Matthew Straw is the newly appointed Assistant Conductor of the Opéra National du Rhin (Strasbourg National Opera Studio) in France. He is also conducting Interlochen's World Youth Symphony Orchestra this weekend in a program of classic and contemporary works
Under Straw’s baton, the ensemble will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, Claude Debussy’s "La mer" and the Michigan premiere of Bobby Ge’s “Sighting the Swallow” (commissioned by Interlochen Center for the Arts in partnership with the New York Youth Symphony).
"When you see these musicians play, they wear their hearts right on their sleeves," says Matthew Straw. "As a conductor, that's what we wish more than anything."
Matthew Straw visited IPR after rehearsing with this year's WYSO musicians and discussed their upcoming concert at Kresge Auditorium on Sunday, July 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Listen to the full interview or read the edited transcript below.
Attend the concert in person or listen to the live broadcast on Classical IPR.
The concert and live broadcast begins at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Kate Botello: Now, Matthew, you are coming to us from WYSO rehearsal, but you're about to start a brand new gig. Can you tell us what that is?
Matthew Straw: I move to France next month to begin a new position as Assistant Conductor of the Strasbourg National Opera Studio. So I'm practicing my French and ready to get my baguettes and my beret.
KB: That's excellent! It's a good thing you've got some French repertoire in the show.
MS: Isn't that perfect? [Debussy’s] “La mer” is one of my favorite pieces. I love French repertoire and it's really exciting to get to have this little taste of France before I move.
KB: How's it going with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra?
MS: It's just idyllic, beautiful and utopic. I arrived here on Sunday because I wanted to come a day early to catch WYSO’s week two concert which was with Cristi [Cristian] Macelaru and Ray Chen and – oh my gosh – you would have thought that The Beatles were playing because the crowd was so electric. It made me so much more excited than I already was to get to do this concert because this place is amazing.
And at the end of the concert, Cristi [Macelaru] recognized the different sections of the orchestra and you saw friends cheering each other on from the audience. It was a special and unique atmosphere. I'm so excited to be a part of that this week.
KB: And this is a terrific group to work with and they have meaty repertoire for this concert with you.
MS: Let me tell you, this is big repertoire for sure. “La mer” is one of the hardest pieces for orchestra, it's extremely intricate. It's like a Monet painting, it's impressionist French music and when you're looking at it from afar, you see this beautiful hazy stuff. But then you come up very closely and you see all of this pointillistic detail. It's very difficult to put together. WYSO is definitely showing what they're capable of this week. It's great!
KB: What are the most important things musically for them to take away from “La mer?”
MS: It's chock full of different types of music and different styles. What I want people to take away most of all is the way Debussy is painting the idea of the ocean with sound. I especially want everybody to pay attention to the cymbal. It is used as an effect to sound like the crashing of waves. There are all of these effects like that… not just in the cymbal… but in the other instruments that are meant to be different sweeping of the waves and different ocean sounds. There are some seagull sounds that sometimes happen and twinkling sounds of the stars above the ocean.
It's just such a colorful piece. That's what I want people to take away is just the colorful painting of the different aspects of the ocean. So the musicians have to learn to paint.
KB: That's maybe our main course, but we start the program with Beethoven's Egmont Overture, which is this brash and defiant piece of music.
MS: Beethoven was so interested in this idea of individuality and of romanticism because he lived at the beginning of the Romantic era. And he was really interested also in politics and when people would stand up to power or when an individual would do so knowing that they were going to probably die for it. Beethoven loved this idea and he loved this idea of revolution. This is what “Egmont” is about. It's about Lord Egmont and he stood up to the Spanish government and he gets his head chopped off for it.
And you actually hear that in the music and you see it in the violins. And then there's a sad chorale.
KB: Wait, wait… I thought only Berlioz was the person that had head chopping music [in Symphonie fantastique].
MS: No, no, this is one of my favorite moments in the whole piece. It happens right before the ending. We always say in the music, this has to be a decapitation. Especially the way that the violins throw the bow is like a guillotine coming down. It’s a wonderful moment in the piece.
I think that the main thing we want to take away from Egmont is that character of defiance and steadfastness. You hear it even in the very beginning, those famous opening chords. It's all about “I'm going to stand up for what's right here,” and it's a really exciting way to begin the program.
KB: This program has a huge wash of emotional colors to it and then we come to this Bobby Ge premiere, “Sighting the Swallow.”
MS: I love this piece, and Bobby's actually around the same age as me. I think we're going through some similar things because when he was writing this piece, he was traveling a lot. Though he has ties to China, he's traveled all around the world and all around the U.S. When you're traveling so much, you almost feel like you've lost your home.
And it can also be very lonely being a composer, being a conductor. At the end of the day, all of the musicians go off together and the conductor is just left backstage. I was even just thinking about this the other day… you're on such an emotional high and there's so many people clapping… and then 20 minutes later, you're in your hotel room and you're all alone. And you're like “What am I going to do for the rest of the night?” I think this piece really gets at what it's like to be a young person dealing with those new emotions. It's a beautiful piece and similar to “La mer” in terms of the way that it's constructed. It has very pointillistic moments, but also these really grand and sweeping gestures. I think it's a perfect sort of bridge between the Egmont Overture and then “La Mer.”
KB: Now, if you have a wish, Matthew Straw, for this orchestra that you're working with right now, what would it be?
MS: My wish is that they never change. When you see these musicians play, they wear their hearts right on their sleeves. I would give anything to be with that all of the time. As a conductor, that's what we wish more than anything, even more than a perfectly executed performance.
That's my wish for WYSO. “Please don't change. Keep that energy.”
