Word: gergiev
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Musicians are not CDs; they await cues, tempos, phrasing instructions and a host of interpretative intangibles from the guy who's waving a baton at them. If Kaplan at Salzburg did not bring to mind a slick stick like Riccardo Muti or Valery Gergiev, his intense, attentive manner in front of the Philharmonia, the Vienna State Opera Chorus, mezzo-soprano Doris Soffel and soprano Rosa Mannion bespoke a firm grasp. Mahler's heaven-storming climaxes shook the Grossesfestspielhaus to its granite foundations, and anyone who did not feel a chill at the tremendous peroration must either have been dead...
...tenor seizes the title role like Domingo, whose vocal potency and dramatic intensity have redefined the part. As Desdemona, Carol Vaness caresses Verdi's most beautiful music with a pure, radiant soprano, while in the pit, Russian conductor Valery Gergiev, making his Met debut, leads the score with raw power and passion. The live radio broadcast is April 2; be prepared to be taken by storm...
...launch deals like the one with Covent Garden, Gergiev has very little help. Surrounded by old-school functionaries, he must train a staff that can do business with the West. He seems to proceed on instinct, with more than a little of the old Diaghilev in him. Often he will end a long evening on the podium with a couple of hours of nuts-and-bolts negotiating...
...signed Western contracts. The ballet will perform The Nutcracker in Tokyo each year for the next decade. The opera, besides a major contract with Philips Records, has co-production deals going with Covent Garden and La Scala, among others. But it will not return to the U.S. until 1995: Gergiev is wisely wary of overexposure...
...idols is Peter the Great, whose wild equestrian statue he passes every day he is at home. "It is the symbol of the city, of enormous power. Peter wanted to learn, not just to command. With great symbols and images like that, you can't feel hopeless or helpless." Gergiev may need every bit of the emperor's strength -- along with those Kirov vitamins...