Intermezzo

YNS out, AOE in for LPO

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has announced that Andrés Orozco-Estrada is to be its new Principal Guest Conductor. He will replace Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who has held the position since 2008.

It must have been love at first sight; Orozco-Estrada first conducted the orchestra just two months ago on an overseas tour.

The LPO should count themselves lucky to have secured the services of the talented Columbian. Increasingly in demand, he has recently accepted jobs as Music Director of the Houston Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. 

Like YNS, AOE is a ball of energy whose strengths lie largely in the 19th century repertoire, a useful counterbalance to Vladimir Jurowski's 20th century bent.

He makes his LPO London debut at the Royal Festival Hall on 29 January.

Andres Orozco-Estrada's Wiener

Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich / Andrés Orozco-Estrada / Natasha Paremski - Cadogan Hall, 10 February 2011

I'm not quite sure why the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich is billed as the Vienna Tonkunstler Orchestra over here, but I suppose it does sound more glamorous than the strictly accurate Composers' Orchestra of Lower Austria.  

Despite some significant former chief conductors like Fabio Luisi and Kristjan Järvi, the orchestra, predominantly young and impressively multi-gender/cultural, has generally been considered outside the top rank. That opinion has been open to revision recently with the arrival in 2009 of the current incumbent, the Colombian-born Andrés Orozco-Estrada.