In Sunday’s (1/13) New York Times, Daniel J. Wakin reports from Montreal, “Taking Bruckner to the people last month, the compact maestro arrived at a cultural center on the blue-collar outskirts of this city. The hall had the ambience of a glorified high school auditorium, with dust-dry acoustics and concrete walls. But the 400 seats were packed with families and couples and groups of retirement-age friends. … The circumstances in December were a far holler from what [Yannick] Nézet-Séguin will experience on Thursday evening. The stage then will be Carnegie Hall and the musicians members of the storied Philadelphia Orchestra, which he took over as music director in the fall, after one of the roughest patches since its founding in 1900. Mr. Nézet-Séguin (pronounced nay-ZAY say-GHEN) has reached the top of the orchestra game. In addition to Philadelphia, he is music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic in the Netherlands and principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. … [At 37] Mr. Nézet-Séguin is what the orchestra world is desperate for: a young, charismatic maestro who can win the respect, even affection, of grizzled orchestra veterans, the enthusiasm of audiences and the praise of critics, which has for him been pretty exalted. … He made a rousing Carnegie debut with the Philadelphians in October.”
Posted January 14, 2013
