June 13, 2023 • 44 mins
Rafael Payare, or “Rafa,” as he’s known more informally, is the energetic, electrifying and unmistakable conductor that is taking the classical world by storm. Payare currently serves as Music Director of both the Montreal and San Diego Symphonies. A graduate of Venezuela’s famed El Sistema program, Payare first attracted attention as winner of Denmark’s Malko International Conducting Competition in 2012. Since then, he’s brought his exuberance and elegance to conduct preeminent orchestras across the globe, from London to New York, Munich to Boston, and Stockholm to Chicago. Rafael Payare speaks with Alec about the many important conductors he’s learned from, how he approaches putting together a music program, and why finding the right chemistry with an orchestra is like falling in love.
The following compositions are featured in this episode:
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 5 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Rafael Payare, provided courtesy of Pentatone. You can find the album here.
Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 in G minor, Op. 103 “The Year 1905,” conducted by Rafael Payare, courtesy of the San Diego Symphony on Platoon. You can find the album here.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from iHeart Radio. Energy, charisma, fire and unmistakable hair. These
(00:43):
are just a few of the words to describe the
mesmerizing stage presence of Venezuelan conductor Raphael Piire. This is
pi Are conducting Mahler's Symphony Number five with the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra. He first gained attention as the winner of
(01:07):
Denmark's twenty twelve Malco International Conducting Competition. Since then, the
forty three year old has conducted many of the world's
pre eminent orchestras, including London, Boston, Chicago, New York and
la He was also principal conductor of the Castleton Festival
(01:27):
in Virginia and led the Ulster Orchestra of Northern Ireland.
Piari has been the music director of the San Diego
Symphony since twenty nineteen, and this is his first year
as music director of the Montreal Symphony, positions he currently
holds simultaneously. Piare's road to such prestige began at Venezuela's
(01:53):
fabled El Sistema, a music education programme whose illustrious alumni
include Gustavo Dudamel, the newly appointed music director of the
New York Pho Harmonic. I wanted to know how El
Systema began and how Pirai found his.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Way to it. Well, the Systema started this wonderful program
that doctor jos Antonio Breok created in Venezuela back in
nineteen seventy five. And the whole idea is that the
music should be part of the education, and that music
is a rite and not a privilege. So we should
be able to access to music, and we have that.
(02:31):
One of the things of system is that actually you
just go to one of the nucleus, so they call
the nucleus all of these different you cannot say conservatory
because there are some of them that they are mainly
bare bones. So it depends, that's what we call them nucleus.
It depends where the part of the city they are.
And they give you the instrument, they will give you
the teachers. You just need to show up. But you
(02:53):
start playing an instrument and at the same time you
start playing in an orchestra, so you are always part
of a bigger kind of community. So since the very
beginning is that the let's say the unorthodox part that
it's you already start playing your instrument and you immediately
start playing in a symphony orchestra right away. So that
that's the part that let's say it's not as normal
(03:15):
and the rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
But it's not a music school like Curtis or Manness.
It's not a school it's granting you a degree. It's
more of an academy.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well that's why they call it nucleus, because it's just
you will not get a degree. Of course, then you
could go to school and everything altogether, but it is
actually a place that they will be teaching music. You
just need to appear that they will give you the instrument,
they will give you to the teachers, and you will
start playing an orchestra. The idea is you don't have
to be under primages for everybody. But of course a
big am is trying to be for the underprivileged people
(03:45):
that they might be poor, and the whole idea is
that somebody, just because it's poor, it should not have
a poor education. So they always bring into a system
of people from everywhere in the world, from Manhattan Music Juliar,
Civeelious Academy, Berlin Pharamonic to try to go and teach
until do master classes for any of the students there.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Now, you, when you were in your performing career, you
played the French horn, correct, that is correct? And who
chose the French horn? You or someone chose it for you?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, I think the French hole shows me somehow, because
my brother, he was playing in the orchestra already. My
brother is eight years my senior. He was playing a basoon.
But you know, he did his things his room and
I did mine. And then was one day I approached
his room and he was listening to something and that
caught my attention. He asked me, do you like I
(04:34):
said yes, So he said, I'm going to take you
to the orchestra tomorrow. And then I went there and
I started. Many months later, I found out that what
he was listening was the eighteen twelve overture, and what
caught my attention was the Marseilles theme, and it was
the horn sound that caught my attention, and I went
into this nuclear the conductor of the orchestra. He was
(04:57):
not only the conductor of the orchestra, but also the
teacher of trumpet, trombone, French horn and tuba. His name
was Antoine Duhamel and he gave me this, yeah, you know,
and he gave me this bronze, thin, brassy thing and
told me blow. I did and it sounds and that's
how I started playing the French horn.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
That's amazing, that's amazing. How long were you ad SYSTEMA? Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I like to say that I'm still part of it.
I mean, yeah, we started since nineteen ninety four to
this day pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And from there do you go to a formal music school?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah? In Caracas, do you get your instrument and you
wanted to get better and better? Then I moved to
Karracas because I was part of that generation when Gustavo
was also part. We started with the National Child then Orchestra.
Then it was the National Youth Orchestra, and then Cemon
Bolivar Youth Orchestra and Simon Bolivar Orchestra. And in Karrakas
we go to a proper university. But the thing was
(05:56):
that because the orchestra was getting a lot of tours
and a lot of things, so we kind of need
to do things a little bit differently. In my case,
when I started conducting that there was a path that
my strawberry will kind of opened the door for me.
I got one on one classes, so I got all
of the things. But instead of having a full semester
(06:16):
and going every day, I just have very focused on
immersion class of six seven hours one on one to
try to get all of this because I had to keep,
you know, rehearsing and doing things.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It sounds like the classical world is like college football.
You know, they're going to help you get through your
grades because you're such a great quarterback.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Something like that. A little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, you're a great French horn player, so we're going
to take care of everything for you. You just keep playing
that horn. Now, you just keep loving those notes and
we're going to take care of your grades.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Something like that. Yeah, you could say that, let's support
it that way.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, but now when you're there, when you are at
Simone Bolivar, you're playing principal horn for Simone Bolivar between
two thousand and one and twenty twelve of your touring
and you're recording, and you were around some of course
these titans of the classical repertoire in terms of music directors.
You're around Abado, who I worship I mean I worshiped
(07:12):
no more than Abat Mozelle, who I worship. Rattle, I
don't know, but I love it. Mensinopoli, of course, is
a great legend. And when you're around them, and when
you're in that world and you're performing, when does someone
tap you on the shoulder and say, come with me
and they want to start to talk about you picking
up a baton? Who first suggests that to you?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When? And where? Well? With him? The very first one
that actually talked to me about it. It was actually
my Strabreo. He was the very first one. I got
very inspired by Giuseppe Sinopoli. He did a tour with
the nationality An Orchestra and I just I mean, we
were one hundred and fifty kids playing Riency overture from
Wagner and he did not speak Spanish and then he
(07:58):
changed the sound of the orchestra within second. Now that
really impressed me and said, I would like to do
that one day when my hair is all white, you know,
and all I will do that. But then with Maestro
Antonio bre who showed me the path and started having this,
and then at the same time Maestra Bado was coming,
Mazelle was coming, Rattle was going into Venezuela, so I
(08:20):
can't kind of look at the one on one thing.
And at the same time, Gustava and I were very
good friends. Mustavo was already doing all of this conducting
and I was I was his first home, so I
was very supportive of him. Looking in the orchestra, okay,
I make sure that the horn section is always going
to be on top phone for the concerts with Gustavo,
So it was kind of an organic thing to be
going through. But at the same time, when I was
(08:42):
sitting in the orchestra, it was like a college kind
of experience. I was just getting all of these things
from all of these amazing conductors, and those words getting
in my head somehow, all of the information how they
work with the orchestra.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So the first time you step on a podium with
a baton in your hand, or without one for that matter,
is when.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
The very first one. It could have been already with
a brass enseamble because I was with a brass quintet
and we used to teach kids. We go into different
cities in the country, and we arrived on a Thursday,
we play a concert, teach Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday,
we put a little brass and sample together. So that
was the first time that without a button I did something.
(09:24):
And then for real in front of an orchestra I
think was around two thousand seven, I think too. It
was the youth Orchestra of Marakaivo and it was a
master class in conducting with the South Korean conductor Zunquak
was dictating that and during that thing, he picked who
was going to do which part of the concert, and
(09:44):
he decided that I was going to actually close the
master class with the last movement of Chaikovs the Fifth Symphony.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Now, just to get back to the horn for one second.
Did it come naturally that French horn to you or
was it something that you had to work extra hard on?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, the French horn, it's a very ungrateful instrument, and
any ranch home player would agree with me. We love
the instrument, but sometimes it just gets you butt to
earth in the most unlikely places or moment when you
thinker on the top of the world, you have a crack.
But actually with the French one, I think that it
(10:18):
was it was a wonderful instrument that it was very
nice fitted for me and I always had that love,
sometimes hate relationship, but mostly love.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Now I'm going to put the cards on the table here.
I went to go see you, and then there at
Carnegie Hall and my wife or someone said to me,
what was Piari like on the podium? And I said,
he had the athleticism of Dodomel and even yup because
von Swaden is very very hopping around the podium, he's
very active from the waist down, I said, PIORI reminds
(10:49):
me of Dudemel from the waist down, and he reminds
me of Dutois from the waist up. He's very elegant.
He's athletic and elegant at the same moment. At the
same time, he's very very he's very very powerful, even
convulsive what he wants to and then he's pulling it
back dramatically and he's in complete control of his body there,
and there's an exuberance and there's a spasmodic quality to
(11:12):
his body only when needed. And then because I mean,
I was to was my favorite, and I was friends
with Charlie and Chantale, they were dear friends of mine.
And I watched you up there and I thought, is
this your style, that this is what came out of you.
Did you model yourself after somebody? Was somebody your inspiration?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
No, not really, I think. I mean, I still don't
know how I look like, and I don't like to
look at bitio of me.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
My god, that's terrible, but you should watch it because
it's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It's really facinally thank you, thank you for that. But
in reality, no, I think that was one of the
things that my mentor, Antonio Breo said, like, look, you
just get enough information and the body will find its
way to express itself what you wanted to do with music.
I will not know what will be my style at all.
I do have to say that, together with Gootabo, we
(12:06):
used to watch videos of Carlos Kleiber and of course
of Cloud or a Bado as well, because they're just amazing,
fantastic conductors. But no, I do not try to shape
or do any kind of movement on purpose or conscious like.
It's just what my body likes to do. It's like
my hair, you know, it has a life on it's own.
There's nothing I can do about it. Whenever it goes
one way, it's like okay, fine, Well.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I was gonna say I think that they should rearrange
the stage because it's tough to see some of the
performers over your hair. They should change the seating plan.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I hope they've allowed.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I hope they have factored your hair and the height
of your hair into the seating plan. But anyway, now,
all these legends, I didn't meet all of them. I
met Moselle when he was just leaving New York. Charlie,
I knew Eschenbach. I mean, I met a bunch of
these people. Barren Boym. You know, the contemporaries are the
ones that are just cresting now into retirement. I met
so many of them. And when I say that Charlie
(13:01):
is my favorite, I should say he's among my favorites
because I love Mozelle as well. Now, you went to Castleton.
I went down there and did a program. Did Linda
is his wife? Absolutely so did Linda. Mizelle was gone,
and she invited me to come down there to the
Virginia countryside and do some program down there with one
of her sons and try. I forget what it was.
(13:21):
It was a kind of an odd little program, but
I was very admiring of what she was doing. You
went down there. How often? How many trips did you
make to Castleton.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, it's started because the thing with Castleton Mozille. When
I won the Malco competition into Soutum twelve males from
Moselle was actually the chairman of the jury. And one
of the things that it happened by winning the competition
is that you were going to get a little bit
like a tutor, kind of tutelage under Moselle. So I
remember that. It was very funny because the night of
(13:52):
the gala we did the final, I was announced that
I was the winner. It's already one in the morning,
after the dner with this whole thing, and I had
to catch a plane back to going back to Venezuela,
and I was like, well, my flight is at six,
so I need to go. Maestro, thank you very much
for everything. It's like, no, no, no, you do not
think that you're going to get rid of me that easily.
(14:13):
You will come to now a Castleton on July. And
on July seventh, I this is himself talking. I am
going to conduct Beethoven nine and I want you to
open the concert and conduct Leonora number three. I will
send you my escore and I'll see you there. I mean,
you know, myself tells you that what you're going to do. Yeah,
(14:33):
of course I went there and it was fantastic. The
stayed over there and all of the program that he
was putting on there together, it was amazing. I did that.
I conduct his emity score. His score it has metrono
marking fingers and everything altogether. And there was a part
of me that I was a little bit in shock
because I thought, like he expect me to do all
(14:56):
of his things in there or not, I don't know,
and I will just I will go with my god
feeling and I will do how I listen to this music.
So I got his score, but I did my time post,
I did my thing, and there was no complaint at
all whatsoever. He actually was waiting for me there with
the his aren't white open and treat me like I
was like his grandson or something. And he was so
(15:19):
so supper loved the absolutely so, I mean all of
those things that people might think that he was cold
or whatever, that's they never really get to meeting. He
was so so warm. And it was funny because what
you'll hear me conduct in Carnelie Hall was mather Vive
my first time in Castleton. We were talking. I said,
do you love Maler's like yes, and do you do
(15:41):
the fifth Infinite?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Myself, this is one of my this is one of
my pieces. Like, well, then you have to come next
year and do malor fifth, which I did in two
Sound thirteen, and then the year after that, in twenty fourteen,
we were going to do a concert together, split concert,
and I was due to travel there on a month
they and he passed away on a Sunday.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Maestro Rafael Piire. If you enjoy conversations with gifted conductors,
check out my episode with Pavo Jervy.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I have two girls right now who they're very talented,
but they don't know what am I going to do
in life? I never had ever that question because I
wanted to not only to be a musician, I wanted
to be a conductor.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Why because my father was a conductor. I loved my father.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I think he was having a lot of fun and
we're very close to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So it was done.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
It was a done deal. I wanted to be a
conductor and I never ever wanted to be anything else ever.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
To hear more of my conversation with Pavo Yervi go
to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Rafael
PII tells us how he shapes a music program and
uses it to take the audience on a journey. I'm
Alec bald when and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
(17:17):
This is Rafael Piari conducting Schulstakovich's Symphony Number eleven with
the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Raphael Piari has had
(17:40):
a meteoric rise since he won first prize at Denmark's
Malco International Conducting Competition in twenty twelve. I wanted to
know how one judges something as misunderstood as conducting in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, conducting is a little
bit like a voodu scene, so having the competition is
a little bit kind of exchange. But I remember my
time with Malco. We were forty eight participant during that
time and it was going to be through ten days.
I remember my only goal it was that maybe I
(18:16):
will not get eliminated in the first round, because if
I passed to the second round, the competition was going
to pay for my hotel. So that was my main
goal in the whole thing. I came from Venezuela, and
it's like, I hope I don't get eliminated in the
first round. But I mean it was kind of never recking.
I remember the first round it was about five minutes
different and four completely round with different repertoire the whole thing.
(18:40):
There was one of the round that Marselle said like,
do not say one word. It is seven minutes with
three different pieces. Show everything with your hands. Then the
third round is like actually with one you see rehearse,
I mean, not be all of the different participants. Then
the fourth round we have a piece that it was
written for the competition and we only got score a
(19:00):
month before. And then it was the final. So it
was completely different, different, very different kind of experience. And
you have this amazing orchestra that the Neish radio, and
they will be you're in front of them for a
certain amount of time and they will just.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
React to what you do or play what the same
orchestra that's being conducted by all forty eight people.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yep. And the report to us it was the pull
of music. It was really really really wide. I mean
I remember it ran from Malor seven beth Oven four
Brams for Bartow Concerto for Orchestra for Jack seven. I
mean the amount of music was and the conductor, the
(19:44):
resident composer for that, it was Christos Pendetski, so he
wrote a piece especially for that. We actually have to
premiere in front of everybody. If you made it that
far in the competition.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, Now, soon thereafter you go to Ulster.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Correct, that's correct. Yes.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Now, if I were to say, in some overly simplified way,
what would be culturally and climatologically the opposite of Venezuela,
the answer would be Ulster.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You can say that easily.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
That what happens to Raphael Payari when he shows up
in the north of Ireland and you're there for five years?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Obviously you leave and travel and gets conduct and do
other things. But what was it like to Because I
want you to describe to me the same with Ulster
as with San Diego, and that's when you arrive. What's
the vibe there? What's the audience?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah? I mean it was the first time I went there.
The orchestra was fantastic and we have an immedium connection.
And the thing is that the audience as well, there
are so welcoming and so long, very very much. So
it was I remember I went there for a concert
to just a Covich piano concerto, opening with rabel Tombo
cop and then ending with Firebird Suite, and the conture
(20:58):
was absolutely great. And I remember we have the dinner
after the concert and I sat down, you know, okay,
it's time to have a stake, let's have a drink.
And then the intendent of the orchestra I said like, ah,
what do you think if you are going to become
a chief conductor? So I thought that she was joking,
you know, and it's like, okay, yeah, why not, but okay,
(21:19):
let's eat, and this is crazy. Two days later they
actually called my agent and asked and they offered. It
was real, the whole thing. And then I came back
and I said that, yeah, why not. I mean, the
connection with the orchestra was great and the audience was fantastic. However,
coming from Venezuela, I already have an accent in English,
but their accent is also very hard to understand the
way they have it. But it was just fantastic to
(21:40):
see this very rainy gray sky all the time, and
I find it really wonderful. I come from Porto la
Cruz and we have sun three hundred and sixty five
there year, so I was fine with having.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Some gray in the sky. Another of rain, Ireland. I
shot a movie in Belfast about three years ago. I
had never been there before when we went to the
south and I went up to the north for the
first time, and.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I loved it. It's dreary, but it's poetically dreary.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's really very, very very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah. Absolutely, And the green with the amount of water
they have the green, it has a particular kind of
sys that is different from everywhere else. It's just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Now I'm going to ask the same thing about Ulster,
which is you're the music director. Correct, yes, you're the
music director there. But when you go to Ulster, when
you go to San Diego and you're growing and your
experiences are growing, and then when you arrive in Montreal
and they're not going to give the keys to that
car to just anybody, you know, you really really are
(22:38):
at the big time. Now, what is your involvement in
selecting the program. I'm on the board of the Fill
here in New York. They have a music committee, and
you know, they want to have discussions with the executive
director and people in the committee and members of the
staff and the maestro about what's going to be played.
How much input do you have, Let's start with San
Diego when you go down there, how much input do
(22:59):
you have to the program?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Oh? A lot, because I not only program my programs,
I also have to overview. Of course, we have a
team there, a wonderful team. The CEO with San Diego,
Martha Gilmer. She used to be the artistic program of
Chicago Symphony for thirty five years, so she is also
has the Shorty yeah exactly. She went with Shorty with
(23:21):
bar and boint with high thing with bulets with all
of them, and motive, and so she had all of
this experience. We also have our artistic team altogether, and
we just see it. But the whole thing is, I
don't like to just program my program for the sake
of programming.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
When you see my program my weeks, the ones you're conducting, yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
One that I'm conducting, But it's actually who how are
we taking the audience into this kind of journey and
this kind of voyage, And it's very important the many
different things that let's say, the sound that I am
looking the orchestra to develop more so that this also
had to do with the report that you have, but
not everything needs to be about that. We also need
(24:01):
to be appealing for the audience and the people what
they are, our supporters that are going to be there.
So normally what I do is just look at the
last twenty years, twenty five years, what they have been doing,
what is lacking, and what this needs to be doing.
Also as well with what is my core repertoire and
what I think that the orchestra needs to develop or
explore or bring back. So yeah, it's a lot, but
(24:23):
those conversations are really really fun and they are ongoing
for a long time. I remember the first time with
San Diego. We started a conversation at ten in the
morning in Aspen and it ended at seven pm. I
was even texting math when I was to the airport
going to another orchestra. How about we do this and this,
and then we go back and sit again for another
(24:44):
six hours. Then Martha went to Berlin. We have another
two days from ten to twelve pm just talking and
just trying to put the next five years of what
do we want to do and what do we want
to orchestra to go and how do we dream and
make try to have all the things together. So yeah,
the input is quite big. I have to say.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Well, also, I'm wondering whether it be in San Diego.
I know that not all the great ensembles are created
alike in terms of their funding. Some of them have
lots of endowments in cash and some of them not
so much. And I'm assuming that you, as the music director,
are called upon, especially when you're young and vital like you.
You know, you're not a blomstat who's ninety two years old.
(25:27):
They're not going to roll him out for the cocktail
party maybe before the show. But for a young, energetic
guy like you, are you pressed upon to participate in
development and fundraising with the organization?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Well, I think it is very important, of course, because
the phone raising what is the phone raising for to
be able to make the dreams that we have happen?
So sometimes we have some things. But I have to
say that they are very smart how the way they
do it. They don't do it too much, and they
do it in a way to use that relationship. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Now, now when you're in San Diego, it's not one
of the major venues use but they have a great,
great tradition down there, don't they.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, indeed. And one of the things that is
wonderful with San Diego is that I'm arriving into this
period of time for the orchestra and the city that
is actually having like a like a big push. It's
a wonderful time to happen. I mean, we just opened
this beautiful outdoor venue, the Raady Sheil, and it's raady
yeah yeah, and it's by the bay. I mean, it's
(26:26):
San Diego has one of the best climates in the
whole world. And then you have this amazing shell surrounded
by water with this ridiculously bull sky and then from
the stage you could actually see Mexico. I mean, come on,
you know, I mean this is this is something that
is amazing. Dinner after the show, right yeah, yeah, immediately,
(26:49):
and you could have that with maybe a little bit
of the quilla or not, but that was that's up
to you.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I think you deserve anything you want, quite frankly.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you. And then you have this and
it's not only about that it's beautiful, but actually on
stage they put the state of their sound system, so
the orchestra could really hear each other very well, and
then that is projected into the lawn for the people
to have an immersive experience as you will be in
an indoor hole. So it's fantastic and the orchestra is
(27:19):
playing wonderfully. And now we're about to open reopen because
our whole has been into renovation and the orchestra is
sounding great. Well, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
When you signed on for San Diego, did they tell
you that Rady was on the on the drawing board?
You knew that was coming.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
No, I did not. I was already Martha's plan happening
with this. But I mean when I arrived there and
they showed me the plans, it was amazing. And this
is one of the most amazing things. We have a
wonderful one of the patrons there, when I was very
fairly new in there, he asked me what the orchestra needed,
and I said, like the hole that we're playing in
(27:55):
its own work. Because the musicians it will be better.
They will even the orchestra. WI was going to a
different stut of if you have a Libit Burtter hole,
and he brought some people actually the architects and an
accoustician that did Geffen Hole. They are the one doing
the renovation in our hole and we're going to be
opening in November. So this is where this is in
San Diego. So you're still working with them.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Oh yeah, are you in the transition phase? Now? Are
you doing in that and you in that scene where
you're slowly exiting San Diego to go to Montreal.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
No, not at all, actually because.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Both at the same time.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You are the actual music director, both simultaneously.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yep, yeah, yeah, this is my first I just extended
my contract in San Diego for four years, and this
is my first year in San Diego, and this is
my first year in Montreal for my content in Montreal.
My first country in Montreal is start for five years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
You don't really like to have time off, do you?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Well? I mean, I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Joking up to now an important question for my listeners,
because of course I've been to Spack with Charlie. I've
then to tangle Wood countless times. I've been to Ravinia,
Hollywood Bowler obviously. I mean, I've spent to some of
the outdoor venues that are really, really beautiful. Well, if
you're not in Carnegie Hall, if you're not in Separence Hall,
(29:15):
if you're not in one of the great halls around
the world and you're outside, what adjustments do you need
to make in your work?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Well, it depends. Sometimes there are things depending how is
the outdoor venue. There are some of them that they
have a wonderful setup. And this is for Instagware. San
Diego is absolutely world World War class because now our
door venue there has the mayor sound system on stage,
so we actually play on stage as if we were
(29:44):
in an indoor venue. We do exactly the same. We
could go into the softer dynamic to the loudest and
provosts and yeah, because then they actually get that into
the mics and that is what's coming out on the lawn,
so they got it right. Yeah. Absolutely, it's amazing. You'll
forget that you are outdoors until all of us a
(30:04):
sudden there's a helicopter going by. Or are party bold right?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
I was gonna say, Maestro Raphael Piari, if you're enjoying
this episode, don't keep it to yourself, Tell a friend
and be sure to follow us on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When we return,
Raphael Paiari shares how a good pairing with an orchestra
(30:29):
is like falling in love. I'm Alec Baldwin and this
is here's the thing. This is more of the San
(31:01):
Diego Symphony performing Shostakovich's Symphony Number eleven in G minor,
conducted by my guest today, Maestro Rafael PIII. Between his
music director position with the San Diego Symphony and constant
travel across the globe working with the world's greatest orchestras,
(31:21):
Rafael Piari's schedule is typically jam packed. When the Montreal
Symphony came calling amidst an already hectic time in Piari's career,
I was curious how the pairing came to be.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, it was kind of funny, let's say, because I
had a concert with them in September twentuthan eighteen. I
had a concert with them. I wasn't bided as a
just guest conductor. You know. Maybe my manager was aware
that they were looking for a music director. I was not.
I just went there to make music to one of
the world class orchestra and I was very happy that
(31:56):
I was going to do that. And it's very funny
because I few months back, I was just announced in
San Diego. So I went to Montreal my first week
with them, and when I finished, I flew to San
Diego to do the press conference of what was going
to be my first season. It was fairly at the
very beginning of their search. The chemistry with the orchestra
(32:18):
was phenomenal. I remember we did a program of schombervcletten Acht,
mox Art biolin Concerto number three with their concert master
as a soloist, and then Beethoven number three. That was
a program we did that. It was great, audience was fantastic.
I left, I went to San Diego. Then I have
(32:38):
I was still in Belfast. I went to do something.
They actually, the people from Montreal came to Belfast to
visit me and they said that they actually wanted me
to come back in July if I would accept and
do that, because the orchestra really liked me and they
really want me to be again again. And like sure, yeah,
(32:59):
I mean of course in July. Actually, I was happened
to be free and I went with them and to
do some Tchaikovski and some more and the connection with
the orchestra is you got even bigger and it was
even better. And then they they were still in their
process and I was just about to start my tenure
of MEWSIC director in San Diego, so starting that they
(33:19):
went to some of the concerts and then they started
talking to me a little bit more serious, like do
you see you think that it would be a good
idea for you to come back and slid Before I
do any of that, I need to see what the
orchestra has been doing in the last twenty five years
and things like that, you know. But then COVID hit
and they I think I was considered, but they were
(33:40):
not finished in their process. And then during COVID times
by the end in November, they asked me and said like, look,
the orchestra has voted. You're the one that wants to
take this. But no one knew this was embargo and
I had to go and please come, you are going
to do a concert that was program before a concert
(34:01):
I needed to do with them in January twenty twenty one,
but I had to do fourteen days of quarantine because
of it was COVID time, and I went there. The
orchestra had no idea what was going on because everything
was secretive. And then they did over Zoom they called
the orchestra. But that was on January sixth of twenty
(34:24):
twenty one, so the world in this side was kind
of going through a rumble, and in there they were
about to get a new lockdown. So the orchestra was
a little bit afraid that that meeting was going to
be to give some bad news. And actually when they
said that it was made, the whole thing changed, and
then we start having rehearsal and we did concert that
(34:44):
weekend and then it was a lockdown. But I was
already there for fourteen days, so we can go for
the next ten days. It was like when you get
to know somebody and you'll fall in love on the
first time. That kind of happens.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Now once you'd assume maybe, or I'm going to assume
that when you become the music director of something like Montreal,
you don't come walking in there and meet them on
the first day. You've guests conducted there before.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Correct, Yet you have a bit.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Of a sense and a feel for them and they
for you, so it's not like a blind date when
you show up there to become the boss. You've been
around them and you got a taste of how they
do things with the various ensembles that you have been
the director of or you've guest conducted. Someone once told
me violin's violin, and everybody that has a chair in
(35:29):
a major symphony orchestra who plays the violin among the
greatest violin players in the world. But for you, I'm
wondering for you, did you have a prejudice? Did you
have a leaning because of you being a French horn player?
Do you listen more acutely to the horns.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Not particularly altro. When I go into an orchestra, especially
for the first time, it's all about let's see how
the sound of the orchestra reacts to my beat, and
let's see what we can do together. And it depends.
Every orchestra has a specificity and that there's something that
is different and with everybody. And yet it will be
see how with the chemistry that would happen on the stage,
(36:06):
how much it could be bent. Or it's like a
dancer party. You know how much how fast you can
do and how you can go from one place to
the other, make a twirl, And it's just all about
that kind of trust happening. But I will not say
that I will only hear the horns, but I do
understand them and I know that being a solo horn myself,
(36:27):
I know that we never want to crack an oe,
so I know what is in there. And there's many
conductors in the past that will give the evil eye
to the honk when something would happen, and I know
that's not what you're aiming for. You do they literally
give the evil eye? Oh my god, there's a clip
of Carboom doing beth Oven seven and there's a crack
in the horn and he just looked at the guy
(36:49):
and just like it's terrible. Look up YouTube car Bomb
Bethoven seven. It's crazy, and that happened in the past.
Whenever I go to an orchestra, and if the orchestra
happen to know that I'm a French one player, they
know that I'm actually supported and I am rooting for them.
I know the other way around.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know, I'm wondering in the time we have left
in someone in your position, when you're a conductor, is
there a path that you seek to improve? Do you
seek to change in the work you do in acting?
What happens with young actors is they work too hard.
They try to find ways to put even inappropriate levels
of emotion just to demonstrate that they can do that.
(37:28):
It's like, it's almost like juggling. I want to make
sure you know, I want you to be very clear
that I can juggle. And what's happening as you go
along is you economize and economize and economize, and you
do less and less and less, and it's more effective.
But my point is is that for you and someone
in your occupation and your profession, are there ways you
(37:49):
seek to improve? What do you want to improve?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah? Well everything you know in music. This is one
of the amazing things, as you know as well with acting,
is that no text is the same, even when you
have from one place to the other. The same thing
happened with all of the music of these amazing composers.
So of course you could always dig a little bit,
you know, deeper and deeper. And at the same time,
one of the things that it cannot be is that
(38:12):
there are sometimes a report to it that you might
not be able to understand or do justice if you
attack it too early or too young on it, because
you will want to sell like, yeah, I can't do this,
but yeah, but that's it. Actually, what you're actually achieving
from this amazing piece of music is actually what it is,
or is just the surface of it. So all the
(38:33):
time we want to keep improving. And the conducting career
is a marathon. You cannot think about as the one
hundred meters kind of career because then you will be done.
You have to really keep going.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Into one short time.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, and like plumped that. Look he's now ninety two
and eighty four. I think it's ninety six actually, and
he's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It's very old, you know, I mean yeah, but I
mean all the different styles. I mean like Gere Kiev
and that twitchy hand of his. You see everybody in
their style. Who's in front of the beat and who's
on the beat right right? I mean I come out
here and I'd say if I was a conductor, I
would find the difficult to be ahead of the beat.
I mean, you have you need to know the sheet
music and be able to beat.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Music very well.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
And then I and I watch conductors who are ahead
of the beat, and I watch conductors who.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Played to the beat. What's the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Why do they choose one or the other.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Well, what do you do? What do you prefer? Yeah, well,
the thing is that depends on the orchestra, because there
are orchestra that even though you are showing the beat,
the sound comes a little bit later. So if you
try to adapt the beat to that, the orchestra will
keep being a little bit later and never nothing is
going to really move. So that is why sometimes you
see that the conductor is actually ahead of the beat
(39:43):
and it's just because the orchestra tried to do them. Yeah,
they will play, they will have like an inn orhythm.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Now, much to my surprise to know this, I went
to go see Lisa wild or Steeen performing at Kevin
Hall the other day and I just learned, this is
your wife.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And she just told me when we I think somebody
who's a friend of hers, because it's all one big
family backstage there, and someone there from New York was
telling Lisa, and I think she said she just had
the baby five months ago. No, well now a year ago,
years ago?
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So the two of you are waving goodbye to each
other and kissing each other go by in airports, all
the time.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
How does that work a little bit? Well, we have
what we call marriage schedule meetings that we actually see
it with our schedule and we put things together and
try to see because we have a rule we do
not want to be apart from each other more than
two weeks at a time. That is how we might have. Yeah,
and sometimes you have to break it, but we try
(40:43):
to make it. If we are going to break it,
it will be like every eighteen month or two years
or something like that that we maybe will break it
that way. And we just tried to put everything like this.
And we have two daughters now, I mean the latest
one is one year old and our oldest is actually
seven years old.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I was one of the people at the Philharmonic years
ago because I've been doing this with him for a
while now. I've been on the board and I've been
their announcer on public radio for years. And you know,
eventually we presented because I was very excited about the
Live to Picture movie program. And our program is called
the Art of the Score. It's been enormously successful. It's
a real money maker for them. I'm wondering, have you
(41:20):
done any live to picture up there?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I have not but in San Diego, I mean not myself,
but we do program it. Actually, yes, well.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I want to do Live to Picture with you. I'm
going to come up to Montreal.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
We'll do Live to Picture. Sounds good absolutely, San Diego
and Montreal both.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Let me just finish by saying beyond thank you and
beyond thank you from giving us some of your very
very limited free time. I just want to say that
when I saw you there at Carnegie Hall and I said,
this guy is the next great conductor in the ensemble universe.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I mean you lit the place on fire. Everybody with
nuts supplauding. They loved you. They loved the piece, and
your energy and variet and your passion and your discipline.
I mean, you have everything just coming together in this
unique package. Everything isn't anybody like you out there right now,
you know.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Oh, thank you, You're very kind.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
My thanks to conductor and music director Rafael Piire. We
leave you with the adageetto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Rafael
Piari conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Speaker 4 (43:06):
D English
I'm Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing
from iHeart Radio. Energy, charisma, fire and unmistakable hair. These
(00:43):
are just a few of the words to describe the
mesmerizing stage presence of Venezuelan conductor Raphael Piire. This is
pi Are conducting Mahler's Symphony Number five with the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra. He first gained attention as the winner of
(01:07):
Denmark's twenty twelve Malco International Conducting Competition. Since then, the
forty three year old has conducted many of the world's
pre eminent orchestras, including London, Boston, Chicago, New York and
la He was also principal conductor of the Castleton Festival
(01:27):
in Virginia and led the Ulster Orchestra of Northern Ireland.
Piari has been the music director of the San Diego
Symphony since twenty nineteen, and this is his first year
as music director of the Montreal Symphony, positions he currently
holds simultaneously. Piare's road to such prestige began at Venezuela's
(01:53):
fabled El Sistema, a music education programme whose illustrious alumni
include Gustavo Dudamel, the newly appointed music director of the
New York Pho Harmonic. I wanted to know how El
Systema began and how Pirai found his.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Way to it. Well, the Systema started this wonderful program
that doctor jos Antonio Breok created in Venezuela back in
nineteen seventy five. And the whole idea is that the
music should be part of the education, and that music
is a rite and not a privilege. So we should
be able to access to music, and we have that.
(02:31):
One of the things of system is that actually you
just go to one of the nucleus, so they call
the nucleus all of these different you cannot say conservatory
because there are some of them that they are mainly
bare bones. So it depends, that's what we call them nucleus.
It depends where the part of the city they are.
And they give you the instrument, they will give you
the teachers. You just need to show up. But you
(02:53):
start playing an instrument and at the same time you
start playing in an orchestra, so you are always part
of a bigger kind of community. So since the very
beginning is that the let's say the unorthodox part that
it's you already start playing your instrument and you immediately
start playing in a symphony orchestra right away. So that
that's the part that let's say it's not as normal
(03:15):
and the rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
But it's not a music school like Curtis or Manness.
It's not a school it's granting you a degree. It's
more of an academy.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Well that's why they call it nucleus, because it's just
you will not get a degree. Of course, then you
could go to school and everything altogether, but it is
actually a place that they will be teaching music. You
just need to appear that they will give you the instrument,
they will give you to the teachers, and you will
start playing an orchestra. The idea is you don't have
to be under primages for everybody. But of course a
big am is trying to be for the underprivileged people
(03:45):
that they might be poor, and the whole idea is
that somebody, just because it's poor, it should not have
a poor education. So they always bring into a system
of people from everywhere in the world, from Manhattan Music Juliar,
Civeelious Academy, Berlin Pharamonic to try to go and teach
until do master classes for any of the students there.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Now, you, when you were in your performing career, you
played the French horn, correct, that is correct? And who
chose the French horn? You or someone chose it for you?
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Well, I think the French hole shows me somehow, because
my brother, he was playing in the orchestra already. My
brother is eight years my senior. He was playing a basoon.
But you know, he did his things his room and
I did mine. And then was one day I approached
his room and he was listening to something and that
caught my attention. He asked me, do you like I
(04:34):
said yes, So he said, I'm going to take you
to the orchestra tomorrow. And then I went there and
I started. Many months later, I found out that what
he was listening was the eighteen twelve overture, and what
caught my attention was the Marseilles theme, and it was
the horn sound that caught my attention, and I went
into this nuclear the conductor of the orchestra. He was
(04:57):
not only the conductor of the orchestra, but also the
teacher of trumpet, trombone, French horn and tuba. His name
was Antoine Duhamel and he gave me this, yeah, you know,
and he gave me this bronze, thin, brassy thing and
told me blow. I did and it sounds and that's
how I started playing the French horn.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
That's amazing, that's amazing. How long were you ad SYSTEMA? Oh?
Speaker 2 (05:20):
Well, I like to say that I'm still part of it.
I mean, yeah, we started since nineteen ninety four to
this day pretty much. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And from there do you go to a formal music school?
Speaker 2 (05:34):
Yeah? In Caracas, do you get your instrument and you
wanted to get better and better? Then I moved to
Karracas because I was part of that generation when Gustavo
was also part. We started with the National Child then Orchestra.
Then it was the National Youth Orchestra, and then Cemon
Bolivar Youth Orchestra and Simon Bolivar Orchestra. And in Karrakas
we go to a proper university. But the thing was
(05:56):
that because the orchestra was getting a lot of tours
and a lot of things, so we kind of need
to do things a little bit differently. In my case,
when I started conducting that there was a path that
my strawberry will kind of opened the door for me.
I got one on one classes, so I got all
of the things. But instead of having a full semester
(06:16):
and going every day, I just have very focused on
immersion class of six seven hours one on one to
try to get all of this because I had to keep,
you know, rehearsing and doing things.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
It sounds like the classical world is like college football.
You know, they're going to help you get through your
grades because you're such a great quarterback.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Something like that. A little bit.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yeah, you're a great French horn player, so we're going
to take care of everything for you. You just keep playing
that horn. Now, you just keep loving those notes and
we're going to take care of your grades.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Something like that. Yeah, you could say that, let's support
it that way.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Yeah, but now when you're there, when you are at
Simone Bolivar, you're playing principal horn for Simone Bolivar between
two thousand and one and twenty twelve of your touring
and you're recording, and you were around some of course
these titans of the classical repertoire in terms of music directors.
You're around Abado, who I worship I mean I worshiped
(07:12):
no more than Abat Mozelle, who I worship. Rattle, I
don't know, but I love it. Mensinopoli, of course, is
a great legend. And when you're around them, and when
you're in that world and you're performing, when does someone
tap you on the shoulder and say, come with me
and they want to start to talk about you picking
up a baton? Who first suggests that to you?
Speaker 2 (07:35):
When? And where? Well? With him? The very first one
that actually talked to me about it. It was actually
my Strabreo. He was the very first one. I got
very inspired by Giuseppe Sinopoli. He did a tour with
the nationality An Orchestra and I just I mean, we
were one hundred and fifty kids playing Riency overture from
Wagner and he did not speak Spanish and then he
(07:58):
changed the sound of the orchestra within second. Now that
really impressed me and said, I would like to do
that one day when my hair is all white, you know,
and all I will do that. But then with Maestro
Antonio bre who showed me the path and started having this,
and then at the same time Maestra Bado was coming,
Mazelle was coming, Rattle was going into Venezuela, so I
(08:20):
can't kind of look at the one on one thing.
And at the same time, Gustava and I were very
good friends. Mustavo was already doing all of this conducting
and I was I was his first home, so I
was very supportive of him. Looking in the orchestra, okay,
I make sure that the horn section is always going
to be on top phone for the concerts with Gustavo,
So it was kind of an organic thing to be
going through. But at the same time, when I was
(08:42):
sitting in the orchestra, it was like a college kind
of experience. I was just getting all of these things
from all of these amazing conductors, and those words getting
in my head somehow, all of the information how they
work with the orchestra.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
So the first time you step on a podium with
a baton in your hand, or without one for that matter,
is when.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
The very first one. It could have been already with
a brass enseamble because I was with a brass quintet
and we used to teach kids. We go into different
cities in the country, and we arrived on a Thursday,
we play a concert, teach Friday, Saturday, and on Sunday,
we put a little brass and sample together. So that
was the first time that without a button I did something.
(09:24):
And then for real in front of an orchestra I
think was around two thousand seven, I think too. It
was the youth Orchestra of Marakaivo and it was a
master class in conducting with the South Korean conductor Zunquak
was dictating that and during that thing, he picked who
was going to do which part of the concert, and
(09:44):
he decided that I was going to actually close the
master class with the last movement of Chaikovs the Fifth Symphony.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Now, just to get back to the horn for one second.
Did it come naturally that French horn to you or
was it something that you had to work extra hard on?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, the French horn, it's a very ungrateful instrument, and
any ranch home player would agree with me. We love
the instrument, but sometimes it just gets you butt to
earth in the most unlikely places or moment when you
thinker on the top of the world, you have a crack.
But actually with the French one, I think that it
(10:18):
was it was a wonderful instrument that it was very
nice fitted for me and I always had that love,
sometimes hate relationship, but mostly love.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Now I'm going to put the cards on the table here.
I went to go see you, and then there at
Carnegie Hall and my wife or someone said to me,
what was Piari like on the podium? And I said,
he had the athleticism of Dodomel and even yup because
von Swaden is very very hopping around the podium, he's
very active from the waist down, I said, PIORI reminds
(10:49):
me of Dudemel from the waist down, and he reminds
me of Dutois from the waist up. He's very elegant.
He's athletic and elegant at the same moment. At the
same time, he's very very he's very very powerful, even
convulsive what he wants to and then he's pulling it
back dramatically and he's in complete control of his body there,
and there's an exuberance and there's a spasmodic quality to
(11:12):
his body only when needed. And then because I mean,
I was to was my favorite, and I was friends
with Charlie and Chantale, they were dear friends of mine.
And I watched you up there and I thought, is
this your style, that this is what came out of you.
Did you model yourself after somebody? Was somebody your inspiration?
Speaker 2 (11:32):
No, not really, I think. I mean, I still don't
know how I look like, and I don't like to
look at bitio of me.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
My god, that's terrible, but you should watch it because
it's fabulous.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
It's really facinally thank you, thank you for that. But
in reality, no, I think that was one of the
things that my mentor, Antonio Breo said, like, look, you
just get enough information and the body will find its
way to express itself what you wanted to do with music.
I will not know what will be my style at all.
I do have to say that, together with Gootabo, we
(12:06):
used to watch videos of Carlos Kleiber and of course
of Cloud or a Bado as well, because they're just amazing,
fantastic conductors. But no, I do not try to shape
or do any kind of movement on purpose or conscious like.
It's just what my body likes to do. It's like
my hair, you know, it has a life on it's own.
There's nothing I can do about it. Whenever it goes
one way, it's like okay, fine, Well.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
I was gonna say I think that they should rearrange
the stage because it's tough to see some of the
performers over your hair. They should change the seating plan.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
I hope they've allowed.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
I hope they have factored your hair and the height
of your hair into the seating plan. But anyway, now,
all these legends, I didn't meet all of them. I
met Moselle when he was just leaving New York. Charlie,
I knew Eschenbach. I mean, I met a bunch of
these people. Barren Boym. You know, the contemporaries are the
ones that are just cresting now into retirement. I met
so many of them. And when I say that Charlie
(13:01):
is my favorite, I should say he's among my favorites
because I love Mozelle as well. Now, you went to Castleton.
I went down there and did a program. Did Linda
is his wife? Absolutely so did Linda. Mizelle was gone,
and she invited me to come down there to the
Virginia countryside and do some program down there with one
of her sons and try. I forget what it was.
(13:21):
It was a kind of an odd little program, but
I was very admiring of what she was doing. You
went down there. How often? How many trips did you
make to Castleton.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Well, it's started because the thing with Castleton Mozille. When
I won the Malco competition into Soutum twelve males from
Moselle was actually the chairman of the jury. And one
of the things that it happened by winning the competition
is that you were going to get a little bit
like a tutor, kind of tutelage under Moselle. So I
remember that. It was very funny because the night of
(13:52):
the gala we did the final, I was announced that
I was the winner. It's already one in the morning,
after the dner with this whole thing, and I had
to catch a plane back to going back to Venezuela,
and I was like, well, my flight is at six,
so I need to go. Maestro, thank you very much
for everything. It's like, no, no, no, you do not
think that you're going to get rid of me that easily.
(14:13):
You will come to now a Castleton on July. And
on July seventh, I this is himself talking. I am
going to conduct Beethoven nine and I want you to
open the concert and conduct Leonora number three. I will
send you my escore and I'll see you there. I mean,
you know, myself tells you that what you're going to do. Yeah,
(14:33):
of course I went there and it was fantastic. The
stayed over there and all of the program that he
was putting on there together, it was amazing. I did that.
I conduct his emity score. His score it has metrono
marking fingers and everything altogether. And there was a part
of me that I was a little bit in shock
because I thought, like he expect me to do all
(14:56):
of his things in there or not, I don't know,
and I will just I will go with my god
feeling and I will do how I listen to this music.
So I got his score, but I did my time post,
I did my thing, and there was no complaint at
all whatsoever. He actually was waiting for me there with
the his aren't white open and treat me like I
was like his grandson or something. And he was so
(15:19):
so supper loved the absolutely so, I mean all of
those things that people might think that he was cold
or whatever, that's they never really get to meeting. He
was so so warm. And it was funny because what
you'll hear me conduct in Carnelie Hall was mather Vive
my first time in Castleton. We were talking. I said,
do you love Maler's like yes, and do you do
(15:41):
the fifth Infinite?
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Myself, this is one of my this is one of
my pieces. Like, well, then you have to come next
year and do malor fifth, which I did in two
Sound thirteen, and then the year after that, in twenty fourteen,
we were going to do a concert together, split concert,
and I was due to travel there on a month
they and he passed away on a Sunday.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Maestro Rafael Piire. If you enjoy conversations with gifted conductors,
check out my episode with Pavo Jervy.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
I have two girls right now who they're very talented,
but they don't know what am I going to do
in life? I never had ever that question because I
wanted to not only to be a musician, I wanted
to be a conductor.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Why because my father was a conductor. I loved my father.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
I think he was having a lot of fun and
we're very close to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So it was done.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
It was a done deal. I wanted to be a
conductor and I never ever wanted to be anything else ever.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
To hear more of my conversation with Pavo Yervi go
to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Rafael
PII tells us how he shapes a music program and
uses it to take the audience on a journey. I'm
Alec bald when and you're listening to Here's the Thing.
(17:17):
This is Rafael Piari conducting Schulstakovich's Symphony Number eleven with
the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Raphael Piari has had
(17:40):
a meteoric rise since he won first prize at Denmark's
Malco International Conducting Competition in twenty twelve. I wanted to
know how one judges something as misunderstood as conducting in
the first place.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, conducting is a little
bit like a voodu scene, so having the competition is
a little bit kind of exchange. But I remember my
time with Malco. We were forty eight participant during that
time and it was going to be through ten days.
I remember my only goal it was that maybe I
(18:16):
will not get eliminated in the first round, because if
I passed to the second round, the competition was going
to pay for my hotel. So that was my main
goal in the whole thing. I came from Venezuela, and
it's like, I hope I don't get eliminated in the
first round. But I mean it was kind of never recking.
I remember the first round it was about five minutes
different and four completely round with different repertoire the whole thing.
(18:40):
There was one of the round that Marselle said like,
do not say one word. It is seven minutes with
three different pieces. Show everything with your hands. Then the
third round is like actually with one you see rehearse,
I mean, not be all of the different participants. Then
the fourth round we have a piece that it was
written for the competition and we only got score a
(19:00):
month before. And then it was the final. So it
was completely different, different, very different kind of experience. And
you have this amazing orchestra that the Neish radio, and
they will be you're in front of them for a
certain amount of time and they will just.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
React to what you do or play what the same
orchestra that's being conducted by all forty eight people.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Yep. And the report to us it was the pull
of music. It was really really really wide. I mean
I remember it ran from Malor seven beth Oven four
Brams for Bartow Concerto for Orchestra for Jack seven. I
mean the amount of music was and the conductor, the
(19:44):
resident composer for that, it was Christos Pendetski, so he
wrote a piece especially for that. We actually have to
premiere in front of everybody. If you made it that
far in the competition.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Yeah, Now, soon thereafter you go to Ulster.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Correct, that's correct. Yes.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Now, if I were to say, in some overly simplified way,
what would be culturally and climatologically the opposite of Venezuela,
the answer would be Ulster.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
You can say that easily.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
That what happens to Raphael Payari when he shows up
in the north of Ireland and you're there for five years?
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Obviously you leave and travel and gets conduct and do
other things. But what was it like to Because I
want you to describe to me the same with Ulster
as with San Diego, and that's when you arrive. What's
the vibe there? What's the audience?
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah? I mean it was the first time I went there.
The orchestra was fantastic and we have an immedium connection.
And the thing is that the audience as well, there
are so welcoming and so long, very very much. So
it was I remember I went there for a concert
to just a Covich piano concerto, opening with rabel Tombo
cop and then ending with Firebird Suite, and the conture
(20:58):
was absolutely great. And I remember we have the dinner
after the concert and I sat down, you know, okay,
it's time to have a stake, let's have a drink.
And then the intendent of the orchestra I said like, ah,
what do you think if you are going to become
a chief conductor? So I thought that she was joking,
you know, and it's like, okay, yeah, why not, but okay,
(21:19):
let's eat, and this is crazy. Two days later they
actually called my agent and asked and they offered. It
was real, the whole thing. And then I came back
and I said that, yeah, why not. I mean, the
connection with the orchestra was great and the audience was fantastic. However,
coming from Venezuela, I already have an accent in English,
but their accent is also very hard to understand the
way they have it. But it was just fantastic to
(21:40):
see this very rainy gray sky all the time, and
I find it really wonderful. I come from Porto la
Cruz and we have sun three hundred and sixty five
there year, so I was fine with having.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
Some gray in the sky. Another of rain, Ireland. I
shot a movie in Belfast about three years ago. I
had never been there before when we went to the
south and I went up to the north for the
first time, and.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I loved it. It's dreary, but it's poetically dreary.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
It's really very, very very beautiful.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah. Absolutely, And the green with the amount of water
they have the green, it has a particular kind of
sys that is different from everywhere else. It's just wonderful.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Now I'm going to ask the same thing about Ulster,
which is you're the music director. Correct, yes, you're the
music director there. But when you go to Ulster, when
you go to San Diego and you're growing and your
experiences are growing, and then when you arrive in Montreal
and they're not going to give the keys to that
car to just anybody, you know, you really really are
(22:38):
at the big time. Now, what is your involvement in
selecting the program. I'm on the board of the Fill
here in New York. They have a music committee, and
you know, they want to have discussions with the executive
director and people in the committee and members of the
staff and the maestro about what's going to be played.
How much input do you have, Let's start with San
Diego when you go down there, how much input do
(22:59):
you have to the program?
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Oh? A lot, because I not only program my programs,
I also have to overview. Of course, we have a
team there, a wonderful team. The CEO with San Diego,
Martha Gilmer. She used to be the artistic program of
Chicago Symphony for thirty five years, so she is also
has the Shorty yeah exactly. She went with Shorty with
(23:21):
bar and boint with high thing with bulets with all
of them, and motive, and so she had all of
this experience. We also have our artistic team altogether, and
we just see it. But the whole thing is, I
don't like to just program my program for the sake
of programming.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
When you see my program my weeks, the ones you're conducting, yeah, the.
Speaker 2 (23:41):
One that I'm conducting, But it's actually who how are
we taking the audience into this kind of journey and
this kind of voyage, And it's very important the many
different things that let's say, the sound that I am
looking the orchestra to develop more so that this also
had to do with the report that you have, but
not everything needs to be about that. We also need
(24:01):
to be appealing for the audience and the people what
they are, our supporters that are going to be there.
So normally what I do is just look at the
last twenty years, twenty five years, what they have been doing,
what is lacking, and what this needs to be doing.
Also as well with what is my core repertoire and
what I think that the orchestra needs to develop or
explore or bring back. So yeah, it's a lot, but
(24:23):
those conversations are really really fun and they are ongoing
for a long time. I remember the first time with
San Diego. We started a conversation at ten in the
morning in Aspen and it ended at seven pm. I
was even texting math when I was to the airport
going to another orchestra. How about we do this and this,
and then we go back and sit again for another
(24:44):
six hours. Then Martha went to Berlin. We have another
two days from ten to twelve pm just talking and
just trying to put the next five years of what
do we want to do and what do we want
to orchestra to go and how do we dream and
make try to have all the things together. So yeah,
the input is quite big. I have to say.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Well, also, I'm wondering whether it be in San Diego.
I know that not all the great ensembles are created
alike in terms of their funding. Some of them have
lots of endowments in cash and some of them not
so much. And I'm assuming that you, as the music director,
are called upon, especially when you're young and vital like you.
You know, you're not a blomstat who's ninety two years old.
(25:27):
They're not going to roll him out for the cocktail
party maybe before the show. But for a young, energetic
guy like you, are you pressed upon to participate in
development and fundraising with the organization?
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Well, I think it is very important, of course, because
the phone raising what is the phone raising for to
be able to make the dreams that we have happen?
So sometimes we have some things. But I have to
say that they are very smart how the way they
do it. They don't do it too much, and they
do it in a way to use that relationship. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Now, now when you're in San Diego, it's not one
of the major venues use but they have a great,
great tradition down there, don't they.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, yeah, indeed. And one of the things that is
wonderful with San Diego is that I'm arriving into this
period of time for the orchestra and the city that
is actually having like a like a big push. It's
a wonderful time to happen. I mean, we just opened
this beautiful outdoor venue, the Raady Sheil, and it's raady
yeah yeah, and it's by the bay. I mean, it's
(26:26):
San Diego has one of the best climates in the
whole world. And then you have this amazing shell surrounded
by water with this ridiculously bull sky and then from
the stage you could actually see Mexico. I mean, come on,
you know, I mean this is this is something that
is amazing. Dinner after the show, right yeah, yeah, immediately,
(26:49):
and you could have that with maybe a little bit
of the quilla or not, but that was that's up
to you.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
I think you deserve anything you want, quite frankly.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Thank you, thank you. And then you have this and
it's not only about that it's beautiful, but actually on
stage they put the state of their sound system, so
the orchestra could really hear each other very well, and
then that is projected into the lawn for the people
to have an immersive experience as you will be in
an indoor hole. So it's fantastic and the orchestra is
(27:19):
playing wonderfully. And now we're about to open reopen because
our whole has been into renovation and the orchestra is
sounding great. Well, let me ask you this.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
When you signed on for San Diego, did they tell
you that Rady was on the on the drawing board?
You knew that was coming.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
No, I did not. I was already Martha's plan happening
with this. But I mean when I arrived there and
they showed me the plans, it was amazing. And this
is one of the most amazing things. We have a
wonderful one of the patrons there, when I was very
fairly new in there, he asked me what the orchestra needed,
and I said, like the hole that we're playing in
(27:55):
its own work. Because the musicians it will be better.
They will even the orchestra. WI was going to a
different stut of if you have a Libit Burtter hole,
and he brought some people actually the architects and an
accoustician that did Geffen Hole. They are the one doing
the renovation in our hole and we're going to be
opening in November. So this is where this is in
San Diego. So you're still working with them.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Oh yeah, are you in the transition phase? Now? Are
you doing in that and you in that scene where
you're slowly exiting San Diego to go to Montreal.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
No, not at all, actually because.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Both at the same time.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
You are the actual music director, both simultaneously.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Yep, yeah, yeah, this is my first I just extended
my contract in San Diego for four years, and this
is my first year in San Diego, and this is
my first year in Montreal for my content in Montreal.
My first country in Montreal is start for five years. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
You don't really like to have time off, do you?
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Well? I mean, I'm.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Joking up to now an important question for my listeners,
because of course I've been to Spack with Charlie. I've
then to tangle Wood countless times. I've been to Ravinia,
Hollywood Bowler obviously. I mean, I've spent to some of
the outdoor venues that are really, really beautiful. Well, if
you're not in Carnegie Hall, if you're not in Separence Hall,
(29:15):
if you're not in one of the great halls around
the world and you're outside, what adjustments do you need
to make in your work?
Speaker 2 (29:22):
Well, it depends. Sometimes there are things depending how is
the outdoor venue. There are some of them that they
have a wonderful setup. And this is for Instagware. San
Diego is absolutely world World War class because now our
door venue there has the mayor sound system on stage,
so we actually play on stage as if we were
(29:44):
in an indoor venue. We do exactly the same. We
could go into the softer dynamic to the loudest and
provosts and yeah, because then they actually get that into
the mics and that is what's coming out on the lawn,
so they got it right. Yeah. Absolutely, it's amazing. You'll
forget that you are outdoors until all of us a
(30:04):
sudden there's a helicopter going by. Or are party bold right?
Speaker 1 (30:08):
I was gonna say, Maestro Raphael Piari, if you're enjoying
this episode, don't keep it to yourself, Tell a friend
and be sure to follow us on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. When we return,
Raphael Paiari shares how a good pairing with an orchestra
(30:29):
is like falling in love. I'm Alec Baldwin and this
is here's the thing. This is more of the San
(31:01):
Diego Symphony performing Shostakovich's Symphony Number eleven in G minor,
conducted by my guest today, Maestro Rafael PIII. Between his
music director position with the San Diego Symphony and constant
travel across the globe working with the world's greatest orchestras,
(31:21):
Rafael Piari's schedule is typically jam packed. When the Montreal
Symphony came calling amidst an already hectic time in Piari's career,
I was curious how the pairing came to be.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
Well, it was kind of funny, let's say, because I
had a concert with them in September twentuthan eighteen. I
had a concert with them. I wasn't bided as a
just guest conductor. You know. Maybe my manager was aware
that they were looking for a music director. I was not.
I just went there to make music to one of
the world class orchestra and I was very happy that
(31:56):
I was going to do that. And it's very funny
because I few months back, I was just announced in
San Diego. So I went to Montreal my first week
with them, and when I finished, I flew to San
Diego to do the press conference of what was going
to be my first season. It was fairly at the
very beginning of their search. The chemistry with the orchestra
(32:18):
was phenomenal. I remember we did a program of schombervcletten Acht,
mox Art biolin Concerto number three with their concert master
as a soloist, and then Beethoven number three. That was
a program we did that. It was great, audience was fantastic.
I left, I went to San Diego. Then I have
(32:38):
I was still in Belfast. I went to do something.
They actually, the people from Montreal came to Belfast to
visit me and they said that they actually wanted me
to come back in July if I would accept and
do that, because the orchestra really liked me and they
really want me to be again again. And like sure, yeah,
(32:59):
I mean of course in July. Actually, I was happened
to be free and I went with them and to
do some Tchaikovski and some more and the connection with
the orchestra is you got even bigger and it was
even better. And then they they were still in their
process and I was just about to start my tenure
of MEWSIC director in San Diego, so starting that they
(33:19):
went to some of the concerts and then they started
talking to me a little bit more serious, like do
you see you think that it would be a good
idea for you to come back and slid Before I
do any of that, I need to see what the
orchestra has been doing in the last twenty five years
and things like that, you know. But then COVID hit
and they I think I was considered, but they were
(33:40):
not finished in their process. And then during COVID times
by the end in November, they asked me and said like, look,
the orchestra has voted. You're the one that wants to
take this. But no one knew this was embargo and
I had to go and please come, you are going
to do a concert that was program before a concert
(34:01):
I needed to do with them in January twenty twenty one,
but I had to do fourteen days of quarantine because
of it was COVID time, and I went there. The
orchestra had no idea what was going on because everything
was secretive. And then they did over Zoom they called
the orchestra. But that was on January sixth of twenty
(34:24):
twenty one, so the world in this side was kind
of going through a rumble, and in there they were
about to get a new lockdown. So the orchestra was
a little bit afraid that that meeting was going to
be to give some bad news. And actually when they
said that it was made, the whole thing changed, and
then we start having rehearsal and we did concert that
(34:44):
weekend and then it was a lockdown. But I was
already there for fourteen days, so we can go for
the next ten days. It was like when you get
to know somebody and you'll fall in love on the
first time. That kind of happens.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
Now once you'd assume maybe, or I'm going to assume
that when you become the music director of something like Montreal,
you don't come walking in there and meet them on
the first day. You've guests conducted there before.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Correct, Yet you have a bit.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Of a sense and a feel for them and they
for you, so it's not like a blind date when
you show up there to become the boss. You've been
around them and you got a taste of how they
do things with the various ensembles that you have been
the director of or you've guest conducted. Someone once told
me violin's violin, and everybody that has a chair in
(35:29):
a major symphony orchestra who plays the violin among the
greatest violin players in the world. But for you, I'm
wondering for you, did you have a prejudice? Did you
have a leaning because of you being a French horn player?
Do you listen more acutely to the horns.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Not particularly altro. When I go into an orchestra, especially
for the first time, it's all about let's see how
the sound of the orchestra reacts to my beat, and
let's see what we can do together. And it depends.
Every orchestra has a specificity and that there's something that
is different and with everybody. And yet it will be
see how with the chemistry that would happen on the stage,
(36:06):
how much it could be bent. Or it's like a
dancer party. You know how much how fast you can
do and how you can go from one place to
the other, make a twirl, And it's just all about
that kind of trust happening. But I will not say
that I will only hear the horns, but I do
understand them and I know that being a solo horn myself,
(36:27):
I know that we never want to crack an oe,
so I know what is in there. And there's many
conductors in the past that will give the evil eye
to the honk when something would happen, and I know
that's not what you're aiming for. You do they literally
give the evil eye? Oh my god, there's a clip
of Carboom doing beth Oven seven and there's a crack
in the horn and he just looked at the guy
(36:49):
and just like it's terrible. Look up YouTube car Bomb
Bethoven seven. It's crazy, and that happened in the past.
Whenever I go to an orchestra, and if the orchestra
happen to know that I'm a French one player, they
know that I'm actually supported and I am rooting for them.
I know the other way around.
Speaker 1 (37:06):
You know, I'm wondering in the time we have left
in someone in your position, when you're a conductor, is
there a path that you seek to improve? Do you
seek to change in the work you do in acting?
What happens with young actors is they work too hard.
They try to find ways to put even inappropriate levels
of emotion just to demonstrate that they can do that.
(37:28):
It's like, it's almost like juggling. I want to make
sure you know, I want you to be very clear
that I can juggle. And what's happening as you go
along is you economize and economize and economize, and you
do less and less and less, and it's more effective.
But my point is is that for you and someone
in your occupation and your profession, are there ways you
(37:49):
seek to improve? What do you want to improve?
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Yeah? Well everything you know in music. This is one
of the amazing things, as you know as well with acting,
is that no text is the same, even when you
have from one place to the other. The same thing
happened with all of the music of these amazing composers.
So of course you could always dig a little bit,
you know, deeper and deeper. And at the same time,
one of the things that it cannot be is that
(38:12):
there are sometimes a report to it that you might
not be able to understand or do justice if you
attack it too early or too young on it, because
you will want to sell like, yeah, I can't do this,
but yeah, but that's it. Actually, what you're actually achieving
from this amazing piece of music is actually what it is,
or is just the surface of it. So all the
(38:33):
time we want to keep improving. And the conducting career
is a marathon. You cannot think about as the one
hundred meters kind of career because then you will be done.
You have to really keep going.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Into one short time.
Speaker 2 (38:46):
Yeah, and like plumped that. Look he's now ninety two
and eighty four. I think it's ninety six actually, and
he's still doing it.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
It's very old, you know, I mean yeah, but I
mean all the different styles. I mean like Gere Kiev
and that twitchy hand of his. You see everybody in
their style. Who's in front of the beat and who's
on the beat right right? I mean I come out
here and I'd say if I was a conductor, I
would find the difficult to be ahead of the beat.
I mean, you have you need to know the sheet
music and be able to beat.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Music very well.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
And then I and I watch conductors who are ahead
of the beat, and I watch conductors who.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Played to the beat. What's the difference.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Why do they choose one or the other.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Well, what do you do? What do you prefer? Yeah, well,
the thing is that depends on the orchestra, because there
are orchestra that even though you are showing the beat,
the sound comes a little bit later. So if you
try to adapt the beat to that, the orchestra will
keep being a little bit later and never nothing is
going to really move. So that is why sometimes you
see that the conductor is actually ahead of the beat
(39:43):
and it's just because the orchestra tried to do them. Yeah,
they will play, they will have like an inn orhythm.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Now, much to my surprise to know this, I went
to go see Lisa wild or Steeen performing at Kevin
Hall the other day and I just learned, this is
your wife.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (39:58):
And she just told me when we I think somebody
who's a friend of hers, because it's all one big
family backstage there, and someone there from New York was
telling Lisa, and I think she said she just had
the baby five months ago. No, well now a year ago,
years ago?
Speaker 2 (40:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
So the two of you are waving goodbye to each
other and kissing each other go by in airports, all
the time.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
How does that work a little bit? Well, we have
what we call marriage schedule meetings that we actually see
it with our schedule and we put things together and
try to see because we have a rule we do
not want to be apart from each other more than
two weeks at a time. That is how we might have. Yeah,
and sometimes you have to break it, but we try
(40:43):
to make it. If we are going to break it,
it will be like every eighteen month or two years
or something like that that we maybe will break it
that way. And we just tried to put everything like this.
And we have two daughters now, I mean the latest
one is one year old and our oldest is actually
seven years old.
Speaker 1 (40:59):
I was one of the people at the Philharmonic years
ago because I've been doing this with him for a
while now. I've been on the board and I've been
their announcer on public radio for years. And you know,
eventually we presented because I was very excited about the
Live to Picture movie program. And our program is called
the Art of the Score. It's been enormously successful. It's
a real money maker for them. I'm wondering, have you
(41:20):
done any live to picture up there?
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I have not but in San Diego, I mean not myself,
but we do program it. Actually, yes, well.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I want to do Live to Picture with you. I'm
going to come up to Montreal.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
We'll do Live to Picture. Sounds good absolutely, San Diego
and Montreal both.
Speaker 1 (41:34):
Let me just finish by saying beyond thank you and
beyond thank you from giving us some of your very
very limited free time. I just want to say that
when I saw you there at Carnegie Hall and I said,
this guy is the next great conductor in the ensemble universe.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (41:51):
I mean you lit the place on fire. Everybody with
nuts supplauding. They loved you. They loved the piece, and
your energy and variet and your passion and your discipline.
I mean, you have everything just coming together in this
unique package. Everything isn't anybody like you out there right now,
you know.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Oh, thank you, You're very kind.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
My thanks to conductor and music director Rafael Piire. We
leave you with the adageetto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Rafael
Piari conducts the Montreal Symphony Orchestra
Speaker 4 (43:06):
D English
Host
Alec Baldwin
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