Saturday, February 8, 2025
8:00 PM
French conductor Nathalie Stutzmann makes her Boston Symphony Orchestra conducting debut in a program that begins with Beethoven’s towering Violin Concerto, with soloist Veronika Eberle in her Symphony Hall debut. The concert continues with Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and the suite from Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird, a Russian folk tale of heroism, magic, and renewal that vaulted the composer to the forefront of modern music.
Nathalie Stutzmann, conductor
Veronika Eberle, violin
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN Violin Concerto, with cadenzas by Jörg Widmann
Maurice RAVEL Alborada del gracioso
Igor STRAVINSKY The Firebird (1919 suite)
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Hear a preview of the program with conductor Nathalie Stutzmann by using the audio player above and reading the transcript below.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT:
Brian McCreath I'm Brian McCreath at Symphony Hall with Nathalie Stutzmann, who is back here at Symphony Hall for the first time in quite a while. But now in a brand new role. Nathalie, thank you so much for a little bit of your time today. I appreciate it.
Nathalie Stutzmann You're welcome. It's a pleasure.
Brian McCreath And we'll get back to why you've been here before in just a little bit. But first, let's just talk about this program. And I wonder if you have worked with Veronika Eberle before and especially whether you had conducted this version of the Violin Concerto by Beethoven with Jörg Widmann's really wild cadenzas.
Nathalie Stutzmann Absolutely. They are really wild and very interesting. Yes, actually, I met Veronika almost ten years ago when I started the beginning of my conductor career, and she came to my orchestra in Dublin. At the time, I was at the radio orchestra [RTÉ Orchestra]. I was the chief there, and we did the Brahms Violin Concerto. And then we did many things because her musicality is extremely interesting, I think. She's a great artist and a very nice person. So it's really wonderful to work with her. And we did actually with my orchestra, where I am Music Director in Atlanta, we did this Beethoven concerto with the Widmann cadenzas that she commissioned. He's a very famous German composer. They are very wild. And what I love very much with this... I mean, you like it or hate it, but it brings a new perspective. And Beethoven was himself a great improviser. He was the specialist of improvisation, and I think he would have supported it. He was also a very modernist and revolutionary man. And I also love the interaction with the musicians of the orchestra in those cadenzas.
Brian McCreath Yeah, the timpani and the double bass have really important parts to play in those.
Nathalie Stutzmann Exactly. And also the Concertmaster is playing. So three people of the orchestra are playing in the cadenza with her. So it's a wild experience, but very interesting.
Brian McCreath And are you conducting those sections where the other players are playing or is it all chamber music?
Nathalie Stutzmann No, I wanted really to have them doing it like chamber music. And so it builds up this relationship with the soloist and with the orchestra. You know, sometimes I felt myself when I was a soloist, when you come, you just have one rehearsal and dress rehearsal, and you have no time to connect with people of the orchestra and to have this kind of interaction, chamber music is fantastic.
Brian McCreath And Jörg Widmann is familiar to audiences in Boston and around New England, an incredibly musical composer, so it's not as though he's doing something from left field in the Beethoven. It really does tie in with the rest of the piece, doesn't it?
Nathalie Stutzmann Right. Absolutely. And somehow it makes listening to the traditional concerto in another way. It tweaks up something. And as I said, it's just so... Sometimes he's, of course, joking with the themes and using the material of the concerto, but he's also... It's like a folie, only it's a crazy fantasy.
Brian McCreath Tell me about your choices for the other parts of the program, Ravel's Alborada del gracioso and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
Nathalie Stutzmann Well, actually, that was the wish of the management here. And they loved the idea of this program. And I think it's chosen very well because we are talking about these Widmann cadenzas and of course Stravinsky and Ravel in their time were so in advance of everything which was going on. And so they were so adventurous. So I think it works very well, also in terms of colors, articulations, and modernity.
Brian McCreath So getting now to the reason that you've been here before, your career was in the world of singing as a contralto, primarily. And so now here you are back at Symphony Hall after many appearances with the Boston Symphony over a number of years. Tell me what your experience of Symphony Hall is, what you remember of it as being a contralto, singing in things like Pelléas et Mélisande or whatever else, and now as a conductor, do you hear the hall in a slightly different way in this context?
Nathalie Stutzmann Well, it's the first time I'm turning instead of facing the audience. [laughs] But I never forgot the first time I came here in the 90s, it was Seiji Ozawa who invited me, and to be here now for me is very moving because it's so connected to my relation with him. The first time I sang with a major orchestra in America was here in Boston, and I never forgot this marvelous acoustic. And I went to Tanglewood, we did Mahler's Second Symphony. I sang also [Bach's] St. Matthew Passion, and many, many things. And of course, now I hear the acoustic in a different way. But I mean, it's just so extraordinary to have this kind of quality as a conductor also. But it's so nice that there are people in the orchestra who were playing when I was singing, so I slowly recognize them and they come to talk to me. And if I sing a phrase in the rehearsal they say , yes, I remember when you sang this and this. It's very, very special. And of course, my soul is very much with Seiji this week, because he was also the one who brought me in America with the major orchestra for the first time. And he was also the first major conductor who pushed me and said, "You are a conductor. You have to do it, Nathalie." And so for me it's very emotional this week.
Brian McCreath Absolutely, especially with the loss of Seiji not so long ago. And the music that you're doing, especially the Ravel and Stravinsky, such Seiji Ozawa pieces.
Nathalie Stutzmann Exactly. The first time, when I was still a student, the first recording of the Ravel symphonic music I got was the Boston Symphony with Seiji. And now, to conduct Ravel's music from the CDs I was listening to when I was a teenager, is just amazing.
Brian McCreath Well, now you mention that Seiji pushed you and affirmed your decision to be a conductor. And I'm sure there's probably an hour long conversation we could have about why you went in that direction. But let me distill it down to this. Was there a particular moment in your life as a contralto when you had already thought, I love conducting, maybe I want to conduct? Was there a moment when you realized, yes, I will make the decision now to be a conductor?
Nathalie Stutzmann Yeah, there was a moment of the decision, and I asked him and he invited me to conduct one of his orchestras in Japan. And he said, "Let's see how it goes." And after that experience, after one week, he said, "Nathalie, you are a conductor. Just do it." He mentored me, and we were talking about scores, and when you got sick, I was also conducting half of concerts; he was conducting the first half, and I was conducting the second half. So it was a great honor. He was inviting me and we had time to study the scores together. So I learned a lot. But I always wanted to be a conductor. I'm not a contralto. I'm just a musician. And my main instrument was my voice, my rare voice. I grew up as a pianist, as a cello, viola, and bassoon player, so I was always fascinated by singing because my parents were both opera singers but also by conducting. But at the time it was very, very difficult, almost impossible to do something really serious for a woman. So I just quit. But I was just keeping in my dreams, and the only reason I wanted to do it is because I felt this is how I can express the music I have in my soul.
Brian McCreath Is there any way of describing what Seiji taught you about being a conductor? Is there one or two things that especially stick out in all the ways that you had studied and continue to study conducting? Is there something that Seiji gave you that you hold on to?
Nathalie Stutzmann I would say the two first things which comes to my mind is, first of all, you never cease to learn. As a conductor, whatever you do, every time, you have to restudy the score. And he was such a hard worker. I mean, it's even more work than anyone can imagine if you really want to do it seriously. What I mean by seriously means, someone like me, I'm bringing to those orchestras a repertoire they have played millions of times. So if I don't have something new to bring or something interesting to bring, let's say, which makes it interesting for them, what's the point? So for that you need to have this musical maturity. The second thing I will never forget is, he was teaching me how to listen. How to develop, to listen not to the main voices, but the other voices. And with my background as a pianist, as a contralto as well, you really have the melody. You are always digging out, just singing those inner voices. And I think as a conductor, it brings a lot of things and ideas and might make a difference in my interpretations that I really take care of listening to every voice.
Brian McCreath And that's something, again, that Seiji was known for, is his intimate knowledge of every detail of a score and something to aspire to for any conductor.
Nathalie Stutzmann Exactly. And I just tried to to have him looking at me this week and be proud.
Brian McCreath That's a wonderful image. Well, tell me now about - this is, I think, your third season with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - and I wonder how the role of a Music Director as opposed to conductor, how has it actually changed your conducting?
Nathalie Stutzmann Well, you are much more involved in the story of the orchestra. You know every player, and your commitment is very different from a guest conducting week, of course. Being Music Director is really like a marriage. You have to know really the partner and it's like a family. You have great moments, difficult moments, complicated moments, marvelous moments. And you have to deal with so many humans. You have to deal with so many also administrative things. You have to bring attraction. You have to have ideas. The programming is very exciting. So I love this commitment, I must say, because the more you know every individual, the more you can know how to get the best of them. You know every one's character, you know how to ask something that you want to get because you know them better. When you come as a guest conductor, it's really difficult because you are a bit shy at the beginning because you don't know who is how and how will people understand your language. And every orchestra is different. Every house is different. Every country is different. The culture, the way of rehearsing is very different in some places. So how you keep your own way, being yourself and your path, but also be flexible enough to immediately capture everything which is going around, the reactions of people, the sound, what works or not, what to pick up, because you hear millions of things and you have just a few times to say, okay, this is important, this is not. It's all this game. So it's quite fascinating. It's a big difference, but both are very enriching. I think when you guest conduct, you learn a lot from all those cultures and different orchestras, and you can bring it to your own orchestra. And from what I learned as Music Director, I bring also my knowledge and my skills to the guest conducting weeks.
Brian McCreath Just out of curiosity, how would you describe what the audience is in Atlanta? What does the audience want from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra that you've been able to maybe figure out a little bit in your first few years there?
Nathalie Stutzmann Well, you know, the story of Atlanta and Georgia is very different from Boston, of course. There are less possibilities for children to, at the start, just to have conservatory music, etc. So we have to create a lot of opportunities for the young people, for those who don't know the music, and we have to give this gift of music. But we are working on that. But therefore, what is really specific in Atlanta is that our audience is very instinctive, and I really like this. So it's not an audience which will care if you have a big name or not. They like it or they don't like it. So if they like it, they applaud, and then you go. I love it because you get what you give. And they are very emotional, actually. They are really good. I mean, when something magic happens or something incredibly exciting happens, it's like a rock concert. When I go on stage, sometimes they are shouting, they are so happy. They are very expressive. I would say.
Brian McCreath That's terrific. I love it. Wow. Makes me want to visit Atlanta and see you in action with this orchestra.
Nathalie Stutzmann It's very special.
Brian McCreath Well, Nathalie Stutzmann, it's wonderful to have you back. Wonderful to see you in this role. Some of us have been sort of watching your career as a conductor for several years now. And now we get to see it in action right here at Symphony Hall. So thanks so much for your time today.
Nathalie Stutzmann Thank you. It was a pleasure. Enjoy.