Interview: Getting 'Fantastic Results' with Great Orchestras Makes Conductor Manfred Honeck Happy

Nobody puts conductor Manfred Honeck in a corner--except, perhaps the maestro himself. For instance, he makes no bones about viewing himself as the quintessential mittel-european maestro.

Yet, he isn't...exactly.

Yes, as you begin speaking with him, you might believe that the day begins and ends with Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Richard Strauss and others of that ilk. (This also includes Tchaikovsky, who's on the program at the San Francisco Symphony, where Honeck will be debuting with three concerts starting May 25, though so is Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti­­--a horse of a different color.) And he feels that the music of Mozart--he's doing all Mozart with the Chicago Symphony, June 8-10--and Haydn help keep musicians in good shape for playing all the composers that came after them.

But things are a little different on his home turf with the Pittsburgh Symphony ("right from the start, I knew this was a wonderful orchestra"), where he spends about 15 weeks a year and is celebrating 10 years as Music Director. (His "home" home is outside Vienna, where his wife and children reside.)

He frequently brings audiences the masters of 21st century through its Composer-in-Residence program. These include John Adams, Richard Danielpour and Steven Stucky, among many others. (The Bay Area's Mason Bates was twice the star attraction.). And, not so long ago, when the New York Philharmonic called because Zubin Mehta was laid low by an illness, Honeck took the helm of the orchestra, after some study and soul-searching, with Ravi Shankar's Sitar Concerto, with great success.

Doing his homework

While he's not about to abandon his favored repertoire for the 21st century, Honeck's experience with the Shankar might just have proven to him that he can take on some more unfamiliar large-scale works with a little less preparation than he's used to. Of course, that doesn't mean he's not still someone who believes in doing his homework before he walks into a rehearsal.

On the day I sat down with him, prior to a Philharmonic concert featuring Mahler's First Symphony and Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, he'd already had what I would consider more than a full day. He'd had a concert in Pittsburgh the night before (the Percussion Concerto of current Composer in Residence, James McMillan) found his flight to New York cancelled and then made alternative arrangements to fly via Detroit (where the flight was delayed), arriving in the Big Apple at 2 a.m. His first rehearsal in New York--for a series of concerts featuring, yes, Beethoven and Mahler--was to begin at 10 a.m.

Of course, Honeck wasn't precisely starting from scratch in New York, since the orchestra knew his style from previous collaborations. He has also conducted the featured pieces many times and so, for that matter, has the orchestra, which has played it with a dozen other conductors, each with a different approach. (The Philharmonic's long history with the Mahler goes back to its US premiere under the composer's baton, in 1909.) But this maestro has his own way of doing things--and, happily, finds orchestras open to his very precise approach.

Having received Honeck's annotated version of the score in advance, the Philharmonic also had an idea of what to expect from his Mahler. (Supplying his own scores for certain works is one of his 'things.') And while they may have had some of their own ideas about the work, Honeck's thoughts on it are very clear, developed from much time studying the music and, of course, working with other orchestras on it and fine-tuning an approach that would eventually deliver a multicolored performance in New York.

On being a guest conductor

What is it like for you to be helicoptered in for a few concerts--as in New York, San Francisco or Chicago this season--as opposed to working with his regular orchestra, I ask him?

"Many people don't understand what it means to prepare a piece," says Honeck. "Take the program of Mahler and Beethoven for the Philharmonic, both pieces familiar to the orchestra. Nevertheless, my duty is to prepare the piece as well as it can be. What does this mean? Not only for them to know the notes; it is also to know the background. Why did the composer compose it? What circumstances did the composer write this under? What is the theme, did he take some other influences?

"So there's a lot of research before I go to the orchestra. Every conductor needs to know the music, but not everyone does the research, because you can conduct without that. It's just that certain things may be missing from the interpretation."

Knowing how a piece should be performed

"I believe it is enormously important that, when you go to the orchestra, you know how the piece should be performed--because Mahler found that the orchestra of his period changed tempos all the time and he fought against it. He was forced to write very clearly 'don't change the tempo' or 'nicht shleppen'--don't slow down too much--or to take only a only 'luftpause' (a little kind of air breath) because the musicians did certain things that, today, we find unbelievable. And it wasn't only the tempo."

Honeck explained that Mahler took Austrian folk music into the world of the symphony and expanded on details from Bohemian and Viennese music-making in shaping the score. For example, Honeck has done much research in the Austria of Mahler's time and uses his own experience playing folk music (waltzes, polkas, marches, which show up in Mahler's 1st) on the zither and music from the Viennese tradition on the viola, as a musician in the Vienna Philharmonic. "We have to know that when he wrote this upbeat, it comes from the Alps"--he yodels a bit--"in the Tyrol, and was so common to hear." These kinds of things color Honeck's expectations of the orchestral performance.

"Mahler also conducted his piece, of course, which was necessary when these works were new, in order to make sure they were played as he wanted them to be. He knew exactly what the musicians would automatically give to him when they were left to their own choices. For example, he found portamento"--a gradual slide of pitch from one note to another-"was the common choice. Mahler had to write in his score 'Don't use portamento here,' otherwise the musicians wanted to play that way all the time, instead of doing it only when he asked for it.

Sending ahead his own versions of the score

"Yes, it takes me a great deal of time to prepare this way, because when I come to rehearsal I usually have three days to bring the orchestra to the appropriate interpretation. I, of course, have had, oh, five years to get there."

Sending ahead his own versions of a score may seem an unusual approach, but it helps him get the kind of sweeping performance he can get from the Mahler, although some works are under copyright and he can't do this sort of thing. But with Mahler, he made an arrangement with the publisher to keep a set of scores only for him, with his markings. No one else can have his set. "It takes for me a lot of time to write the bowings in every part, or write the dynamics changes in, or corrections that may be necessary," he says. An orchestra may know the work in its own way, but Honeck's parts have the tempo or upbow, or show that the score may have been published showing Mahler wrote "piano" when he really wanted "pianissimo."

"The luxury for me is coming to the first rehearsal and knowing the musicians already have my notes and so I can immediately work on the important things," Honeck explains, "and not have to discuss much about bowings or dynamics. I believe the only way you can get fantastic results is to talk about the background of the piece and that what Mahler means when he says 'like a sound of nature' (marked near the start of the piece), is that, in nature, sound doesn't stop, that it has its own rules.

On working with a soloist

Of course, working with a soloist, as Honeck frequently does, has a different set of rules.

"Normally, I like to work with people with whom I know the performance will work very well, but I'm also happy to get to invite younger talent," he explains. In New York last February, for example, he worked for the first time with the orchestra's young artist-in-association, pianist Inon Barnatan; in San Francisco, the soloist is baritone Matthias Goerne, whom he performed with at the Berlin Philharmonic ("I'm a big fan of his voice"), while in Chicago, there are two guest artists: pianist Paul Lewis, whom he worked with at the Boston Symphony ("a wonderful soloist") and a newcomer, soprano Regula Muhlemann ("a young, pure voice") whom he requested for the concerts ("After her audition, I knew I wanted to give her a chance for a debut with me").

Knowing what it's all about

"I expect that, coming in, both of us know the music very well and that we come together to work at a level where we know what it's about," he says. "The only thing we don't know is: for me, what are their ideas, what specific things they have in mind; for them, what are my views on the music. Of course, I have to remind myself that, as a conductor, I have to accompany the soloist," says Honeck. "So I am very much willing to support the soloist except if they have a very controversial interpretation. If somebody plays ridiculous things, of course I will protest and say this is not possible--but, happily, it's never really happened."

Where does this put the orchestra? "Most often, the orchestra has experience with a piece and brings their usual interpretation--if it does not fit in with what I and the soloist think, then we have a discussion. Generally, if the conductor and soloist agree on the approach, the orchestra will go along automatically. A [great] orchestra knows that when a soloist plays something differently, they will follow him [or her]."

So, as someone who comes in very well prepared, does Honeck find that his expectations are met most of the time? "To a large degree, yes. But if you are a perfectionist, you always want 100 percent. To be very satisfied all the time. Hmmm. I'm happy if I get back a big proportion of what I expect. How do you count a success? If a horn player cracks a note, you get annoyed a little, but for me the worst case is if I ask for something from the musicians and don't get it. To make a great orchestra play something especially good in musical terms, that makes me happy. But we must be honest: In the end you have to let it go and say, okay, we worked hard and now we play. And, I must say, I'm mostly not disappointed."

Neither are audiences, judging from the reception at the opening of the Philharmonic concerts, where there was much cheering and little rushing out after the final bar of music-not all that common in New York.

On building audiences for tomorrow

Audiences--specifically, bringing new audiences for classical music--are a subject much on Honeck's mind. Where are they coming from, I ask?

"That's an enormous, enormous question that every orchestra has to face. Every institution has to give its own answer: There isn't a single model that says 'do this, then it works'. Yes, the orchestra plays fantastically but it's not enough," he explains. ""For certain, however, you can't just play the traditional audience-pleasing pieces. I can't do a Beethoven's 9th every year--it's impossible."

He explains, "The music repertoire is so rich; the challenge is just to let people know what is out there--and to get the audiences in. We go out to the community and play in schools, churches, small groups, to get people to understand that there's something great going on in Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh."

In particular, he believes that the orchestra's relationship to schools and students must be the highest priority--although building audiences, whether young or older, is an expensive proposition. (Honeck plays a willing role in the Pittsburgh's fundraising activities.) "I believe every institution has to spend more time reaching young people. As you know, as a rule, music is not taught any more in the schools and we at arts organizations must do something to help offset that situation. At the Pittsburgh Symphony, for example, we have a good education program, Fiddlesticks"--a family concert series--"and we offer cheaper tickets to students for regular concerts. But we need to do as much as we can.

"The establishment of the arts was something unique in the history of humans. You cannot give that up because I really believe that any society that ignores art will die away," he avers. "We should fight for it and be willing to do whatever we can to help those who hold the purse strings to understand that art can change, can enrich, your life--which I think it does for millions of people."

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Manfred Honeck is conducting upcoming US concerts in San Francisco and Chicago:

May 25-27 at 8 pm

With the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Hall, he will be performing Shostakovich's

Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti, with baritone Matthias Goerne, and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5.

June 8 at 8 pm, June 9 at 1:30 pm and June 10 at 8 pm

With the Chicago Symphony at Symphony Center, he will be performing an all-Mozart concert with pianist Paul Lewis and soprano Regula Muhlemann.

Overture to La clemenza di Tito
Symphony No. 35 (Haffner)

Piano Concerto No. 27

"Exsultate, jubilate"
"Laudamus te" from Mass in C Minor
"Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio"