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Guest conductor is a quick study
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, the final candidate for music director of the Florida Orchestra, says he can tell immediately if he's in sync with his musicians.
By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 11, 2002
[Publicity photo]
Dmitry Sitkovetsky, a Russian who emigrated to the United States in 1977, first made his mark as a violinist.
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When Dmitry Sitkovetsky is a guest conductor, it doesn't take long for him to realize if he and an orchestra are going to click.
"Musical contact is made in the first five minutes of rehearsal," Sitkovetsky said.
If that's the case, then Sitkovetsky and members of the Florida Orchestra will know by now if he is a viable candidate for music director, as they've been rehearsing since Wednesday with the guest conductor for this weekend's concerts.
"The first reaction on both sides between conductor and orchestra musicians happens very quickly," Sitkovetsky said in March, speaking from St. Barthelemy in the French West Indies, where he was on vacation.
Sitkovetsky is the fifth and final conductor to appear in front of the orchestra as a possible successor to Jahja Ling, who steps down as music director at the end of the season. Of previous candidates, the front-runners appear to be Pavel Kogan and Stefan Sanderling.
Sitkovetsky, a Russian who emigrated to the United States in 1977, first made his musical mark as a violinist, and he continues to be a soloist with major orchestras. He has never performed with the Florida Orchestra.
He began conducting in 1990 when he formed a small orchestra called the New European Strings, which has made recordings featuring Sitkovetsky's transcriptions for strings of chamber music by Bach, Brahms and Dohnanyi.
He comes from a long line of musicians. His father, Julian, was a well-known violinist in Russia. His mother and frequent collaborator is the pianist Bella Davidovich, with whom he made recordings of the violin sonatas of Brahms, Grieg and Ravel.
Sitkovetsky recently finished a five-year tenure as principal conductor of the Ulster Orchestra, his first experience leading a symphony orchestra. It's a post he gained by "complete happenstance" when asked to conduct on short notice in Belfast.
"There was a cancellation by one of their guest conductors, and they called me somewhere in the Alps, in Austria, where I was conducting a chamber orchestra," he said.
"They asked, 'How about in three days conducting the Schumann Fourth Symphony and the Shostakovich Second Piano Concerto?' neither of which I had ever done before. It was a chance to conduct a symphony orchestra, so why not? I learned them in three days."
Of course, Sitkovetsky has a lifetime of musicmaking to draw upon when learning a work as a conductor.
"I've been onstage since the age of 7, and I'm 47 now, so I've been onstage for 40 years," he said. "The good thing is that I'm on very familiar terms with most of the composers whose symphonies or oratorios or overtures or concerti might be new to me. It might be the first time I'm conducting those works, but the composers and their styles are very familiar."
Sitkovetsky will be conducting Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 3, which isn't as popular as the composer's Second Symphony.
"It's a standard piece that is rarely performed," Sitkovetsky said. "I think that's because possibly the finale does not have as effective an ending as the second; it's not as direct. But the piece is a much superior composition. Rachmaninoff became a much more sophisticated composer, and the third has more than just that raw, sensuous appeal that he had in some of his earlier works, like the Second Symphony."
Also on the program this weekend are Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3, with soloist Elmar Oliveira.
Until conducting the Florida Orchestra, Sitkovetsky couldn't say if he was truly interested in pursuing the music directorship, but he has been a U.S. citizen since 1983. He also is a British citizen, and his principal residence is in London, with his wife, American soprano Susan Roberts, and their 12-year-old daughter, Julia.
"I spend only about two months a year total in London these days because I travel so much," he said. "That's probably one reason why, musically and physically, I'd like to settle down and have a musical base where I could bring all my experiences under one roof."
PREVIEW
Dmitry Sitkovetsky conducts the Florida Orchestra, 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and 7:30 p.m. Monday at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets: $20-$38. (813) 286-2403 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286 or www.floridaorchestra.org.
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