This article was published (in Dutch) on Preludium.nl, the website of the magazine of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and The Concertgebouw.
By Frederike Berntsen
“Beethoven is the reason I became a conductor,” a passionate Han-Na Chang tells us via Zoom. She is soon to make her debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, a long-awaited pleasure, as a previous attempt was postponed due to corona.
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Han-Na Chang’s career as a cellist was going smoothly, but she felt a strong pull to do more. What other music was there? How did music history fit together? After the South Korean artist won the Rostropovich Competition, many doors opened to her. “I love the cello repertoire, naturally! But at a certain point, I found the concerts of Saint-Saëns, Elgar, and Dvořák, however beautiful, too limited. I wanted to dive deeper.” One thing led to another, and she approached conductor James DePreist, associated with the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where Chang had studied cello: “Can I come and study Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony?”
At this point in her life, the balance is roughly fifty-fifty: the 42-year-old Chang has spent about as much time on the podium as she did playing the cello professionally. She is currently Chief Conductor in Trondheim. “As a cellist, I was so young; I learned a lot instinctively. Sitting in the hall after my own performances and hearing Mahler performed by such a great conductor was an enormous learning experience. I remember it well, I was twelve and had played Haydn under Giuseppe Sinopoli in Dresden. Afterwards, I heard Das Lied von der Erde; it was my first Mahler experience. I had never experienced anything like it. How can you convey every nuance of human emotion like that, in a note, an instrument? From then on, I started studying all of those scores.”
From her home base in New York, Chang visits the major stages. In Amsterdam, she will conduct the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, among other works. Pure Beethoven, according to her, exciting, stubborn, and at the same time you hear his gentle side: it’s as if you’re walking in a romantic garden in the slow movement. “And finally, the powerful forte.” Chang raises her fist. Even through the computer screen, you can see her eyes sparkle. “With Beethoven, you can have a feeling of ecstasy; I don’t have that anywhere in the cello repertoire. All those orchestral instruments, the timbre, the colouring.”
“How much passion must you have to create music like this? You can barely imagine. Beethoven is the only composer who truly fights a battle. His inner struggle, he fights it with everything he has, and achieves victory. There is no doubt in his mind, and that is the wonder of Beethoven. The music also becomes clearer to me; I get better and better at seeing what is important in the score, what is Beethoven trying to say here? And that has to do with the amount of time you spend with the notes.”
Also on her programme with the Concertgebouw Orchestra is Richard Strauss’s symphonic poem Don Quixote, based on Cervantes’ great novel. Chang feels deeply connected to it, not least because she has played the solo cello part herself. She immediately refers to the legendary recording by Mstislav Rostropovich under the direction of Herbert von Karajan [from 1975 – Ed.]. Not unimportantly, she had the opportunity to work with Rostropovich. “‘Do everything with all you have in you,’ was his credo. Rostropovich was all passion.” She wanted to play like him, and to play for him and hear what he thought. His technique is a bible; he never exaggerated; everything was right. “He didn’t tell me how to play something, but he did say I should do it differently every time. How can you be so clear in your interpretation of a piece that everyone understands what the music is about? Great musicians can do that, and it is my greatest learning goal.”
“Strauss,” she says, “is honest in Don Quixote and can really tell a story. Listening to this piece is better than watching a movie. Everything Strauss wants to say, he captures in a great arc of tension; the rest he leaves to the listener’s imagination.”
The cello and viola soloists, representing Don Quixote and Sancho Panza respectively, are leaders from the orchestra. “A must,” Chang believes. “To be able to create the lines together and have the best understanding of each other, it’s ideal if the soloists are orchestral musicians; they practically live together. This is chamber music: there are so many duets and trios, and in my opinion, that works best with each other from within the orchestra. In this way, it’s a beautiful calling card.”
“We are also playing ‘Phantasma’ by the Viennese composer Bernd Richard Deutsch, written in 2022 for and premiered by the Concertgebouw Orchestra; it fits perfectly with Beethoven and Strauss. Deutsch based his work on Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze in the Vienna Secession building. Gustav Klimt was an important inspiration for Strauss. In a good performance, this music glows, just as Strauss can glow. I find it an impressive example of wonderfully written material for every instrument. Deutsch also contributes to the musical interaction between orchestra and conductor. Nothing in our society is comparable to the marvel of an orchestra coming to life. We don’t speak in words, but react with our hearts. There is no language barrier. When all musicians become passionate about a piece of music, the creative energy that then arises in an orchestra—I find that something incredible.”
The concerts with Han-Na Chang are made possible with support of the Leading Women in Music Fund. We’re delighted to be doing our part to get better representation for women in these positions among the top symphony orchestras worldwide with our Leading Women in Music Fund. We aim to achieve this by putting more women in the spotlight, increasing the number of inspiring role models, scouting and guiding talented women, and of course by making productions with female conductors and composers possible. Everyone is welcome to contribute to this fund: private donors, businesses, funds, and foundations that feel connected to this cause.
If you would like to know how you can donate to the Leading Women in Music Fund, please contact Barbara Ruding (senior fundraiser for special projects) via b.ruding@concertgebouworkest.nl.
