With his appointment, Nézet-Séguin joins a distinguished history inclusive of young Music Directors of The Philadelphia Orchestra. When he assumes the Music Director title full time at the age of 37, Mr. Nézet-Séguin will join the ranks of Leopold Stokowski who was 30 years old when he became Music Director of the Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy who assumed the position at age 38, and Riccardo Muti who became Music Director at age 39.
Nézet-Séguin made his acclaimed debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra in December 2008 conducting Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist André Watts and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pathétique”), and most recently led the Orchestra in Vivier’s Orion, Franck’s Symphony in D minor, and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Nicholas Angelich in December 2009. In addition to his position in Philadelphia, Mr. Nézet-Séguin will also remain Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal).
4 thoughts on “Yannick Nézet-Séguin Named Music Director of Philadelphia Orchestra”
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I started to look into this yesterday and only came up with Messiaen, the Vivier, and Kurtag’s Opus 18 for mixed chorus and orchestra, Songs of Despair and Sorrow.
Admittedly, I spent all of 2 minutes on this research.
Let’s hope that now that he has snagged a huge salary, he will surprise us (and the Philadelphia administration) by developing a reputation for contemporary classical music as strong as that of Franz Welser-Most, Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälkki, and others.
(A year ago, I surmised that this pitcher would probably have many of the attributes sought by the major league teams of America.)
Jay,
Forgive me, but I’d love to know more about his stance on contemporary music than that he conducts Vivier’s Orion, as nifty as that is. Anyone out there hear him talk about new music or other composers?
I was very glad to see him give a shout out to Westminster Choir College in the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/arts/music/14phil.html?scp=1&sq=philadelphia%20orchestra&st=cse
Best,
C
Check the last paragraph, which answers your question. It would be fair to point out that the orchestra’s programming has trended more conservatively in the past few years in response to lower ticket sales.
Has anybody heard him conduct 20/21 concert music? Which composers does he seem to favor from that repertoire?