Andris Nelsons was one of a "fairly long" shortlist, according to City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra chief executive Stephen Maddock, to become music director of the orchestra. The shortlist, he said, was more or less evenly divided between very young conductors, like Nelsons, who is just 28, and more mature musicians. British orchestras seem to be going through something of a phase of trying to catch talent young. There's Vladimir Jurowski, the exceptionally able young man at the helm of the London Philharmonic; Edward Gardner, music director of English National Opera; Ilan Volkov, who has just announced his departure from the BBC Scottish Symphony. All of them were appointed in their late 20s or early 30s. They have all been in the interesting position of leading orchestral musicians twice their age.
What these orchestras hope for, presumably, is freshness, talent, enthusiasm and perhaps the ability for these conductors to forge real connections with young audiences. Certainly the image of conductors is changing: the ferocious, terrifying maestri of yesteryear (personified by Solti and Toscanini) are disappearing, mercifully, to be replaced by more reasonable, human, informal figures who lead, if not by consensus, then by consultation (personified, perhaps, by Rattle). The loss is sometimes experience. It takes years for conductors to master the breadth and depth of the repertoire. Raw talent alone cannot get you round the Mahler symphonies.
Good luck to Nelsons: he has performed with the BBC Philharmonic, but, despite a very healthy career in Germany and the Baltic, is more or less an unknown quantity in the UK. It'll be fascinating to hear what he can do. After Rattle and Oramo, he's certainly got big shoes to step into at Birmingham.
