Cristian Măcelaru on his appointment as Music Director of the Orchestre National de France
Cristian Măcelaru conducting his inaugural concert as the Music Director of the Orchestre National de France (Photo Credit: Christophe Abramowitz)
Cristian Măcelaru, new life for the Orchestre National de France
By Vincent Guillemin
ResMusica
September 28, 2020
Music Director of the Orchestre National de France as of the start of the 2020 season, Cristian Măcelaru is developing for us the orientation of his thoughts and projects with the ensemble.
ResMusica: You became the new Music Director of the Orchestre National de France a year ahead of the initial date, how do you see this position?
Cristian Măcelaru: The National Orchestra of France and myself, upon the announcement of the advancement of the end of his contract by Maestro Krivine, found it obvious to start together a year earlier than the date initially planned. The only real question was that of the availability of planning so that I could already recover a whole part of the concerts of this season. The pandemic and its consequences on theaters around the world have opened up possibilities and renegotiated some of my performances when they were not already quite simply canceled. I was therefore able to resume most of the evenings planned for Emmanuel Krivine, in order to dedicate significant time to the orchestra this year.
The position of music director is not only about conducting concerts, it is also necessary to be present and to give time, not only to plan the seasons to come, but also to define the future of the formation and its directions. You also have to be there to listen to new musicians when a position is open, and to be there for both short-term and long-term issues, such as tours and recordings. I believe that we were all very happy to find solutions to start together as of this return.
RM: At the end of Daniele Gatti's mandate , some people expressed the idea that the ONF should refocus on the French repertoire, or even impose a French conductor. Emmanuel Krivine arrived, but ultimately did little to treat this part of the repertoire, which is however now registered as one of the pillars of the training. How are you going to seek to redevelop it?
CM: The ONF, for someone from outside, has always had this French identity and this incredible sound, which it has managed to maintain in the full tradition of past [chief conductors], notably that of Jean Martinon. For me, playing French music regularly with this orchestra is therefore a very natural way to celebrate and confirm this tradition. Even though there were times when it was played less, this repertoire is in the very DNA of the ensemble. And since I'm a very curious person, from the first discussions around a potential director's contract, I spent a lot of time discovering new works, in order to include them in the programs.
There are several dangers for French music, in particular that of limiting it to Ravel and Debussy. Obviously, these two composers are phenomenal, but they cannot represent the entire repertoire. This is why, from my opening concert, I begin well with Debussy's Prélude, but immediately bring an equally fascinating and yet far too rare work, with Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 2. In the 16th century an incredible breeding ground for scores, insufficiently highlighted and too far removed by Germanic works of the same period. I think this is a mistake, and if it is so easy to program a symphony by Mendelssohn or Schumann, I do not see why it should not be for a work which is so valuable to me, like the symphony of Saint-Saëns. It comes from almost the same period, has a real flavor, is also influenced by Beethoven's music, so why isn't it more commonly played?
Regarding the music of the 16th century, it often requires very large formations that define the French innovation of this period to create these superb very sensual colors. Unfortunately, we will have to wait until we can use these large orchestras again to develop this repertoire. So, as a first step, we will use the means available to inform and show where this music comes from, and what its roots are. At the same time, I will therefore seek to strengthen the identity of the orchestra, by exploiting its strengths to show them during tours abroad, and give more visibility to the French repertoire outside the borders, but also in France.
RM: Is it indeed one of the other new pillars of the orchestra, exporting its music through tours in France and abroad?
CM: It is difficult to know today which projects will be maintained, but there is indeed the will to develop the tours, in particular the international tour. It is a very important aspect, to remain one of the ambassadors of French identity and culture, with the need to put oneself in difficulty, changing places every day, when it could be so easy to stay in the comfort of the Radio France Auditorium. The tours are particularly important for the cohesion of the group and the understanding of its particularities, but they are also very important when one is part of a mission, to literally represent an orchestra-national-de-France. This is why we are going to develop concerts in France, outside of Paris, and also abroad, with the primary desire to promote French music of the 19th Century.
RM: Besides French, what other repertoires do you want to develop?
CM: From that point of view, I think I'm quite different from other [chief conductors], because I definitely don't want to specialize. For me, the most important thing is to be available to conduct Bach, then Mahler or Boulez, why not even at the same concert. I like to explore all voices, and I think it is even more important for an orchestra than for a conductor not to be confined to a repertoire.
It is imperative that an orchestra of the 21st century will be flexible and open. Of course, I also have preferences, for example Béla Bartók, music that particularly touches me. But that does not mean above all that I am going to force the orchestra to play this composer too often. I also feel very close to Brahms and Stravinsky. The latter is a fantastic artist to train you to become always better, so much his works force you to return, in addition to an implacable mastery, to an incredible form of elegance. It is also important to keep the masterpieces on the program of all the groups, Brahms, Mozart, or of course Beethoven, whose symphonies I conducted during a cycle in Philadelphia.
In addition to what I have just quoted, if I had to keep a single piece to conduct in my life, it would undoubtedly be Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel. Hoping that I have more time, there are some works that I can't imagine stopping directing, and still many others that I must integrate!
RM: What about the contemporary repertoire?
CM: This repertoire is very important to me, which is why I have been director of the Cabrillo Modern Music Festival in California since 2017. It is of course more focused on American music and does not hesitate to overflow on jazz, which I also go on occasionally. This is where the recent Decca album with Wynton Marsalis and Nicola Benedetti emerged, the works of which we should have presented last June in Paris. I also conduct a lot of contemporary music, more Germanic, with the WDR Cologne Orchestra.
In Paris, one of my first concerts consisted of Dusapin's Cello Concerto, premiered a few months earlier by Alisa Weilerstein and myself in Chicago. At the end of his life, I also worked with Pierre Boulez, who instilled in me the importance of promoting today's music. But for me, it should not be integrated in any way and know how to make it correspond to the identity and the repertoire of an orchestra. All this music must find a real balance, both for the musicians and for the public.
RM: Like many concert conductors, we don't see you much at the opera. We can imagine the lack of time, but will you also conduct the Orchestre National de France in posse, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées or at the Opéra Comique for example?
CM: Opera is very important in my life, but indeed, purely because of the lack of time, I conduct very little. When I started my career, I had the choice of becoming an assistant at the Deutsche Oper Berlin or the Philadelphia Orchestra. I chose the Philadelphia because I particularly loved the sound and power of this orchestra, and inevitably, that influenced my trajectory towards becoming a concert conductor. Being at the NFB today will also allow me to conduct it in the pit and I am very impatient with the projects to come with this ensemble on opera.
RM: Do you also have any recording projects with the ONF?
CM: At the moment I cannot position myself yet because we are in discussion, but nothing is yet defined and the financial situation of each in the future will perhaps block projects. On the other hand, you have to know precisely what you want and how you want to record, because I regret the mass of commercial recordings to come out, and much more privilege what one could call the preservation of art .
If you are restoring a painting, you have to take an enormous amount of time and attention to it, in order to preserve the work and restore it to its full strength, preventing it from being damaged. It is only after that that one can also seek to make money with it, but that definitely should not be the initial goal. I have the same point of view with recording: it is very expensive, can bring in a little, but for me it has the primary interest of preserving art, of being a moment to capture an orchestra in time and artists who played that way. It doesn't have to be just another version, it has to add to the already existing discography.
RM: In addition to Music Director of the ONF, you are also, since last season, Principal Conductor at the WDR Symphonieorchester Köln, how are you going to balance these two positions?
CM: It is interesting to note that these two orchestras are integral parts of radios, one of Radio France and the other of the WDR. However, despite this fact, the two formations are very different. The repertoire that I'm going to explore on one side will obviously serve me on the other and vice versa, but my plan is definitely not to play the same works with both, and even less to offer them. same programs with both, as many international chefs do. I never thought of it that way, to the despair of my manager for that matter, who would have loved me to conduct a hundred plays per season, or sometimes one play five or six times in a row with so many different formations. I very rarely repeat the same play twice in a row, and in my opinion this will only happen on very rare occasions in the future.
My thinking is really focused around a unique artistic project per orchestra, not only to challenge the musicians, but also in relation to the audience of each group. Of course, if I discover a fantastic work in Paris, for example the Symphony No. 2 by Saint-Saëns, I will be very happy to reprogram it one or two seasons later at the WDR to make it discover also there, it is already planned!
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