KEY POINTS:
PERFORMANCE
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Aotea Centre, tonight at 8pm
Tonight, Ukrainian Kirill Karabits will have his Auckland debut conducting the latest concert in the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's Vero Aotea Series, Rome, The Eternal City.
After working with a graduate conductor class, he sighs when asked the vital ingredient for a would-be conductor. "The hardest thing is to establish yourself," he says. "You need an orchestra to show what you can do. If you're a violinist, you can play your violin and people can judge you. But a conductor needs an orchestra to do this."
The son of a composer, Karabits admits he was "crazy about conducting" from his childhood. "My father went to all sorts of different festivals when I was a kid and I followed him."
His career has included a role as principal guest conductor with the Strasbourg Philharmonic and a busy schedule of concert hall and opera house engagements throughout Europe. He has also worked in Sydney and Hobart.
A week ago, a concert with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra included the premiere of a new commission from the young Australian composer Paul Stanhope.
"It was a very good piece," Karabits says, although he feels it is sometimes difficult to integrate the music of today into concert programmes.
"Contemporary music has lost its connection with the general audience. In Brahms' time, people were connected to their contemporary music, they were following it, but today it's not the case, unfortunately."
His ideal orchestra? "A group of musicians who are open to trying different things. They are not fixated on something and are willing to throw themselves into new experiences."
He recalls a concert with his Strasbourg Orchestra, performing Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony and Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto with Ivo Pogorelich.
"We rehearsed, then we changed completely and gave a concert that was a surprise to the musicians and myself. They followed me. To me, that's what it is all about, even if the idea sounds a little weird.
"Rehearsals and concerts have a very special relationship," he continues. "There's no way you can rehearse and keep the music exactly as it is. You always change. It depends on your mood, your blood pressure, and it will make for a very spontaneous concert."
Karabits admits some musicians are perturbed by such tactics. "They become really angry. They think we should do exactly what we have rehearsed and present the house we have built together, but for me it's not like that. It has to be an adventure, otherwise it's boring."
Karabits has a deep involvement in Baroque and classical music.
A few years ago he discovered a lost Telemann opera in Kiev - Pastourelle en Musique. "It is the earliest Telemann opera we know, one of the six or seven that have survived out of the 50 the composer wrote and, unusually, it was written in three languages at the same time. We performed it and recorded it in the Vienna Musikverein, which was exciting."
Equally busy in the concert and opera worlds, Karabits is sought after as an operatic conductor, working in Kiev, Strasbourg and Nancy. Next year, he will make his debut at Glyndebourne.
Tonight's concert, with Simon O'Neill and Erika Sunnegardh contributing arias from Bellini, Puccini and Wagner alongside orchestral items by Berlioz and Respighi, could well offer the best of both worlds.
