Alan Gilbert: The conductor as leader

Leadership, Alan Gilbert style:
The non-musical basics of conducting

TOM PURDOM

About ten years ago I observed two performances by a Curtis conducting student named Alan Gilbert and decided he had a future. Last month, at the age of 40, Gilbert became Lorin Maazel’s designated successor as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He has been the chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra for the last seven years and the music director of the Santa Fe Opera since 2003.

Does this mean I can boast about my ability to spot talent? Not really. Mostly it tells us something about the nature of the conductor’s job. I’ve never heard Alan Gilbert conduct a major symphony and I have no idea how I would feel about his interpretations.

Conductors must possess three critical personal qualities. Gilbert attracted my attention because he displayed two of them the first time I saw him conduct at Curtis.

The Curtis opera department was presenting a concert version of an opera, with a different conducting student leading each half. There was nothing wrong with the first half. It was a perfectly respectable effort. The singers sang, the musicians played, everything went smoothly. Then, at the beginning of the second half, Alan Gilbert strode onto the stage and raised his baton. And the opera jerked into life as if a locomotive had given it a sudden yank.

Only a student, and yet….

You could hear the transformation in the way the music sounded, and you could see it in the way the musicians leaned forward in their chairs and dug into their instruments. The guy standing in front of them might be a student just like them, but he had somehow convinced them they should give him the best they had to offer.

A conductor must (a) develop an overall vision and (b) impose that vision on the sounds the musicians in his orchestra are creating. Gilbert had done both, and it showed from the first stroke of his baton.

The first task takes guts: The conductor must make decisions and stick with them. The second task requires the aptitudes that business schools and military academies call leadership.

The second time I heard Gilbert conduct, he led a small chamber ensemble. Once again I was impressed with the authority he brought to his role. But the information in the program notes was even more impressive. That summer, after he graduated, Gilbert was going to lead a large group of Curtis students on a tour of Japan, with Gary Graffman as piano soloist and funding provided by an appropriate foundation.

And now for the third quality

I don’t know how that grant was arranged. But I don’t think it was an accident Alan Gilbert got it. The third quality a conductor needs, it seems to me, is the ability to hustle.

Conductors work with the most expensive “instrument” ever created. If you’re a violinist, you can carry your instrument from audition to audition and demonstrate your abilities. You can practice any time you find a reasonable amount of solitude. But a conductor can’t get near his instrument without a committee’s approval.

Here in Philadelphia several music organizations exist primarily because a local conductor organized them and keeps them afloat, year after year, by doing whatever it takes to raise funds and attract an audience. Most performers can probably survive by relentlessly exploiting the opportunities that come their way. But to succeed as a conductor, you need the drive, the gall, the chutzpah to work the system and create opportunities.

I smiled when one of the news stories about Gilbert’s appointment included a quote referring to his “authority.” Interestingly, Gilbert himself emphasized the importance of listening to the musicians in a recent interview.

Max Rudolf on how to treat musicians

I don’t think that statement contradicts anything I’ve said. One of the pleasures of my career as a music critic was the opportunity to hear the late Max Rudolf conduct the Concerto Soloists during his last years. Rudolf believed conductors should treat their musicians like the talented colleagues they are. “Let them play, let them play,” Rudolf would urge conducting students. But the Concerto Soloists (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) still produced a special, distinctive sound whenever Rudolf led them.

The conductor can develop a personal vision all by himself, or he can do it in consultation with the musicians. Either way, decisions must be made. The leader must take responsibility for the final result.

I still haven’t heard Gilbert conduct a major symphony. This season, he’ll conduct the Curtis Orchestra on February 11 and we’ll have a chance to evaluate his musicianship. I may like his approach, I may not. But I will make a prediction: Thirty years from now, assuming he lives a normal lifespan, Alan Gilbert will still be conducting.