Munich Philharmonic: Will he be the new chief conductor?

Created: 01/15/2023 20:02

By: Markus Thiel, Michael Schleicher

The chemistry was right: Lahav Shani and the Munich Philharmonic last September in the Isarphilharmonie.

It was the last interaction between the musicians and the Israeli conductor.

So far.

© Tobias Hase

Since the Munich Philharmonic parted ways with Valery Gergiev, the post of chief conductor has been vacant.

Now there is a hot candidate for the successor.

Who will be chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic?

As is well known, the post has been vacant since Valery Gergiev's contract was terminated last March, a few weeks after his native country's attack on Ukraine.

According to the city council, the 69-year-old Russian had not sufficiently distanced himself from Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In December, Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) announced that he expected the city council to vote on the new boss in the first quarter of 2023.

That schedule now appears to be working.

According to information from our newspaper, the Philharmoniker are about to sign a contract with Lahav Shani.

The Israeli conducted the orchestra in March 2022 at the "Charity Concert for Ukraine" - and was last a guest at the Isarphilharmonie last September.

"The fact that the chemistry with the man at the podium is right was shown in a similarly impressive manner in Berlioz's 'Symphonie fantastique'," our critic noted at the time, after observing that "after Dvořák's brisk 'Carnival' overture, the corners of the mouths of the Philharmoniker pointed upwards by a large majority".

Lahav Shani was born in Tel Aviv in January 1989;

his father was a choir director.

At the age of six, the boy began taking piano lessons and later also learned to play the double bass.

His academic training took him to the Buchmann-Mehta Music School at the university in his hometown, before he began studying conducting and piano at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin.

Daniel Barenboim became his mentor.

After winning the conducting competition "The Mahler Competition" in Bamberg in 2013, Shani quickly became one of the young talents on the podium, and was the subject of intense discussion in the music world.

In 2016 he finally made his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra as a conductor and solo pianist.

Almost two months later, he was appointed chief conductor from 2018 - at the age of 29, he was the youngest person in this position in the history of the orchestra.

In the 2020/21 season he became chief conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, succeeding Zubin Mehta.

The close relationship between Shani and the legendary orchestra had developed over many years, since he made his debut there at the age of 16 - and from then on he played with the Israel Philharmonic again and again.

Lahav Shani, conductor.

© Hase/dpa/Marco Borggreve

Should Shani's commitment come true, it would be tantamount to a paradigm shift for the Philharmoniker.

In the past few decades, the orchestra and the city have been keen to bring in expensive, established stars, also in order to buy fame and international importance, so to speak.

After the death of the legendary Sergiu Celibidache, this affected his successors James Levine (chief conductor from 1999 to 2004), Christian Thielemann (2004-2011), Lorin Maazel (2012-2014) and Valery Gergiev (2015-2022).

This was also justified with the position on the tour market in order to get international engagements thanks to the celebrities.

It is quite possible that the honorary conductor of the Philharmoniker, Zubin Mehta, played a role in Shani's solution.

It is also thanks to him that the young colleague Mehta became heir to the throne of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

Shani will not give up his chief post there, but he will with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

His contract in the Netherlands is actually valid until August 2026.

Anyone who listens to Munich orchestra circles only hears good things about Shani.

Reactions range from “really great” to “incredibly talented”.

Interesting that apparently most members of the Philharmoniker have been groping in the dark so far.

There, a small group takes care of the commitment of the future boss, a musician told our newspaper.

"Not even a rumor" leaked out.

However, two names emerged in the debate.

But with Daniel Harding and Andris Nelsons, there was probably no final rapprochement.

There is a private video snippet of Lahav Shani, recorded for the Purim festival in 1992. Just turned three years old, the boy with the black bow tie is conducting the film music for the Disney classic “Fantasia”: hardly twice as tall as the baton is long, which he cheerfully alternates between left and right hand.

But the passion for the music, the empathy - they can already be seen in this sequence.

If you want to experience this dedication of the Israeli now: On Thursday and Friday, the 34-year-old will be a guest with the BR Symphony Orchestra in the Herkulessaal.

The program includes Adams, Barber, Rachmaninoff.