In his 2022 profile of the Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, the NY Times Joshua Barone recounted a conversation she had with the violinist and artistic director Gidon Kremer, whom she’s known since 2013.
“(Kremer) told her that her career would always feel like it had two different doors. Behind one would be record labels, managers, festivals and a variety of conflicting demands; behind the other, ‘all your dreams are there, and your imagination, and the things you can go for and explore.’”
Mirga’s path to becoming one of today’s best-known woman conductors has had an unusual trajectory. Initially trained as a singer, she took up conducting at the age of 11. After some early posts in Germany and Austria, she became a Dudamel fellow at the LA Phil at the age of 26. She took on roles there of increasing responsibility, eventually becoming the LA Phil’s Associate Conductor at the age of 29. That same year, she became music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, a post which has launched the careers of Simon Rattle, Sakari Oramo, and Andris Nelsons, among others. In 2019, she signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, becoming the first female conductor ever signed to the prestigious classical label. Young, charismatic and photogenic, it seemed there could be no stopping Mirga from classical music superstardom.
But then, she decided to take a step back. After having three children and settling in Salzburg, Austria with her partner – an unnamed clarinetist in the Mozarteum Orchestra – she left the CBSO in 2022. Since then Mirga, now 39, has stuck to guest conducting, which she says gives her more time to be a mom and more freedom to focus on individual works. In the process, she has rewritten the modern rules for conducting careerism. As critic and vocal champion Norman Lebrecht puts it:
“No maestro has ever put his career on hold to look after a growing family. None, apart from Carlos Kleiber, has shunned the music director role. Never has a prominent classical musician guarded this much privacy about personal priorities. No musician of talent has defied the hierarchy, the public and the media in this way.”
It all seems to have worked out well enough for Mirga. Last year, she became the first – and so far only – woman in the 180 year history of the Vienna Philharmonic to lead one of its subscription concerts. Next month, she makes her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. And in the fall, she becomes Principal Guest Conductor of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, a secondary role under principal conductor – and former NY Phil music director – Jaap van Zweden.
Speaking of the Phil, Mirga’s currently in town leading two consecutive weeks of concerts at Geffen Hall: a highly anticipated return following her successful debut there in 2023. Having been a bit preoccupied last weekend, I managed to catch the final concert of Mirga’s first program on Tuesday.
This was the first time I’ve seen Mirga in person, and my first impression was that she didn’t look much like a conductor: diminutive, form-fitting blouse, capri pants, flat shoes. All of which was quickly forgotten as soon as she started to conduct Ralph Vaughan-Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis: with broad strokes of her oversized baton, she coaxed a performance of depth and emotion from the Phil’s string players, arranged in blocks around the stage. Her confident technique reminded me of a young Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Following an extended stage change to wheel in a concert grand – the Lincoln Center stagehands could use an efficiency lesson from their colleagues over at Carnegie – the concert continued with the NY debut of John Williams’ Piano Concerto, which I saw the world premiere of at Tanglewood last summer. Manny Ax, for whom the concerto was written, reprised his role as the soloist here. Ostensibly inspired by Williams’ admiration for the great jazz pianists Art Tatum, Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson, the concerto resembles none of those players’ styles, instead resting comfortably within a modernist, often dissonant idiom – a surprising departure for the composer of Star Wars and Indiana Jones. (Williams, 94, has said that despite all of his success, he was an accidental film composer, much like his idols Erich Korngold and Bernard Herrmann.) Still, there were catchy threads, including a percussion-driven sequence towards the end. And, you couldn’t help but be impressed how Manny, now 76, dispatched Williams’ finger-twisting music with relative ease. After multiple curtain calls, Manny played the tender theme from Williams’ Sabrina: a romantic, arpeggio-driven prelude that would have fit right into a Parisian salon.
Mirga has been a longtime champion of the nearly forgotten music of the Polish-Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, a Nazi refugee who wrote some 22 symphonies, 7 operas and 17 string quartets, among other works. Here, she led the NY debut of Weinberg’s 5th symphony (1962): 45 minutes of tension which was more than a little indebted to his mentor and champion Shostakovich. Ranging from manic to morose, it ended with a fading pulse and ominous gong: a bleak conclusion. I cant say that I completely absorbed the message of Weinberg’s symphony on this sole hearing, but hopefully the positive response on Tuesday will lead to more performances of his music here.
This weekend, Mirga leads a completely different program including Elgar’s violin concerto (with the Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang) and Schumann’s “Spring” symphony. Which it’s actually starting to feel like outside. Sort of. Tickets and info at the NY Phil’s website.
More pics on Instagram.