Maple leaf maestro

Kent Nagano, conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. (Kasskara/MSO)

Canada seems to amaze Kent Nagano, the visionary music director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, who is taking his musicians across Canada for their first-ever coast-to-coast tour, which started in Yellowknife on April 16 and ends in St. John’s on April 28. The youthful 55-year-old Berkeley, Calif.-born Nagano insisted on the trip when he officially became the MSO’s conductor in 2006, although he admits to “driving his staff crazy” with the request.

“Canada is part of who the MSO is. It’s part of Montreal and Quebec, but it’s also part of this profound and huge nation,” the soft-spoken Nagano said during the recent launch of the symphony’s new season. “I didn’t want our first tour to be overseas. We are, after all, a Canadian orchestra.”

Nagano was hired to rejuvenate Montreal’s premier orchestra after its reputation, and its relationship with its audience, suffered in the wake of a bitter and lengthy labour dispute in 2004-2005. His plans include not only touring the country but also bringing Canadian themes and content to the orchestra’s programming, as his 2007-2008 repertoire shows.

The season launch was held last week at a quintessentially Canadian locale: centre ice at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Nagano even seemed charmed by the chilly setting. “I wondered where all the cold air was coming from, and then, of course, I realized that behind me there’s an immense sheet of hockey ice,” he said, laughing. “Thanks again for another new experience.”

The MSO usually unveils its season with Perrier and canapés at an elegant downtown venue, such as the concert hall or the fine arts museum, but this year, dignitaries stood under the harsh hockey-rink lights with hot dogs and Cokes. This seemed entirely appropriate considering Montreal’s star conductor has programmed what may be a world first: an original symphony to honour Canada’s favourite game and its star athletes, entitled Hockey Legends. In it, Quebec composer François Dompierre will incarnate the beloved organist at the old Montreal Forum and have him interact with the orchestra and a young actor playing a NHL hopeful. “One of the first things I noticed when I first got here was how important hockey is to people. They are very passionate and intense about it. That’s impressive to me,” said Nagano, who went to his first hockey game this spring.

Who knows what will come of this strange blend of contemporary symphony music and hockey theatre. But what the commissioning demonstrates is that Nagano is a risk-taker determined to connect with as many people as possible at a time when symphony orchestras around the world are struggling to survive.

Nagano conducts the MSO. (Kasskara/MSO)

This is not the first time the internationally renowned conductor, who spent six years with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and a decade with the Opéra de Lyon, has attempted to bridge the gap between symphony music and popular culture. In 1996, he convinced Icelandic pop star Björk to tackle the speaking part of Arnold Schoenberg’s 1912 work Pierrot Lunaire. He’s conducted Frank Zappa’s orchestral compositions for the London Symphony Orchestra and recorded a charity CD featuring the voices of Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren. This summer, he has invited Quebec rock group Les Respectables and Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter Antoine Gratton to share the stage.

For his debut concert last year, he put on a citywide sound-and-light extravaganza that was the talk of the town, even among those who would never set foot inside a symphony hall. Thousands sat outside Montreal’s Place des Arts concert hall watching on huge video screens, while tens of thousands more watched or listened live on Radio-Canada radio and television as Nagano conducted the MSO’s orchestra and chorus in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. At the expected starting time of the Ninth, several Montreal churches rang their bells to celebrate the official arrival of the new maestro.

But Nagano doesn’t simply rely on grand spectacles and celebrity appeal to get bums in seats, he also strives for relevance by trying to understand who his audience is. “When you are trying to serve a community, you must always ask the same questions: Why are we here? What is our social relevance? What is the community’s culture that we are operating in?”

His latest object of inquiry is Canada. “It became clear very quickly that I needed to learn more about the history and traditions of both Quebec and Canada before I could begin to put together an appropriate artistic vision,” the conductor acknowledged. Since arriving just over a year ago, Nagano has been drawing on everything from Canadian political history to hockey videos to try to get at what makes this nation tick.

Nagano seems to find inspiration in the most unlikely places. After his daughter came home from a trip to a cabane à sucre (or sugar shack) in rural Quebec, Nagano became fascinated with Quebec folk music and he is now committed to making Canadian folk music a part of the symphonic tradition. In February, he will conduct the world premiere of a new work by Quebec composer Denis Gougeon; in October, he will honour National Film Board animator Norman McLaren by conducting works by Mozart, Rossini and Beethoven over projected excerpts of McLaren films Blinkity Blank and Neighbours.

The conductor is also trying to probe the Canadian psyche by looking at our heroes. Last November, he paid tribute to Terry Fox with a performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. In January, he drew on the upbeat incidental music from Beethoven’s Egmont to honour Roméo Dallaire’s experience in Rwanda. Nagano had actor Colm Feore portray Dallaire in a newly written libretto to accompany Beethoven’s music. While the music was exceedingly moving, the rather plodding text lacked poetry — it read a bit like a long news account of events in Rwanda. But the event was well attended, as have been most of the orchestra’s concerts since Nagano arrived in Montreal.

Nagano has performed little in Canada outside of Montreal, so one of the principal reasons he wants to go to places such as Yellowknife and St. John’s is to learn more about his adopted home. “It’s a great joy to marvel at the richness of Canada,” he said.

Acutely aware that the audience for symphony music is declining, the conductor also hopes that travelling across the country will help spread the gospel of classical music. The repertoire he selected for the cross-Canada tour features classics by Beethoven (one of his preferred composers) and Rossini, and also includes an original composition by Montreal composer Ana Sokolovic. Internationally renowned Canadian soloists Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Michael Schade are also part of the tour.

Nagano, who grew up on a farm in the small community of Morro Bay, between San Francisco and Los Angeles, is also committed to reaching out to smaller communities. “Music belongs to everyone, not just people in big urban centres,” he said. “Direct, human contact with a community is essential.”

The MSO’s remaining tour dates are Toronto (April 21), Kitchener (April 22), Ottawa (April 24), Quebec City (April 25) and St. John’s (April 28).

Patricia Bailey is a Montreal broadcaster and writer.

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