Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director JoAnn Falletta is back on the World Youth Symphony Orchestra podium this summer, starting the ensemble's season with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 and Adolphus Hailstork's "Three Spirituals."
Falletta, whose recordings with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra have earned her multiple Grammy Awards, regularly appears with professional and conservatory ensembles from the Philadelphia Orchestra to the Juilliard Orchestra.
She recently visited IPR to discuss her work with WYSO musicians and their upcoming concert at Kresge Auditorium on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
Listen to the full interview or read the edited transcript below.
Attend the concert in person or listen to IPR’s live broadcast.
The concert begins at 7:30 p.m. ET.
ND: You've spent many summers at Interlochen, and this time, you're working with students who have just arrived. How is working with WYSO during week one different from working with the group later in the summer?
JF: It's very different, and it's a very special honor, I have to say, to be asked to do week one. Because you can imagine, these are young people that are coming from all over the country — a lot of times, not with friends. They're coming on their own because they're special. They were accepted here, and they're serious musicians. And if they're coming for the first time, they're not certain what it will be like.
So I think during the first week, it's very important to establish, first of all, an atmosphere of warmth — that they're so welcome here and that we're so happy that they're here and that they are special. And it's also important to establish the sense that this is going to be hard work but fun at the same time. And most of all, it's important to encourage them to get to know each other. I think it's happening already. We had a rehearsal, and I could see in that rehearsal that people were happy, not nervous. They were in a good place to have fun and be excellent.
ND: In professional orchestras, do people you've had as students here at Interlochen Arts Camp ever tell you that they were in an orchestra you conducted here?
JF: So often, and it delights me. I remember one fairly recently was playing in the Philadelphia Orchestra — and they're playing at a very high level. And they remember Interlochen as the greatest experience. I remember the young man asked me, "Do you remember when we played Respighi's Roman Festivals?" I said, "I do." And I really did, because it was an amazing performance. And he said, "That was the greatest performance of my life."
Now, note for note, I knew that could never really be true because he's playing every week in the Philadelphia Orchestra. But his perception of himself at that time and what he accomplished, and what his colleagues did all around him made it stand out in his mind as the greatest thing that he remembered in his musical life. And I thought, "Interlochen is doing something magical." I see that a lot with people who remember Interlochen.
It's also true of the people who are not in music — people who have gone on to become doctors, accountants or lawyers. And they'll say, "I spent a couple of summers at Interlochen, and I loved it. I'll never forget how happy I was there." So it's a place that fosters dreams and helps people understand what life is all about. There's no better place to come.
ND: You've long been the Buffalo Philharmonic's music director, but guest conducting also makes up so much of a conductor's life. Can you shed some light on the differences?
JF: It's very different. And it's something that is always teaching me more about music. In Buffalo, we've been together a while and formed a kind of sound and a way of making music. We really are a family, and we know each other so well. And so in that way, I can help them. Because I know them, I can encourage them to be the extraordinary musicians they are.
But then I go and guest conduct, and I don't know anyone. And that is very thrilling in its own way because you're not talking to them. They're playing to you, and you're communicating with them. It's very intense communication, and you learn a lot about them.
And my goal isn't to try and put anything that happened in Buffalo or any other place that I was into that performance but to let that orchestra inform it, let it be their personal Tchaikovsky five or Beethoven five, which we're doing this week. And I've learned so much from that. It makes me realize how flexible music is, how fluid music is and how much there is in it that the individual performers control. My goal now is to let musicians and orchestras have that power, that strength to be who they are.
ND: Your work in Buffalo has included countless recordings, but also live television and radio broadcasts, which are a major tradition at Interlochen. What's special to you about a live performance?
JF: Oh, it's the best. I still think that, as much as when we do studio recordings, we can polish and edit, there's nothing like a live performance. Because that trajectory, that vividness, that in-the-moment feeling — you can't really reproduce that in a studio recording. So there may be a few things that get a little wobbly or something that's not completely perfect. But to me, that only adds to the charm of the living music, the live performance. And I've had the chance here to listen to very old performances of the Interlochen musicians playing years and years ago. And it's amazing how moving it is because it's happening live.
ND: This week, WYSO will perform Adolphus Hailstork's Three Spirituals. Tell us about this work.
JF: It's a great piece, and I know Dolph very well. We were neighbors for many years in Virginia. He lived in Norfolk, as I did with the Virginia Symphony. And so we knew each other very, very well. And in fact, he was, in a way, a kind of composer in residence for the Virginia Symphony. We played everything he wrote.
And these are beautiful. Yes, he's inspired by the melodies that he knows, but it's so much more complex than that. He uses the orchestra, the colors of the orchestra, the rhythms of the orchestra in a way that they become new. They become fresh and vibrant and retain the quality of humanity that he loves so much. So they're fun to play. They've got wonderful solos. "Kum Ba Ya" has a beautiful solo for clarinet and for English horn — just very special moments.
I'm always proud to do it, and I am imagining it'd be the first time for all of the students to play this. So I'm very, very happy to be able to celebrate him. He's in his eighties now and has been one of our country's most important and most vibrant voices.
ND: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is one that many people are somewhat familiar with. What should people appreciate about this piece beyond its ultra-familiar beginning?
JF: Many of the young musicians told me that it was the first time they were playing it, so that I'm glad about, because I thought, "Oh, maybe they've played it lots of times," but they haven't. They know parts of it, and they want to discover it in more detail. Because these are musicians who really are the best. They want to go deeper than that. So we spent a long time talking about musical phrases and color — things they may not have a chance to discuss in their home orchestras at school. And it's amazing to me how much they just soak that up and understand it.
To see them discover the piece for the first time makes me remember when I discovered it for the first time and makes me a part of their joy. I can see their surprise, their sense of satisfaction when they do something especially well, and that's what brings you back year after year because it just re-energizes me. It's almost a spiritual thing to be here and to see young people feeling good about what they're doing and wanting to get better — feeling that they have great possibilities in front of them.
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