TALMI: S.D. Symphony Director Candidate Airs His Musical Views : S.D. Conductor Candidate Airs Musical Views

Over the past year, Israeli conductor Yoav Talmi has been most frequently mentioned as the San Diego Symphony’s likely new music director.

To keep speculation alive about the orchestra’s most important pending appointment, executive director Wesley Brustad will probably wait until April, 1989, to announce the winner, a deadline he has regularly invoked at press conferences and in casual conversations.

At this stage of the guessing game, the clues point to Talmi. He was well-received in a guest appearance with the San Diego Symphony last December, encouraging Brustad to invite him back to conduct four programs this season.

In this season of guest conductors, no other potential candidate was granted as many concert dates. And, toward the end of last season, a ranking member of the the orchestra staff was fired because he unwittingly admitted Talmi’s favored status to a member of the press.

Talmi arrived in San Diego last weekend to prepare the orchestra for tonight’s Symphony Hall concert of Schumann, Saint-Saens, and Ravel. Soft-spoken and thoughtful, Talmi’s demeanor is 180 degrees away from the gregarious, courtly conductor with the foreign accent that sends dowagers swooning. His answers to a reporter’s questions were carefully and cautiously crafted, but he gained warmth and enthusiasm when unraveling a point of musical interpretation or talking about his family.

The 44-year-old conductor is clearly available. Most of his time is spent guest-conducting, since his tenure as music director of the Israel Chamber Orchestra ended earlier this year, although he still maintains his post as music director of the New Israeli Opera.

He described his work with the chamber orchestra in terms that emphasized his abilities as a solid orchestra builder.

“When I took over the Israel Chamber Orchestra, they did not have any touring or recordings, and they had a small public. I came with enormous ambition to change all that. After one year, the audience grew four times.”

Through his own agents, Talmi organized tours, including one that brought his group to Southern California last spring, and signed recording contracts for an ensemble that had struggled to form its identity in the shadow of the larger, better-funded Israel Philharmonic. His hard work paid off, although the orchestra’s new-found success turned out to be a mitigated blessing for Talmi.

“Over the last two years of extensive touring, I had to say no to important engagements with orchestras such as Vienna, Munich, and Amsterdam. That was painful. I still see my main task as conducting a full symphony orchestra. I see working with a chamber orchestra as a flirt on the side,” he explained.

Talmi’s recording projects offer ample proof that chamber music is not his most authentic calling. He is now recording all of the Anton Bruckner symphonies with the Oslo Philharmonic. For his rendition of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony on the Chandos label, he won the prestigious French recording award, the Grand Prix du Disque.

What would Talmi do if he were San Diego’s music director?

“That is not a simple question,” he replied. “I would need to know more than I now know to properly answer you.”

He lauded the players’ spirit and sense of purpose after the problems they endured before last season.

“They are eager to prove they are a good orchestra. Mind you, it’s not everywhere in the world or even the United States where you find this atmosphere. You come to some so-called better orchestras, and you find that the attitude is, ‘Oh, we know it all,’ which is not the case here.”

Although Talmi approved of San Diego’s “we try harder” spirit, he acknowledged that improving its musical level and expanding audiences would be his first priorities for the symphony. He would then attempt to gain recognition through touring and recording, as he did for the Israel Chamber Orchestra.

“It sounds easy, but this is hard work. There are no shortcuts. Think of what (the late conductor George) Szell did in Cleveland over many years.”

Talmi acknowledged that an American music director has a list of responsibilities unknown to his European counterpart. Before his work with the Israel Chamber Orchestra, Talmi had posts with the Munich Philharmonic and an orchestra in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

“Because the funding is private in the States, the music director has to be a more public person: luncheons, speeches, securing donations. In Europe, the manager gets the funding from the state, the province, and the city, while the music director comes in to make music. Of course, any musician would want to spend his time learning new scores, not making speeches.

“At the same time, this is reality. And, if one wants to be at the helm of an American orchestra, one has to accept reality.”