I spoke with conductor David Robertson on the phone a few days ago. He leads the St. Louis Symphony in a program of Richard Strauss, Hindemith and Rouse on Monday night at Segerstrom Concert Hall. He’s a great interview — friendly, talkative, super intelligent. We spoke at some length, and time ran out before I could even ask all my questions.
“We’re clearly having too much fun here,” he told me when he had to go, another interview on the docket.
Click here to read my interview, or pick up a copy of Sunday’s Orange County Register.
photo: Scott Ferguson
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A few years ago, I met him backstage in LA. I brought up Boulez’ Le marteau sans maitre, which I was studying. Not an easy piece, of course. He then launched into a detailed analysis of the piece, sang parts of it in perfect solfege and then demonstrated how he conducts one section of it and how Boulez conducts that same section differently. He did this with no advanced warning of me talking about the piece. Very impressive.
Impressive but not surprising – after all, David is a brilliant musician who led Boulez’s “own” Ensemble InterContemporain for nearly a decade fairly recently.