INTERVIEW | Gianandrea Noseda | "Allow yourself to hate what you are listening to, but always be open-minded"
In conversation with Gianandrea Noseda
Interview on 5 August 2025
Young-Jin Hur (YH): Maestro Noseda, it's a great pleasure to have you for an interview. How are you today?
Gianandrea Noseda (GN): I'm very well. The National Youth Orchestra (of the USA) and I started our tour 10 days ago. We started in Carnegie Hall, and then we were in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. And now we are in Seoul. I’ve now adjusted my body clock to Asian time. The start of the tour has not been easy, but now I’m feeling very well, thank you.
YH: That’s lovely to hear. I hear that this is the second interview you’re having today. What’s it like to be interviewed by various people to talk about your music?
GN: I think it's the best way to communicate my views and my thoughts. I'm not very good with social media, because I'm not that young. As I always say, I was not born in the digital world. Through an interview or a conversation, like we are currently having, I can really fully express myself. So I know that I have to devote some of my time to these kinds of things.
YH: Do you enjoy doing these interviews?
GN: I do, of course. I try not to do more than two or three a day, because it also requires concentration. You don't want to say silly things. If you do an interview, you want to express your thoughts properly.
YH: That makes sense. Do you think what you say about music translates easily to what you actually do on the podium?
GN: I try to be consistent between what I say and what I do as a musician. That said, music isn’t created just by me. What inspires me is the positive attitude of musicians towards their music, particularly their discipline, honesty, and sense of integrity.
YH: Now, you are currently on tour with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, but I understand that you like to work with different youth orchestras from all around the world. I would like to know what the appeal is to work with youth orchestras.
GN: What is crucial for me is to pass on to the new generation what I’ve experienced in 31 or 32 years of activity as a conductor and, previously, as a pianist. I believe it is part of my duty not to keep everything to myself, but to share with others what I know. I had teachers and musicians who did the same to me. They passed on to me what they had learnt. I realised at a certain point in my life, I think around 10 years ago, that it is important to pass my knowledge to the next generation. Of course, I have recordings, and those are musical photographs of what I have done. They will survive forever. But to have a real-life relationship and live meetings helps.
From another perspective, I also learn from the experience. I learn from the younger musicians on how to keep my spirits young and to keep my curiosity alive. As you get older, you risk losing curiosity. But because young musicians are curious, they push me to be curious with them. That’s a fantastic feeling.
YH: That’s beautiful. How can you tell that the young musicians are curious?
GN: They don’t tell you because they probably have fear and respect for a more experienced musician. But you can see it in their eyes and their body language. They are like a blank canvas that tells me, “Write, write something!”
That’s why I try to be responsible when I make music with them. They will remember for all their lives what I tell them... not because what I am saying is crucially important, but because of the relationship we have established. So I have to be very careful. I have to treat everybody in a professional way, but I also have to be very considerate and precise about how I ask things.
YH: That makes sense. Were there any specific requests you had for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA during this tour?
GN: I’ve been working on it little by little to expand the musicians’ capability for concentration whilst creating long states of ecstatic beauty. The young generation can stay concentrated for only short durations. Normally, they can concentrate for a minute or so. The talented ones can stay concentrated for five minutes. Can you imagine playing Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, which requires 56-57 minutes of concentration? Without telling them verbally, “you have to be more attentive, more concentrated”, little by little, I try to expand the length of concentration through rehearsals. And when I see that they are losing their concentration, I try to find something funny to gain their attention. Honestly, the results we get are pretty remarkable. Now, these musicians can really stay there in the music, which is fantastic.
YH: And in this world tour, these musicians get to play the same repertoire in different countries and halls.
GN: Yes, and that is educationally crucial for them to learn. While they are playing the same pieces, you cannot play against the hall. That’s why you always have to sound check and do a one and a half hour of rehearsal in the hall before a concert. Sometimes, I have to change some things depending on the hall. In the end, we have to learn to express ourselves maximally in a given environment.
Luckily, we’ve always had good halls this time, but each hall is different. And it’s incredible how many pieces of information these musicians, who are very far away from their families, have to face and act on. So it’s not only about being able to technically play a piece, it’s about being prepared to adapt oneself to different places and cultures. Professional orchestras that play at a high level organise themselves to face these variations. They know how to react to different situations and environments. But young musicians grow by experiencing these things.
YH: There must be a lot of repetition when you perform a fixed repertoire during a world tour. Is there much to say during the later rehearsals? Apart from adjusting to the hall, of course.
GN: Yes. In these rehearsals, we first work on adjusting to the hall. We then try to work on what went well and what could be better from the previous performance. So it’s not about the vision of a piece or how to get through it. Rather, it’s just a touch-up and, at the same time, making sure that we do not take things for granted and are not too confident that we know a piece.
YH: Do you tell the musicians, “Don’t be complacent”?
GN: I won’t say that exact phrase. It’s not that I don’t like the phrase. After all, it’s exactly what I want to convey. Instead, I say something on the lines of, “Don’t take for granted that you know the piece. The piece can hide different or difficult corners, and you have to be able to react right away. I will ask you to react because I will react.” I also often tell them to “keep the radar on... don’t just play – just listen, listen to what is going on.”
YH: It seems there will always be an element of surprise.
YH: I would now like to ask a personal question. You are achieving so many things these days, and you hold numerous named positions in different countries. I would like to know how you manage such a busy schedule.
GN: Of course, it is a question of organisation. For example, I always travel together with my wife, Lucia. That gives me the impression that wherever I go, my family is with me. We don’t have kids. This means that wherever we go, we can recreate a family life. After all, travelling a lot is not a normal life. So we try to live a normal life in a non-normal situation. Such a lifestyle is demanding. But it’s also incredibly rewarding because what music gives back to me is incredible.
Another secret is to keep the feeling of youth. I am always open to being surprised in the conversations I have with various people I meet around the world, and the various cuisines and wines I enjoy. I also like to read because that is food for my soul. Of course, I’m very busy, but the job also allows me to have quality time, and so I really try to take advantage of that.
YH: I like your optimism. I also like how you say that you try to live a normal life with your wife in a non-normal occupation. Does your wife enjoy coming to your concerts?
GN: Oh, yes, yes. If I conduct, as I do, around 100 or 110 performances a year, she probably attends around 95 of those. So she’s at the majority of my performances.
YH: I see. Is she a musician?
GN: She is a former singer.
YH: Okay. Now, when you have such a busy schedule, I imagine that you have to be selective about your musical decisions because you cannot do everything that you want. Do you have a certain philosophy regarding how you choose what you want to do?
GN: More than what I choose to do, I am chosen by the music. At certain points, the music calls me. For example, I think of the music of Bruckner. I started conducting Bruckner in 2020. Before then, I loved Bruckner but feared him and his music.
YH: What was it that you feared in Bruckner’s music?
GN: Bruckner’s music requires a certain type of pacing and patience. I needed to have more patience when I conduct Bruckner. And now, I think I’m more comfortable with that skill than I used to be. Patience is important because it lets the music speak for itself. I don’t use music to express myself. In other words, I am developing myself to serve the music. There was a moment when I thought, “Oh, maybe now I am ready for Bruckner.” So that was the moment when Bruckner called me.
YH: As I recall, the first Bruckner work you conducted was the Ninth Symphony.
GN: Yes, that is correct. It is the Mount Everest symphony.
YH: You’ve started at the end...
GN: ... and now it’s just downhill (both laugh).
After that symphony, I played the Sixth Symphony a few times, which I really liked. The Sixth Symphony is a bit neglected, but I think it’s a fantastic work. The Adagio is just too good, although the symphony as a whole is also great. Next season, I will play the Seventh Symphony for the first time. That performance will be in Washington, DC.
YH: If you are performing a symphony for the first time, like the Seventh Symphony, how do you prepare such a massive score? Do you listen to other recordings, or do you purely study the score?
GN: Now that I know I will perform this work next spring, I will not listen to any more performances or recordings of the symphony. Of course, I listen to a lot of classical music and am very open to various interpretations. But once I decide that it is time to learn a piece to perform, I stop listening to the piece and go directly to the score. I have to establish a relationship with the piece I will be performing. It’s like meeting someone. People may say, “Ah, you should meet this person because he or she is fantastic,” but I want to meet the person personally without listening to what others have to say about this person.
YH: That is a very nice comparison. At present, do you have any idea of how your interpretation of the Seventh Symphony would be? The piece has an awkward structure, where the first two movements are much longer than the last two. I wonder how you aim to resolve this structural imbalance.
GN: I think this is something that has to be considered once you take your time with the symphony’s score... I cannot make a decision now. You have to sit at your desk with your pencil and eraser, and devote yourself to concentrated work. It’s always important to understand the architecture of a piece. You’re right about the structure of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. The piece is a bit like Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony because the first movement is longer than the second and third movements put together.
Once you get to work with a piece, you have to think about how you can make something work that has such a strange structure. It’s like when you walk in Barcelona and you see the Gaudí buildings. At first, you cannot understand how these buildings can stand, because they are made with so many curves. You later realise the genius behind the buildings. You have to be there to understand. It is similar in music. As I slowly understand the structure and architecture of a piece, little by little, I add details, harmonics, instrumentations, orchestration, and the energy of the piece. Given that the Bruckner performance is in spring, I will start my preparation of the piece around the Christmas holidays, when I will have the opportunity to devote myself to concentrated preparation.
YH: That makes complete sense. Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony does indeed have a very long and intense first movement. I suppose it’s important not to peak in the first movement in works like these.
GN: Absolutely. That is something I learned from Maestro Myung-Whun Chung when I studied with him in Siena, Accademia Chigiana. He was very much obsessed with how to convey energy, how to shape the piece without getting there too soon or too late, and how to understand where the climaxes are. This is something that has to be determined while you study a piece. You should have a very clear picture in your mind regarding how to shape a performance. It’s part of my job.
YH: As you mature as a musician and human, do you feel that some of your priorities change over the years?
GN: Yes. As I get more mature and experienced, I would like to serve the music more and not use music to serve myself.
YH: What do you mean, exactly?
GN: That means that you have to know the music even better to allow the music to express itself more completely. It is a bit of an oxymoron, but you have to know when to step back a little to allow the music to shine. In order to do that, you have to invest more time to get to know the music better. The goal is the music, not me.
YH: Does this mean that when you were younger, you tried to put your own personality into the music?
GN: Yes, precisely. That is why I didn’t conduct Bruckner, because I wanted to impose myself more in the music than to allow Bruckner to do that through his music. You know, there are composers who somehow allow you to impose your personality in their music... not to say that this is something easy to do! For instance, Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart can take almost any personality. You have different schools of performing. You can perform like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bruno Walter, Furtwängler, or Toscanini, and they can take these completely different styles. Verdi is also like that. When you perform La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore, it can take any form. But not composers like Bruckner.
And, generally, it’s important to take your time. You have to spend more time with music and really get to know music. I think that when I was a younger conductor, I could learn very easily and very quickly. I'm still a quick learner, but it takes more time. And sometimes, I ask myself, “Is it because I'm getting older that I am slowing down?” Maybe yes, but also maybe I can see more things. If I see more things, it takes more time.
YH: I think being able to learn and memorise something is one thing. To understand something requires time and experience.
GH: Yes. My goal, really, is to treat music in this way, to take time with it and slowly understand it. It is easy to conduct music. What is more difficult is to understand music and to communicate music. You can give a fantastic impression of what you can do when you are young, but what is the reality hidden behind the notes? To understand that requires more time and a big portion of life. Of course, maybe you lose a little bit of spontaneity... or not. You know, once I heard that one can be a conductor after 60. Now that I am 61, I realise the saying is not true. It's not true that you can understand what a conductor should do when you turn 60 (GN laughs). I think I need more time.
YH: Do you think there will come a point where you narrow down your repertoire to spend more time with them and better understand these pieces?
GN: I don’t know. I respect, for instance, Maestro Carlos Kleiber, who shrank his repertoire to ten concert pieces and maybe three or four operas. But I don’t know if I will ever get to that point. At the moment, I would like to study repertoire that I’ve never touched. But it’s a funny feeling to get back to some of the pieces I have performed well. With opera, for instance, if I do a particular opera well, I don’t want to return to this opera again too soon. I wait at least six or so years to perform it again. For instance, I did a very good Don Carlos in Torino in 2013. Around 2016 or 2017, a big opera house asked me to play the piece. I rejected, saying, “No, I’ve done a very good Don Carlos recently, so I don’t do it for now.”
YH: Why is that so?
GN: I try to take a good performance and just leave it there. Once I detach myself from the piece long enough, I can see new things in the piece. When I return, the piece will still surprise me and feel new.
YH: You mentioned that you still need time to understand conducting. As a musician, do you live with a certain level of self-doubt?
GN: I always have doubts (GN pauses). You always have to question the music, and you always have to refresh the relationship you have with music. What I try to avoid is taking things for granted. So I always try to think and understand things better, because this is how thoughts become free to develop. And sometimes, I don't find the answers. That is also something that pushes me to go back to that piece, because I still have the questions that I was not able to answer. When I perform a piece, I perform that piece at the level I could understand at that stage. But that doesn’t mean that I got the truth of that piece. So I always go back. Truthfully, though, I don’t know if I will get to the truth of a piece, because only the composer knows that.
YH: It appears that doubt is what also pushes you to go back to the music and work further. Is this something that you bring up during your rehearsals with youth orchestras?
GN: For youth orchestras, this is their first step into music. So I cannot charge them with too many complications. It is already important that they play without wandering off too much about the future. They should just go through the music and enjoy their time, which they do. They are so inspired by just playing the music that the moment they play, there is a special quality. To understand broader things will take a longer time.
YH: I see. It’s always lovely to see young musicians full of motivation. What is your take on the topic of motivation in the context of professional, adult orchestras?
GN: For a professional orchestra, the danger is that an artistic activity can be transformed into a day-to-day job. Musicians can become like an employee of a company, thinking, “Oh, I’ve already done Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony a hundred times.” The danger specifically is that people can be accustomed to their memories of playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony without allowing themselves to be surprised by today’s Beethoven playing. A conductor should motivate and inspire. For example, you can make them think and concentrate on one detail. And that detail will let them think, “Wow, I’ve never heard this note of the second bassoon, but that changes everything!” Professional musicians can respond to things like this. You can also remind musicians of the day when the fire was burning in their souls and they decided to become musicians. I ask, “That must have been a very special day in your life, don’t you think?”
YH: It feels like there are a lot of jobs to do as a conductor. While much is about the music itself, it’s also about inspiring people!
GN: Yes, it’s so much about motivation and inspiration. But everything starts with the music. I don’t think anyone – apart from a few people, if there are – is interested in my words compared to Beethoven’s words. The music may be created through a conductor during a performance, but it is ultimately Beethoven’s message we are repeating. I always think that I am the deliverer, and so I deliver. I am not the composer who created the music. What I can do, in my poor ability (GN laughs), is to just try to understand the composer’s message to convey it.
YH: You talk about conductors asking the orchestral musicians for certain qualities through inspiration and motivation. Do you have any expectations or requests from the audience during a concert?
GN: If I have the chance, I always try to tell the audience before a concert to forget everything that they know. I want them to forget the ideal performance they had in their heads before coming to a concert. I tell them, “Be open. Allow yourself to be bored. Allow yourself to be surprised. Allow yourself to hate what you are listening to, but always be open-minded.”
Because that is what I try to do, you know. If they ask to be pointed towards particular aspects of the music, I just tell them to come and listen to the music. People have to simply be and allow themselves to be disconnected from their devices, without feeling that they have to have any answers to the music that is performed. I think, “Just take your time. The time is yours and you can love it, be bored, be annoyed, be attracted, or be inspired.” Not passively reacting to music is already a great result.
YH: That’s fantastic. That will be the attitude I will be having at the concert tomorrow. That was all from me. Thank you for your time.
GN: It was lovely to chat. Thank you.
Interview on 5 August 2025
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| Gianandrea Noseda, © Igor Emmerich |
There is little doubt that life offers different joys at different stages in life, one of a youthful and one of a reflective kind. Youthful excitement may be blind to the long haul of life's wisdom, and the repose of knowledge may overlook spontaneity. All the while, we wish to reach beyond the immediate, towards an elusive truth that, too, perhaps means different things at different times in life.
Catching Maestro Gianandrea Noseda in Seoul at the end of a world tour with the National Youth Orchestra USA, there was both excitement and caution in his approach towards young musicians. Where the curious enthusiasm of young musicians was to be relished, just as a parent would not inhibit a child's first steps, there was also the awareness that those first steps must be nurtured and shaped with care. And yet this musical partnership seemed also a vessel of mutual learning and renewal, rather than a schoolmaster's lesson of one-way evolution.
Such sophistication was also present in the conductor's view of his own career. Where there was a sense of distance from a youthful approach to music, eager to understand not just perform a score, take a step back to let the music take the spotlight, and to simply take one's time, this by no means equated to cooling down or limiting one's repertoire. Noseda's vast experience as an international conductor still betrayed an unmistakable youth and a will to grasp musical truths.
All these contrasts make up for a subtle view of things. Such is the intricacy of life: all that was said was true despite the contrasts, or perhaps because of them. And the joy of this 30-minute conversation with Noseda - with all its twists and turns, patience and enthusiasm, and doubts and achievements - was a reminder that musical joy, whichever form it takes, is an entirely valid joy as long as one finds it and accepts it.
Below is a transcript of the interview. Minor edits have been made to improve readability.
[Note. All interviews on the website are approved by the interviewee or manager prior to publication.]
I.
Young-Jin Hur (YH): Maestro Noseda, it's a great pleasure to have you for an interview. How are you today?
Gianandrea Noseda (GN): I'm very well. The National Youth Orchestra (of the USA) and I started our tour 10 days ago. We started in Carnegie Hall, and then we were in Tokyo, Osaka, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. And now we are in Seoul. I’ve now adjusted my body clock to Asian time. The start of the tour has not been easy, but now I’m feeling very well, thank you.
YH: That’s lovely to hear. I hear that this is the second interview you’re having today. What’s it like to be interviewed by various people to talk about your music?
GN: I think it's the best way to communicate my views and my thoughts. I'm not very good with social media, because I'm not that young. As I always say, I was not born in the digital world. Through an interview or a conversation, like we are currently having, I can really fully express myself. So I know that I have to devote some of my time to these kinds of things.
YH: Do you enjoy doing these interviews?
GN: I do, of course. I try not to do more than two or three a day, because it also requires concentration. You don't want to say silly things. If you do an interview, you want to express your thoughts properly.
YH: That makes sense. Do you think what you say about music translates easily to what you actually do on the podium?
GN: I try to be consistent between what I say and what I do as a musician. That said, music isn’t created just by me. What inspires me is the positive attitude of musicians towards their music, particularly their discipline, honesty, and sense of integrity.
II.
YH: Now, you are currently on tour with the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, but I understand that you like to work with different youth orchestras from all around the world. I would like to know what the appeal is to work with youth orchestras.
GN: What is crucial for me is to pass on to the new generation what I’ve experienced in 31 or 32 years of activity as a conductor and, previously, as a pianist. I believe it is part of my duty not to keep everything to myself, but to share with others what I know. I had teachers and musicians who did the same to me. They passed on to me what they had learnt. I realised at a certain point in my life, I think around 10 years ago, that it is important to pass my knowledge to the next generation. Of course, I have recordings, and those are musical photographs of what I have done. They will survive forever. But to have a real-life relationship and live meetings helps.
From another perspective, I also learn from the experience. I learn from the younger musicians on how to keep my spirits young and to keep my curiosity alive. As you get older, you risk losing curiosity. But because young musicians are curious, they push me to be curious with them. That’s a fantastic feeling.
YH: That’s beautiful. How can you tell that the young musicians are curious?
GN: They don’t tell you because they probably have fear and respect for a more experienced musician. But you can see it in their eyes and their body language. They are like a blank canvas that tells me, “Write, write something!”
That’s why I try to be responsible when I make music with them. They will remember for all their lives what I tell them... not because what I am saying is crucially important, but because of the relationship we have established. So I have to be very careful. I have to treat everybody in a professional way, but I also have to be very considerate and precise about how I ask things.
YH: That makes sense. Were there any specific requests you had for the National Youth Orchestra of the USA during this tour?
GN: I’ve been working on it little by little to expand the musicians’ capability for concentration whilst creating long states of ecstatic beauty. The young generation can stay concentrated for only short durations. Normally, they can concentrate for a minute or so. The talented ones can stay concentrated for five minutes. Can you imagine playing Rachmaninov’s Second Symphony, which requires 56-57 minutes of concentration? Without telling them verbally, “you have to be more attentive, more concentrated”, little by little, I try to expand the length of concentration through rehearsals. And when I see that they are losing their concentration, I try to find something funny to gain their attention. Honestly, the results we get are pretty remarkable. Now, these musicians can really stay there in the music, which is fantastic.
YH: And in this world tour, these musicians get to play the same repertoire in different countries and halls.
GN: Yes, and that is educationally crucial for them to learn. While they are playing the same pieces, you cannot play against the hall. That’s why you always have to sound check and do a one and a half hour of rehearsal in the hall before a concert. Sometimes, I have to change some things depending on the hall. In the end, we have to learn to express ourselves maximally in a given environment.
Luckily, we’ve always had good halls this time, but each hall is different. And it’s incredible how many pieces of information these musicians, who are very far away from their families, have to face and act on. So it’s not only about being able to technically play a piece, it’s about being prepared to adapt oneself to different places and cultures. Professional orchestras that play at a high level organise themselves to face these variations. They know how to react to different situations and environments. But young musicians grow by experiencing these things.
YH: There must be a lot of repetition when you perform a fixed repertoire during a world tour. Is there much to say during the later rehearsals? Apart from adjusting to the hall, of course.
GN: Yes. In these rehearsals, we first work on adjusting to the hall. We then try to work on what went well and what could be better from the previous performance. So it’s not about the vision of a piece or how to get through it. Rather, it’s just a touch-up and, at the same time, making sure that we do not take things for granted and are not too confident that we know a piece.
YH: Do you tell the musicians, “Don’t be complacent”?
GN: I won’t say that exact phrase. It’s not that I don’t like the phrase. After all, it’s exactly what I want to convey. Instead, I say something on the lines of, “Don’t take for granted that you know the piece. The piece can hide different or difficult corners, and you have to be able to react right away. I will ask you to react because I will react.” I also often tell them to “keep the radar on... don’t just play – just listen, listen to what is going on.”
YH: It seems there will always be an element of surprise.
III.
YH: I would now like to ask a personal question. You are achieving so many things these days, and you hold numerous named positions in different countries. I would like to know how you manage such a busy schedule.
GN: Of course, it is a question of organisation. For example, I always travel together with my wife, Lucia. That gives me the impression that wherever I go, my family is with me. We don’t have kids. This means that wherever we go, we can recreate a family life. After all, travelling a lot is not a normal life. So we try to live a normal life in a non-normal situation. Such a lifestyle is demanding. But it’s also incredibly rewarding because what music gives back to me is incredible.
Another secret is to keep the feeling of youth. I am always open to being surprised in the conversations I have with various people I meet around the world, and the various cuisines and wines I enjoy. I also like to read because that is food for my soul. Of course, I’m very busy, but the job also allows me to have quality time, and so I really try to take advantage of that.
YH: I like your optimism. I also like how you say that you try to live a normal life with your wife in a non-normal occupation. Does your wife enjoy coming to your concerts?
GN: Oh, yes, yes. If I conduct, as I do, around 100 or 110 performances a year, she probably attends around 95 of those. So she’s at the majority of my performances.
YH: I see. Is she a musician?
GN: She is a former singer.
YH: Okay. Now, when you have such a busy schedule, I imagine that you have to be selective about your musical decisions because you cannot do everything that you want. Do you have a certain philosophy regarding how you choose what you want to do?
GN: More than what I choose to do, I am chosen by the music. At certain points, the music calls me. For example, I think of the music of Bruckner. I started conducting Bruckner in 2020. Before then, I loved Bruckner but feared him and his music.
YH: What was it that you feared in Bruckner’s music?
GN: Bruckner’s music requires a certain type of pacing and patience. I needed to have more patience when I conduct Bruckner. And now, I think I’m more comfortable with that skill than I used to be. Patience is important because it lets the music speak for itself. I don’t use music to express myself. In other words, I am developing myself to serve the music. There was a moment when I thought, “Oh, maybe now I am ready for Bruckner.” So that was the moment when Bruckner called me.
YH: As I recall, the first Bruckner work you conducted was the Ninth Symphony.
GN: Yes, that is correct. It is the Mount Everest symphony.
YH: You’ve started at the end...
GN: ... and now it’s just downhill (both laugh).
After that symphony, I played the Sixth Symphony a few times, which I really liked. The Sixth Symphony is a bit neglected, but I think it’s a fantastic work. The Adagio is just too good, although the symphony as a whole is also great. Next season, I will play the Seventh Symphony for the first time. That performance will be in Washington, DC.
YH: If you are performing a symphony for the first time, like the Seventh Symphony, how do you prepare such a massive score? Do you listen to other recordings, or do you purely study the score?
GN: Now that I know I will perform this work next spring, I will not listen to any more performances or recordings of the symphony. Of course, I listen to a lot of classical music and am very open to various interpretations. But once I decide that it is time to learn a piece to perform, I stop listening to the piece and go directly to the score. I have to establish a relationship with the piece I will be performing. It’s like meeting someone. People may say, “Ah, you should meet this person because he or she is fantastic,” but I want to meet the person personally without listening to what others have to say about this person.
YH: That is a very nice comparison. At present, do you have any idea of how your interpretation of the Seventh Symphony would be? The piece has an awkward structure, where the first two movements are much longer than the last two. I wonder how you aim to resolve this structural imbalance.
GN: I think this is something that has to be considered once you take your time with the symphony’s score... I cannot make a decision now. You have to sit at your desk with your pencil and eraser, and devote yourself to concentrated work. It’s always important to understand the architecture of a piece. You’re right about the structure of Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony. The piece is a bit like Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony because the first movement is longer than the second and third movements put together.
Once you get to work with a piece, you have to think about how you can make something work that has such a strange structure. It’s like when you walk in Barcelona and you see the Gaudí buildings. At first, you cannot understand how these buildings can stand, because they are made with so many curves. You later realise the genius behind the buildings. You have to be there to understand. It is similar in music. As I slowly understand the structure and architecture of a piece, little by little, I add details, harmonics, instrumentations, orchestration, and the energy of the piece. Given that the Bruckner performance is in spring, I will start my preparation of the piece around the Christmas holidays, when I will have the opportunity to devote myself to concentrated preparation.
YH: That makes complete sense. Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony does indeed have a very long and intense first movement. I suppose it’s important not to peak in the first movement in works like these.
GN: Absolutely. That is something I learned from Maestro Myung-Whun Chung when I studied with him in Siena, Accademia Chigiana. He was very much obsessed with how to convey energy, how to shape the piece without getting there too soon or too late, and how to understand where the climaxes are. This is something that has to be determined while you study a piece. You should have a very clear picture in your mind regarding how to shape a performance. It’s part of my job.
IV.
YH: As you mature as a musician and human, do you feel that some of your priorities change over the years?
GN: Yes. As I get more mature and experienced, I would like to serve the music more and not use music to serve myself.
YH: What do you mean, exactly?
GN: That means that you have to know the music even better to allow the music to express itself more completely. It is a bit of an oxymoron, but you have to know when to step back a little to allow the music to shine. In order to do that, you have to invest more time to get to know the music better. The goal is the music, not me.
YH: Does this mean that when you were younger, you tried to put your own personality into the music?
GN: Yes, precisely. That is why I didn’t conduct Bruckner, because I wanted to impose myself more in the music than to allow Bruckner to do that through his music. You know, there are composers who somehow allow you to impose your personality in their music... not to say that this is something easy to do! For instance, Beethoven, Bach, or Mozart can take almost any personality. You have different schools of performing. You can perform like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bruno Walter, Furtwängler, or Toscanini, and they can take these completely different styles. Verdi is also like that. When you perform La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Il Trovatore, it can take any form. But not composers like Bruckner.
And, generally, it’s important to take your time. You have to spend more time with music and really get to know music. I think that when I was a younger conductor, I could learn very easily and very quickly. I'm still a quick learner, but it takes more time. And sometimes, I ask myself, “Is it because I'm getting older that I am slowing down?” Maybe yes, but also maybe I can see more things. If I see more things, it takes more time.
YH: I think being able to learn and memorise something is one thing. To understand something requires time and experience.
GH: Yes. My goal, really, is to treat music in this way, to take time with it and slowly understand it. It is easy to conduct music. What is more difficult is to understand music and to communicate music. You can give a fantastic impression of what you can do when you are young, but what is the reality hidden behind the notes? To understand that requires more time and a big portion of life. Of course, maybe you lose a little bit of spontaneity... or not. You know, once I heard that one can be a conductor after 60. Now that I am 61, I realise the saying is not true. It's not true that you can understand what a conductor should do when you turn 60 (GN laughs). I think I need more time.
YH: Do you think there will come a point where you narrow down your repertoire to spend more time with them and better understand these pieces?
GN: I don’t know. I respect, for instance, Maestro Carlos Kleiber, who shrank his repertoire to ten concert pieces and maybe three or four operas. But I don’t know if I will ever get to that point. At the moment, I would like to study repertoire that I’ve never touched. But it’s a funny feeling to get back to some of the pieces I have performed well. With opera, for instance, if I do a particular opera well, I don’t want to return to this opera again too soon. I wait at least six or so years to perform it again. For instance, I did a very good Don Carlos in Torino in 2013. Around 2016 or 2017, a big opera house asked me to play the piece. I rejected, saying, “No, I’ve done a very good Don Carlos recently, so I don’t do it for now.”
YH: Why is that so?
GN: I try to take a good performance and just leave it there. Once I detach myself from the piece long enough, I can see new things in the piece. When I return, the piece will still surprise me and feel new.
V.
YH: You mentioned that you still need time to understand conducting. As a musician, do you live with a certain level of self-doubt?
GN: I always have doubts (GN pauses). You always have to question the music, and you always have to refresh the relationship you have with music. What I try to avoid is taking things for granted. So I always try to think and understand things better, because this is how thoughts become free to develop. And sometimes, I don't find the answers. That is also something that pushes me to go back to that piece, because I still have the questions that I was not able to answer. When I perform a piece, I perform that piece at the level I could understand at that stage. But that doesn’t mean that I got the truth of that piece. So I always go back. Truthfully, though, I don’t know if I will get to the truth of a piece, because only the composer knows that.
YH: It appears that doubt is what also pushes you to go back to the music and work further. Is this something that you bring up during your rehearsals with youth orchestras?
GN: For youth orchestras, this is their first step into music. So I cannot charge them with too many complications. It is already important that they play without wandering off too much about the future. They should just go through the music and enjoy their time, which they do. They are so inspired by just playing the music that the moment they play, there is a special quality. To understand broader things will take a longer time.
YH: I see. It’s always lovely to see young musicians full of motivation. What is your take on the topic of motivation in the context of professional, adult orchestras?
GN: For a professional orchestra, the danger is that an artistic activity can be transformed into a day-to-day job. Musicians can become like an employee of a company, thinking, “Oh, I’ve already done Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony a hundred times.” The danger specifically is that people can be accustomed to their memories of playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony without allowing themselves to be surprised by today’s Beethoven playing. A conductor should motivate and inspire. For example, you can make them think and concentrate on one detail. And that detail will let them think, “Wow, I’ve never heard this note of the second bassoon, but that changes everything!” Professional musicians can respond to things like this. You can also remind musicians of the day when the fire was burning in their souls and they decided to become musicians. I ask, “That must have been a very special day in your life, don’t you think?”
YH: It feels like there are a lot of jobs to do as a conductor. While much is about the music itself, it’s also about inspiring people!
GN: Yes, it’s so much about motivation and inspiration. But everything starts with the music. I don’t think anyone – apart from a few people, if there are – is interested in my words compared to Beethoven’s words. The music may be created through a conductor during a performance, but it is ultimately Beethoven’s message we are repeating. I always think that I am the deliverer, and so I deliver. I am not the composer who created the music. What I can do, in my poor ability (GN laughs), is to just try to understand the composer’s message to convey it.
YH: You talk about conductors asking the orchestral musicians for certain qualities through inspiration and motivation. Do you have any expectations or requests from the audience during a concert?
GN: If I have the chance, I always try to tell the audience before a concert to forget everything that they know. I want them to forget the ideal performance they had in their heads before coming to a concert. I tell them, “Be open. Allow yourself to be bored. Allow yourself to be surprised. Allow yourself to hate what you are listening to, but always be open-minded.”
Because that is what I try to do, you know. If they ask to be pointed towards particular aspects of the music, I just tell them to come and listen to the music. People have to simply be and allow themselves to be disconnected from their devices, without feeling that they have to have any answers to the music that is performed. I think, “Just take your time. The time is yours and you can love it, be bored, be annoyed, be attracted, or be inspired.” Not passively reacting to music is already a great result.
YH: That’s fantastic. That will be the attitude I will be having at the concert tomorrow. That was all from me. Thank you for your time.
GN: It was lovely to chat. Thank you.
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| Gianandrea Noseda, © Scott Suchman/The Kennedy Center |
Young-Jin Hur
@yjhur1885
© Where Cherries Ripen / Young-Jin Hur