APO helps to keep the small flag flying

Small is big for conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.

At Giancarlo Guerrero's Downunder debut a year ago he had the added pressure of an indisposed Salvatore Accardo being replaced by American Mark Kaplan.

"It happens," 37-year-old conductor says. "Last month I was called in the day before to fill in for Lorin Maazel with the Cleveland Orchestra for The Ring without Words. Now that was drama."

Four years ago, Guerrero took over from Miguel Harth-Bedoya as music director of the Eugene Symphony and he emphasises how it's the smaller orchestras that "keep classical music alive in America.

"Eugene is a town with 150,000 people but it has a thriving artistic community," he says. "It's a place where a conductor who is relatively young can learn the repertoire away from the limelight and try out new things."

Guerrero is proud of coaxing major composers to Eugene - such as John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon and John Adams. He is even prouder of the calls from the Los Angeles Philharmonic when he pips them at the post for giving scores their West Coast premieres.

His most recent guest, Michael Daugherty, was a runaway success - but you might expect that from a man "who has gone from heavy-metal organ-player to being one of America's most popular composers.

"We tracked our audiences for the first time and found we drew a lot of kids between 15 and 26 who were intrigued by pieces with titles like The Red Cape Tango and Raise the Roof," says Guerrero.

The APO is one of Guerrero's favourite orchestras. "There's no detail too small. They expect me to work them hard and you don't get that often with a good orchestra."

Tomorrow's concert is a workout-and-a-half, starting with Gershwin's An American in Paris. Guerrero describes it as "tourist music. After all, Gershwin wrote it when he was on holiday in Paris trying to get a break from his theatre work in New York and London".

In the solo spot, Singaporean violinist Min Lee will tackle Barber's Violin Concerto.

Guerrero is an unabashed fan of Barber, "one of the few hold-outs who wanted to keep writing music that was nice to the ear. These were times when music was being put upside down and harmony was going out of the window.

"This man had a gift for writing melodies in the same way that Mozart and Schubert did. It's so incredibly lyrical.

"You're not going to find a more beautiful melodic line in the whole American repertoire than that in the second movement. It's almost as if you're singing."

When it comes to the concert's closing piece, Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Guerrero seems bemused that the Russian composer "was born in some obscure town in Russia and died in Beverly Hills.

"This is vintage Rachmaninov, with so much influence from American music, particularly in the use of the saxophone."

At the mention of Rachmaninov's melancholic saxophone theme, our conversation rounds off with a moment of reflection.

"I'm still trying to find out who I am as a musician," Guerrero says, "trying to figure out what I can do well and what I'm not yet ready for.

"These are exciting times for conductors and I'm very grateful to those wonderful orchestras which allow me to come and bring my ideas to them."

Performance

*What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra

*Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, tomorrow, 8pm