This morning we began rehearsals for the upcoming week’s program. We have a new, young guest conductor – Aziz Shokhakimov; a new, young soloist – Yossif Ivanov; and a spectacular new concertmaster – Sarah Kwak. All are featured in this week’s program.
I’m happy to report (at least in my own opinion) that our guest conductor is quite a find! He’s making his US debut with the Oregon Symphony, and he seems to have the goods. I am almost always initially very skeptical of new guest conductors. Especially very young ones (Shokhakimov is just 25). But as we rehearsed Rimsky-Korsakoff’s Capriccio Espagnole, I became aware of how thoroughly he was really listening to what the orchestra was doing, and comparing that to his inner
conception of the piece, and — this is the key part: making adjustments with his gestures on the fly to produce the results that he desired. Most (good) seasoned conductors have grown adept at doing this (our music director Carlos Kalmar is a master of this), and it is rare to find this capacity in one so young as Shokhakimov. He also has very clear ideas about how he wants things to sound,and how the piece unfolds. I am eagerly awaiting our rehearsals with him and our violin soloist in Dutilleux’s violin concerto L’arbe des songes (Tree of Dreams), and in Tchaikovsky’s great Pathétique symphony. Stay tuned!