Symphonic Shift: The New Maestro’s Moment

Two hundred people crowd into the Garden of Remembrance behind Benaroya Hall to meet and greet Ludovic Morlot, the thirty-six-year-old French conductor who will replace Gerard Schwarz, sixty-three, at the helm of the Seattle Symphony in 2011. It’s a July morning two months before the start of Schwarz’s last season. Like so many young conductors these days, Morlot had a “Lenny moment,” wherein an older, often ailing maestro steps aside before a concert, giving a hot upstart a chance to prove himself (as conductor Bruno Walter famously did for Leonard Bernstein in 1943).

Morlot’s moment came in 2006 when Christoph von Dohnányi withdrew from a performance with the New York Philharmonic. Morlot was already familiar with one of the works on the program, Elliott Carter’s Allegro Scorrevole, a piece he had learned as an assistant conductor for the Boston Symphony. But such stories frequently take on mythic proportions, turning prosperous careers into products of chance. The fact is, Ludovic Morlot is a talented conductor, respected by musicians and full of musical ideas. His moment would have come without Christoph von Dohnányi and Elliott Carter; it just might have happened a little later.

For the past three years, Morlot has traveled the globe conducting the world’s best orchestras.  It is a job that in some ways is easier than leading the recently acrimonious Seattle Symphony is likely to be. Yet for all the challenges that await Morlot, his potential drawbacks, such as his youth, lack of a fully developed musical personality, uncertain repertory preferences and developing leadership style, might actually be good things. Instead of struggling to meet overblown expectations, Morlot can focus on what is most important to him and the orchestra: transforming a very good orchestra into an exceptional one.

Some in the Benaroya crowd agree that his youth will be an advantage, as it proved to be when Schwarz arrived at age thirty-eight.

Regular concertgoer Peter DeMan sees Morlot’s appointment as an opportunity for the orchestra to renew itself. “I went to quite a few concerts with Schwarz, but I think we’re ready to turn the page,” he says.  

Though most of the people assembled in the Garden of Remembrance seem to agree with DeMan, all disagree on what it would mean for the SSO to embark on a period of renewal. Don Crevie is hoping for more contemporary music – Elliott Carter, Toru Takemitsu, Olivier Messiaen. “Anything from the last fifty years would be a nice change,” says Crevie. “I would go more often if he would do more contemporary music.”

“I’d like him to conduct 

what he likes,” says subscriber Robert Hegstrom, who’s been attending the symphony for more than forty years. “I have an open ear and an open mind. I think Gerard has done a great job, but I was delighted with the selection. He appears to be the best available conductor in the world for the position.”

“I appreciated his comments in the Seattle Times that there could be a stronger sound coming from the orchestra, so I’m interested,” says George Woodall. Connie Cooper, executive director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, hopes Morlot will broaden the symphony’s partnerships. “I loved to hear what Morlot said about being more inclusive or more collegial with other arts organizations,” says Cooper.  “That is such a welcome attitude.”

Past board members and musicians agree that how the Seattle Symphony makes music will change. A few musicians cite the conductor’s collaborative style as a winning trait. Former SSO board member and longtime subscriber Patricia Tall-Takacs points to Morlot’s return engagement with the orchestra this past spring, which produced an uncommonly transparent, smartly paced interpretation of Beethoven’s Fifth, as a reason for excitement and an example of what audiences may have to look forward to. •

Photograph by Sussie Ahlburg