After an extremely busy summer, Utah Symphony Artistic Director Keith Lockhart gets to spend three days in the Caribbean before launching into his second season.
"Somebody's got to play chamber music down there," Lockhart quipped during a phone interview from Boston. His Caribbean "vacation" is actually a chamber music festival in St. Martins, and both Lockhart and his wife -- violinist Lucia Lin -- will perform.But it's still a small break in one of the busiest schedules in classical music. In addition to the few concerts he conducted in Salt Lake City this summer, and 45 concerts with the Boston Pops, where he also remains as music director, Lockhart spent a week with the San Francisco Symphony.
Lockhart and his wife did spend two weeks at their cabin in Maine, "hiding from the world" as Lockhart put it, and now he says, "I'm fully prepared to have the stuffing beaten out of me once more."
What "beat the stuffing out of" Lockhart during his first season was not just dividing his time between the Utah Symphony and the Boston Pops. He also made guest appearances with other orchestras. "There was one time in January and February where I spent nine straight weeks on the road. It was just numbing."
Lockhart says he's scaled back his guest-conducting chores for this season so he can give more to Utah and Boston, but he still enjoys guest conducting. "I find it fun. It's like going on a date. It's getting to meet a whole group of people, spend a little time and make a little music."
He and the Utah Symphony both "date other people," and Lockhart unabashedly admits conducting other orchestras helps keeps him visible to "people in other markets." He also claims the musicians enjoy it. "From the orchestra's point of view, seeing a different face on the podium is refreshing instead of hearing the same face tell you the same thing."
In addition to Salt Lake City and Boston, the new season will find Lockhart conducting in Vancouver, Houston and Montreal -- a significant cutback from the 15 different places he guest-conducted last year.
The 1999-2000 Utah Symphony season begins with concerts Friday and Saturday, Sept. 17 and 18, featuring pianist Emanuel Ax and Beethoven's "Emperor" Piano Concerto (No. 5). The orchestra will play Beethoven's "Leonore" overture (the 3rd version) and Sibelius Symphony No. 2. Both concerts will be in Abravanel Hall; Friday's program begins at 8 :30 p.m., due to the opening gala, and Saturday's begins at 8.
Lockhart said one reason he programmed these pieces for this year's season opener was the Utah Symphony's tradition of opening with Beethoven. Another was the soloist.
"We were lucky to get Manny (Ax) to open the season," he said. "He's one of my favorite pianists and I think his Beethoven is really masterful. Of our choices to do with him, 'The Emperor' was the one that had least recently received a hearing." Ax has recorded the entire cycle of Beethoven concertos twice, and most recently played them with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur.
Of the Sibelius, Lockhart said, "It's a great virtuoso showcase for the orchestra, it's an intensely beautiful piece. And it ends in a big, celebratory fanfare that's probably an appropriate note to start the season on."
Lockhart's second concert this season will feature two world premieres, as well as Orff's "Carmina Burana" sung by the Utah Symphony Chorus.
Other pieces Lockhart looks forward to conducting in the coming months are Benjamin Britten's "War Requiem" and Mahler's 1st Symphony. He is also excited about working with violinist Itzhak Perlman (Sept. 27) and expanding the repertoire of the Utah Symphony Chamber Orchestra.