MUSIC : Italian Conductor Leads Dutch Orchestra to Orange County

Two years ago, when conductor Riccardo Chailly became the director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, an Italian, not a Dutchman, became sole leader of one of Holland’s great cultural treasures and one of the finest orchestras in the world.

With the exception of a short stint by German conductor Eugen Jochum as co-director in the early 1960s, this is the first time in the 102-year tradition of the orchestra that someone outside the Netherlands has held that position.

But “music is an international language, with the same frontiers the world over,” Chailly, 37, said last week on the phone from his parents’ home in Milan. “It is a fundamental skill for musicians to express all the various styles of music-making.

“The audience in Amsterdam is very intellectual and international. I sense no problems with anyone that a non-Dutch conductor has taken over the post. The orchestra members themselves democratically voted me in.”

Friday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, Chailly (pronounced shy-YEE) brings the orchestra back for its fifth visit to the Southland, its last appearance having occurred five years ago under Bernard Haitink.

The program Friday will be Schumann’s Symphony No. 4 and Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde” with soprano Jard van Nes and tenor Goesta Winbergh. The orchestra will perform two more programs Saturday and Sunday at Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, with music by Rossini, Schubert, Brahms, Prokofiev, Beethoven and Dutch composer Bernard Wagenaar.

“The situation with the orchestra is a combination of two things,” Chailly said. “There is the great historical background, which includes a large emphasis on late Romantic works--(Willem) Mengelberg (who led the orchestra from 1895 to 1945) often invited Gustav Mahler to conduct, creating a special relationship.

“And, by character, it has always been an orchestra which has looked forward. I’m trying to maintain both of these aspects.

“But most of all, the tradition of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is one of commitment, of working daily and always trying to improve on what it has done before.”

Mengelberg’s half-century stay with the orchestra grounded its expertise in late romanticism, which continued under the reins of Eduard van Beinum (1945-59) and Haitink (1961-88). Chailly has no intention of trying to slight this tradition, but he has added contemporary music to the agenda and has tried to perform works by lesser-known Dutch composers.

“I have been accused,” he said, “of wanting to play only avant-garde music. That’s not true. If it’s good music then it’s worth playing, whether it’s avant-garde or romantic.

“There are members of the orchestra that sometimes approach the avant-garde works with a certain suspiciousness. But they always are working with a sense of good will in what they attempt to do. They always want to know more.

“The orchestra’s woodwind section is especially perceptive to avant-garde music. They are all part of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, which for the past 20 years has been completely dedicated to new music.”

Chailly finds that a good deal of his faith in his situation stems from the almost spiritual relationship he has for Amsterdam: “I love everything about that city. I like the way the city is designed from the old center and newer sections layered outward from it. You can get to any place you want by just walking.

“And after I had moved into my new house in Amsterdam, I discovered that it was designed by the same architect who designed the Concertgebouw. To me, it was a miracle.”

Riccardo Chailly conducts the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam on Friday at 8 p.m. at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. Tickets: $20 to $55. Presented by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Information: (714) 556-2787.