And next week Dunedin audiences get the chance to see what all the fuss is about. Nigel Benson meets Mark Wigglesworth.
Mark Wigglesworth offers the loveliest image for conducting an orchestra.
"It's like holding a bird in your hand," he says. "If you hold it too loosely, it will fly away. If you hold it too tightly, it won't sing. With an orchestra, you are operating somewhere between the two."
A beautiful analogy from a man who was originally known for his fiery intractability.
The baton-wielding bad boy leads the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov in "The Great Romantics" next week.
The noted English conductor was something of an enfant terrible in his early career.
BBC classical music supremo Sir John Drummond championed Wigglesworth in the early '90s, but in his memoir, Tainted by Experience, was guarded in his praise of his young protege.
"Despite his considerable charm, he [Wigglesworth] is not an easy person, being most inflexible in his choice of repertory and not always successful in the realisation of his own choices," the great man wrote.
"Several orchestras have reacted strongly against him, though others are entirely favourable. It is mysterious."
Wigglesworth is stunned when I bring this up.
"All I'd just say is that he was a big supporter of mine, but, how should I say this . . . he's had something to say about most people. He felt very strongly about some things. But, I'm still a big supporter of his."
Wigglesworth was just 25 when he won the high-profile Kondrashin Conducting Competition in 1989 - three weeks after graduating from the Royal Academy of Music and seven years after leaving Bryanston School.
He was immediately deemed a conducting sensation and dubbed "red hot" by Classics Today.
But, he fell from grace after Drummond appointed him associate conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Wigglesworth had a very public falling-out with some members of the orchestra, who reportedly found him "callow and arrogant".
"The thing is; you can't practice conducting an orchestra at home," he says.
"I started off very young, which has its pluses and minuses. But, it's hard learning when you're under the spotlight. Some orchestras are more understanding of that than others. I think they [the BBC Symphony Orchestra] wanted to perform major works with someone more experienced.
"To be in the limelight when one's not very good is tricky. But, I don't regret it, because the opportunities I got meant that I learned fast."
As one critic noted: "It didn't help that he wasn't very tall and looked about 13."
After that initial baptism of fire, at age 30 he was appointed principal conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; a position he held from 1994 to 2000.
He then answered his critics in the best way possible - by conducting acclaimed English National Opera productions Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in 2001 and Così fan tutte in 2002.
He quickly followed that with Wagner's epic Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg at Covent Garden in 2005 and made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Le Nozze di Figaro.
"Conductors mature at different speeds and ages. I've just had to get on with it, in my own way."
Wigglesworth celebrated his 45th birthday last Sunday.
The conductor was born on the Downs of East Sussex, England, and still lives there today.
"I'm fascinated by any type of leadership role and a sports coach is something you can relate to, because an orchestra is like a sports team. You can put your best 11 players on the pitch, but they aren't going to win unless there's a unified approach," he says.
"You're trying to empower people and, at the same time, channel everyone's energy in the same direction.
"I like creating something unique and giving the orchestra and the audience an experience and being in the middle of that communication is thrilling.
"Not much tops a live concert. So much nowadays is recorded, so people all over the world are having the same experience. But, a live performance bucks that mass-performance mentality.
"We'll be performing five times in New Zealand and each performance will be quite different."
Wigglesworth started rehearsals in Wellington on Monday with pianist Alexander Melnikov and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
The concert promises fireworks - Melnikov is considered one of the finest Russian pianists of his generation who produces "sudden flashes of fire" according to Gramophone Magazine.
"When you study a score, you learn the options: the decisions come when you find out what the performers have to offer," Wigglesworth says.
"You have to be clear about what you want, but you also have to be ready to change your mind, and ready to admit a mistake. It's a complex form of man-management.
"Some [musicians] want conductors to give only the big picture, while they sort out the details.Others want help with the details and then allow the big picture to emerge in the performance.
"You don't know initially what each player needs, whether they will fly or break up if you push them over the edge. If you knew at the beginning of the week what you knew at the end, you would have done a better concert.
"To create order from passion is a lot easier than creating passion from order."
Wigglesworth has an international reputation for his interpretation of Shostakovich and is completing a symphony cycle of the composer's works with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic.
"I've been working on that for the last 12 years. It's been a long journey," he says.
"I hope to have it completed in the next 18 months."
Shostakovich's mighty Symphony No.10 will be a highlight of the Dunedin concert.
"But, they're all wonderful pieces."
See them
Dunedin Town Hall at 6.30pm on Tuesday, July 28.
The programme is Prélude à l'après midi d'un faune (Debussy), Piano Concerto No.2 (Rachmaninov) and Symphony No.10 (Shostakovich).
The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra is offering $15 off A and B reserve tickets to both performances.
