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ⓒ The World of Dot

BETWEEN NOTES

Lorenzo Viotti

Words by Antonella Dellepiane Pescetto

Lorenzo Viotti is a charming Swiss conductor, born in Lausanne in 1990, the son of Marcello Viotti, himself a renowned conductor. Lorenzo trained in Vienna and Weimar in percussion and conducting, played in his sister’s heavy metal band and has always lived inside the world of music. After winning countless prizes as a young conductor, Lorenzo is now music director of the Gulbenkian Orchestra, chief conductor-designate of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and of the Dutch National Opera and he performs in all the major theatres of the world.

Our Creative Director Antonella Dellepiane Pescetto has had the opportunity to have a very interesting conversation with the Maestro and his musical experience. The lights go down, the curtain rises…

A.D.P: Before starting, I wanted to tell you that my father was a fan of your father. He went to see him at the theatre several times. Now, we’ll all be coming to see you in Amsterdam in December for Turandot.
You come from an artistic family; sister, soprano, brother, horn player, mother, violinist, and of course, father, conductor. I know from other interviews that all of you have always been free to follow your own paths, but you all chose to follow music anyway, so maybe tell us how all of this came about and what it was like growing up in an environment so full of music?

ⓒ Lorenzo Viotti via ⓒBulgari

L.V: I cannot answer the how, but I think this is a beautiful story, because I think as a parent, you know, you try to give the best education you can to your kids. There is no book which tells you how to do it and from not forgetting your own passions to giving everything to your kids, I think that’s probably the most difficult job on the planet – being a parent. I’m not a parent so I don’t know, but it seems to be like that when I just talk to friends or to my mother. It’s like you’re just blind. Blind from love. But also, you shouldn’t forget yourself, you shouldn’t forget your partner. And with us, you know, it was, of course, sometimes difficult. As kids we did not see our father so often because he was travelling for the passion of his professional calling. Anyway, we always felt connected with our father.

Sometimes, of course, parents invite their kids to follow their path, like if you are a football player and then the little sons want to play football, too, like their father. But our parents accepted the fact that we also liked also other things. I mean, I loved drums, and I was always extremely serious with music, but I did sports at the beginning, and they never, ever put pressure on me for that choice. I always say this again and again in interviews. And, my parents were, actually, lucky to have four kids who loved classical music and who also loved leaving school for eight weeks, to go somewhere else and to leave friends. And, you know, leaving their habits behind them to discover something new. It might have happened that one of us would just hate classical music and hate leaving our hometown. But we were all extremely happy always to travel with them and to go to the opera for hours on end. And yes, it was an extraordinary life. And then of course, after the passing of my father we all chose a path which was different in a way, but at the end of it all we are still all once again connected. I think of him every time I hear notes and every time I am on stage, and I have this very, very particular sensitivity that does not come by mere learning. Yes, it’s in our genes anyway.

A.D.P: If I may, how did music help you get over the loss of your father, for you and for your brothers and sisters?

L.V: It didn’t. Nothing can help. What could help was the feeling we were not left alone in that world because this is the feeling that you have when you lose someone. You are lost, you are like abandoned. But, the fact that we had already been together before (and not because we had to be together) helped us deal with it; there’s no easy way but there is a way to deal with it that has enabled us to be really balanced.

A.D.P: Tell us about your musical career. You passed through piano, percussion, drums, singing, archives, studying Von Karajan and then of course, conducting. So, what memories do you carry with you from your studies, and is there anything in your studies that you didn’t like, or what do you enjoy the most?

L.V: I never liked school. Honestly, before my musical studies too. I liked some of my teachers because in a way, they gave me the freedom I needed to develop myself. But I didn’t like the system, especially in Vienna. I didn’t like the system they had in the school to try to put you into a box. One can’t really study conducting. One might have been helped to find one’s own path. But the student needs to be tested in order to manage leadership and not just told to beat a piece of music. Of course, this is all useless when you are part of an orchestra. So, my way of course was to use that city; I used Vienna as my playground to play chamber music, music as a percussionist, to play in an orchestra, to sing in the chorus, working in the archives to understand music better. Listening to rehearsals – and going every day to them, too. We didn’t have any seats at the opera and standing at the top of the opera house without seeing anything and just watching and listening to music that you didn’t know turned us into sponges. I didn’t sleep at all. I was just taking in everything I could (and not only musically) – a true life experience. For the first time I was living alone, so I was partying a lot and I was doing a lot of sports. I risked a lot of things. So, they were, in a way, extraordinary years for me because I lived through so many things and when I look back now it feels like yesterday. I’m actually 32 years old and all that started when I was 19 and 20 years old, when I started my conducting studies. They didn’t accept me in the class during the first year because I didn’t pass the audition for conducting. But I wasn’t ready. I think I wasn’t ready to face the shadow of my father in Vienna. Because my father was very important in Vienna and I had a lot of pressure meeting people. I had people who helped me, of course, but there were also a lot of people who wanted to see me fall. And that’s what makes you stronger, of course, because I was never afraid of that.

A.D.P: It was interesting for me to understand how you prepare for an opera or a symphonic concert.

L.V: Now I have conducted almost all the composers, When I started conducting and I started for the first time to conduct Beethoven or Bruckner or Shostakovich, I had to know as much as I could about the composer, about his life, about the time during which he composed, what was happening in ballet at the time, what was happening in painting, which war was going on before I had even looked at the music. So now, when I have to conduct Mahler again, for example, now in Vienna, of course, I already have a lot of experience and a lot, actually, considering my age. But still now, even if I conduct (a symphony, for example), before actually starting the music, I first read it again, to find maybe a letter that I had missed. A piece of criticism related to another composer or a witness account, a piece of information or an analysis that perhaps might have inspired me. You undertake research all of your life as a conductor, you search for the truth that you will never find. And then, of course, an extraordinary aspect of it all appears before you – you have an orchestra that you don’t know, or maybe you know, but it’s a piece of music that you didn’t create together. So, you need to adapt. Even if you read everything and you think that you have it all planned and that you think that they are playing this or that you often think wow! it is actually not at all what you had expected. So, you cannot come with expectations. You have to come as prepared as you can, absolutely prepared, because at the end of the day a good leader needs to face the musicians again in order to perform as well as possible.

A.D.P: I know you love Italian opera, and that you think that some productions do not respect it. Even though Italian opera possesses fewer notes than a Wagner, which operas or composers – Italian or other nationalities – do you prefer conducting?

L.V: I really don’t have a preference. I’m actually very surprised that my taste has developed very differently than I expected. But I can assure you that my love for Puccini is eternal and will probably never cease. And you have scores in Verdi, in Mascagni, in Bellini or in Rossini, which were extraordinary but for me there is not a single note too many in the operas of Puccini. I have the same sensation as well with Pelléas and Mélisande by Debussy, or an opera from Strauss. But every opera that I am doing at that very moment is my favourite.

A.D.P: I sang in Bohème, in the Children’s Choir. “Aranci, ninnoli, caldi marroni e caramelle e torroni!” so Puccini is my home, one of my favourites of all time.

L.V: Me too. My sisters as well, we all sang in Bohème.

A.D.P: Another question: what do you feel before stepping onto the podium? Just that very moment before.

L.V: Oh, I just can’t wait to be on stage. Come on! Of course, sometimes when you conduct a very important orchestra playing a very important piece for the first time you are stressed, of course, but for me it’s always good stress.

A.D.P: And do you have any rituals before the performance?

L.V: No.

A.D.P: When you reach that magical moment of harmony, because of course I also had that moment playing in an orchestra, what do you feel during that very moment when everyone bows, everyone takes a breath, every intention of the orchestra is sensed, every breath inhaled and exhaled for and with you?

L.V: I just feel at home. If you see my face, I probably have a big smile because I have succeeded. For me success is when I feel that people have a connection with each other. So, all that work, all that sweat, all those sleepless nights, all those studies are for that moment, yet in that moment – and you have no idea why – you don’t know what you are doing, you cannot repeat it. But, during that very moment everyone is here, and everyone is connected. This is harmony. Fortunately, it doesn’t happen that often, because then you would be used to it, and it would fade and die.

A.D.P: If you hadn’t followed a musical career, what do you think you would have done? Which other cultural fields do you like most?

ⓒ Orlando Tales magazine, The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

L.V: It’s a very difficult question. Something that I would have to like, to be passionate about, obviously. I really don’t imagine myself doing a job just to do a job. And then, on the other hand, if you don’t have a choice, well, you need to eat as well. So, I probably would have risked doing something that I loved which was maybe not so banal or not so secure. I have a lot of interests concerning many things. And, of course, I would have one type of art which would have been extraordinary in my eyes. I don’t draw very well, for sure. I haven’t designed anything. I like sculpture so much that I’m more touched by sculpture than by paintings. I like poetry, to listen to a good text, read by a good actor. This is like singing to myself and I love to recite to myself, too. It’s also like opera; before you sing, you should also be able to act. And then I think I would have done something which is related to big competitions and the sports that I love as well.

A.D.P: Last question. With Orlando I try to bring young people closer to themes and topics that unfortunately tend to be for more mature audiences. Theatre, literature, opera, vintage cars. How do you think we could attract more young people to the theatre and to the opera?

L.V: It’s going to be a very long process, but I can tell you that one thing that doesn’t attract young people is to make tickets cheaper. Even in the field of art, the art fans will also want to play in the Champions League. This deserves special attention, and it will not happen if the spectator pays ten euro for a ticket. There is a difference between someone who is in their twenties or if someone is in their thirties. Probably, nowadays, a young person in their twenties will not have as much attention for such a long time because they have so many other interests everywhere in the world that might be attracting them. And, it would be normal if, before anything else, they might prefer to go to a concert with Beyoncé than to see La Traviata at La Scala.

Then, it depends on their background as well. Everything starts at school for children, and they are not, of course, taken immediately to see an opera, or a special concert for families. But maybe it is more important to invite children to experience an orchestra, so that they feel this new world, that they feel the atmosphere, they see the work. It’s like taking a child to the final of the U.S. Open. Even if they don’t like tennis, they would like it, because of course, it’s loud and everything, so it would be easier. But if you take this young child to a training session with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer and give them a racket so that they can try to play that, indeed, would be different.

And with the theatre it is the same. Take them on stage, take them and tell them that they have to play a story or play an instrument. Then, step by step, when they’re older, when they are thirty, they will probably have already studied and will perhaps have gained a little bit more financial security. Then, you might offer them a chance to enjoy such an experience. Send them a driver to meet the artist after the show. Let them have a nice glass of champagne in the interval. People want to dream. You go to the theatre and you go back in time. There are a lot of possibilities, but we need to accept that it will take time and we might lose twenty years because we have been employing traditional ways to do things or presenting classical music that just doesn’t work anymore. This is the way things are. And, rich countries, especially, like Germany, Austria or Italy, should wake up. But never forget that we are like the élite of that art, so we cannot sell ourselves cheap. This has nothing to do with attraction, people still pay, without having a lot of money, 150 euro to go to a football game. This is a very good example. Why can’t they pay the same to sit in the first row at the theatre? Because, you know, it’s obviously not enough, what we are giving them. We need to encourage them to consider a different approach.

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