A harmonious relationship

Sunday, February 15, 2004

By Andrew Druckenbrod, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Lorin Maazel is not the retiring type, although it looked that way in the late '90s.

	MUSIC PREVIEW Pittsburgh Symphony Lorin Maazel, conductor Where: Heinz Hall, Downtown When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Program: Olivier Messiaen, "Les Offrandes Oubliees"; Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor. Tickets: $19-$69; 412-392-4900.

One of America's greatest musical prodigies and a director of ensembles such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Cleveland Orchestra, Maazel appeared to be closing out his long career after he left the PSO in 1996 for posts overseas. A "60 Minutes" piece that ran in 2000, asking where the American maestros are, focused on Michael Tilson Thomas.

No one would have been surprised if Maazel, then 70, had faded into retirement. The former East Ender even talked of working on an opera while on his farm in Virginia with his family.

Not so fast. Within the next two years, Maazel was the leader of America's most prominent orchestra, the New York Philharmonic. The process caught many in the business -- including Maazel -- unawares.

"I was so surprised when I came to guest-conduct here, under the impression that they already had a music director under contract, to find out how charming everybody was and how positive the working atmosphere was," he says on the phone in between rehearsals with the Philharmonic in New York City.

Not long afterward, members of the Philharmonic and the board approached him about succeeding Kurt Masur.

"They felt that, 'You as an American do have a responsibility toward us and, we feel you are the right person for us at this time,'" he says.

Perhaps as surprising is how well the tenure has gone. Even critics who had professed not to appreciate his directorship manner and conducting style have begrudgingly hailed the new partnership as a positive one, even if they occasionally dislike a particular concert.

"There is no reason to doubt that the Philharmonic musicians are as happy with Mr. Maazel as they say they are," said New York Times chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini. "With his phenomenal technique and his comprehensive knowledge of the orchestral repertory, he makes life easy for players."

"I did come here not knowing quite how it would all work out, but it has worked out remarkably well in terms of the human factor," says Maazel. "I am made to feel very much at home here. I love working with the band, it is a very professional group, and they just love music."

Now in the second year of a four-year contract, for Maazel, "It's turned out to be a very good decision and one that pleases me enormously."

Those who questioned whether his age was an issue when he took the job have recanted. "Your biological age is a little different from your chronological age," he says. "I mean, you are either up to it or you are not up to it. You could be 30, 40, 50 or 100. Biologically, I seem to be able to deal with all of this quite easily."

Maazel's no-nonsense attitude has fit in well in New York's tough environs. Perhaps it's because he's been working in music at a high level for longer than most people have been alive.

Take this amazing line from the opening of his bio, those typically boring public relations write-ups: "Lorin Maazel became music director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2002, 60 years after making his debut with the orchestra at the age of 12 at Lewisohn Stadium, then the orchestra's summer venue."

Indeed, Maazel's tough manner, his personnel decisions, his interpretative style and his long life have tended to obscure his prodigious past. But it shouldn't be overlooked; it may be some time till we see a pre-teen leading a prominent orchestra again.

But those youthful achievements weren't done on talent alone.

"It's not easy at all -- I always worked very hard," he says. "I come from the generation where people aren't afraid of working, didn't run to the psychiatrist every time they have to put in a few hours."

This is also the case for his ability, from the very beginning, to conduct without music.

"If I am dealing with a new work, it just takes a while to internalize the notes," says Maazel. "But I think it is worth the time and the effort expended because you can do more things as you go along when you are not score-bound."

Before any conductor or musicians despair too much at hearing that he has hundreds of symphonies in his head, Maazel does admit that "I always review music that I am going to conduct again."

It was in preparing for his appearance with the PSO next weekend that Maazel decided to change the program from Krzysztof Penderecki's significant "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima" to Messiaen's lesser-known "Les Offrandes Oubliees."

"The more I looked at it, the more I felt it wouldn't be an appropriate piece to go with Mahler Five," Maazel says. "Prior to the Mahler Fifth, you want something which will lead well into the first notes of the first movements. So it is just a mismatch, put it that way."

Maazel is a close friend of Penderecki, even interviewing him for his personal Web site, www.maestromaazel.com, and regrets dropping one of the only three pieces that PSO had programmed for its "Composer of the Year."

It turns out that cutting back wasn't necessary to achieve one of Maazel's goals. Even with the busy schedule of the Philharmonic appointment, his opera, based on George Orwell's seminal novel "1984," is coming to fruition. It will premiere May 3, 2005, at a European opera house to be announced in April.

From his perch as music director of the Philharmonic, Maazel also is spending more time discussing the state of American orchestras. "It's not a question of audience dwindling or fading away; it's a question of distribution. Like with all the food we grow in this world, you would think there would not be a soul on the Earth who would starve. Yet there are people out there who don't have anything to eat.

"Obviously there is something wrong with the distribution there. So it is with classical music. It is not always distributed in a constructive and audience-building way."

Maazel does believe there are young conductors to carry the torch. The Maazel-Vilar Conductors' Competition of 2002 helped to bring attention to young conductors. He hopes to hold a second competition in three years because he feels that up-and-coming conductors "bring young people into the halls because young people tend to identify with them."

It is hard to find anyone who can identify with the musical prowess of Maazel, but with his profile now higher than ever, more people are able to enjoy what the maestro brings to the podium.

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