Kent Nagano Explores Modern History With Beethoven

For some people, Beethoven may be old history, but for others, he is more alive than ever. Renowned conductor Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal (OSM, Montreal Symphony Orchestra) bring ``Beethoven: Ideals of the French Revolution’’ (Analekta), a new album that illuminates the Rwanda crisis in 1994 through Beethoven’s music.

``(When) people ask who is your favorite contemporary composer, I usually give three names: Beethoven, Mozart and Johann Sebastian Bach,’’ Nagano told reporters last week during his first visit to Korea. The OSM gave two memorable concerts _ the first time in 11 years.

``Somehow (their) music has a meaning in challenges we face in 2008. Sometimes there’s a danger that these great pieces are played so often they feel routine,’’ he said. ``It’s important for (musicians) and the public to look for context and various illuminations of Beethoven’s music,’’ said the Japanese-American conductor about his first recording with the OSM.

He shared how the project came about. ``The night before my daughter saw a Hollywood movie called `Beethoven’ (about a dog whose name is Beethoven) and that evening on TV, I saw an advertisement for an automobile and the background music was Beethoven’s 5th _ I was furious. I asked the question, we should all ask ourselves, what is Beethoven? Is Beethoven a brand name? Or a marketing tool? Soundtrack? Or box office guarantee?

``I felt we should construct our project in Montreal a little bit differently,’’ he said.. ``Beethoven was very aware of current events. He knew the modern ideas of the French Revolution: principles of democracy, freedom and equality and the right to express yourself,’’ he said.

In addition to the 5th Symphony, the 2-CD album includes ``The General,’’ an entirely new interpretation of Beethoven’s ``Egmont,’’ itself based on a poem by Goethe. It is a piece for orchestra with soprano, choir and narrator.

```Egmont’ is usually performed in one of two ways: either as musical excerpts or with some fragments of Goethe played. Both of course are not ideal because the music was written to accompany a theatrical drama,’’ he said.

``The themes in the Goethe play are very contemporary: cultural misunderstanding, conflicting of class, international tensions, war, oppression and corruption. Of course these themes are here today on the first page of the Herald Tribune; they’re part of our world today. This is why instead of taking the original Goethe play, we took a recent episode of history,’’ he said. And so, the track features a new theater piece by Paul Griffiths about the Rwanda crisis in 1994.

``Our hope is that listeners will experience Beethoven’s 5th (Symphony) with `Egmont,’ that one has a contact with a passion of Beethoven’s time, because we can feel that what lies within Beethoven’s music is what surrounds us today,’’ he said.

``Beethoven: Ideals of the French Revolution’’ is currently available in CD stores.

OSM Performs With Nagano in Seoul

Conductor Kent Nagano, left, artistic director of the Orchestre Symphonic de Montreal, and violinist Choi Ye-eun appear at a press conference in Seoul Thursday. The Canadian orchestra gave a concert in Korea for the first time in 11 years Friday and gives its second performance featuring a solo by Choi at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts Saturday afternoon. /Yonhap

The Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal (OSM, Montreal Symphony Orchestra), helmed by conductor Kent Nagano, performed in Korea for the first time in 11 years Friday. The Canadian ensemble, turning 75 years old next year, celebrates its North American roots and European inspiration in a special tour of South Korea and Japan.

OSM gives its second concert 5 p.m., Saturday, at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in northern Seoul.

``Korea has a long history of thousands of years, and 75 is really a short period of time. Also hwere I live part time in Europe, 75 years is really recent history. But for America, this is very old,’’ the conductor told reporters at a press meeting Thursday in his first visit to the country.

``During these 75 years, we’ve had good fortune to have many interesting and strong artistic voices in our music directorship,’’ said Nagano, who succeeds maestros Zubin Mehta and Charles Dutois among others as artistic director of the OSM.

On Friday, the OSM gave festive performances of the French and German masters, with Berlioz’s ``Symphony Fantastique,’’ the prelude from Wagner’s opera ``Tristan and Isolde’’ and Ravel’s ``Bolero.’’

The program reflects the musical history of both Nagano and the OSM. The 57-year-old, a native of California, has served as music director of Opera de Lyon in France and principal conductor/artistic director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, Germany. ``(The OSM has) the technical brilliance we usually associate with North American orchestras… yet they have the sensitivity and aesthetics of a European orchestra,’’ said the conductor.

Following Dutois’ tenure, the OSM took on a strong French color, and Nagano said he spent the past two years introducing a more diverse repertoire, particularly the German literature of Beethoven, Wagner and Strauss.

The Nagano-helmed OSM is also known for premiering contemporary works, notably the award-winning opera ``Alice in Wonderland’’ by Chin Unsuk (aka. Unsuk Chin) last year and ``Rocana’’ by the Korean composer last month in Montreal and New York.

``My friendship with Unsuk Chin is a special one,’’ he said, adding that he has ``great admiration for her music.’’ ``She is one of the most talented composers of her time.’’ He joked that while great talent doesn’t always guarantee a good personality, Chin has the ``special bonus’’ of being a ``great person,’’ drawing laughs from the room. He also said he felt ``guilty because I asked so many new pieces from Ms. Chin.’’ Next week, Nagano will be performing ``Rocana’’ with the Chicago Symphony.

Saturday, the OSM will revive nature-inspired music: Debussy’s ``La Mer,’’ Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and Strauss’ ``Ein Alpensinfonie’’ (An Alpine Symphony). Promising young violinist Choi Ye-eun will appear as soloist.

``I’m very honored to play with such a great ensemble in my home country,’’ said the 19-year-old, who currently studies in Berlin with the support of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. This is her second time playing with the OSM. The first was when she was 15, as the youngest ever winner of the 2003 Montreal International Musical Competition.

``We really met for the first time yesterday when we rehearsed yesterday,’’ said Nagano about meeting Choi, though the two had crossed paths last month in Bavaria. ``I must say the rehearsal was a very joyous one and we were all very delightful,’’ he said, adding that Choi’s teacher Ana Chumachenko also taught the OSM’s concertmaster.

As for the future direction of the orchestra, Nagano said he will focus on trying to realize its great musical potential and illuminate its special character, which he described as being ``a strong, colorful personality.’’

Tickets cost 10,000-200,000 won. Call (02) 6303-1919 for inquiries and 1588-7890 or 1544-1555 for reservations.

The OSM’s performance is the 10th of the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation’s World Orchestra series following the New York Philharmonic’s historic tour of the two Koreas in February. In November, the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Simon Rattle, will perform.

>>Read my interview with violinist Choi Ye-eun

Chin Unsuk's "Rocana" Premieres in Montreal

Composer Chin Unsuk, 46, celebrated the world premiere of her new orchestral piece ``Rocana'' Monday in Montreal. She will also receive its U.S. premiere Saturday at New York's Carnegie Hall before its debut in other parts of the world.

Under the baton of conductor Kent Nagano, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) performed ``Rocana'' as part of its ``Grand Concerto'' series alongside masterworks by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. The same group will give the New York premiere, and Nagano will helm ``Rocana's'' Chicago debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, April 24-29. The Asia premiere will take place in the near future with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, where Chin is composer-in-residence.

Meaning ``room of light'' in Sanskrit, ``Rocana'' reflects Chin's observation of ``the behavior of beams of light _ their distortion, reflections, and undulations.'' ``The overall picture and the overall structure are one entity, one `tonal sculpture.' However, one can look at it from various angles, since the inner structures are constantly changing. Even if the music at times gives the impression of stasis, subtle impulses, interactions and reactions are continually present,'' the composer wrote about her piece in a statement

``Rocana'' was jointly commissioned by the Seoul Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, Bavarian State Opera and Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation. This is the Seoul Philharmonic's first project with foreign partners and is expected to be a turning point for the domestic music scene, according to the orchestra.

This is Chin's latest premiere since her critically acclaimed opera ``Alice in Wonderland,'' which debuted last year at Munich's Bayerische Staatspoer (Bavarian State Opera). The modern opera was ranked in the ``Best of 2007'' list in the Los Angeles Times and was named ``World Premiere of the Year'' by European critics for Opernwelt magazine.

Born in Seoul, Chin is a trained pianist. She learned musical composition at Seoul National University before a German state scholarship took her to Hamburg, where she studied with the great Gyorgy Ligeti.

Chin has been praised for her ``formidable ear for sonority and for mining the expressive potential of the slightest nuances of pitch and pulse'' (The Guardian, United Kingdom). In 2004, her devilishly challenging Violin Concerto won her the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, the world's richest prize for composers. Proclaimed ``the first truly great work of this millennium'' by the Los Angeles Weekly, the concerto has been performed in more than 10 countries across Europe, Asia and North America.

Last fall, the composer led a series of creative premiere concerts with the Seoul Philharmonic titled ``Ars Nova.'' She also received the Composition Prize at the 2007 Daewon Music Awards, one of Korea's prime music events.

Chin currently lives in Berlin with her husband, pianist Maris Gothoni, and their young son.