Twenty years ago, a bold vision took shape: to create a professional chamber orchestra formed entirely of Verbier Festival Orchestra alumni. Today, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra (VFCO) has become one of the world’s finest ensembles, carrying the Verbier spirit across concert halls on every continent.
To mark this anniversary year, this special series gives voice to the people who bring this extraordinary orchestra to life.
GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY
VFCO music director
Gábor Takács-Nagy is one of the most endearing figures in the chamber music world: founder of the legendary Takács Quartet, he reinvented himself as a conductor later in life, bringing to the role an infectious enthusiasm and warmth that have become his hallmark. Music Director and visionary conductor of the VFCO since 2007, and of the Manchester Camerata since 2011, he has also made the music of his native Hungary a speciality of his own, as a passionate advocate for the Hungarian repertoire on the world’s greatest stages.
Interview excerpts
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Some encounters change everything. For Gábor Takács-Nagy, it happened in March 2005, during a concert in Sion. That evening, Martin Engstroem had come to hear Nobuko Imai — but it was the conductor who caught his eye: his gestures, his energy, the way he electrified everyone around him. The next year, Gábor Takács-Nagy made his debut at the Verbier Festival. “I could hardly believe my luck when the invitation came.”
One year after his Verbier debut, Gábor Takács-Nagy received a proposal he hadn’t been expecting. During a tour around Lake Constance with the VFCO in June 2007, Martin Engstroem told him the musicians wanted to work with him and that they had chosen him as Music Director. “It was like receiving a Christmas present in the middle of July.” Since then, he has not missed a single edition of the Festival.
The VFCO is no ordinary orchestra: its musicians, drawn from the world’s finest ensembles, come together in Verbier each summer for a handful of concerts and touring projects throughout the year, before returning to their respective commitments. Far from being a limitation, this is for him a source of constant renewal. “Every time we come together, it’s like a musical celebration. There’s excitement, anticipation. A spontaneity you don’t necessarily find in the major orchestras that play together all year round.” And something deeply human, too: “After our concerts, I see most people leaving with a smile, lighter than when they arrived. That is our purpose. Music is a spiritual medicine.”
The comparison with elite sport comes naturally to him. He readily recalls a conversation with Pep Guardiola after a match in Manchester: “I told him: we do the same job. I don’t play a single note, you don’t touch the ball, but our goal is to bring the people around us as close as possible to their full potential, as part of a team.”
There is also something indefinable in what the VFCO musicians call among themselves being “Gaborized”, a state of mind made up of love for music, a willingness to take risks and a rare inner freedom. “Creativity begins where the comfort zone ends”, he is fond of saying.