![\"Valery](\"http:\/\/www.musicalamerica.com\/mablogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/shapunovGergiev.jpg\")
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By ANDREW POWELL MUNICH \u2014 In every book on time management, there is a chapter about giving your work to someone else. Delegation, they say, is a virtue: an assistant exercises new authority and the delegator accomplishes other tasks, perhaps in other places. Maybe in another country. Or two.<\/p>\n Take Valery Gergiev<\/a>, incoming Chefdirigent<\/i> of the Munich Philharmonic<\/a>. He delegates like a pro, arming r\u00e9p\u00e9titeurs<\/i> and conducting assistants \u2014 many of them from St Petersburg\u2019s Mariinsky Theater<\/a> \u2014 with preparatory guidelines to deliver \u201cGergiev\u201d interpretations on a minimum of Gergiev time. This way, the Russian\u2019s branded, in-person artistry reaches more audiences in more cities. Call it the productization of conducting.<\/p>\n Last December, leading up to and including an MPhil program<\/a> here, Gergiev conducted a choral concert, three operas, and four Stravinsky works, with three different orchestras in three countries, all in one week.<\/p>\n It was quite a feat. It was also, inevitably, a week of headaches, as the controlling artist jumped between scores on a near-daily basis. Featured: a postponement, a cancellation, anxious last-minute rehearsing, an opera company\u2019s embarrassment, and, in Munich at least, shallow musical results.<\/p>\n The conductor\u2019s devotion to the weightiest project of the week, in Warsaw, offers a clue about how much of what audiences hear in a \u201cGergiev\u201d performance reflects his work.<\/p>\n Teatr Wielki<\/a> had hired the Moscow-born conductor for a new production of a Tchaikovsky-Bart\u00f3k double bill<\/a> premiering on Dec. 13. Directed by Mariusz Treli\u0144ski<\/a>, the film noir<\/i> versions of Iolanta<\/i> and A k\u00e9kszak\u00e1ll\u00fa herceg v\u00e1ra<\/i> were a joint venture with the Metropolitan Opera<\/a>, where they arrive next January under Guess Who\u2019s baton.<\/p>\n The assignment came with hurdles, given that the opera company\u2019s orchestra was little accustomed to Gergiev\u2019s ways, the principal singers were mostly new to their roles, the compositional styles of the two pieces were unrelated, and the bill involved the Russian and Hungarian languages in performance by mostly Polish musicians.<\/p>\n All this considered, not<\/i> delegating might have seemed the better part of valor. Indeed, if hearsay is accurate, the week was originally planned at a slightly less frenetic level of activity: just<\/i> the Warsaw double bill and (on Dec. 18) the Stravinsky pieces in Munich.<\/p>\n The parties understood that of the Warsaw rehearsals Gergiev would lead only the final dress, on Dec. 11. Beyond the premiere, the hearsay has it that he was also to conduct the second performance, on Dec. 15, before heading to Munich. For the remaining dates of the brief run, Dec. 17 and 19, the Poles had engaged a second maestro, young Bassem Akiki<\/a>.<\/p>\n The hearsay is credible because the non-updated website of Akiki, as recently as today (April 1, 2014), lists the two dates alone, and, when asked about the original slate for Dec. 15, Teatr Wielki did not deny the suggestion that the Russian conductor was at first scheduled.<\/p>\n But Gergiev gave Warsaw much less of himself even than this modest arrangement (Dec. 11, 13 and 15), and in Munich he appeared tired, possibly weakening the Dec. 18 concert. He conducted Teatr Wielki\u2019s Dec. 13 premiere, and he flew to Munich on Dec. 16 to prepare the Stravinsky, only not from Warsaw.<\/p>\n \u201cUnexpected circumstances did not allow maestro Gergiev to lead\u201d the final dress rehearsal on Dec. 11, stated Teatr Wielki in an email response to questions (confirming a separate part of the hearsay), and so it was postponed to Dec. 12, when Gergiev was available. Besides distress for the cast, this change, according to the hearsay at least, caused the cancellation of an unrelated concert on Dec. 12.<\/p>\n The cast affected was: Tatiana Monogarova<\/a> as Iolanta, Sergei Skorokhodov<\/a> as Vodyemon, Mikolaj Zalasi\u0144ski<\/a> as Robyert, Alexei Tanovitski<\/a> as Ryenye, Nadja Michael<\/a> as Judit, and Gidon Saks<\/a> as K\u00e9kszak\u00e1ll\u00fa.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is absolutely not customary for Teatr Wielki to schedule dress rehearsals one day before a premiere,\u201d wrote the company.<\/p>\n Nor did Gergiev conduct the second performance of Treli\u0144ski\u2019s double bill. That fell to Akiki, even as company managers were trumpeting the participation of the celebrated conductor.<\/p>\n Instead he bolted, apparently with permission, for St Petersburg and rapid-switch programs<\/a> at his own Mariinsky Theater: on Dec. 14 the Verdi Requiem and on Dec. 15 La traviata<\/i>, both necessarily rehearsed by other hands. It was from the Russian city that he flew here.<\/p>\n Warsaw\u2019s astoundingly patient company provided context for Gergiev\u2019s arrangement, pointing out that \u201cthe process of rehearsing\u201d (before the final dress) was the responsibility of a Gergiev assistant who \u201cwas in constant contact with\u201d the boss. And, in a sign that any change of plan had been agreed: \u201cMaestro Gergiev fulfilled his duties for Teatr Wielki.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Munich, normally communicative spokespeople grew taciturn, conceivably out of embarrassment about what they sensed was artistic dissemblance. Still unanswered by the publicly run MPhil are these easy questions:<\/p>\n \u2014 How many hours of rehearsal took place for the Dec. 18 Stravinsky program? How many were with Gergiev?<\/p>\n \u2014 What does the MPhil normally expect of a guest conductor, in number of days with the musicians and number of rehearsals?<\/i><\/p>\n Then again, the Munich Philharmonic has a long stake in this conductor (until 2020) and a bigger problem. He has become hot-to-handle due to his support for Vladimir Putin<\/a> and his seeming confusion of homosexuality with pedophilia. On Dec. 17, amid Stravinsky rehearsals, he was grappling with testy questions at a news conference about these matters.<\/p>\n And the Dec. 18 Stravinsky concert? It brought fine musicianship with more than a hint of interpretive emptiness<\/a>. Being a guest here, Gergiev can get away with such perceptions of disengagement, but he must steel himself for heightened subscriber scrutiny once he takes over.<\/p>\n Photo \u00a9 Alexander Shapunov<\/p>\n Related posts:
Published: April 1, 2014<\/span><\/p>\n
\nChristie Revisits M\u00e9d\u00e9e<\/a>
\nGergiev, Munich\u2019s Mistake<\/a>
\nMaestro, 62, Outruns Players<\/a>
\nGergiev Undissuaded<\/a>
\nStravinsky On Autopilot<\/a><\/p>\n