‘If you had told me a year ago…I would have dismissed it as impossible’ – Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

The following is an extract from an article in The Strad’s February issue in which Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider talks about his parallel careers as a violinist and conductor. To read in full, click here to subscribe and login. The February 2021 digital magazine and print edition are on sale now.

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider’s professional experience as a conductor stretches back a decade and a half and includes the role of principal guest conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra in St Petersburg. Lots of ‘perfect chemistry’ and ‘love at first rehearsal’ clichés surround the appointment of a new conductor, and his arrival in Lyon has been no exception. So what’s the reality, in the rehearsal room? ‘Like everything, it’s always easy in the beginning!’ he says with a wry smile. ‘We are still in the process of really getting to know each other. That’s why being a music director is interesting: there’s nothing you can implement over a week or two months; it’s about finding a way of thinking, an approach to music making, over a number of years. Things have not been made easy by the restrictions we are facing now. If you had told me a year ago that I would have to conduct an orchestra sitting in the way the orchestra is sitting, or with the reduced rehearsal time we are subjected to, I would have dismissed it as impossible. Of course, it is possible even if it’s not ideal. This whole thing has reminded us of what’s important: having the chance to make music.’

Read: Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider: parallel careers

Read: Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider named new Music Director of the Orchestre National de Lyon

He refers to each week in the immediate future as having ‘a plan A, a plan B, a plan C, a plan A minus and a plan B plus’. But despite that, there have been advantages to the many adversities visited upon the world of orchestral performance. ‘Not that this whole thing hasn’t been a disaster for everybody, but we have seen how exible and creative we actually can be, and as a result all kinds of things have popped up,’ Szeps-Znaider says. Can he envisage the orchestral world’s long planning-window shortening? ‘I hope so, because yes, it is absurd: how do I know what I want to play or conduct in three years? I have no idea. If that goes, it will not be such a terrible thing.’