Meet Eri Klas
Which of this seasons Cincinnati Symphony guest conductors made his
conducting debut leading Leonard Bernstein's "West Side Story" with
drum sticks, has the same birthday (June 7) as CSO music director Paavo
Järvis father Neeme Järvi, and was his country's junior lightweight
boxing champion?
It's Estonian conductor Eri Klas, who
leads CSO concerts at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Music Hall. On
the program are Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Grieg's
"Holberg Suite" and Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major, featuring CSO
concertmaster Timothy Lees.
Klas, 68, is used to conducting large
ensembles (the Strauss is scored for over 100 players). Really large,
like 20,000-30,000 singers at Estonia's famed song festivals, held
every fifth year in Tallinn.
"It is a really different feeling
when you are standing in front of many, many thousand singers.
Sometimes it's a question (of) how can you manage it, but they are very
precise, actually. You must not beat more than is needed because they
are looking very carefully. Those traditions we have more than 100
years."
Klas was tossed in the air by the choristers at the end
of the 2003 festival. "It's done more on sport fields when you win
something or set a record."
The boxing championship was actually
"nothing very serious," he said. "I was in school one of the smallest
and then I decided that I must be also more powerful. I went to boxing
classes and became the Estonian youth champion."
Klas was born into a musical family in Tallinn. His father was a cellist, his mother a pianist.
"My mother put me on the piano when I was five, then I fell in love
with violin. My musical godfather was David Oistrakh, the famous
violinist, because he spent all the summers in Pärnu and we spent the
holidays together. There was no connection with foreign countries, so
he brought records and we listened to them. He actually stopped my
violin playing because he told my mother, "Look this boy has another
role in life. You have in Estonia the choir traditions. Put him on
the conductor's life. Suddenly I was choir conducting, same way as
Neeme."
Like Järvi (who is two years older), Klas majored in
choral conducting at the Tallinn Conservatory, then went to Leningrad
to study orchestral conducting. Both were students of Nikolai
Rabinovich at the Leningrad Conservatory.
Rabinovich "saved me," Klas said.
"West Side Story" was my debut (also its Estonian premiere, at the
Estonia Theater in Tallinn in 1964). We had a problem because we
didn't have enough percussion players, so I took away the conductor's
stand and conducted it with the drum sticks, playing drums and
conducting. The producer of the Moscow operetta theater saw me and
invited me to Moscow. I did it the same way there with the percussion
sticks, and they invited me to be chief conductor of the operetta
theater.
"Rabinovich said "No way. I don't allow you to be
there, because if you start in the operetta theater, you get a blue
stamp like in the market place that reads "operetta" or something.'"
Rabinovich nixed another offer Klas received from a music hall in
Leningrad. "They had a trip to Paris for two months. Paris in this
time was like on the moon, but I didn't take this as well. The guy who
did is still conducting the Leningrad Radio Light Music Orchestra."
Klas began working at the famed Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1969. He
became its principal guest conductor and led opera, ballet and
orchestra productions in Moscow and on tour in Europe.
"I never stop my connection with Estonia. Even when I was in Moscow, I was
still conducting Estonian Opera Theater (now the Estonian National
Opera)."
He was chief conductor of the Estonian Opera from
1975-94. "In 1985, I brought the Estonian Opera to Sweden and that was
a big success. They chose me to be chief conductor of Swedish Royal
Opera (Stockholm) and I was five years there."
Klas' activities were very restricted under Soviet rule, but he chose to remain in Estonia rather than emigrate like Järvi (in 1980). "The opera theater
was my family. I was not ready to leave my family."
Still, the authorities were "very afraid" when he was outside the Soviet Union, he said.
"Every time I had to have permission to go. Very often Moscow didn't
even give permission. I was speaking a lot of languages and was very
fast. They were afraid that I am this guy who jumps."
Since Estonia gained re-independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Klas has been chief conductor of the Arhus Symphony in Denmark, Netherlands
Radio Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic in Finland. He is currently
artistic director of the Tallinn Philharmonic Society, chief conductor
of the Novaya Opera Theater in Moscow and principal guest conductor of
the Finnish National Opera. He guest conducts worldwide, having last
led the CSO at Music Hall in March, 2003, when he also conducted
Richard Strauss ("Ein Heldenleben").
"Strauss is wonderful. God bless Paavo for giving it to me. Very often chief conductors save it for themselves. The hall I remember from the first time I was here is so huge, but this piece ("Also Sprach Zarathustra" excerpted by Stanley
Kubrick for "2001: A Space Odyssey") is absolutely for this hall."
Klas is one of Estonia's leading citizens. He has chaired the Estonian
National Cultural Foundation for 16 years, raising money for Estonia's
cultural development, is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and a member
of the Estonian Olympic Committee.
He and Neeme call each other on their birthday, said Klas. "Last year we decided to celebrate the birthday together one month later in Pärnu because we were always on the road.
"I have no problems with free time," he said.
Eri Klas leads the CSO in Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Grieg's
"Holberg Suite" and Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major with CSO
concertmaster Timothy Lees at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Music
Hall. Tickets, $12-$75.25, $10 for students, half-price for seniors,
available at (513) 381-3300 and online at www,cincinnatisymphony.org
By Mary Ellyn Hutton
(first published in The Cincinnati Post Oct. 26, 2007)