lot here in Quebec that weare close to Europe and the French spirit,"Mr. Nezet-Seguin said. At the sa me timeQuebecers are free of "this burden of gen­era tions of history," he added. Two culturesand two languages create an "efferves­cence" as well as an "underlying energythat you always have to prove yourself, tomake sure that you exist."

"That's very productive and very cre­ative," he said.

Mr. Nezet-Seguin is part of a small waveof Quebecois conductors on the interna­tional scene, including Bernard Labadie,founder of Les vto tons du Roy in QuebecCity; Jacque s Lacombe, music director ofthe New Jersey Symphony Orchestra; andJean-Marie Zeitouni , music director of theColumbus Symphony in Ohio.

"We are definitely currently in a goldenera," Andre Gremillet, managing directorof the Melbourne Sympho ny Orchestra inAustralia, said in an e-mail. Himself a Que­bec native , Mr. Gremillet, while presidentand chief executive of the New JerseySymphony, hired Mr. Lacombe as music di­rector, starting in 2010.

It may seem odd that Quebec'S best ­known conductor does not conduct Que­bec's top ensemble and one of Canada'sfinest, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.Rivalry with the Orchestre Metropolitainmay be the reason. Mr. Nezet-Seguin madeguest appearances early in his career, hesaid, but the last invitation came in 2004.He declined because of what he called acondescending tone.

"It's not as if I need it," he said, de­parting from his usual sense of diplomacy.

Madeleine Careau , the Montreal Sym­phony 'S chief executive, said the orchestrainvited him every year but, after repeatedreject ions, simply gave up. "Maybe hedoesn't want to conduct another Montrealorchestra," she said. "We would love tohave him."

Returni ng to Montreal to work with theOrchestre Metropol itain remains a signif­icant part of Mr. Nezet -Seguin's life. In De­cember he conducted each of two pre­grams - the Bach-Bruckner pairing andMahler 's Symphony NO. 4 with a Bach can­tat a - at the Maison Symphonique and outin a neighborhood.

Mr. Nezet-Seguin was born the third ofthree children in 1975 in Montreal. His par­ents were university educators. He beganpiano lessons at 5, quickly absorbing rep­ertory, and at 9 he joined the promin entChoeur Polyphonique de Montreal.

At 10 he announced his desire to con­duct. "His playmates would prete nd toplay violin with a tree branch, and hewould pretend to conduct with a stick,"said his mother, Claudine Nezet, now hispersonal assistant.

At 12 he started formal music stu dies atthe Quebec Conservatory. He began lead­ing the choir in rehearsals a yea r later andbecame its conductor at 18, as well asfounding his own orchestra and choir, LaChapelle de Montreal.

Around then he wrote to his hero. As aboy Yannick haunted record sto: es andused his earnings as a chu rch singer tovacuum up CDs. Having random ly pickedup Brahms's Symphony No. 1, c~nductedby Carlo Maria Giulini, he was smitten andbought many Giulini recordings.. .

"It was the clarity" of the music making,he said. "I felt I was hear ing the score. Ev­erything was in the right place. It trans­formed eventually my understanding ofthe spirituality of it or th~ humanity.of.it:"

TWice Mr. Nezet-Segum wrote Giulini, arevered Italian maestro with the air of amusical high pries t, asking to meet him.Finally, while in Trieste in the summer of1997 for a four-hand piano competition, Mr.Nezet-Seguin was sum moned to Milan foran audience with the maestro.

The two met a half-dozen times duringGiulini's last year of conducting. Mr.Nezet-Seguin traveled to sit in on rehears­als , attend concerts and go over scoreswith his mento r. Giulini never saw himconduct nor gave him an actual lesson instick waving. But Mr. Nezet-Seguin said helearned important lessons.

"He was so respectful of everyone," hesaid. "He had the capacity to make me feelmore confident about my own ideas, whichin the end is the best lesson in conducting.Any question I would ask him would al­ways go back to: 'How do I feel? ~ow

would I sing it? How do you keep thmgssimple?'" . .

Mr. Nezet-Seguincounts two other indi­vidual influences: his piano teacher at theconservatory, Anisia Campos, a student ofAlfred Cortot, and Joseph Flummerfelt,who runs weeklong conducting seminarsin the summer at Westminster Choir Col­lege in Princeton, N.J. Mr. Nezet-Seguinattended twoofthem as a teenager.

Mr. Nezet-Seguin's first major appoint­ment arrived in 2000, when he became mu­sic director of the Orchestre Metropolitain.The circumstances were ugly, but heseems to have sidestepped any taint. Hispredecessor, Joseph Rescigno,a well likedconductor from New York, had invited Mr.Nezet-Seguin as a guest conductor.Abruptly the orchestra's chairman and aformer government minister, Jean-PierreGoyer, announced that Mr. Rescignowouldbe replaced by Mr. Nezet-Seguin.

Mr. Rescigno later sued, saying he wasforced out in violationof his contract, andwon damages. In an interview Mr. Rescig­no said he did not think Mr. Nezet-Seguinwas aware of the machinations. Mr. Nezet-

Seguin said his app ointme nt "came as a to­tal surprise." (Mr. Goyer died in 2011.)

Another surprise, he said, was the musicdirectorship of the Philadelphia Orchestra,which came 18 months after his debut withthe orchest ra, in December 2008, conduct­ing Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6. Withperfect pitch he told the Philadelphia play­ers at their first rehearsal that he had lis­tened to Eugene Ormandy's recording ofthe work with the Philade lphians over andover. It was the kind of reference to mu­sical trad ition that he often makes.

"It felt from the first moment that wehad known each other in a previous life ,"Mr. Nezet-Seguin said.

The orchestra has been adrift, held to­gether by the caretaker leadership ?fCharles Dutoit, for many years the musicdirector of the Montreal Symphony. Phila­delphi a emerged from bankruptcy pro­ceedings last year, the first major Ameri­can orche stra to go that route.

Mr. Nezet-Seguin said his main goal inPhiladelphia was "to grab the city again, totransform the pride the city has toward itsorchestra to a much more proactive pride,a real passion for it, a sense of owners hip."

At that last Carnegie outing, the VerdiRequiem in October, Mr. Nezet-Seguinheld his hand up for a good 20 seconds af­ter the final chord expired before droppinghis arms to his sides. He seemed stunnedby the ovation.

Applause from his inner circle greetedhim in the crowded dressing room. Atte nd­ants broke open bottles of sparkling wine.Mr. Nezet-Seguin embraced his compan­ion, Mr. Tourville, looked him in the eyesand said, "Oui?"

"Oui," Mr.Tourville answered .With an air of coronation, orchestra and

Carnegie Hall executives toasted Mr.Nezet-Seguin.

"It was my deepest wish that it wouldwork here," he said, "and it did."