Jaime Laredo's gift
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Jaime Laredo and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra |
Toolbox
By Jim Lowe - Published: October 15, 2006
When Kate Tamarkin, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra conductor who had found a place in the hearts of Vermonters, announced that she was stepping down as music director eight year ago, it left the state's professional orchestra in a quandary. Then-manager Tom Philion decided to ask Jaime Laredo for advice. The famed violinist and conductor had guest-conducted and appeared as soloist with the orchestra several times and he lives in Vermont.
Philion was joined by former New York Philharmonic manager Nick Webster, who was advising the VSO, when he visited Laredo at his apartment in New York, where he then also lived.
"We talked for at least an hour, talking about various suggestions," Laredo remembered. "They asked me what do you think about this one, the kind of person they were looking for. At the end of the conversation I don't think it was meant to happen I think it was Nick Webster who said, 'What about you? Would you be interested?'"
This was hardly what Laredo had expected. He has been a soloist with nearly every major orchestra in the world, conducted several of them himself, made lots of recordings, and was a regular performer at Carnegie Hall.
"I was kind of taken aback because I had never thought of such a thing," he said. "I just thought to myself: 'Wait a minute; we do live there, and I love the orchestra.' And, although the VSO really wasn't in a very good state at that time, it would be a lot of hard work, I said 'yes.'"
Laredo is a warm Teddy bear of a man, always informal and wearing a smile. Except when he's working. Then, he becomes clear, straightforward and demanding. And then he always rewards everyone with a heartfelt "thank you" and a smile.
Answering the question, why did he say yes to the VSO when he's conducted the Chicago Symphony, he has one word:
"It's Vermont," Laredo said, whose home has been Guilford for 20 years. "Vermont has given me so much, so much happiness, so much everything. By just being able to live here. I thought, 'wow, I might be able to do something for Vermont' and I saw the possibilities, I really saw the possibilities for the orchestra."
Since then, Laredo has transformed the VSO into a respected regional professional orchestra largely without changing personnel.
"He's lifted the standards; it's playing better than I've ever heard it before," noted Walter Parker, Vermont Public Radio's classical music commentator. "I suspect that it's probably playing at the highest level it's ever played."
"Jaime gave the VSO excitement," added Alan Jordan, the VSO's executive director since 1999. "There's a national buzz about the VSO. We're getting broadcast nationally on (National Public Radio's) 'Performance Today.'"
Laredo and the VSO just completed a nine-town tour of the state, the annual "Made in Vermont" Festival. At each concert, Laredo played and conducted Beethoven's monumental Violin Concerto; he also conducted music of Mozart, Bartok, Faurι and a new work by Middlebury composer Peter Hamlin.
"Almost every performance has heart and soul to it, beauty, and for our orchestra musicians, it's just taken just one step further up each time," Jordan said. "I think it's tangible, the audience seeing the improvement, the growth from concert to concert."
And Vermont audiences are responding. Nearly all Masterworks Series concerts at Burlington's Flynn Center for the Performing Arts are sold-out. Concert sponsorship has grown 70 percent since Laredo joined the VSO. In just seven years, Laredo has had a major effect on Vermont and its music world.
"He's been generous in performing in other situations, outside of the Symphony," Parker said, citing numerous concerts in Barre, Brattleboro, Manchester and Montpelier. Laredo, usually with his wife, cellist Sharon Robinson, has appeared on Parker's own VPR program frequently.
"Everybody just wants to pull together around him," Parker said. "He's leading us all, in many ways, and I wish more people would take their cues from him. All I can say is I wish he would stay with the Vermont Symphony and stay in Vermont for decades to come."
On Thursday, Governor James Douglas will present Laredo with the Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts at a public ceremony at the Vermont Statehouse in Montpelier.
Laredo, born in Bolivia in 1941, fell in love with the violin when his father took him to his first concert at the age of 5. His early lessons proved so successful that his father moved the family to San Francisco, where he himself had grown up, so the young Jaime could advance his studies. It wasn't long before Laredo's teacher, Frank Hauser, then associate concertmaster of the San Francisco Symphony, decided that the young student should move on to Joseph Gingold, then concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.
"Again, it was only for a year, because Joe wanted me to go to Ivan Galamian," Laredo said. "For Joe, this was the greatest violin teacher in the world, and he wanted me to be with him and he was right. I must say that I feel fortunate to have had the best of both worlds, because Galamian, I agree, was probably the best teacher there ever has been, but there were things from Joe Gingold that only from him could I get, musically speaking."
So, Laredo went to Philadelphia, to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Galamian. In the summer, he would go to Galamian's summer school, Meadowmount, in the Adirondacks, where he would work with both Galamian and Gingold. When Laredo was 17, Galamian decided it was time for Laredo to enter the prestigious Queen Elisabeth of Belgians Violin Competition in Brussels.
"For the 10 months before that, I never practiced like that, before or since," Laredo remembered. "I felt like an Olympic athlete. I was probably in better shape violinistically at that time than I ever have been in my entire life."
Laredo, at 17, became the youngest person ever to win the world's foremost violin competition. His great success was followed by solo engagements with important orchestras, a European tour and a successful Carnegie Hall recital debut. Laredo's native Bolivia received him like a conquering hero, issuing a postage stamp with his name in musical notes (la-re-do) next to his picture. The City of New York presented him with its Handel Medal.
Laredo graduated from Curtis in 1959, and, the following year, married Ruth Meckler, a pianist he met there. The marriage broke up in 1973, but not before they had a daughter, who now lives with her cellist-husband in London. (Ruth Laredo, a successful concert pianist, died in 2005 of ovarian cancer.)
"You know, that part of my life was rather difficult and rather painful," Laredo said, frankly, of his first marriage. "I was 18 years old, it's insane. But, you know, all things happen for a purpose, and all I can say is, though our marriage was not a great one in any particular way, we had this incredible daughter."
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It was at that point, Laredo's musical career took another major turn. Violinist Alexander Schneider, a father figure to New York's young string players, took him to Vermont's chamber music Mecca, Marlboro Music Festival, in 1961, where he would be a regular participant for most of the next 14 years. Laredo credits Marlboro with helping him become what he is today, both as a musician and a person.
"I was particularly lucky too, being in Marlboro when (pianist Rudolf) Serkin was at his height, and (cellist-conductor Pablo) Casals was really truly remarkable in those years, in the '60s," Laredo said. "It was a learning experience for me the whole time. It really was."
Casals, the Spanish cellist-conductor-humanitarian, in fact, proved to be Laredo's greatest influence.
"He, still to this day, was the greatest influence that I had musically," Laredo said. "This may sound like a clichι, but I swear that I don't think a day goes by when I'm either conducting or playing or thinking about music that I don't think about him."
Laredo also made lifelong friends there, many of whom he has invited to perform as soloists with the VSO, including pianists Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Gary Graffman and Peter Serkin, flutist Paula Robison and violist Michael Tree.
"And let's not forget that because of Marlboro, I'm married to Sharon," Laredo said, referring to Robinson, his second wife. "Even though I had met her before, it was through Marlboro that we really got together. For that alone I would be eternally grateful."
Soon, Laredo, Robinson and Israeli pianist Joseph Kalichstein formed the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Now considered one of the best piano trios in the world, the KLR Trio, as it is known, has recorded extensively and played around the world including many times in Vermont.
Laredo also continued his career as solo violinist, earning rave reviews for solo engagements and recordings with the great orchestras, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, New York and Philadelphia, led by the likes of Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa and Sir Colin Davis.
Laredo began playing viola as well as violin, and made a series of recordings in a piano quartet with the late violinist Isaac Stern, Robinson, cellist Yo Yo Ma and pianist Emmanuel Ax.
Laredo has also become one of the world's foremost violin teachers. His students include Pamela Frank, Leila Josefowicz, Soovin Kim, Jennifer Koh and Hilary Hahn. After many years of teaching at Curtis, Laredo recently joined Robinson on the faculty of Indiana University.
It was some 30 years ago that conducting first came to Laredo. He was scheduled to perform concertos by Bach and Mozart with the newly formed Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Rudoph Barshai, the conductor, became ill a month before the concert and canceled for the season.
"The orchestra was wondering if I would like to do the concert myself," Laredo said. "It was all stuff that I knew really well the Bach Third Brandenburg, an early Haydn symphony that I knew really well. I thought, gee, it should be fun, and I said, of course, that I would do it from the violin. They said fine. That was the beginning."
Laredo and the orchestra established an immediate rapport, beginning an association that continues to this day. He was able to tap his extensive experience, having performed as soloist under the direction of some of the greatest conductors.
"Whenever I did, I didn't go and just do my little solo thing, but I would always listen to rehearsals," he said. "In the years when I would work with (George) Szell in Cleveland, if I was anywhere in the Cleveland area, I would go to just listen to rehearsals and learn."
Technique he learned from the likes of Zubin Mehta and Seiji Ozawa.
"I always like to say, and it's true," he added, that "I learned the most from playing with bad conductors, because you really learn what not to do."
Laredo has gone on to conduct the world's major orchestras himself here and abroad often combining that with the role of violin soloist.
In fact, Laredo's violin developed a new musical sophistication. While in his 20s and 30s, making recordings at Marlboro Music Festival, Laredo couldn't play an ugly note. Everything was beautiful, though a bit reserved musically. With age has come not only musical maturity, but a newfound vitality in his playing. At his performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto, last month at Middlebury College, every emotion went to the edge, from passion or tenderness. Except for his gutsy attacks, this was all done with a sound as smooth as silk, with a texture that made it sing. Laredo's performance, both as violinist and conductor, delivered a smoldering excitement without ever losing the cohesiveness of the work's form. The performance was very personal, and it spoke to the audience.
"I realize that I'm not getting any younger," said Laredo, who just turned 65. "While I can probably wave my arms and conduct for a long, long time, I realize I'm not going to do that with the violin, because it's simply a physical thing that can't happen.
"Fortunately, I have a wife who's going to tell me boy is she going to tell me the minute it's time to stop," he said. And thank God for her, I know she will.
"I still think I have a few good years," he added.
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Laredo was first appointed "music advisor" of the VSO, rather than music director, as his heavy touring schedule allowed him little time to devote to his new orchestra. Gradually, though, he made more and more time, taking over full duties as music director. But, despite his impressive credentials, Laredo wasn't universally accepted by the orchestra at first.
"Some people were saying, 'Well, after all, he's not a conductor really, and the symphony hired him without even asking us,'" said Elizabeth Clendenning, a VSO first violinist for more than 30 years. "We love him now."
"It took us a little while to get used to the style, because we were expecting a conductor's technique," said Janet Polk, the VSO's principal bassoonist who has been with the orchestra since 1975. "He wasn't a trained conductor but, you know, in the end it doesn't matter."
"I was concerned whether he could do some of the big works," Clendenning added. "When he first started out doing Bach and Mozart, it was 'Yea, sure, he can do that, he's very good at that.' But, like the First Brahms Symphony, I wondered if he really would have a concept (of how the works should be played and sound) and know enough of orchestra playing to do that.
"But he definitely had a concept of it, and he certainly did it," Clendenning said.
In fact, Laredo's conducting of the large works of the symphonic repertoire began with the VSO.
"I'm very happy and grateful that it did happen here," he said. "I did not do a Tchaikovsky symphony before; I certainly did not do (Stravinsky's) 'Petrouchka' until I got here. I didn't do Mahler's First."
When Laredo led the VSO in Mahler's large-scale First Symphony, it proved a crowd-pleaser at Burlington's Flynn Center. Although not a trained conductor, Laredo prepared thoroughly.
"I just took the score and started from bar one and tried to figure out what it was all about," he said. "I immersed myself very much in that piece. I really felt when we did it that I really knew every note of that piece very, very well.
"You have to do that with everything," he said.
And the orchestra agreed.
"If you ask him some question about any little detail, he looks at the score, he knows the answer," Clendenning said. "That's not true of all conductors, particularly where we are. It's not like it's the Boston Symphony."
Still, Laredo treats the VSO as if it was the best, because, to him, it is or it will be. But, there certainly was work to do when Laredo took over.
"I think that, while there was a wonderful enthusiasm, there was a wonderful spirit, I don't think there was a real cohesion of playing," he said. "I felt a little bit like everybody's doing their (individual) thing; they're really not playing as a unit."
Laredo feels that to play well as an orchestra, the musicians need to think of it as playing chamber music.
"You don't just rely on looking at the conductor," he said. "You rely on the people around you, you listen to them, you play with them. You play like a unit."
And the particular quality of sound of the orchestra is very important to Laredo.
"I think we've worked very hard on trying to get, in the strings for instance, a warm, rich sound," Laredo said. "Where I used to feel that the playing was a little harsh and strident, we're trying to get over that. And it has gotten a lot better."
And this has happened without big changes in personnel.
"He's wonderful to work with," Polk said. "He's a wonderful teacher. He's very demanding, but very nice. So you feel like you really want to work hard for him. Of course, his musical ideas are just topnotch, so it's just very pleasant to come to rehearsals. You know you're going to have a great musical product."
Laredo's plans for the future involve work, and more work, in order to make the VSO what it can be. But, there is one thing he feels strongly the orchestra needs to do:
"One thing I'm beginning to sound like a broken record about, the one thing I keep asking for, is more money to pay the musicians better," he said. "Right now our pay scale is very low."
Many of the VSO musicians make their living playing in the VSO and other orchestras, like the Albany (N.Y.) Symphony, the Portland (Maine) Symphony, and the Springfield (Mass.) Symphony. The VSO scale is lower than any of these, so if there is a conflict, the other orchestra wins out.
"And I certainly don't blame them. I certainly understand," Laredo said. "So, I wish we were able to be on a par with that not only par, but wish we were paying better."
Of course, as everyone knows, music directors come in with a fanfare, then, after a time, move on. But, for Laredo, the VSO isn't a career move.
"I have to say, as each year went by, the longer I stayed, I was getting hooked," Laredo said. "I saw the possibilities and thought this is something I really want to continue doing. I told my manager that this is something I'm going to make time for, no matter what."
Parker asks the question the rest of Vermont's music world is asking about Laredo: "Can he really be this nice? Is it possible for someone this accomplished and successful to really be this nice? Can somebody this nice finish first? "The answer seems to be yes," Parker answers for everyone.
Jim Lowe is arts editor of The Times Argus, and music critic for The Times Argus and Rutland Herald.
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