James Ross     Conductor
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THE END OF THE MUSIC DIRECTOR - PROGRESS OR SIGN OF A DISFUNCTIONAL SYSTEM FAILING CLASSICAL MUSIC?

13/5/2021

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Recently the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam announced 'artistic partnerships' but no sign of a music director. This seems to be a trend, but does it serve classical music and its institutions well, or is it the product of a disfunctional system and shirking of responsibilities?

The Music Director role in many orchestras and opera houses has been eroded from several sides: some conductors and their agents must take a large share of blame for this, as well as managements. Many such appointments have become nominal, merely enhanced guest conductors where the MD flies in and out, perhaps does not even speak the language of the country, maybe realises a pet project or two, but otherwise does not engage in the instution's day-to-day artistic and leadership direction. If the MD were a greedy monomanical tyrant in public and/or abuser in private, the institution is doubtless better off without him or her. However, is it not possible to have a conductor who assumes responsible and creative artistic leadership of an institution – resident almost constantly, attending concerts, whether or not they are conducting, and with a deep vision of what an institution and its musicians are capable of achieving, both artistically and in a wider cultural and social context?

A music director should not need a ‘head of artistic planning’ or similarly titled person appointed, which is an abrogation of their responsibility. Would not embracing the role wholeheartedly be more fulfilling than just flying endlessly for a few days for another fee? Guest conducting certainly is important for conductors, orchestras and audiences to give variety of perspective from which hopefully everyone learns, but it does not replace the role of a committed music director who both leads up-front in the concert hall and is capable of offering a deep artistic vision.

It may also be better if institutions appointed music directors in a publicly accountable way through competitive open applications and due process, rather than the ‘smoke and mirrors’ system that appears to operate too often in the UK. Perhaps the latter is also part of the problem?


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Programming with birds?

8/5/2019

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This Saturday's concert with Sidcup Symphony Orchestra, 7.30pm at the Church of St John the Evangelist, Sidcup, is a special event celebrating 50 years of the UK's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds local groups.

Programming a concert of 'bird music' superficially is easy. There is a corncopia of great music inspired by or named after birds and nature scenes, however we wanted to avoid a simple parade of woodwind trills and other musical clichés, and explore music and birds beyond only the literal. The concert starts therefore with the beginning of Haydn's The Creation - his 'representation of chaos' before any life existed. We move without a break into Vaughan Williams' The Wasps - music of suitably furious speed, and apt: after all, without insects, there would be no birds or other living creatures either, humans included.



Respighi's The Birds is a tribute to composers of the 17th- and 18th-centuries, offering a dove, hen, nightingale and cuckoo of stylisted elegance - more Petit Trianon than the wild nature - an Enlightenment with wings. The first half ends with Vaughan Williams' serene The Lark Ascending, inspired by Meredith's eponymous poem, with solo violinist Abigail James from The Purcell School for Young Musicians.

The concert's second half moves from the classical and idyllic to the Romantic and mythological. After Grieg's evocation of 'Morning' from his incidental music to Ibsen's play Peer Gynt, we play Wagner's Forest Murmurs arranged from Siegfried, the third music drama of his Ring Cycle. In this scene, Siegfried is guided by a wood-dove to find Faftner, the fratricidal giant-turned-dragon guarding the Nibelung, which must be returned to the Rhinemaidens to redeem the world. Every bar is full of symbolism, reminiscence - including of Siegfried's parents - and prediction of the future - including his death and of the end of the world. Musically Wagner also created a forest evocation that influenced his generation of composers and far beyond, including endless films.

For the final work, Stravinsky's The Firebird, we move from Romanticism to musical Impressionism and early Modernism. The Firebird is a majestic creature of Slavic mythology: in Fokine and Benois ballet scenario, she is half-woman, half-bird. Amazed by her beauty, a prince captures the Firebird: when he sets her free, she gives him a magic feather, which he uses to defeat the spell of Kaschei the Immortal, who symbolises darkness and winter. The Firebird comes to stand for enternal renewal and rebirth of life.

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Two Concerts in Istanbul: Young Musicians Demonstrate Excellence and Community

8/9/2017

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Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra / Cem Mansur, Zorlu Centre, 25 August, and Music Foundation for Peace, Heybeliada, 27 August

Turkey has a distinguished tradition of orchestral music, dating back to Guiseppe Donizetti, brother of the famous opera composer, in Ottoman times, but still too rarely does it receive international attention. Two remarkable concerts in late August in Istanbul proved the growing richness of the country’s orchestral life, and the enterprise, energy and vision of its musical leaders to give young people the best possible opportunities to perform. The first, played to a full house at the Zorlu Centre for the Performing Arts, proved the Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra’s quality; the second, on Heybeliada, brought together young musicians from across Istanbul, organised by the Music Foundation for Peace.

The TNYPO’s concert, conducted by its music director Cem Mansur, opened with Richard Strauss’ Don Juan – a test of individual and collective technique, responsiveness, flexibility and daring. To start a concert with this great tone poem makes a declaration of intent – and multiple opportunities for failure. Its opening requires a large dose of self-believe and mutual trust between orchestra and conductor: TNYPO and Mansur jumped in head first, made light work of all its difficulties, and gave a surging, sweeping performance, sustained into the empty darkness of its ending. The marathon concert, which would have tested even an experienced professional orchestra, also included Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with soloist and TNYPO alumna Hande Küden; Turkish music was represented by Ali Özkan Manav’s magnificent rhapsody on Ali Ekber Çiçek’s song Haydar Haydar, receiving its first performance. There was no hint of ‘cross-over’, amorphous ‘world music’ or contrived tokenism here, rather the song was transformed into a dazzlingly virtuosic modern orchestral showcase.
 
Borodin’s In the Steppes of Central Asia, evokes, in the composer’s own words, ‘the silence of the monotonous steppes’ in which ‘a peaceful Russian song is heard’, then ‘from the distance, the melancholy notes of an Oriental melody’, before ‘the Russian and Asiatic melodies join in a common harmony’. Borodin’s father was Georgian prince and his mother was Russian: beyond the music’s hypnotic beauty, its symbolism, performed at the meeting point of Europe and Asia, could not have been stronger.

Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations is a symphony in miniature: full of contrasting but thematically related episodes wrapped into one concentrated movement. After Haydar, Haydar’s energy burst and Borodin’s static serenity, anything but the finest playing could have felt anti-climactic: instead, Mansur led the Orchestra in an account of assured conviction and elegant panache. This was the concert’s ‘official’ end, but then came Verdi’s overture to La forza del destino – probably the most substantial concert ‘encore’ I have experienced – and finally the exuberant Farandole from Bizet’s L'Arlésienne Suite No.2. A concert programme that in lesser hands could have been a reckless test of endurance proved a triumph.

Before the concert, Mansur and the musicians gave a lucid exhibition of how an orchestra functions as a ‘Laboratory of Democracy’. It showed how orchestra members must go beyond individual playing technique to tackle the fundamental challenge for an orchestra: constantly to listen, anticipate and respond to one another. The conductor acts as a conduit, offering leadership but also helping the musicians to listen intently to their colleagues. For long stretches of music, a good orchestra is capable of playing on its own, but at crucial moments direction is essential. Without the conductor, leadership from another musician – most often the principal violinist – emerges spontaneously. Mansur showed how an orchestra’s success and the relationship with its conductor could be presented as a microcosm of human society. It offers an instant demonstration of human interaction, demanding a deep combination of individual excellence, respect for others, flexibility and sense of mutual responsibility to function harmoniously.

 - - -

Two days later, Heybeliada was the setting for a very different concert by young Turkish musicians. The Music for Peace Foundation, in collaboration with the Princes Islands Council under its president Sinan Özbek, presented a concert in the tranquil grounds of the historic Ruhban School, which crowns Heybeli’s highest peak. Three instrumental ensembles with over 100 musicians and chorus joined forces under the direction of three young charismatic South American volunteer conductors for a heartfelt joyous evening of music.

The Music Foundation for Peace, founded in 2005 and part of the international El Sistema network, is based in Istanbul’s Edirnekapı district, offering free music education for children and young people with limited opportunities. It has now developed parallel projects on the Princes Islands, Bursa and Izmir, with support from the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation.

The concert included arrangements of classical works and Latin music, which played to the conductors’ strengths. Starting with the most experienced musicians, ever increasing numbers of children joined the ensemble as the night progressed. All performed with conviction, rhythmic energy, standing confidently for solos, and with much exuberant clapping and twirling of instruments to the audience’s delight, including numerous parents taking justified pride in their children’s achievement. Towards the end, a choir joined for a short excerpt from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Even in simplified form, the music and its timeless message of common humanity shone through: at the concert’s end, my neighbour and I both admitted afterwards to being profoundly moved.

These outstanding concerts were a demonstration of musical excellence, social enterprise and community. In their contrasting ways, they proved without a single word being uttered, how orchestras bring together people from different places and backgrounds in a shared endeavour where for success and harmony, the only option is an openness to listen to one other and a spirit of collaboration.


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The Demise of COMPOSED

11/8/2016

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COMPOSED, the classical streaming service promoting recordings by Universal-owned Deutsche Grammophon and Decca in partnership with Classic FM, is closing abruptly on 31 August 2016.


What went wrong? Did a 'tied pub' business model lead COMPOSED to lack critical independence, sufficient musical range and lack of distinctive content needed to attract paid subscribers, and take them from the huge free access repertoires of YouTube, IDAGIO or Spotify? Did Classic FM h
ave insufficient in-depth musical knowledge and critical judgement to provide the right editorial content, and was a more integrated broadcasting and live performance strategy with artistic partners needed? Where was the growth model beyond music streaming, and aspiration to become a wider classical music and affiliate platform?

These are questions other classical streaming services must answer quickly to survive and succeed.

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English National Opera: Where Next?

23/3/2016

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Mark Wigglesworth’s resignation from English National Opera is the latest instalment in an on-going crisis connected to fundamental mistakes in how the Company works. The following makes no attempt to address situation’s myriad complexities, instead only a few thoughts about why ENO should exist, what it should do, and how.

1. Drop the rigid English-language dogma. Create a repertory of productions for which there is perennial audience demand, e.g. Carmen, La Bohème, Traviata and The Ring, in the original language with surtitles.

2. Cherish the English opera repertoire – set the global standard for performances of Britten, Purcell, Adams, Gershwin, Glass and G & S.

3. Be the world’s greatest advocate for operas by composers of today. Identify and nurture composers to create operas of artistic excellence able to fill the House.

4. ENO must be led by an artistic leader: this person should be the music director, who is also the artistic director, taking responsibility for ENO directly in front of the audience, conducting the majority of performances. He or she must have an absolute vision for the House, have full power to implement it, and be a constant presence. He or she must command the complete trust of the orchestra, chorus and backstage staff, and have their endorsement to lead. The artistic leader should be accountable directly to the Secretary for State at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as the taxpayer’s representative, without Arts Council involvement.

5. Stage a performance every day, expect Christmas and essential technical and dress rehearsals. Ensure the House is full by any means necessary. Empty seats are an insult to taxpayer subsidy. Rent other space in the Coliseum commercially when not being used, including rehearsal rooms – extract maximum value out of this great theatre.

6. No ‘-isms’ or other superfluous staging fads imposed on operas – instead, insist on thoughtful, score-based productions with great acting and suitable design. This does not mean constant conservatism or unimaginative literalism, but does mean respecting the artistic integrity of operas. Audiences do not pay to be patronised, lectured to, or to endure self-conscious originality for its own sake. Nobody much cares about a stage director’s political opinions. Leave the lavatories off-stage in the place they belong. ENO has lost the trust of too many potential audience members: people who may risk a dodgy production for £20 will not do so for £90.

7. Give artistic personnel fair salaries while expecting flexible and innovative working. Treat staff as partners, creating the potential for higher pay if extra income is generated. Develop and promote ENO Chorus to achieve popular acclaim nationally, including on television and independent performances; actively seek film and session work. Co-ordinate with the Royal Opera House and share people collaboratively, for example when ROH does Boris Godunov or Die Meistersinger, lend ENO Chorus to double the numbers; programme a chorus-free opera ENO on the same night – and vice versa.

James Ross is a professional conductor and Managing Director of Ulysses Arts.



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