Previews and Features: Nov. 14 through Dec. 5

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EATING IN ANGUILA The island, neighbor to St. Maarten in the Caribbean, has a gracious, laid-back style and a dynamic food scene E10

ART EVERYWHERE

YULETIDE MYSTERY Timothy Hallinan discusses his latest novel, “Fields Where They Lay.” E6

Photographer Peggy Peattie highlights some of San Diego’s most eye-catching murals E4

SECTION E

SUNDAY • DECEMBER 4, 2016

World of experience

Renowned conductor Edo de Waart reflects on a musical career that has taken him all around the globe

Conductor Edo de Waart JESSE WILLEMS

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BY GEORGE VARGA

eonard Bernstein and a landmark album by The Beatles? ■ There are so many facets to Edo de Waart’s globe-hopping career as one of the most respected orchestral and operatic conductors of the past 50 years that it can be daunting finding where to begin. So his warmly conveyed anecdote about the Fab Four and Bernstein — under whom the then-24-year-old de Waart served as the New York Philharmonic’s assistant conductor in the mid-1960s — is as good a starting point as any.■ “I remember Bernstein one morning saying: ‘Today is a great day!’ ” de Waart said, speaking by phone recently from Belgium. “I asked why, and he said: ‘The Beatles are releasing “Revolver” today. It’s one of the great days of this century!’ ■ “And it was, of course, a masterpiece. Some of the songs on ‘Revolver’ are incredible. I love The Beatles.” ■ By coincidence, the title of one of the classic songs on “Revolver” — the Paul McCartney-penned ballad “Here, There and Everywhere” — provides an apt description of de Waart’s borders-leaping trajectory. He will lead the San Diego Symphony on Friday, Saturday and next Sunday in concerts of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125: Choral and Charles Ives’ “Three Places in New England.”

SEE DE WAART • E7

The San Diego Symphony performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125: Choral and Charles Ives’ “Three Places in New England” With: Edo de Waart, conductor; Erin Wall, soprano; Renée Tatum, mezzo-soprano; Barry Banks, tenor; Nathan Berg, bass; and the San Diego Master Chorale When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday Where: Copley Symphony Hall at Jacobs Music Center, 750 B St., downtown Tickets: $23-$99 (plus service charges, which are waived for tickets bought at the box office) Phone: (619) 235-0804 Online: sandiegosymphony.org

THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE

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SUNDAY • DECEMBER 4, 2016

DE WAART FROM E1 De Waart’s credits include working as artistic director of the Netherlands Radio & Television Music Center, music director of the San Francisco Symphony and Minnesota Orchestra, leader of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, artistic director of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, chief conductor of Dutch National Opera, and artistic director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has also earned acclaim for his numerous performances as a guest conductor. That role has seen him work with orchestras across Europe, as well as with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, whose vice president for artistic planning and audience development, Martha Gilmer, is now the CEO of the San Diego Symphony.

“We are so fortunate to have Edo de Waart as a regular guest conductor,” Gilmer said. “These concerts will be the third time he has worked with the orchestra since January of 2015. I know that the musicians of the orchestra are excited to work with him and respect his preeminence as one of the finest and most experienced conductors working with orchestras today.”

Musical elevation Gilmer’s enthusiasm is shared by Harry Partch Ensemble veteran Jon Szanto. He has performed as a percussionist with the symphony for the past 40 years and attended both of de Waart’s most recent concerts as an audience member.

“Most any conductor can ask for certain things from an orchestra, but it doesn’t always happen,” Szanto said. “Edo de Waart is the kind of a musician who says it in a way that makes so much deeply musical sense that it really becomes a part of the playing.

“So, just in the span of a few days, the sound of an orchestra can change quite dramatically — and, in his case, for the better.”

Asked what qualities he seeks to instill in an orchestra to elevate its musicianship, de Waart initially

“Most any conductor can ask for certain things from an orchestra, but it doesn’t always happen.

Edo de Waart is the kind of a musician who says it in a way that makes so much deeply musical sense that it really becomes a part of the playing.”

Jon Szanto percussionist

COURTESY PHOTO

Edo de Waart conducts the Royal Flemish Philharmonic Symphony. pleaded ignorance.

“I don’t know,” he said, then pondered the question further.

“I don’t come in and think: ‘I’m going to elevate you.’ I just come in to make music. And one style of work clicks with one orchestra and not with another. In the last 10-15 years, that part of it is becoming easier — my rapport — and making things clear.

“It’s a simple, back-tothe-basics approach. I have no tricks. I don’t take a special pill. I just work and listen to the orchestra. How far can it go? How far can I push it in the few days we have? Should I push it further? That’s a great part of the experience. So is being truthful and honest with the orchestra and the music.”

From oboe to conducting A native of Holland, de Waart was barely 20 when he became the co-principal oboist in Amsterdam’s esteemed Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961, a year before his graduation from the the music conservatory at the Amsterdam University of the Arts.

“I was pretty good, not great. But I was the associate principal oboist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, so that means something, ” de Waart said.

The 75-year conductor chuckled when asked if he still played the oboe for fun.

“No,” he replied. “You don’t play the oboe for fun. I

think that’s true with all the reed instruments. It’s very hard and your embouchure wouldn’t hold up. So, for me — and especially for the people around me — it wouldn’t be fun at all.”

In 1964, de Waart was a co-winner of the prestigious Dimitri Mitropoulos conductor competition in New York, which earned him a one-year appointment as assistant conductor under Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic.

“It was intimidating in that New York is a huge city, and I came from Amsterdam,” he said. “My oldest daughter was born that year in New York, but I felt pretty alone.

“Bernstein could be the most charming person you ever met and very intelligent. He could also be rather dismissive of anybody, if he wasn’t in the mood. That didn’t really happen to me, but I saw a bit of that. He was a genius. I don’t use that word very easily, but there was a genius to him, absolutely.

“For him, as I understand it, the difficulty was that he could do so many things so well. … I never saw him being proud of (composing) ‘West Side Story,’ which was, and is, a masterpiece that will last forever.

And he was a very gifted pianist.”

Bernstein died in 1990 at the age of 72. His unflagging dedication to his art made an indelible impression on

Chamber Works of Beethoven DEC 6 – 7:30pm

TICKETS START AT $20!

de Waart, who lives in the Wisconsin college town of Madison with his sixth wife, soprano Rebecca Dopp, and their two children.

Lessons learned “His commitment, once he walked on the podium and also off it, was 100 percent. He had a tremendous spiritual energy and that total commitment,” de Waart recalled.

“How special his expressiveness was materialized for me during the year I spent in New York. Being Dutch, I certainly was never as expressive as him. After conducting a concert, he would sometimes kiss everybody — and his sweat was making them wet! He was unique, totally unique.”

After returning to the Netherlands, de Waart became assistant conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, followed by his being named conductor of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in 1967. From 1973 to 1979, he served as the music director for the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

This was followed by eight years heading the San Francisco Symphony, during which time he championed John Adams and appointed him as composer-in-residence.

“John would have been

discovered anyway, but maybe our meeting pushed it forward a couple of years,” de Waart said. “He’s inspirational.”

The same has been said of de Waart, who is one of the 11 candidates in contention to succeed Jahja Ling as the San Diego Symphony’s music director.

Gilmer, the symphony’s CEO, declined to comment on whether there is a greater likelihood for one of the 11 conductors to be chosen to assume Ling’s role. But she was happy to sing de Waart’s praises.

“It is clear when you hear the orchestra under his leadership that there is a great deal of mutual respect, and I could not be happier that we are welcoming him back to San Diego this season, and hopefully in future seasons as well,” Gilmer said.

“I know from conversations with Maestro de Waart that he respects the professionalism and artistry of our orchestra and finds them incredibly responsive and eager to fully engage in the preparation and performance at the highest level of music-making.”

A happy man Much like he is when conducting onstage, de Waart proved nimble when

asked about his interest in becoming music director here.

After quipping that he didn’t know there was an opening in San Diego, he grew more serious.

“Well, if you like to be music director and an orchestra like the San Diego Symphony was offered to you, you’d have to be sort of a loony to not want it or not look at the possibility,” he said.

“I’m not a spring chicken, so it would be a limited engagement. It wouldn’t last 50 years! I don’t want to be music director when I’m 90, and nobody else would want that.

“I have a great belief now in faith, that things happen as they have to happen. It’s not as if I am in an unfamiliar position; I’ve been there a couple of times before.

What any orchestra needs at a particular time is always different — what have they had and what they are looking for is, many times, not the same. ...

“I always say that, first, you need a good musician, because that’s what we do.

If being in the community, shaking hands and cutting ribbons is very important, there are certain people who are very good at it. The best musicians are not usually the most comfortable (with ceremonial duties). I’m a happy man.

And I’ve come back, now and then, to the San Diego Symphony because I’ve had two very good stays and I like making music with them. If there’s more, we’ll find out what works for us.”

Might San Diego’s inviting weather be a factor after de Waart’s five-year tenure with the Milwaukee Symphony concludes next year?

He laughed.

“Well, San Diego is very attractive and I’ve always loved the sea,” he said. “But I wouldn’t move anywhere for the weather, although the last time I came there was from a place where the temperature was, like, 20 below! And I said, ‘Yes, the weather has a little to do with the fact I got up so early to fly to San Diego.’ So I wouldn’t deny that.” george.varga@sduniontribune.com

December 17 - April 16: Departures: 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

l i a S t e S h the Whales! t i w

Auditorium at TSRI

Master pianist Jon Kimura Parker joins principal musicians of the San Diego Symphony for an evening of invigorating chamber music by Ludwig van Beethoven. Concert features Beethoven’s famous Piano Quintet in E-flat Major.

Beethoven’s Ninth

DEC 9 – 8pm | DEC 10 – 8pm | DEC 11 – 2pm

Beethoven’s greatest work will thrill you with its grandness of scale and rousing chorus! Hearing this music live will be an experience you’ll never forget.

Edo de Waart conducts. Featuring the San Diego Master Chorale.

Noel Noel

DEC 16 – 8pm | DEC 17 – 2pm DEC 17 – 8pm | DEC 18 – 7:30pm

Celebrate the season in Broadway style! Musical sensation Brian Stokes Mitchell returns to San Diego for a concert that includes all your holiday favorites, plus some surprises!

FAMILY HOLIDAY CONCERT DEC 18 – 2pm

A one-hour afternoon version of our annual holiday concert spectacular, complete with all your favorite traditional Christmas music, the San Diego Master Chorale and a visit from Santa Claus!

Chanticleer: “A Chanticleer Christmas”* DEC 19 – 7:30pm

Chanticleer has been known around the world for almost four decades as “an orchestra of voices” for the seamless blend of its twelve male voices. The first vocal ensemble voted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame will bring a festive holiday program to San Diego.

Join Birch Aquarium Naturalists and witness the longest mammal migration in the world, when approximately 20,000 gray whales pass San Diego on their annual 10,000-mile round-trip journey from the Bering Sea to the lagoons of Baja California.

Reservations: 619-234-4111 or www.flagshipsd.com

*San Diego Symphony Orchestra does not appear on this program

Full Lineup: SANDIEGOSYMPHONY.ORG

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