Aspen over - now for 5 Handel Operas

So its been just over a month since I last updated things on here. Well once again I am sitting in Denver airport waiting for a flight, this time to LHR - Denver hub B must be one of the longest uninterrupted corridors anywhere, it really goes on for ever. I would get some exercise and walk the entire thing if it wasn't for the fact that I am having to lug around both my violin in its tank like (but fantastic) Gorge case and my laptop bag which at the moment has the complete Tchaik and Beethoven 8 and Schubert 8 symphonies in it! Maybe something with wheels should be my next purchase.

The second half of Aspen was as amazing as the first, but slightly more tiring. I did a Handel opera scenes master class on Semele with the fantastic Nicholas Kraemer, conducted Elgar's Pomp 5 and much more. It amazed me to learn that in America they use Pomp and Circumstance March 1 for their Graduations. Oh how I would wish to be there and burst into Land of Hope and glory in the trio section. Not many knew that there were words to half of it and they were a little disheartened to find out that they were about the "Mother of the free"!

I am not sure if I will really realise just how much I have learnt from the whole experience until well into next year. However, already, the past two months have re-instilled in me the fact that one can do so much and yet appear to show so little. Both Zinman and Boulez are very different to the conductor I am trying and aspire to be, yet they are both masters of what they do. What is clear in both of their 'on podium' actions is that they have a real grounding, rhythm and control in everything they do, yet do it in the most concise and refined manner conceivable.

Zinman is very concerned with letting the orchestra play and creating an environment in which they can achieve this. The two months also made me realise that however good a musician one is if your beat is not clear then so much less is achieved while up there in front of the orchestra. It's an obvious statement to make but it's something that far too many conductors forget. When I think about the conductors who I have worked under and those who I place in the top rank (for me it only numbers a few...) what tends to separate the great from the truly masterful is whether or not you have to try to understand what they are doing. With Zinman one simply feels so safe in 'his hands', so to speak, that you really want to play and also feel that you can concentrate on making a great sound and he will sort everything else out.

Being at Aspen really made think hard about the state of modern music in programming and the role it plays in the USA. I heard a great Symphony by Harbison and an incredible arrangement of Schubert songs by Golijov (look out for them at the proms this Saturday). But I also heard a truly awful double violin concerto by Tsontakis, I think made much worse by those who were playing it (I must actually look into his music more), and a suite from Lieberson's Ashok's Dream which was such a sad advertisement for new music - nothing happened for 30 minutes. Maybe with words the music comes alive, or so I am told. But enough of the dour section of my post.

I find airports both fascinating and deadly boring. It's interesting to sit here opposite the phone-booth (where the power outlets are) wondering who people are phoning and where the various people on the travellator are heading. I am sitting next to a man who seems to work for Nasa - very impressive - and every one around here seems to own a BlackBerry, the first iphone free zone I have seen since I have been in the States, maybe its a sign I am coming home!

I now have 2 weeks off and then head into 5 weeks of rehearsals of 5 Handel Operas as the music associate for English Touring Opera's HandelFest. I am off to Zinman's Prom with the Tonhalle on Saturday which will be very exciting and interesting.

F

Earshot Readings with the Colorado Symphony

I am waiting here in Denver international airport for my pick up back to Aspen. The last few days have really flown past in a whirlwind of excitement and incredible experiences.

The Earshot Readings, give four young composers the chance to work with a major symphony orchestra, conductor and mentor composers on a piece of theirs that has not received a public performance. In conjunction with American Composers Orchestra, the chosen symphony and other organisations, these composers receive a fantastic experience, something which really needs to happen in England. The Colorado Symphony could not have been better, the amount of effort they put into playing, feedback, and just making us welcome was inspiring. This all sounds very gushy but it was one of my best experiences with new music and the orchestral world. Many questions were raised, some problems were solved and great friends were made. I was lucky enough to be conducting one of the works, a piece by Tim Sullivan, and Delta David Gier conducted the other three (Yotam Haber, Angel Lam, Jeremy Podgursky). It is always interesting to see how composers react to suggestions but in this situation not only was the piece dissected by the orchestral musicians, but also three mentor composers, Rober, Derek Bermel, and Roberto Sierra, and the Vice President of the Colorado Symphony, Alberto Gutierrez as well as David and myself. I learnt a considerable amount, not only about the compositional process but about what the orchestra wants, needs and expects from new music. Hopefully this is a project that will continue to grow and develop over the coming years. It provides a real opportunity for major orchestras to converse with one another about up and coming composers and the needs of new American music in a really positive light.

One quick note about Colorado Symphony's Hall - Boettcher Concert Hall, part of the second largest arts complex in the US. Although the acoustics vary for seat to seat and there are problems with balance between orchestral sections, it is an amazingly intimate space where you feel so close to the stage and the musicians. It is one of the few large concert halls I have been in where modern music really works and where the space contributes to the experience.

Anyway I must catch my ride back to Aspen, and prepare Greensleeves. I'll say more about Aspen soon - I've got an opera scenes masterclass on Handel with Nicholas Kraemer coming up, so lots to look forward to.

F

Aspen Music Festival - Part the first

Before I head off to Denver for Earshot readings (I leave tomorrow at 6.30 am...) with the Colorado Symphony, I thought I would say a little about the last month.

On Christmas Eve I got a phone call saying that I had been accepted as a fellow for the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen. This is part of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and is close to conducting heaven.

So far I have been coached by, worked with and met: David Zinman, Murray Sidlin, Nicholas Mcgegan, Christopher Seaman, Larry Foster, Andrey Boryeko as well as working with three fantastic concertmasters; David Halen, Andrew Wan and Gary Levinson. I have conducted works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Dvorak and Berlioz. Not only do we get to work with an amazing orchestra who are some of the very best musicians at the festival but we get free tickets to all the concerts, bar one or two special events. Yesterday, having had a day off, I had a video review session with Murray Sidlin and on my way back popped into a rehearsal for a concert of Brandenburgs with Nicholas Mcgegan. There are great support staff as well who ensure the program functions like complete clock work.

It is slightly surreal to say the least, but the amount I have learnt over the past month is staggering. I am not quite sure how long it will take for me to digest it all. Now I am off to conduct Berlioz's Corsaire Overture in concert and then learning a new piece by the young American composer Tim Sullivan for the Earshot readings before a very early start tomorrow! Then I am back for another month of heaven, before heading back to the real world and the rainy UK.

I'll say more from Denver,

F

Messiaen Part 2: his influence

Finally part the second is here!

Following on from my initial investigation into the early orchestral works of Olivier Messiaen, I have recently completed a study on Messiaen's influence as a teacher and whether he produced a school of composition. It can be found at:

http://issuu.com/ensemblecb3/docs/theinfluenceofmessiaen

F

Shropshire Life Magazine Article

There's a nice article about me in Shropshire Life this month, catch it on the shelves to see it in all its shiny glory - or catch it online here without all the photos:

http://www.shropshirelifemagazine.co.uk/people-and-places-lightning-conductor--153477

Let me know what you think.

It would be interesting to know if you think where you grew up influenced your musical interests or careers.

F

A bit of a mixture - linking the digital and real

We are in the part of the year where orchestra’s and opera houses programmes for the next year are nearly all published and also in the midst of the various awards for classical music. Does it all make sense in this digital age? With blogs, twitter, spotify, the Berlin Phil’s digital concert hall and the likes, everything seems to becoming closer to the performer. But is this actually doing the opposite. By giving everything to the audience from within their own home and brining them so close to the performer, in such a personal fashion, does it negate the need to go to the concert hall. Or does it do the opposite? Does it create a yearning for the adrenaline of the concert hall, that tactile excitement it gives when sitting amongst a mass of people experiencing live music?

So many questions and I don’t think we will see real proof of either outcome for another five years, when people will have found more ways of creating ‘access’ to classical music. I certainly believe that the most important thing with increasing audience’s and bringing new generations to classical music is getting young people to a concert for the first time. This is where I think new music can really maximise on new audiences. Live, new music can be heart pumping and adrenaline creating. It is this excitement that is going to bring people in, in the initial stages of their appreciation of music.

What needs to happen is a bridge between the digital and the real: the computer and the concert hall. I don’t think that the Berlin Phil’s digital concert hall helps that problem. It does create a yearning for the real, but only once the real has been experienced.

Most things are now established they just need a bridge. The best way? Firstly, outreach which most orchestras in the UK seem to achieving impressively on the budgets they have. Secondly, filling empty concert halls with students and a real cooperation between orchestras and education, not just by outreach programmes, but by planning programmes with input from the education system. It’s being done in some places, but its success lies in making the concert hall and the orchestra’s friendly, by making them the friend of the community rather than dumming them down. The orchestra’s have to really become part of the fabric of the community. It’s harder to achieve in London but the Hallé seems to be leading the way. It’s getting the young to enthuse the younger. We’re getting there. Now let’s shout it from the roof tops and tell others rather than keep it to ourselves.

I haven’t answered my initial question, maybe for another time, but they seem to follow in the footsteps of ‘popular music’. They reward the hard work done and publicise some of the important hidden work of the real troopers in the business. Some rewards are obviously better to get than others and some are driven heavily by the recording industry. They add a bit of glam but perhaps they could do more. Could they be linked into the whole structure? We have all these separate pods of great goings on but if they could be linked maybe we would not only have something world class but really world leading.

Messiaen - Part 1

Ok, so I have got my act together and managed to publish my first Messiaen article on the Web.

It is entitled:

How important was orchestral composition (until 1933) in the early compositional career of Olivier Messiaen, and what role did poetry and religion play in the construction of those works?

It is available to read here:

www.issuu.com/ensemblecb3

Hopefully my second article, on Messiaen's influence as a teacher will be available to read on the same site in May.

Yours

Fergus