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At 22, Lionel Bringuier is one of a new breed of budding Toscaninis making their presence felt on the international circuit. These days the young conductor divides his time between his native France and Los Angeles, where he holds a post as Esa-Pekka Salonen's assistant at the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
On Thursday, Bringuier makes his New Zealand debut in the first of two concerts with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
I catch up with him during a Far East tour with the LA Philharmonic, after Salonen has conducted what Bringuier describes as an amazing performance of Debussy's La Mer in Tokyo's Suntory Hall.
Clearly, the experience of working under the Finnish maestro inspires superlatives.
"Esa-Pekka is absolutely wonderful," Bringuier enthuses. "I like him as a conductor and as a composer - the orchestra recently played his Piano Concerto with Yefim Bronfman. Because he's a composer himself, he catches the structure of the pieces. When he plays Ravel it sounds like Ravel, not like Brahms. He also makes audiences feel there is no such thing as new music - they enjoy everything he brings to them. Back in Los Angeles, the concert hall can be absolutely full for programmes of composers like Boulez."
Bringuier has also made his mark with the contemporary. Last month he conducted three scores by Kaija Saariaho and earlier this year launched Giya Kancheli's Broken Chant with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, a work blasted by one critic as a "big fat nothing" and dismissed by another as "a film score without the film".
I can sense a Gallic shrug when I quote their critiques. "We never know how it will turn out with a first performance. Of course we are worried, but what would happen if we never took these things on? I feel audiences want to discover something and I want to share this with them. After all, this is what I am here for. I didn't choose to conduct because I wanted to direct things but rather to share things."
That's a philosophy that also informs his relationship with the players.
"A conductor is a musician among musicians. When I was a cellist, I used to play chamber music a lot because I like the idea of sharing. The very first work I conducted was a Beethoven Seventh ... I enjoyed the way it was like chamber music but with more players."
His first APO concert, The Spider's Feast by Frenchman Albert Roussel, reflects Bringuier's avid interest in music that is a little off the beaten track.
I ask whether Roussel had been over-shadowed by Debussy ,who was five years his senior. Bringuier admits this might be the case, although he sees them as very different figures.
"Debussy's music is very much about atmosphere whereas Roussel's is more rhythmic, with so much happening."
The young conductor's most exciting discovery has been a first symphony by Vincent d'Indy. You can hear it on his first CD, with the Orchestre de Bretagne, which August's BBC Music named orchestral disc of the month.
"It is called the Italian Symphony and it has a lot to do with Mendelssohn right down to its saltarello last movement," Bringuier laughs.
"And, although you can hear the influence of other composers, you can also catch a young voice coming through."
Performance
What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra.
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday November 7, 8pm.
On disc: D'Indy, Symphony in A minor (Timpani 1C 1125).
