CityLife

Advertorial:Juanjo and Gábor take up their batons in city

Juanjo Mena

Two new maestros officially open their accounts with resident Manchester orchestras tomorrow night – Juanjo Mena at the Bridgewater Hall, and Gábor Takács-Nagy at the Royal Northern College of Music with Manchester Camerata.

Juanjo Mena, the BBC Philharmonic’s 45-year-old new chief conductor and in post from this month, was still feeling thrilled about the orchestra’s change of scenery when I met him at the new studios in Salford Quays.

“It’s unbelievable here,” he said, looking out over the Ship Canal. “I have a similar picture where I work in Bilbao, too. It’s my home, of course, but it’s similar to Manchester: there’s newness and energy there.”

He’s going to need plenty of energy for his opening concert with the Philharmonic tomorrow (and with soloists Susan Gritton and Iris Vermillion and the London Symphony Chorus) – it’s Mahler’s epic second symphony.

“This is a new moment – a new point in the life of the orchestra, and a new life for all of us in Salford,” he says.

It’s a work he knows well. He’s conducted it in Minneapolis and Bergen (where he is principal guest conductor) as well as Bilbao, where he opened the orchestra’s new auditorium with it in 1999. “It has great symbolic value for me,” he says.

Just one week afterwards he conducts a totally different programme with the Phil: almost a re-run of one he did with them at the BBC Proms and very Spanish in flavour.

“Sometimes it’s said that the best vision of the Spanish character and style comes from the French,” he says – the programme starts with Ravel’s Rapsodie Espagnole and ends with his Bolero.

And, he points out, Manuel de Falla (whose suites 1 and 2 from The Three-Cornered Hat are included) studied with Debussy and Ravel in Paris.

Spanish composer Rodrigo is there, too – not with his widely-known Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar, but his Concierto In Modo Galante for cello and orchestra (soloist Asier Polo). “This for me is a more complete work,” says Mena. “And also I am trying to bring our public something new.”

Gábor Takács-Nagy is the new music director of Manchester Camerata, and his concert is very much an introduction to himself. Titled ‘Portrait Of A Hungarian’, the music is by Liszt and Bartók – plus Haydn (who, he reminds me, worked for 40 years in Hungary).

But he is also a north west man by adoption. His wife, Lesley, comes from Burnley, and he’s a fan of Manchester United – “ever since I saw George Best play in Budapest and was fascinated by him”. His English loves will be reflected in his concert next May at the Bridgewater Hall, which contains Elgar, Vaughan Williams – and Haydn’s ‘Surprise’ symphony (no. 94).

“Our country is one where the weather changes abruptly and dramatically,” he says. “And I think the people’s moods can change equally abruptly.

“Also I think Hungarians are as apt to exaggerate things as the English are to understate them. But, for music-making, the Hungarian character has a lot of advantages – music is also full of contrasts.

“For me the fascinating thing is the difference between the composer as genius – who feels, and then finds the notes to express it – and ourselves as performers. We find the notes, in order to show what they felt.”

And if you wonder just how it’s done, there’s more than just the evening concert this weekend.

Gabor is beginning a new strand in the Camerata’s programming, called Unwrapped, with a 3pm interactive session on Sunday (tea, coffee and cakes in the RNCM café from 2pm).

There will be a workshop, discussion and questions, and finally a complete performance of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade For Strings.