Under the musical direction of Peter Oundjian, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra plays from strength to strength

The music director’s office at Roy Thomson Hall contains a sketch of Beethoven, a Japanese painting, a piano, a desk, couches – functional, yes, but giving little indication of the rich history of the evolution of classical music.

Yet, Peter Oundjian’s place is just right for the prototypical 21stcentury music director, an arts leader for whom a cell phone and a laptop are as crucial as a baton and whose every waking hour between now and 2012 seems fully booked. There’s always someone desperate to speak with him.

The faith that the Toronto Symphony Orchestra board has in its 10th director was underscored in February when his contract was extended for four more years, to the 2011–2012 season.

It’s all the more remarkable considering the symphony’s neardeath experience with bankruptcy earlier this millennium and before that a long musicians’ strike. There’s still a big accumulated deficit, but there’s no doubt the TSO experience is back in favour.

Five years ago a typical audience filled 56 per cent of Roy Thomson Hall seats, now the figure is almost 85 per cent. Significantly a connection has been cemented with young audiences through the successful ‘tsoundcheck’ program offering cheap tickets, and, Oundjian chuckles, “now we’re attracting the DINK audience (double- income, no children).”

His colleagues are happy to give him much of the credit for the TSO revival. Chief executive officer Andrew Shaw enthused at the announcement of next season’s concerts (the organization’s 86th year) that the 50-something maestro had transformed the orchestra by his “energy, remarkable talent and artistic vision” and noted the “strong bond he has forged with patrons and the Toronto community.” Not bad for an artist without a long-term top-flight conducting position before he was appointed early in 2003 – but he did arrive with a considerable reputation as a musician. For 14 years from 1981 he was first violinist with the lauded Tokyo String Quartet before a repetitive strain injury in his left hand ended that career, one praised by critics for the leadership he showed and for bringing more passion to the foursome’s work. (He still plays some violin “but only if I choose carefully.”)

Oundjian’s family moved from Britain to Toronto in 1951, where Peter was born four years later. They returned to Britain in 1961, where he went to Charterhouse school, played for Benjamin Britten on recordings (happenings said to have sparked his keen interest in conducting), studied at the Royal College of Music, won significant prizes and enjoyed discovering what he calls “the dark side”of composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams. He completed his violin studies at the Juilliard School in New York.

Nowadays he’s regularly praised as a conductor with a rising international reputation. Currently he’s also principal guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony (who’ll play here next season), artistic advisor to the Caramoor Festival in New York state and over the next two seasons will return to lead the Boston, Pittsburgh and San Francisco Symphonies and orchestras in many other U.S. cities. He has ongoing European engagements with the Berliner Sinfonie-Orchester, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra and Radio Philharmonique in Paris. He’s also in his 26th year as a visiting professor at Yale School of Music.

Oundjian, as engaging one-on-one as he is when captivating Thomson Hall audiences with pre-performance remarks, is never at a loss for words. If he ever tires of conducting, his next choice is obvious – motivational speaker.

At the TSO he has a winning combination going for him, a player with excellent credentials who can inhabit music’s inner workings and a talent for taking the collaborative, collegial route to get people on his side.

Asked in a recent interview what qualities help make a leading conductor, his responses seem to reflect the approach and talent that have won him fans. “Such a person has to possess real depth in the music and total commitment to its interpretation. You have to be nimble mentally in order to deal shrewdly with potentially awkward moments, you have to be interested in real goals for the music and know what’s right for you.

“You must never lose focus or concentration in live situations. Although expectations constantly change, you don’t want experiences to become easy going.”

The affection TSO lovers have for Oundjian is mirrored by his for his audiences and musicians.

“They’re great, a wonderful listening audience. I learned that when I was here with the Tokyo Quartet twice a year. They’re sophisticated and knowledgable. As for the musicians, morale is very high and the atmosphere is better than elsewhere. The acoustical improvements to the Hall were very positive and now the listening and playing experience is at a very high level. The orchestra is developing a special chemistry. We can compete,”he says.

The director in action is worth experiencing. I watched a rehearsal with the black-shirted Oundjian casually chatting before plunging into the forbidding opening of Mozart’s Requiem. Immediately the mood changed to rapt attention from the choir, soloists and orchestra, with painstaking, rigorous conductorial advice from the boss in almost every segment, much subtle tinkering and stressing of nuance. It’s micro-managing detail in a most rewarding way.

In performance he has that same carefully precise approach, coupling it with expressive vigour, focussed intensity and the ability to generate thick instrumental colour and make major impact when asking musicians to play pianissimo. He was particularly impressive conducting Mozart’s rarely performed Gran Partita for 13 wind instruments and double bass.

Oundjian and his principal colleagues take great care with programming, trying to balance the challenging with the popular, and perhaps to get to what he calls the Everest of orchestral music – the (10) Mahler symphonies. This season has seen popular mini- festivals such as Mozart 251, fascinating pieces in the New Creations festival he champions, the startling pairing of unlikely programmates such as Mahler songs with Beethoven symphonies and enough Canadiana to cheer musical patriots, plus performance exchanges with orchestras from Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City.

There’s still lots to come including Holst’s The Planets (May 9-10) and in June, Last Night At The Proms, plus the world premiere of an extraordinary comic oratorio for which his cousin, Eric Idle of Monty Python notoriety, is chiefly responsible, called Not The Messiah (He’s A Very Naughty Boy), during the debuting Luminato festival.

Next season Oundjian wants the TSO to seize “a slice of Toronto’s cultural renaissance and sustain the progress of recent years.”

So expect a blockbuster Sept.19 opening with Orff’s Carmina Burana and Ravel’s Bolero, more mini-festivals (naturally including Mozart252), lots of Messiean, whose birth centenary is next year, music by eight Canadian composers, numerous Canadian premieres, a host of star soloists such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Lang Lang and Anne-Sophie Mutter, stellar podium guests, some of the next generation’s superstars and exotic works such as Philip Glass’s harpsichord concerto, an organ symphony and an accordion concerto.

Soon, Oundjian hopes, there’ll be more tours and more recordings. “This city should have a great international orchestra,”adding that “we need people with big aspirations.”He has them in spades, and the signs so far are all good.

If you aren’t able to hear the TSO live there are CBC broadcasts and a documentary now on DVD, Five Days In September filmed in fall 2004, which relives the virtual rebirth of the TSO as a musical force with special appearances by the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming and Emanuel Ax.