Ravinia 2019, Issue 5, Week 9

“Once you’ve gone through the standard repertoire three times, that’s when people start to go, ‘Okay, it’s the same-old, same-old,” Slatkin says, re ecting on knowing when to look to new horizons. Beyond that, a directorship brings with it an expectation to boost the pro le of the orchestra in the commu- nity and make an impact on arts education; “If you can’t do it in years, you’re ine ective,” Slatkin observes, “and if you can, you have to decide if you can make it grow or step aside.” At the end of each of his tenures, “I thought I had accomplished all I could accomplish. It became about maintenance rather than growth.” Nevertheless, he was able to make growth happen. Review- ing his accomplishments in Detroit, Free Press critic Mark Stryker wrote, “Under Slatkin’s watch, the DSO’s identity has morphed from an institution on life support into a nancially stable, accessible, tech-savvy and artistically vital orchestra that’s deeply engaged with its community and back on the national radar as a feel-good comeback story.” But leadership dynamics have changed since he became music director in Saint Louis in , Slatkin says. At that time, typically the music director conducted more concerts and made more decisions. Now that administrators do more programming and take more artistic lead, he nds that “I’m old-school. I still like to be in charge of it all.” During the Solti years, Slatkin was a regular guest conduc- tor in Chicago, o en leading three or four subscription weeks, usually with an emphasis on English or American music. “Maestro Solti was very kind,” he says, recalling the era when he, Solti, Erich Leinsdorf, and Claudio Abbado made up the CSO’s “gang of four.” But a summer concert, with one or two rehearsals, is a dif- ferent environment. “Sometimes that creates an extraordinary performance, because of the edge-of-your-seat aspect,” Slatkin says. He and the orchestra both know Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade well—the CSO has played it both downtown and at Ravinia in recent years—so the rst run-through will be to compare their ideas and “meet somewhere in the middle.” Slatkin’s usual rehearsal procedure is to run a piece through once, making mental notes of problems or desired changes. On the second pass, he will try to conduct in a way that could x the issue. If that doesn’t work, he’ll stop and make a comment, “and if I get a question or see a look, I’ll explain why. But it’s never appropriate to say, ‘Because I feel it this way.’ If you’re taking a ritard , maybe it’s to give the harmony some space, or to set up the next phrase. ere always has to be a reason.” He’s found that musicians generally prefer minimal dis- course from a conductor during rehearsal, but when time al- lows, Slatkin will provide context for his take on a work. In the time-compressed rehearsals for Scheherazade , however, he will have to save his thoughts about the interest in “exotic” sounds from Asia that overtook many Western composers in the late th century, including Rimsky-Korsakov. If a musician raises an eyebrow, “I’ll say I’m doing it for a speci c reason, and if you’re curious, ask me later.” “A conductor’s job is mostly silent,” Slatkin continues. When he is teaching, a favorite exercise of his is to put on a video of A F T E R L ONG , S U C C E S S F U L S T I N T S at the helms of three major orchestras, Leonard Slatkin, who celebrates his th birthday in less than a month, is enjoying the slower-paced life of a guest conductor. ¶ Slatkin stepped down as music director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in , marking the end of a - year run as a music director in the United States— rst in Saint Louis, then the National Symphony in Washington, DC, then Detroit, which has named him its Music Director Laureate. (He has also been Conductor Lau- reate of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since the conclusion of his tenure.) His calendar has far more open weeks now, but he will return to Ravinia to conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a program of Rach- manino and Rimsky-Korsakov on August . CYBELLE CODISH JULY 29 – AUGUST 11, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 25