David Robertson on Conducting, Pierre Boulez, and Musical Interpretation

Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. Learn more at Mercatus.org. For a full transcript of every conversation, enhanced with helpful links, visit conversationswithtyler.com. Hello everyone and welcome back to conversations with Tyler.

Today I'm happy to be here in New York City with David Robertson, who is one of my favourite classical conductors. In the year I think 2003, I went to hear David in Paris at ERCOM, and I've been thinking about him and what he does ever since. He served as principal conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporaine from 1992 to 2000, has been chief conductor in Sydney, Australia, music director in St. Louis, where he's credited with having revitalized that symphony, and he is very well known for his numerous recordings, including those of John Adams, Pierre Boulez, George Gershwin, and much more.

He teaches at Juilliard and he conducts regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and this summer he's conducting with the New York Philharmonic an exciting concert featuring Stravinsky's Petrushka 1911 edition. David, welcome. Thank you very much. Now, as we both know, it's the hundredth birthday of Pierre Boulez on March 22nd, and we're recording just a few days before then, and you studied with Boulez. I didn't actually study with him.

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