The second guest conductor to lead the orchestra after its permanent conductor, Manu-chehr Sahbai, left in May, Gleeson directed the stage for two nights in December. The previous guest, German conductor Matthias Kruger, held the helm in October.
Gleeson, who began rehearsals November 21, led two Persian works and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on December 3 and 4. The 46-year-old conductor said it took him awhile to get accustomed to Persian instruments such as the kamancheh, a stringed instrument descending from the ancient lyra.
Trained in the percussion instruments and the piano, Gleeson told The Associated Press, “The style and the tone of the instruments is not something that you’d normally be familiar with in the West, but working with the orchestra has been no problem.”
The Mehr news agency, however, said Gleeson complained that some of the modern instruments are actually old and out-of-date.
Gleeson commented that the orchestra’s musicians are more motivated to learn and play than those of European orchestras, but he observed that many of the musicians prefer to play solo.
Currently the music director of the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra, Gleeson has conducted many European orchestras, including the London Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. He divides his time between Ireland and California, where a Los Angeles-based Iranian musician asked if he would be interested in guest-conducting in Tehran.
“I had never been to the Middle East before and I said, ‘Sure,’” said Gleeson.
