Andrew Litton is to return home to a U.S. orchestra as music director for the first time since he left the Dallas Symphony in 2006. The new berth? The Colorado Symphony, where he has been artistic advisor while they decided on a new music director which, as it turned out, was Litton, himself.
It's a choice that is likely to prove popular. The 56-year-old pianist and conductor has managed to steer clear of the kinds of spats that usually catch up with most in his profession. And he tends to get well reviewed wherever and whatever he performs; a remarkable level of consistency and a great quality for a music director.
His various music directorships have all been accounted successes, from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in the 1980s, though Dallas and currently the Bergen Philharmonic (where Edward Gardner will succeed him in 2015). And each has resulted in some fine recordings.
Litton's recording of William Walton Belshazzar's Feast with the Bournemouthians was Grammy nominated.
Dallas produced a superb partnership with the pianist Stephen Hough for a recorded Rachmaninoff cycle (and there was also an excellent cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies). That partnership was resumed in Bergen with Liszt and Grieg concerti on disc. Other fine Bergen discs include a Prokofiev selection with pianist Freddy Kempff and Mendelssohn symphonies.
Litton follows Jeffrey Kahane and, before him, Marin Alsop. Which is a neat twist of fate as Alsop was Litton's own successor-but-one in Bournemouth. Small world, music...
