The Cincinati Time_Klas at home with Strauss (October 26)

26.10.2007

By Mary Ellyn Hutton, Post music writer;  Friday, October 26, 2007

It's Estonian conductor Eri Klas, who leads CSO concerts at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Music Hall. On the program are Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Grieg's "Holberg Suite" and Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major, featuring CSO concertmaster Timothy Lees.

Klas, 68, is used to conducting large ensembles (the Strauss is scored for over 100 players). Really large, like 20,000-30,000 singers at Estonia's famed song festivals, held every fifth year in Tallinn.

"It is a really different feeling when you are standing in front of many, many thousand singers. ...You must not beat more than is needed because they are looking very carefully. Those traditions we have more than 100 years."

The boxing championship was actually "nothing very serious," he said.

"I was in school one of the smallest and then I decided that I must be also more powerful. I went to boxing classes and became the Estonian youth champion."

Klas was born into a musical family in Tallinn. His father was a cellist, his mother a pianist.

"My mother put me on the piano when I was 5, then I fell in love with violin. My musical godfather was David Oistrakh, the famous violinist, because he spent all the summers in Pärnu and we spent the holidays together. ... He actually stopped my violin playing because he told my mother, 'Look, this boy has another role in life. You have in Estonia the choir traditions. Put him on the conductor's life.' Suddenly I was choir conducting - same way as Neeme."

Like Järvi (who is two years older), Klas majored in choral conducting at the Tallinn Conservatory, then went to Leningrad to study orchestral conducting. Both were students of Nikolai Rabinovich at the Leningrad Conservatory.

Rabinovich "saved me," Klas said.

" 'West Side Story' was my debut (also its Estonian premiere, at the Estonia Theater in Tallinn in 1964). We had a problem because we didn't have enough percussion players, so I took away the conductor's stand and conducted it with the drum sticks, playing drums and conducting. The producer of the Moscow operetta theater saw me and invited me to Moscow. I did it the same way there with the percussion sticks, and they invited me to be chief conductor of the operetta theater.

"Rabinovich said, 'No way.' " He was concerned that Klas would be pigeonholed as an operetta conductor.

Rabinovich nixed another offer Klas received from a music hall in Leningrad.

"They had a trip to Paris for two months. Paris in this time was like on the moon, but I didn't take this as well. The guy who did is still conducting the Leningrad Radio Light Music Orchestra."

Klas began working at the famed Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1969. He became its principal guest conductor and led opera, ballet and orchestra productions in Moscow and on tour in Europe.

"I never stop my connection with Estonia. Even when I was in Moscow, I was still conducting Estonian Opera Theater (now the Estonian National Opera)."

He was chief conductor of the Estonian Opera from 1975-94. "In 1985, I brought the Estonian Opera to Sweden and that was a big success. They chose me to be chief conductor of Swedish Royal Opera (Stockholm) and I was five years there."

Klas' activities were very restricted under Soviet rule, but he chose to remain in Estonia rather than emigrate like Järvi (in 1980). "The opera theater was my family. I was not ready to leave my family."

Still, the authorities were "very afraid" when he was outside the Soviet Union, he said.

"Every time I had to have permission to go. Very often Moscow didn't even give permission. I was speaking a lot of languages and was very fast. They were afraid that I am this guy who jumps."

Since Estonia gained re-independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Klas has been chief conductor of the Arhus Symphony in Denmark, Netherlands Radio Symphony and Tampere Philharmonic in Finland.

He is currently artistic director of the Tallinn Philharmonic Society, chief conductor of the Novaya Opera Theater in Moscow and principal guest conductor of the Finnish National Opera.

He guest conducts worldwide, having last led the CSO at Music Hall in March 2003, when he also conducted Richard Strauss ("Ein Heldenleben").

"Strauss is wonderful. God bless Paavo for giving it to me. Very often chief conductors save it for themselves. The hall I remember from the first time I was here is so huge, but this piece ("Also Sprach Zarathustra" excerpted by Stanley Kubrick for "2001: A Space Odyssey") is absolutely for this hall."

Klas is one of Estonia's leading citizens. He has chaired the Estonian National Cultural Foundation for 16 years, raising money for Estonia's cultural development, is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and a member of the Estonian Olympic Committee.

He and Neeme call each other on their birthday, said Klas.

"Last year we decided to celebrate the birthday together one month later in Pärnu because we were always on the road.

"I have no problems with free time," he said.

Eri Klas leads the CSO in Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," Grieg's "Holberg" suite and Bach's Violin Concerto in E Major with CSO concertmaster Timothy Lees at 8 p.m. tonight and Saturday at Music Hall. Tickets, $12-$75.25, $10 for students, half-price for seniors, available at (513) 381-3300 and online at www.cincinnatisymphony.org.

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071026/LIFE/710260342