Hong Kong Conductor Confronts Lack of Interest in Arts De Waart Aims to Rebuild
Orchestra's Confidence, Recruit Local Musicians
When Edo de Waart relocated from Sydney in 2004 to take over as artistic director and chief conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the 65-year-old maestro had more than Gustav Mahler to consider. Hong Kong, a financial hub teeming with wealthy expatriates and local business tycoons, is also known for lacking a resident arts scene. Today, Mr. de Waart's mission, as he sees it, is to transform the orchestra into an instrument of cultural change.
In a career that has placed him on the podium in front of orchestras in San Francisco, Sydney and his native Netherlands, Mr. De Waart has sought to broaden the repertoire of already glistening ensembles with works by contemporary composers such as Americans John Adams and Steve Reich.
At the HKPhil, he continues to introduce pieces that are new to the orchestra. At a recent concert, the group for the first time performed the expansively complex "Symphonie Fantastique" by 19th century French composer Hector Berlioz. He and the orchestra are also performing a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies this season.
Yet, a more urgent challenge has been rehabilitating the orchestra's image of itself, which the conductor thinks has been battered by repeatedly playing before half-empty houses while out-of-towners, such as the Vienna Philharmonic, sell out of stratospherically priced tickets. In addition, Mr. de Waart has endeavored to recruit more local musicians and has vigorously campaigned for greater resources from patrons and Hong Kong government agencies.
He recently sat down with Laura Santini to answer questions about the conductor's role, not only as interpreter of musical masterpieces, but also as a manager of more than 100 musicians and staff.
WSJ: What challenges have you encountered in Hong Kong that you haven't in other places you have worked?
Mr. de Waart: What surprises me always is that wherever you go in the world, the musical challenges are the same. We just performed the "Symphonie Fantastique," and in the second movement -- with the waltz -- it's always difficult. You have to have it swinging a bit.
The conductor has to have ability, day in and day out, to get 100 people to play, if possible, better than they themselves knew they could. It's part teaching and part inspirational. With an orchestra like ours, which hasn't been tended very well, I go back to the basics a lot. I tell them, "Don't start interpreting before you can give a correct reproduction of what the composer wrote." You would be surprised how difficult that is, and how far some musicians have come from just playing what's there.
WSJ: Is it part of the conductor's job to instill confidence?
Mr. de Waart: It's very exciting for the audience to watch people who are very good at what they do and who are not apologizing for themselves -- playing like, "Sorry, I'm living, and sorry, I'm playing." The conviction that people such as Heifetz and the great masters had was sometimes half the battle. Sometimes, I have to let the orchestra know it sounds so meek. They're so worried about sticking out. The next step is to know that if you make a mistake, you're not going to get your head chopped off.
WSJ: How do you go about recruiting for vacancies?
Mr. de Waart: The problem is that the good players here are already in the orchestra. Whenever I'm overseas, I make time for some auditions. The discrepancy between local auditions and auditions we do in New York, London and Chicago is quite big, but the strange thing is that in those cities, a lot of people from Hong Kong and China audition because they are there finishing their studies.
My ideal is that the orchestra would be 75% Chinese. If you look at HKPhil in the past, the turnover has been too big. People come for two years and go back to where they came from. If you come from here or from China, then you stay here. What builds a great orchestra is continuity.
The idea is that for everybody who leaves, we find somebody better. That would be easier if we could pay competitive salaries, but that is not the case. Since the Asian financial crisis , the budget was cut...and we all share in the pain of the crisis. It took away roughly $2 million, about one-fifth of the budget.
WSJ: You've been a vocal critic of arts funding in Hong Kong. What particular challenges have you encountered here?
Mr. de Waart: There needs to be a culture change, where the government says we want first-rate art that is ours. It galls me that the pays to bring in an orchestra from Germany for two nights. One would think you would bundle all your resources, pick out five or seven cultural institutions and try to use them to pull the rest forward. That is not the case.
It's fantastic that Swire Pacific Ltd. came on board last season and pledged HK$3.6 million (US$460,000), but apart from them and a few other corporations, business isn't doing anything in Hong Kong. And it would be nice if some of the unbelievably rich people that Hong Kong has would say they are going to do something for Hong Kong in the arts.
WSJ: Why do you think it still is so difficult for women to become conductors?
Mr. de Waart: I don't know. I've been asked that question, I've thought about it a lot. It's still a man's world, but nowadays almost every orchestra has 50% women musicians. Having a quite brilliant daughter, I don't like it at all. A greater percentage of women do not want to , while every man would like to stand up there. You have to conquer something on the podium, and a lot of women are not confrontational. My daughter is seven, and at this point, she could still be a conductor. But a lot of her friends, already not.
WSJ: What extra-musical attributes must a good conductor have?
Mr. de Waart: In any job, you have to be willing to take the lumps and get up again. You stand there with your back to the audience, doing your thing, and there is an article every week in the paper looking for faults and seldom wanting to glorify what you did.
You have to get calluses on your soul.
奏响香港艺术生活新乐章
2004年，当以指挥古斯塔夫?马勒(Gustav Mahler)的交响曲而着称的埃多?德?瓦特(Edo de Waart)离开悉尼、前往香港就任香港管弦乐团(Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra)艺术总监兼指挥的时候，这位65岁的大师要考虑的可不仅是马勒。
作为世界金融中心之一的香港虽然居住着很多富有的外国人和本地商业大亨，但也常因缺乏艺术氛围而遭人诟病。在瓦特看来，他眼下的使命就是要带领他的乐团为改变这种局面出力。
来香港之前，德?瓦特曾在旧金山、悉尼和他的祖国荷兰的交响乐团执棒。在他的指挥生涯中，他一直追求将当代作曲家如美国人约翰?亚当(John Adams)和斯蒂夫?里奇(Steve Reich)等人的作品加入到那些已经非常炫目的合奏曲保留曲目中。
到了香港管弦乐团，他继续这一做法，不断地将新曲目引入乐团的演奏节目单。在最近的一次音乐会上，该团首次演奏了十九世纪法国作曲家伯辽兹(Hector Berlioz)的那首相当复杂的《幻想交响曲》(Symphonie Fantastique)。这个演出季，他和乐团还演出了马勒的整套交响曲。
不过，德?瓦特面临的更紧迫的任务是重新塑造乐团的形像。以前香港管弦乐团演出曲目陈旧重复，台下观众常常只能坐满一半，而每当有外地乐团来访，比如维也纳爱乐乐团，他们的演出票虽然价格高得吓人，也常常被抢购一空，德?瓦特认为，这种状况让香港管弦乐团的形像深受打击。除此之外，瓦特还下大力气招募更多的本地乐手，并通过各种活动从各种团体和政府机构那里寻求更多资源支持乐团的发展。
最近，德?瓦特就指挥家角色的话题接受了本报记者的采访。德?瓦特的身份不仅是乐曲的阐释者，更是一个有100多位音乐家和工作人员的团体的管理者。
《华尔街日报》：在香港，你遇到了哪些在其他地方工作时从未遇到过的难题？
德?瓦特：我有一个出乎意料的发现，那就是不论在世界哪个地方，音乐方面的难题都是相同的。我们刚刚演奏的《幻想交响曲》，其中第二乐章、也就是有华尔兹的那个部分总是很难。这部分要求演奏要更欢快且富于变化。
指挥要有能力做到日复一日地组织100多号人演奏，而且，是以比他们自己知道的水平更好的质量演奏。这个工作一部分是指导，一部分是激发灵感。对于像我们这样一个以前管理得不是很好的乐团，我就回头从比较基本的地方开始。我告诉他们，“在你还不能正确的再现作曲家所写的乐谱之前，先不要开始急于阐释它。”你可能会对做到再现会如此之难感到吃惊，也会很惊讶有些音乐家居然连正确演奏都做不到。
《华尔街日报》：向乐手们灌输信心是指挥家工作内容的一部分吗？
德?瓦特：观众看到演奏得很好和很有自信的乐手会感到很兴奋。对像海菲茨等一些大师来说，自信有时就是成功了一半。有时我不得不让乐团的人知道，他们太顺从。他们非常担心自己出格。下一步我要让大家知道，即使你犯了错误，你也不至于被置于死地。
《华尔街日报》：你如何为乐团招募新成员？
德?瓦特：香港优秀的演奏家都已加入了我们的乐团。所以我只要在国外，都会抽出时间去试演。香港本地和纽约、伦敦、芝加哥的试演水平差距很大，但令人奇怪的是，有许多来自香港和中国大陆的人也到这些地方参加试演，因为他们正在国外完成学业。
我认为乐团中有四分之三的中国人比较理想。回头看看过去的香港管弦乐团，你会发现那时人员流动太频繁了。外国乐手来到这里工作两年，然后就又回到从前的地方。而如果你是本地人或者来自中国大陆，那么你就会一直呆在这里。连续性是构建一个伟大乐团的必要条件。
我们希望为每一个空缺位置找到更好的替代人选。如果我们的薪酬有竞争力的话，这个目标会比较容易实现，不过事实并非如此。在亚洲金融危机以后，我们的预算就被削减了……我们也承担了金融危机带来的恶果。我们的预算减少了200万美元，相当于总预算的五分之一。
《华尔街日报》：你对香港的艺术资助提出了直言不讳的批评。你在这方面遇到了怎样的具体挑战？
德?瓦特：香港需要进行一次文化变革，政府说需要一流的、属于香港的艺术。邀请德国乐团来这里演出两晚的价钱之高令我非常愤怒。人们会想如果你整合所有资源，选出5、6个文化团体，就可以以此带动整个文化事业向前发展。而事实不是这样。
我们非常高兴地看到太古公司(Swire Pacific Ltd.)在上个演出季承诺出资360万港元 (合46万美元)提供赞助，但是除了少数一些公司以外，商界没有为香港的文化事业做过什么事情。如果有香港富豪在艺术方面愿为香港出力就太好了。
《华尔街日报》：女性成为指挥家仍然十分困难，你对此怎么看？
德?瓦特：我不知道。我曾被问到过这个问题，我也经常思考这个问题。指挥仍是男人的世界，不过如今每个乐团几乎都会有一半的女性成员。我有一个聪明伶俐的女儿，所以我不喜欢这种局面。我想大部分女性不愿站在指挥台上，而所有男性都愿意成为指挥。你在指挥台上必须征服某些东西，而许多女性不愿与人发生冲撞。
《华尔街日报》：一个好的指挥家还需要具备什么音乐以外的才能？
德?瓦特：不论做什么工作，你必须愿意克服困难、并重新站起来。你背对着听众站在那里，完成你的工作，而每周的报纸都会等着给你挑毛病，而很少会对你做的工作大加赞扬。
你必须硬着头皮应对这一切。
