Musician between Brahms and Björk
Koos de Wilt - Algemeen Dagblad
June 7, 2008

Next week, The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes its new Music Director, when Yannick Nézet-Séguin will succeed Valery Gergiev. What did you say your name was? "Just call me Yannick."

It is the 23rd of January. Outside it is grey and cold, the type of weather Rotterdam owes its reputation of being a wind hole. Inside a love affair is born. Before an audience in rain coats, Yannick Nézet-Séguin (32) gives a free lunch concert in de Doelen. It is not his first performance in Rotterdam, but it is the first one since his appointment as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and his succession of Valery Gergiev was announced. The Main Hall is fairly full. The audience is curious about what the new conductor looks like. In photographs he looks handsome and buoyant, but he still needs to be scrutinized by the people's own eyes and ears.

"Neeezèh seeegúh..." the orchestra's Managing Director Jan Raes, goes, "with a g as in 'gun'. No, Yannick is not from Turkey, he is from the French part of Canada. His father's name is Séguin, and when Yannick was eighteen, he put his mother's name before that: Nézet-Séguin."

Appointing a conductor is a delicate process. There are many musicians in an orchestra and just as many opinions. Secrecy is important. In 2005, after Gergiev had announced his resignation, Raes formed a search committee. First it consulted the members of the orchestra, and then the question needed to be answered what type of conductor would be good for the orchestra. There was no time limit, and the new conductor could be looked for all over the world. There was one stipulation: a candidate had to have worked with the Rotterdam Orchestra, or had to be willing to work with it.

Raes was still working for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic when he spotted Nézet-Séguin in 2003. A 'brilliant chameleon', Raes calls him. "Yannick can handle all kinds of music: Beethoven, Bach and Strauss. He is a great inspirator, he has a nice personality, taste and guts, and it is especially that last quality the orchestra likes. The Rotterdam Philharmonic is an orchestra that likes to take risks. And the love is mutual." Yannick's choice for Rotterdam has to do with the flexibility with which the orchestra can change from one style to another, according to Raes. Both conductor and orchestra can perform new music as well as old.

"When he was a child, everything inspired him: animals, plants, people." In the Canadian city of Montréal Claudine Nézet paints the picture of a special child. "He had a talent for many things: written and oral. He was always very communicative. Children looked up to him, both at elementary school and high school,  also the older children. If there was a party, they were always talking about what Yannick had done..." Yannick belonged to the gens de leader, Claudine says in French. She relates of a good humoured child that always knew what it wanted.

Both Granddad and Grandma were teachers, Mom and Dad met each other at university. They graduated in statistics and geometry, and they both specialised in developing exams. 'An ordinary family,' Nézet-Séguin says, with two daughters and then suddenly a son.

"He had his first piano lessens as a five-year-old, and soon appeared  to be extraordinarily talented. When he was ten, he told me he knew what he wanted to be: a conductor", says Claudine Nézet. "He could have been a technician or an architect, or he could have gone into communication, but no, he wanted to be a conductor, he had it all worked out. When he was twelve, he asked me to go to the conservatory and get some information. No, I never considered not doing that. Yannick was very serious about it. He studied the piano and reached the highest level. His examiners advised him to become a concert pianist but he always knew for sure he wanted to become a conductor."

Such a perfect child, that's almost impossible. But no, she cannot think of anything negative. "He is very self-controlled, he is nice, zero pressé." One more week and she will stop working at the university and devote herself completely to Yannick. She keeps his website up to date, takes care  of his contracts and his agenda. Together they invented a title for her: executive assistant.

"Koetmidáák." It is the 18th of March, the St. Matthews Passion is being rehearsed and Nézet-Séguin's Dutch is getting better. He lets the orchestra play through large sections of the music, does not interrupt and evaluates efficiently. "She (Helena Rasker) is heaven, earth (the orchestra) is far away." The conductor rehearses quickly, even hurriedly and breaks off his sentences as soon as he feels he is understood.

The music sounds fresh, dancing. To explain the psychological meaning of the text he uses colours. "Wer hat dich so geschlagen... RED!" Gradually the orchestra and the choir are becoming true witnesses to the passion of Christ. In the "Erbarme dich", a miraculous triangle between conductor, solo violin and alto develops. The conductor almost draws the music from the singer's mouth. Intense magic. With his baton he draws a small space in the air, in which music and nothing but music rules. Suddenly he walks into the hall, tests, tastes, walks from left to right as a restless animal that awaits its chances.

During the break, the musicians praise their new chief. "He gives the orchestra the feeling that he is very much involved, says violinist Ebred Reijnen. Nézet- Séguin performs the St. Matthews Passion with a small orchestra. Reijnen is really happy that he could substitute for an unwell colleague. Yannick is a conductor who is with the orchestra." And: "He is efficient, and doesn't let his ego get in the way. He is generally not hampered  by his ego anyway."

After the break a small boys' choir climbs onto the stage. Nézet-Séguin politely listens to their singing, then taps his baton and says: "I think you are shy. But now you have to impress." He sticks his chest out, and one by one the little singers grow five centimetres taller. What happens next is no less than a miracle. Somewhere in this small country, in which we worry about traffic jams, usurious insurance policies and populist politicians, there is a sieve that filters out these beautiful sounds and brings them into this wonderful hall. The members of the orchestra have a lump in their throat. Yannick thanks them with a: "Yes, beautiful."

At the performance, the St. Matthews Passion sounds as if the volume of the orchestra has been turned down quite a bit. At first the music sounds 'small', even careful and the tempo seems to be slower than during the rehearsal. Is it because the hall is full and the sound is absorbed by the audience? In this season of flues and dry coughs the audience is unusually quiet. And slowly, with the intimacy of chamber music, Yannick Nézet-Séguin builds up his Passion. Gradually the choirs start to sound larger. After the last word ('Ruh') an unusually long silence follows in which the conductor keeps his arms lifted up. The audience holds its breath and waits with its applause until the conductor drops his arms. The conductor is conducting the audience.

What is actually Yannick's favourite music? (‘Yes, everybody can call me Yannick.’) He thinks about it for quite a while. "How can I answer that?" Then he says: Brahms and Björk. His favourite film? Dancer in the Dark, also with Björk. He likes to dress in Prada and his favourite sport is tennis. He just has had his first lessons. Favourite soccer club? "I guess I have to say Feyenoord..."

Questions about yesterday's performance of the St. Matthews's Passion are easier for him to answer. He says he concentrated on musical clarity. "Bach's music has all the styles in it. I think it is important to bring out all those different styles. You can only do that if you do it sincerely, with accurate rhythm and precision." He calls his job a vocation. He tries to make his musicians feel comfortable, so that he can take them to the core of what he wants.  "The enemy of making music is the feeling you are not free." And that is why the shoulders need to be relaxed." You never know what will happen, that is also the beauty of music."

He is thrilled about the fact that he can perform his first St. Matthews Passion in the Netherlands, with is great Bach tradition. "It was really my goal to work in Europe, where the music comes from. The importance of music does not need to be defended here, it speaks for itself, it is part of the culture."