Standing In for the Maestro

There was a time when you would see, week after week at rehearsals of almost any major orchestra, a young man, or possibly a woman, sitting somewhere behind the musicians or out in the house and earnestly following the proceedings with a score. That person was the assistant conductor, an understudy who had to be ready to fill in on the podium at a moment’s notice, who had to have patience, talent and an uncommonly accommodating schedule.

It was always a rare combination, and with the length and scope of orchestral seasons increasing faster than the young-conductor talent pool, the traditional assistant conductor seems about to go the way of the dodo. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, which has in recent years gone for as long as two seasons without an official assistant, recently split the job in three. In June, music director Esa-Pekka Salonen announced the two-year appointment of an assisting troika: Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Jarvi and Andrew Robinson.

“This was done from a very practical point of view,” Salonen says. “It’s a vicious circle, this assistant conductor business. If you want somebody who is actually able to do the job--that is, replace people under difficult circumstances--you need somebody with real talent and experience. [But] somebody with talent and experience undoubtedly already has a very full schedule.”

The selection process was as practical as the solution to the problem.

“Miguel was invited [to L.A. last year] to do some community concerts based on his very fine reputation with other orchestras. The Philharmonic liked him very much, so I talked with him and I liked him too,” Salonen says. “Kristjan is the youngest child in the illustrious Jarvi family; I’ve known his father for many years. I started to hear little whispers from Scandinavian orchestras that there was something happening with Kristjan and thought that we should try him out. I bumped into Andrew in New York [at the Sibelius Academy Conductors Workshop in February] and he struck me as a really first-class talent. He conducted in L.A. at an audition and got on very well.”

Although all three will serve in the traditional understudy role for a few weeks at a time, arranged according to scheduling needs, the job description for this tripartite position is a work-in-progress, for which Salonen again uses the P-word.

“It’s very practical, how we divided up the season,” he says. “They do have their own strengths, of course. Miguel speaks Spanish, and that is something we are going to use in the community. Kristjan has been doing a lot of contemporary music, so obviously we will be seeing him there. But basically we thought that these guys should have an all-round experience, which is best for them and for the orchestra.”

In individual interviews, all three of the new assistant conductors shared their thoughts about the Philharmonic and their art.

Question: What do you think about approaching the assistant conductor’s work as a shared, commuter job? What are the challenges and advantages of such a situation?

Kristjan Jarvi: It’s kind of a strange situation. But it is possible to have people come in and out and commute like this, and if they are willing, it can be the best of both worlds, for the assistants and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

I don’t see too many difficulties. You have the time you are here and you assist, and you go ahead with the rest of your life. Essentially, it frees us up to pursue our own careers.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya: I think it is going to work very well. When I was working [as a Juilliard student] with the New York Philharmonic, [music director] Kurt Masur also organized a pool of cover conductors. He wanted to have people who would be doing other things--he didn’t believe that an assistant should just sit there for too long.

Scheduling will be probably the most difficult aspect. I’m very confident that the artistic things will fall into place as they come, though that is hard to predict. What is difficult is to develop and maintain a relationship with an orchestra, which is so different from being just a guest conductor.

Andrew Robinson: This is actually a very good way of handling it, I think. It gives all of us flexibility. For the orchestra it is kind of an insurance policy, to some extent. The challenges are artistic and logistic. There is a lot of music to learn! Logistically, it means I come, I work, I go, I come again--usually from the other side of the world.

Q: What’s your impression of the Philharmonic’s “personality,” and what did you know of the orchestra coming in?

AR: I knew Esa-Pekka was the music director, of course, and I knew some of the recordings, but there is only so much you can tell from recordings. I discovered that the Philharmonic’s sound is much weightier and more rich than it seems in recordings. The orchestra seems to be on a real high at the moment. Morale is high, and there is a lot of life coming out of it.

KJ: Every orchestra has a personality of its own. I think it is reflected mostly in the musical direction it receives. I feel that the Philharmonic is very professional in that the players really want to make great music rather than just come in to a job every day; in other orchestras that tends to be the case.

I knew of the Philharmonic’s history, its recordings, and I heard it in New York, and of course, I knew quite a bit about Esa-Pekka. You hear much more about the L.A. Philharmonic these days than you used to. Everyone is saying that, in America, if anything really interesting is happening, it is probably happening on the West Coast. The L.A. Philharmonic is one of the reasons why there is such talk. In general, this orchestra is quite a young orchestra, and it has an open mind. There are lots of orchestras that are set in their ways. That’s not the case here. It’s experimental in a very good sense.

MH-B: I think this orchestra is very friendly and upbeat. I had never heard the orchestra, even when I lived in New York. I’m sure I’ll get to learn its artistic personality, but it’s a little soon to tell now.

Q: We’re not yet at the point of training children as conductors, like pianists and violinists--how did you decide to become a conductor?

MH-B: I was in my last years of high school and I had no musical background--piano on a weekly basis, like any other kid, although mostly pop songs--but then I worked backstage in the opera. The voices, the languages, the drama and complexity of it, that’s what got my attention. I thought that I might become a conductor so that I could produce these things.

AR: I was playing flute in orchestras when I decided to try conducting a few years ago. There is very little conductor’s training in Australia, but I was able to work with an orchestra and a few choirs in Canberra and got a lot of support and encouragement from the Young Conductor of the Year program.

The flute is a wonderful instrument, but as a conductor I get much deeper into the music, much closer to the mind of the composer. Finding out how to communicate that to others is really a great thrill--communicating to an orchestra and then through them to the audience.

KJ: Coming from a family of conductors, it was probably always there subconsciously, but I was a little shy about admitting it, particularly to my father. I’m actually a pianist and studied piano most of my life. At one point, I more or less just said, “Let me try it,” and my family said, “Sure.” They just wanted me to do whatever I really wanted.

Question: What is the difference between a good orchestra and a great one, and what part does a conductor play in that difference?

KJ: As with any collective force, the orchestra is only as good as the example that the leader sets. Everyone else, in a way, strives to attain that. People talk about something being only as strong as its weakest link, but there are no weak links in an orchestra of this high level--we’re not talking about a high school football team.

At least the way I see it here, it’s like making a good team, like a good business will have good partners. The assistant conductors will be kind of a support structure for this organization.

MH-B: I couldn’t tell you from personal experience, because I’ve only seen this as an assistant. It’s like asking someone to compare types of food they haven’t tried, when they have only just come in the kitchen.

AR: A great orchestra has a sense of its own traditions and history. Sometimes this can be bad, when tradition becomes a burden or a fixed way of doing things. That’s even more true in Europe, where it’s hard for a young conductor to change things. In the U.S., orchestras are more flexible.

Q: What about working with someone else’s orchestra and someone else’s programming? Is there anything in particular that you are looking forward to--or dreading--in this regard with the Philharmonic?

KJ: It puts you into a position where you have to learn a lot of repertoire. You also have to be ready at a moment’s notice, and that adds a little pressure, but it’s good pressure. It puts you in a mind-set where you have to work quickly and efficiently. So I think it sharpens your skills and study methods. Seeing other conductors, you learn a lot about rehearsal technique and stick technique. It’s a great situation where you are actually hands-on with an orchestra such as this, a really world-class orchestra.

Luckily, the programming here is very good, and although it is somebody else’s orchestra, you don’t feel like an outsider here. Everybody is very accommodating. It is good to be in a position where you have to learn something you wouldn’t have otherwise. It opens up certain places, thoughts, information that you maybe would not have come across, and I think in general it is very important to just constantly explore.

MH-B: First of all, I have to try to be good at it all the time. Sometimes to get someplace is not as hard as staying there, so I have the challenge of always doing the best I can. I’m still in the learning process--the repertory is so big. I’m grateful when people put up with my mistakes and I’m grateful for their comments--if they are honest, both the mistakes and the comments!

As a cover conductor, the hardest thing is to keep the line of what’s been done. Sometimes one has more freedom; it depends on the nature of each job. Sometimes I’ve had to conduct a concert with no rehearsals, and then you have to stay with what’s been done or you drive everybody crazy. If I have four rehearsals, then there’s no point in doing it just as it’s always been done. If one is clear with what one wants to do, it should be OK. I’ve had a great time with this orchestra.

AR: Part of the challenge is that you know the orchestra sees Esa-Pekka every other week--and he’s such a powerful force. That can be intimidating. I think it’s desirable that I have ideas of my own, but they have to be presented the right way. Any orchestra will go its own way with a weak or confusing conductor. If the musicians don’t understand what the conductor is doing, they’ll get through it on their own.

Q: What do you think you bring to this position and what do you hope to take away from it?

MH-B: It’s all new to me. Basically, I started when I was 19--I really hadn’t heard the symphonic repertory before, and that’s good and bad. It’s extremely gratifying, you know, with an orchestra of this caliber, just to be in front of them.

Also, I want to understand what happens behind the scenes of an orchestra like this. There is so much going on, and there is no way to learn that anywhere but by doing it. Creating special programs for different communities, audience development, marketing strategies, brainstorming about specific musical problems--this is what interests me in the music directorship part of it. One of the things I’m looking forward to is that this place has such a large Hispanic community. I hope I can help out in that area. On the music side of it, I love studying my scores. Every time I get a new piece, I want to spend more time with it.

AR: This is a big step forward [for me]. What I most want from this is just the experience of being with such a fine band. Every young conductor wants to bring fresh ideas to the job and every conductor needs to be honest musically. You are doomed to failure if you pretend to be someone else, because you’re completely naked on the podium.

KJ: One thing that comes with the job is to widen my repertoire. It is wonderful to talk to all the people with such insight to the music they conduct. That’s definitely something that I’ve received a lot already. Other than [that kind of] knowledge and experience, there is the opportunity to conduct the orchestra, which will come in due time. Everybody was young at one point--the best thing is to conduct as much as possible, constantly searching for improvement in yourself and your knowledge, skills and ability.

There is so much information now about every style and period of music, and out of that information you can make something new. In a way, there are no more traditions. Anyone with ideas--it doesn’t matter whether you agree or disagree--brings you a new perspective. I think with that type of an attitude, if you are ready to receive, you are also ready to give.