Young Composers and Performers

You'll want to read a few other articles before you read what I have to say about this; I'm also taking this opportunity to ride a related hobby horse of mine.

• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron, This composer is about to conduct her own opera for the first time. She’s 17 years old.
• Alex Ross, The New Yorker, Looking Past the Celebrity Conductor (This appeared in my feed reader as "Stick Figures".)
• Joshua Kosman, SF Chron, Young musicians keep showing up on concert stages. It’s not clear they’re ready.

So. There've been a couple of opportunities locally to hear works by Alma Deutscher, the talented 17-year-old whom Joshua Kosman interviewed in November. Her opera Cinderella is the opera she conducted las month, at Opera San José. I thought about going, but ultimately did not. I'm not sure whether I can sort out the reasons: I am not a fan of Rossini's famous operatic treatment of the story (La Cenerentola); Deutscher's opera is definitely geared toward young listeners, which I have absolutely no problem with, but it is a long schlep to San José; I am somewhat wary of music by widely-publicized young people. You might remember Jay Greenberg, the early-21st-century over-publicized prodigy, but have you heard any of his music lately?

I didn't blog about the Deutscher interview at the time it was published. For one thing, the composer has clearly had an unusually sheltered upbringing, one that was isolated by home schooling and perhaps by her own and her parents' inclination. It's not clear what range of music she was exposed to growing up. For another, now that she's living and studying in Vienna, she might be hearing a wider range than previously. (On second reading, I find myself wondering why the whole family moved to Vienna: I went off to college at 17 without being accompanied by my family. This is typical of middle-class Americans unless they're living at home during college.)

Lastly, it seems as though, with age and greater experience, some of the opinions she expresses in the interview could very well change! (I certainly remember saying a few things at 17 that I regret, in retrospect.)  I don't need to repeat her views and I don't feel any need to comment on them. I'm more curious about what she'll think (and compose) when she's 30 (or even 25).  And I read the interview with great appreciation of Joshua Kosman's respect and care for Deutscher and her views.

Alex Ross's article focuses on Klaus Mäkelä, the talented young (26) Finnish conductor who is now music director of the Oslo Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris and who will become the chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2027. 

People, this is ridiculous. To start with, no conductor really needs to be leading more than one full-time orchestra. It's better for institutions to get as much attention as possible from one person. And there are many, many talented conductors who aren't getting an equal chance at full-time or more prestigious orchestras. (To be clear, I think that the dynamics are somewhat different when you're considering regional orchestras that give one or two concerts a month, versus full-time orchestras presenting four programs and up to 15 concerts/month. Esa-Pekka Salonen's job at SFS is different in scale from, say, the late Michael Morgan's at the Oakland Symphony.)

And, you know, I've heard Mäkelä. He is good, and from the TNY article and others I've read, he clearly has a great gift for working with orchestras. But he didn't stand out much from the wide range of excellent conductors we've had as guests at SFS in the last few years. Among the younger set, Krzysztof Urbański's programs were absolutely sensational, indicative of a truly huge talent. Mirga  Gržinytė-Tyla, who was in SF recently with the CBSO, was also exceptionally impressive, among the younger conductors. But the older hands were also great, with Nathalie Stutzmann and Simone Young making particularly good impressions and leaving me wanting to hear them again.

Did all of this rush to youth - if there is one - start with Gustavo Dudamel's appointment at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, succeeding Esa-Pekka Salonen? I know that Dudamel is popular; I think that he sells tickets; various friends who've heard him over time have varied opinions about his conducting. I did not like his guest appearance with SFS earlier this year. (And by the way, he's going to have two jobs himself soon, and they're 5,000 miles apart. The other is at the Paris Opera, even though....he doesn't have all that much opera experience. Maybe he really will follow Deborah Borda to NY, which will shorten his commute to Paris by 50%.)

Anyway, my conclusions are two. One, young musicians deserve the chance to mature without ridiculous expectations placed on them.  Two, there are lots of good reasons for conductors to stick with one job and some guest conducting. Gosh, these look so self-evident when stated like that....but apparently they're not.