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A Q&A with Yannick Nézet-Séguin

From the September 2013 Playbill:

1) Which five recordings would you bring to a desert island?

Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony with Carlo Maria Giulini and the Vienna Philharmonic, Chopin Nocturnes with Claudio Arrau, J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites with Jean-Guihen Queyras, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony with Eugene Ormandy and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

2) If you had to pick any century to live in, which would it be and why?

Definitely early-20th-century Paris. I would love to have lived in the time of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky, and also to have experienced the dancing of Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes—all of this, leading the way into the modern era, into the 1920s and Kurt Weill. That time was such an explosion of artistic innovation and creation!

3) How important is a baton to your conducting? Do you have a lucky baton, or certain ones you use for certain pieces?

Actually I’m as comfortable with a baton as without. In fact, this season I intend to experiment a bit with the Orchestra, sometimes to use a baton and sometimes not. When I do use a baton I do not always use the same one, because for me there really is no connection between a baton and a conductor, it’s not personal. 

4) What’s the most nervous you’ve ever been for a performance, and how did you shake those nerves?

Usually I’m nervous before the first rehearsal, more so than before a performance. When I made my debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, the rehearsals went very well. But 10 minutes before the performance I looked out at the stage and thought of Karajan and all the legendary conductors that had been on that podium and in that hall. And it really shook me! I just went out and began conducting, and the music brought me back and helped me shake those nerves.

5) If you could walk in someone else’s shoes for one day, whose would you choose?

I would like to be an orchestra musician. As a pianist it was never something I considered for a career. For me it is still a little bit of a mystery.

This season YOU ask the maestro! Send us your questions and while we can’t promise we’ll publish them all, we’ll do our best to include as many as possible. Please submit them on our Facebook page or at philadelphia_orchestra@philadelphiaorchestra.org. 

From the April 2013 Playbill:

1) What was the first piece of music you conducted, and where?

The first time I actually stood in front of a group was when I was nine, and I “conducted” the national anthem of Canada in a rehearsal. I was dying to try it, and it worked! So that was when I knew I could have that ambition. The first time I conducted a concert, with choir and organ, was the Fauré Requiem, when I was 18. And the first time with orchestra was Bach’s St. John Passion.

2) What is the hardest piece you’ve ever conducted, and why?

Berg’s Wozzeck. I was excited to be given this opportunity, but I was very young. I started studying a few months ahead of time and remember my panic when I looked at the first page—I couldn’t understand a thing! I spent two hours on that one page! It was very difficult, but eventually, of course, I did it. 

3) You conduct a lot of opera. Do you have a favorite?

Oh, it is so hard to choose, because of my love for choruses and big ensembles. I love so much, from Mozart to Strauss, but perhaps I can say that I feel especially at ease with Puccini’s Turandot. 

4) What would you do on an unexpected night off?

I’m still trying to get a real night off to go and see a show on Broadway. I have never seen a Broadway musical, and I would really like to have that experience. 

5) What instrument(s) do you play?

The piano is my real instrument. I had cello lessons and trumpet lessons, but never consider that I really play these instruments.

6) Do you have a favorite movie?

The greatest movie I’ve ever seen, and my favorite, is Dancer in the Dark by Lars van Trier, starring Björk.

7) Do you play any sports?

When I was in school in gym class, the thing I succeeded at the most was gymnastics because I have the build of a gymnast. But now I also consider myself very good at wind surfing. And I’ve had a few tennis lessons, but I would need to do more to become really good. 

 

From the March 2013 Playbill:

1) How do you cope with jet lag since you travel so much?

My trick is to consider I am in the new time zone as soon as I deplane. I don’t think, “Oh, I am jet lagged” or “I am so tired!” It is the only way—just  embrace and accept it.

2) When and where were you happiest?

I am very lucky. I have had so many happy moments in my life that I can’t really single out one!

3) Have you ever injured yourself conducting?

I wasn’t conducting yet but was just waiting to go out to the podium for a rehearsal of the Orchestre Métropolitain. I was holding my baton upright and I moved my arm suddenly and the baton jerked upward and went inside my nostril! My nose started bleeding, and I was so embarrassed!

4) Who are your favorite writers?

Oscar Wilde and Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel Prize-winning poet and philosopher. His writing is very beautiful and I feel when reading it both a passion and an acceptance of the world.

5) What one app could you not live without?

FlightTrack. It is great for all the travel that I do. It lets you know if there will be any delay, in real time, anywhere in the world! 

6) What is your greatest fear?

To be honest, my fear is to die. I love life so much, and while this has not changed as I’ve grown older, I think that one day I may find a different feeling about this.

 

From the February 2013 Playbill:

1) Who are your non-classical musical influences?

Some early ones were Radiohead and Bjork, and the great divas of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn.

2) What book is on your nightstand?

Music scores.

3) Who do you consider to be your greatest musical influences?

The great Carlo Maria Giulini, with all his humanity and his way of respecting and loving the musicians, was very inspiring for me. And my piano teacher for eight years at the Conservatory of Music in Montreal, Anisia Campos. She taught me music and discipline, very old school, and was simply a marvelous human being.

4) What is your greatest extravagance?

A good massage! It’s so worth it after a day of hard, physical work.

5) If a movie was made of your life, who would you want to play you?

A young Michael J. Fox. 

6) What languages do you speak?

French and English, of course, and I am also reasonably fluent in Italian and German. I also understand Dutch. And I would like to learn to speak Finnish, because it sounds so beautiful, and maybe Korean as well!

 

From the January 2013 Playbill: 

1) What piece of music have you always wanted to conduct but haven’t had the chance to yet?

I delayed conducting Wagner operas because they are such a whole world on their own. But in a few months I will finally be starting my first Wagner opera. 

2) What’s the first thing you do when learning a new piece of music?

Studying scores is a lengthy and layered process, but the first step is to divide the phrases, the sections, in order to get a sense of its structure.

3) Do you have a favorite visual artist?

David Altmejd, a sculptor who is a Montreal native and who has represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. Increasingly he is creating outdoor sculptures, a little bit like all the public art we have here in Philadelphia. He is now gaining much more notice because of his recent installation, The Eye, in front of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 

4) What is the strangest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I have actually received some excellent coaching from pianist Yundi Li. He advised me that I should eat a dish of tiny chicken bones because it would be good for my skin!

5) Which talent would you most like to have?

I would have loved to become a dancer and I definitely wish I had a real talent to play tennis.

6) Do you have a favorite vacation spot?

One of the most wonderful was Bora Bora—the closest to Paradise!

 

From the December 2012 Playbill:

1) Who is your favorite composer?

Brahms has always been my favorite composer, the very first. In second position, Bruckner, Mahler, Bach, Ravel …

2) What are you currently listening to on your iPod?

On the popular music side it is Frank Ocean. He is somewhat new on the R&B and hip hop scene, and widely recognized for how special his music is. And on the classical side I’m listening to the first edit of the Tchaikovsky Sixth Symphony I just recorded for Deutsche Grammophon with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, before its commercial release.

3) Do you have any pets?

Three cats: Mélisande, Parsifal, and Rodolfo.

4) If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Well, if I could I’d like to be taller. But you know, many of the conductors I admire most were not that tall, for instance the great Eugene Ormandy!

5) What do you like to do when you go on vacation?

Lie on the beach! 

6) Do you work out? What’s your favorite routine?

Of course, yes. Many people think I get my cardio workout through my conducting but I actually do have to do cardio in order to have the stamina to conduct the way I do. So, I am a jogger and I balance it with weight training, and this helps me avoid injuries.

From the November 2012 Playbill:

1) If you could be any profession other than conductor, what would it be?

Before I decided fully to become a conductor I wanted to be an architect. I think the two are very similar in that one builds physical structures and one builds a performance or a concert, taking a combination of different elements to shape the whole. I also wanted to be a dancer, because dance moves me a lot. But I don’t have a dancer’s body!

2) What piece of music never fails to move you?

I’m moved by music in a very different way when listening than I am when I conduct. For me it’s a different emotional process; conducting is transferring the emotion to others. In particular the last movement of Mahler’s Third Symphony is really really special for me. While studying this piece before I conducted it for the first time I cried and was wondering, “How am I ever going to conduct this?” But when I got on the podium there was no problem, because of this difference in listening vs. conducting.

3) What is your favorite type of food?

I really like Italian food. I like fish cooked in a little lemon and olive oil, and salad with fresh basil. I prefer food that is fresh.

4) What do you most value in your friends?

I’m always traveling and I constantly meet up with people who do the same. It’s easy to make ties with these people. You see them for a month or two and then maybe not again for a long time. What really makes a friendship special is when you pick up right where you left off when you don’t see someone for a long period. This requires a certain level of trust. It’s a deeper kind of relationship than you have with people you see on a daily basis.

5) What’s your favorite sport to follow? Do you have a favorite athlete?

I love tennis and Rafael Nadal is my favorite player. We both started our international careers at about the same time. I was making my conducting debut in Monaco and the day before the concert was the Monte-Carlo Masters Championship. My father also loves tennis so I bought tickets. Nadal won and that was the launching of his career. I think he and I are similar in that he always goes for every shot just as I go for every note. I met him very briefly in Rotterdam but would love to meet him again and speak longer with him.

From the October 2012 Playbill:

1) What is your earliest musical memory? My earliest musical memory is of transgressing the family rule that children were not allowed to touch the stereo. I was always a good boy but I just couldn’t resist the lure of that machine and I was always putting on records so I could listen to music. I think I was around two or three.

2) If you could ask one composer one question, who would it be and what would you ask them? Definitely Bach. And I would ask him: How was it possible for a single human brain and soul to compose all you composed while having so many children?

3) What piece of music could you conduct over and over again? There are some works I really feel that I have a need to conduct—I always want to program them. The Verdi Requiem is one, and also pretty much all the Mahler and Bruckner symphonies. When I finish a performance I feel much emotion, both exhilarated but also somewhat drained. So I couldn’t jump right into another performance. However, by the next day, I am ready to conduct the same piece again and again!

4) What’s the one thing you always have to do before going onstage? I don’t have a special ritual, however I wear my grandfather’s ring on my finger, always. And before going onstage I have a moment where I touch the ring and think of him. He passed away before seeing me conduct, so this is a small way of sharing.

5) Do you have any hobbies? Jogging has become a favorite hobby. It is not only a way of staying fit but also gives me a chance to get to know the cities where I conduct. And already I have discovered the wonderful Schuylkill Trail along the river here in Philadelphia!

6) What’s your favorite Philadelphia restaurant? There are quite a few that I like, but I will say that I feel very welcome already at both Estia and Girasole. The food and the atmosphere at both are superb. However, I look forward to the chance to explore more of Philadelphia’s great restaurants!

Photo: Chris Lee