Instrumentalists of the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) like working under the internationally renowned conductor Gunther Herbig for two reasons, I gather. One of them is that he has a natural authority on the podium that makes them give of their best. The other is that, when he stops the orchestra in rehearsals, he invariably puts his finger on what’s wrong. The musicians understand this because as often as not they too know what the particular problem is in advance.
Herbig has recently been appointed the NSO’s Artistic Advisor and Principal Guest Conductor until 2010, and is currently in Taiwan to conduct three concerts. The first of these takes place in Taipei’s National Concert Hall this afternoon.
When I spoke to him earlier this week I began by asking him where he spent his youth. Internet sites had disagreed, I found, one stating it was the former East Germany, the other the former Czechoslovakia.
“Both are correct in essence,” Herbig replied. “I was actually born in what is now the Czech Republic. But we were Germans and my family later moved to East Germany where I was brought up.”
Born in 1931, Maestro Herbig was able to move to the West in 1984. Was that difficult, I asked.
“We managed it because I had permission to conduct in Western Europe and the US. But how to get our three children out was the problem. Eventually we managed it, but we were unbelievably lucky. Without the help of the US government I believe it never would have been possible.”
He first visited Taiwan in 1991, he told me, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. They played two concerts in the National Concert Hall. Then last year he was invited to conduct two programs with the NSO, and at around that time was asked if he would be interested in the post of Musical Director. Because of other commitments he found it impossible to accept, but agreed to the idea of advising on the whole NSO program and visiting three times a year to conduct. He’ll be here again in December, and then in late spring 2009.
Gunther Herbig will conduct two concerts with the NSO in Taipei, this afternoon and on Thursday evening, both in the National Concert Hall. This afternoon’s concert features Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, and Brahms’ Symphony No. 1. The soloist in the Mozart concerto is the 28-year-old Russian pianist Alex Kobrin. Thursday’s concert will contain Weber’s overture Oberon, Sibelius’s Violin Concerto and Schubert’s Symphony No. 9, “The Great.” Leticia Moreno will be the violin soloist. The concert in Kaohsiung on September 20 will repeat the Meistersinger Prelude and the Brahms Symphony No. 1, and add the two Beethoven Romances for Violin and Orchestra, and another by Pablo Sarasate for two violins and orchestra, played by the NSO’s two concertmasters.
“So far virtually all I’ve seen of Taiwan is my hotel room and this concert hall,” he said.” But I’m looking forward to getting to know Taiwan’s incredible cultural heritage of Chinese art and culture during the times I’m here.”
I asked what the NSO’s strengths were.
“The orchestra has a very high standard,” he said. “It possesses what I call a professional quality — a determination to be as good as possible.”
Didn’t that apply to all orchestras, I asked.
“No,” replied Herbig. I couldn’t help smiling, but thought it was better to leave it at that.
“The NSO has a young spirit,” he continued. “They’re enthusiastic, and they already have a wide repertoire.”
They had a Composer in Residence, he added — David Chesky, the only American jazz composer ever to have been nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition category. He should certainly widen the orchestra’s horizons.
I next asked about musical life for classical musicians in the US and Europe.
“Standards are very high in the US,” Herbig said. “Sponsorship accounts for around 40 to 45 percent of funding there, whereas in Europe government support is more usual. In the UK it’s somewhere between the two, with support from the National Lottery and a little from government in the form of the Arts Council.”
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