Described as a major new talent in the classical music world, Spaniard Gustavo Gimeno makes his first trip to New Zealand this month. He tells Rebecca Fox about his rapid rise to conducting the world's top orchestras.
Gustavo Gimeno's excitement at coming to New Zealand for the first time has been tempered by the discovery that it takes three flights to get here.
‘‘ I was unaware until a few days ago ... that it takes three planes. That is spectacular.''
Based in Amsterdam, the Spanish conductor has been taking a few important weeks to regroup before making the trip to the southern hemisphere.
‘‘It's crucial.''
While much in demand as a conductor, Gimeno is a former percussionist and will help the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra mark the 20th anniversary of New Zealand composer and percussionist Gareth Farr's From the Depths Sound the Great Sea Gongs.
Commissioned by the NZSO to mark the orchestra's 50th anniversary, it features three percussionists playing a line of 10 roto-toms, plus an additional bass drummer. The work references Balinese, Cook Islands and American marching drum styles and it shot a young Farr to fame.
‘‘Composed by a percussionist and now conducted by a percussionist, this glittering score will come to life,'' the NZSO says.
The concert also features top British pianist Stephen Hough, named among 20 Living Polymaths by The Economist, playing Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat.
Hough, who is also a columnist for The Telegraph and received a CBE for services to music, has earned rave international reviews for his risk-taking approach to the piece.
Gimeno was looking forward to meeting a new orchestra from a different culture from what he usually performed with.
‘‘I hear wonderful things. I know you have good orchestras and good concert halls.''
From Valencia in Spain, Gimeno comes from a family of musicians, especially his father, who played and taught clarinet. His elder brother also played clarinet and violin.
‘‘As a child, music was always a present in life - I never had the feeling of choosing music. You don't think about it, you just do it; that is what you are seeing every day in your family.''
While his father urged him to begin his instrumental training on small clarinets, Gimeno would have none of it.
‘‘I said no, no way. I do percussion or nothing. I was unconsciously blackmailing, of course; he wanted me to study music.''
As a very active child, he found percussion very attractive. Exactly why he chose it he could not verbalise, he said. He also learnt piano.
‘‘I was happy kid, very active running and playing as a child. It was a very natural choice. I suppose I went to rehearsals with my father and I was very often behind there sitting with percussion.''
He went on to perform as a percussionist, a soloist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and a chamber musician. He also taught. He was appointed to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as principal percussionist in April 2002.
Having settled into a job as percussionist and teacher, he decided it was time to develop his skills and began studying orchestral conducting at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
‘‘I conducted small groups and liked it. I love music, wanted to go further and conducting has always been in my mind.''
After a three-year tenure as chief conductor of the Amsterdam-based Con Brio Symphony Orchestra, Gimeno was appointed artistic director and chief conductor of Het Orkest Amsterdam at the beginning of 2012.
A ‘‘major turning point'' for Gimeno was his appointment as assistant conductor to chief conductor Mariss Jansons with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on a number of concerts.
‘‘From then on, a number of episodes in my life brought me to renown and brought me to New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.''
He also acted as assistant to the late Claudio Abbado with the Orchestra Mozart, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
In 2014 he was asked to stand in for Jansons conducting the Dutch premiere of Magnus Lindberge's Piano Concerto No. 2.
‘‘I never thought I would conduct for the conservatory orchestra.''
That debut performance, according to media reports, sent his conducting career into ‘‘overdrive''.
Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool declared: ‘‘Yesterday, a true conductor was born in the Concertgebouw.''
Jansons said of him: ‘‘I immediately felt he was born to be a conductor.''
He went on to debut performances with some of the top European orchestras and make his debut as an opera conductor in a production of Bellini's Norma at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in his home city of Valencia.
Gimeno has also debuted in the United States, performing with the Pittsburg Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.
He has had return concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, touring with it to Taiwan and Japan, which he described as a highlight.
‘‘I never thought about conducting the Concertgebouw in Asia and conducting a number of great orchestras.
‘‘I'm planning now for coming weeks and coming years is wonderful.''
For the 2015-16 season he took up the post of music director of the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, which began with a focus on the first symphonies of Beethoven, Mahler, Bruckner, Schumann and Shostakovich. With singers from the Wiener Singverein, he conducted Verdi's Requiem.
While percussion meant everything to him from such an early age, he had now experienced a complete turnaround.
‘‘I do not play at all. I now don't feel any attachment to percussion any more at all.''
While he could be nervous before a performance, he said he was fortunate in that when he stood on the podium, the music took over.
‘‘There is not much space for other thoughts. It is only before or later that I can think further. I try to do as good as possible and enjoy and have fun.''
With his debut performance with the Concertgebouw, he wanted to do as well as possible because he did not know if he would ever get the chance again.
‘‘The waiting, the thinking about it is for me the worst; that moment where you go or stay. The second option, I realise, is a better one.''
To go would be sad, as no matter how the performance went, he could learn from it.
‘‘I enjoy it very much in all senses - wonderful composition and wonderful musicians around me. Means a lot of studying, travelling, rehearsing and conducting.''
Having his career take off meant finding time to regroup was even more important and he ensured enough gaps were scheduled to create some work-life balance.
‘‘I'm at home studying and relaxing. Now I'm home charging my batteries.''
It was crucial to recover physically and mentally, to take time out to spend time with family and friends and also to study for his coming concerts.
It was not his enthusiastic performances that put a strain on his body but time hunched over a desk researching, he said.
‘‘Indeed, I've got some back problems, not from standing but sitting. Everything in balance is better.''
