This week, the Orchester Métropolitain welcomes conductor Elim Chan in works by Anna Clyne, Peter Eötvös and Nikolaï Rimski-Korsakov. Chosen to be part of OM’s first “women’s” season in 2019-2020, she was unable to perform in Montreal due to the pandemic.
The arrival, in 2020, of Elim Chan was highly anticipated, because the Hong Kong-born chef, who will celebrate her 37th birthday on November 18, had attracted attention by being called upon to conduct, in September 2019, the concert of season opener of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, replacing Franz Welser-Möst.
Even if Elim Chan had been, in 2014, the first woman winner of the Donatella Flick conducting competition, then Valery Gergiev’s assistant at the London Symphony Orchestra, then called to work alongside Gustavo Dudamel at the ‘Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, this concert in Amsterdam was an important step in her career, recognizes the conductor. “I am very grateful for this opportunity, which allowed many people to know me, for example journalists, especially in Europe. »
The influence of the event was multiplied by the telecast on Mezzo. “It’s crazy, it’s even on broadcast now. They play the concerto with Simone Lamsma, the Swan Lakewhile Romeo and Juliet will even be released on recording! But we’re talking about this four years later. The world has changed and I have also evolved as an artist,” notes Elim Chan.
We feel the leader a little stuck by a necessary political correctness. We summarize, then: “In short, it was an opportunity that becomes a trap: you fear in a way that people will stay focused on that, while you are elsewhere on the artistic level. » She laughs heartily and concludes: “I like your wording. »
Sharing
In 2020, Montreal was to be for Elim Chan the opportunity for a meeting that will never happen, that of the late Nicholas Angelich (died in April 2022) in the vsoncerto Emperor, by Beethoven. She was also to direct Flamenschrift, by Guillaume Connesson, a great French composer who is too rarely heard in concert. “I still love Connesson’s music, but I met Anna Clyne and I make it my duty to highlight the work of the female composers of our time. I would therefore like to present This Midnight Hour to the Montreal public. »
As for the Etvös piece, it will allow the conductor to collaborate with her partner, the percussionist Dominique Vleeshouwers. “It’s quite rare. We try to do one or two projects per year. OM was open to this, and Speaking Drums, by Eötvös, not only shows the magic of percussion, but also involves the trumpeter and the percussionists of the orchestra. It is therefore a piece of sharing and which goes well with the work of Anna Clyne: there are colors, wit, grotesqueness and savagery. »
Elim Chan will direct, in particular, this year, for the first time, the famous Staatskapelle of Dresden and the New York Philharmonic. Appearing in front of such legends is no easy feat. “There are pieces from my repertoire that I favor when I start with an orchestra. Scheherazade is one of them, just like the Symphonic dances by Rachmaninov. These works speak to me. When the New York Philharmonic [approchée]they themselves wanted Scheherazade : it was perfect. I want beginnings where I can show, tell my story. With the Staatskapelle, it will be a reduced orchestra program. Around the Rococo variationsTchaikovsky, and Pulcinella, by Stravinsky, we constructed a neoclassical program with scores that the orchestra has not played often. So we can explore together. In the same spirit, at the moment, I often propose the 2e Symphony by Tchaikovsky. Many orchestras played it very little. When there is no tradition, you can bring things, be the advocate of the score. So I can share who I am as an artist. »