“For me the crucial factor for success is the musicians”

First of all: Many thanks for giving me the chance to talk to you on the phone and sincere congratulations for your appointment as new musical director of the OPL. It’s a great honour and a challenge for me. A personal question: Are you a relative of the distinguished musicologist Donald Francis Tovey? No, I’m not related to him, but it seems that 150 years ago we had ancestors in common in Bristol. I am very fond of Tovey’s essays on music – they are designed to be lively and accessible and are extremely informative. What role did music play in your family? I was born into a family of amateur musicians. My grandfather had a marvellous tenor voice. He was a Salvation Army preacher. Everybody in the house played an instrument or sang in a choir. I started listening to music at a very early age. At 7 I began to study piano. I played in local youth orchestras on violin, double-bass and various brass instruments. I knew fairly early on that I wanted to become a conductor, without having at that time the faintest notion of what that meant.

Bramwell Tovey

You were a fellow-student of Sir Simon Rattle I believe?

Yes, we studied together at the Royal Academy and became good friends. We played in each other’s student orchestras. In fact, ours was a very successful year. There was also Adrian Leaper, who conducts the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra and has recorded a great deal for “Naxos”, and Jonathan McPhee, Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Boston Ballet.

Of course, now that Simon has such a tremendously successful and busy career we don’t see each other that often. Recently, when I was guest conducting in Birmingham we had tea at his home.

Leonard Bernstein had a major impact on your career.. as he did for the late David Shallon.

That’s true. In 1986, the London Symphony gave a Bernstein Festival at the Barbican Centre. Conductor/composer Lukas Foss fell ill and I was asked to conduct the rehearsals and opening concert. Bernstein was present and invited me to Tanglewood. This encounter was a very important moment for me professionally and personally. Bernstein’s influenced so many conductors of my generation and I was very fortunate to have this close opportunity of working with him. Maestro Shallon was in London the same week replacing Jeffrey Tate, but I couldn’t attend his concert as I had another engagement that day. Sadly, I never heard Shallon conduct in concert, nor did I meet him personally.

What does it mean to you to be his successor in Luxembourg?

I certainly pay tribute to him He had a remarkable career and did groundbreaking work with the orchestra. I was shocked when I heard the story of his tragic death in Tokyo.

What took you to Canada?

In 1983, I joined the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and conducted the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet’s Canadian tour. As a result of that trip much happened. First of all I became Principal Conductor of the Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet and its resident orchestra. On the Canadian tour itself we used all the major orchestras in each centre, except Toronto and Montreal. I returned as a guest conductor to all the orchestras I worked with on that trip and of course, eventually became music director of the Vancouver Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of the Calgary Philharmonic. After the “Bernstein experience”, I was invited by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra to become its Artistic Director. We were together for twelve years, and this was my true apprenticeship. I did my first complete Beethoven and Brahms cycles with the WSO. We played all the major works in the repertoire. In 1992, I founded the “du Maurier New Music Festival”. The orchestra was very fine technically and had no fear tackling major contemporary repertoire. The New Music Festival remains one of the most important new music events on the North American continent. Up to 15,000 people annually. We gave more than 200 world, Canadian and North American premières of works by composers like John Corigliano, Arvo Pärt, Louis Andriessen, Gavin Bryars, Joan Tower, Murray Schafer, Aaron Kernis or Mark-Anthony Turnage who each visited the festival as as distinguished composers-in-residence. This year Rautavaara will attend the festival but of course, I have now handed the reins to Andrey Boreyko and shall have to listen to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's broadcasts – they record each concert live. I understand the event is heard as far afield as Japan and Australia.

Were these broadcasts responsible for the invitations to Australia?

I never found out for certain. The Adelaide Symphony asked me allow my name to put forward for music director, an offer which I had to decline.

You now also have family links with Canada. As far as I know, your wife is Canadian.

Yes. She was brought up on one of those famous Canadian prairie wheat farms in Manitoba. She trained as an opera singer and holds several music degrees but decided not to sing professionally. She devotes herself to our beautiful young family and a horse called Tilly who is very much a part of our household.

In 2000, you were appointed Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

Yes. We perform in the 2,800 seat Orpheum Theatre in downtown Vancouver. This great hall was built in 1927 as a vaudeville house but since its re-opening in the 1980s it has been the permanent home of the VSO. We also play at the Chan Centre, a smaller modern hall designed by Artec, the famous acoustic engineers who designed the state of the art halls in Birmingham and Dallas. The VSO is 83 years old and I have some very distinguished predecessors. I must say that I’m very grateful for the complete support of my VSO colleagues in assuming my duties in Luxembourg. I enjoy a wonderful relationship with the musicians, board and administration in Vancouver.

When do you start working with our musicians?

I’m due to come in June and then in November 2002 I’ll have my first regular concert. But due to prior commitments it will be the Summer of 2003 before I can really begin seriously working with the orchestra.

You will be accompanying the OPL into their new concert hall.

A new hall is one of the most important events in the life of an orchestra. I’ve seen the plans and my initial impressions are very favourable. I have been asked to meet the accousticians some time this year. This involvement is very important as concerns and adjustments of the acoustician’s work are difficult things to achieve once the hall is built.

Your first contact with the orchestra was also due to a conductor cancelling.

Yes, at very short notice. In fact, I nearly didn’t accept the invitation as I was due to go on holiday with my 12 year old son. The musicians were very kind and considerate towards me. It was the musicians themselves who first talked to me about the music director situation. Their keen interest was a key factor in my decision to accept. When I’m standing in front of a new orchestra I ask myself: Can I make music with these people? I have to say that with the OPL, the encounter was delightful and I saw that as very promising. Later I was officially asked by the management for a meeting in London to discuss the position and to see whether I would accept an offer, but after just one concert, I still wasn’t ready to give them a definite reply. Then another conductor had to be replaced, the very week I was due to meet with Benedikt and Olivier in London!

This was a week I shall not forget in a hurry. I had a Monday night concert in Vancouver, performing the major orchestral excerpts from Wagner’s Ring with Jane Eaglen singing the Immolation scene from Götterdammerung. I could not make the first planned rehearsals in Luxembourg, but OPL insisted on accomodating me and changed the rehearsal schedule. Almost as soon as I arrived I realized that the favourable impressions formed on my previous trip were even greater this time. I know I enjoy the support of the ministry and the administration of the OPL who have a great vision for the future of the orchestra, but for me the crucial factor for success is the relationship with the musicians. For me, that’s the relationship that counts.

To come back to you personally: I know that you love brass band music.

(Laughter) Yes, that comes from my Salvation Army origins. It has to be said that the British tradition of brass band music is outstanding. This is not to be confused with a wind band that has both wind and brass instruments. Brass Bands are solely brass and percussion. These ensembles now have a hugely impressive repertoire – most of the major British composers since Elgar have written for the medium. Whenever I am able to accept invitations to conduct the famous Fodens Band my mother is always delighted!

You are also a composer. When do you find the time to write?

I start work at 6am each day and work until 9am. When a performance of a new work is looming I frequently find extra hours at night! There was a period of several years when I did not compose, but I missed it. I need a creative element in my life. My most significant compositions are my concertos for ‘cello and for viola and my Requiemfor a charred skull which was written in response to the Kosovan War . This work was recently recorded and is being issued next month on the Canadian Opening Day label. I am currently working on a violin concerto.

Are you going to complete the series with a double bass concerto?

I don’t plan on it! However, OPL has a fabulous principal bassist so who knows?

I believe you are also a fan of jazz.

Britain has a much smaller jazz tradition than the US. When I came to Canada I began to develop much closer contacts with jazz musicians. It really is the music of North America. During a Gershwin concert I gave in Winnipeg, I played some improvisations which were appreciated. I should add that I have always improvised – either for church services when a student or as a continuo player. These days, I find myself, like Bernstein and Previn, using jazz to bring younger audiences closer to the symphonic repertoire.

Your first concert with the New York Philharmonic was also a “Young People’s Concert”.

Yes, it was a wonderful experience. I’m returning in March for another YPC concert and my NYPO subscription debut at Avery Fischer Hall. The programme comprises Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto, with Philip Smith as soloist, the Symphony opus 21 by Webern (which the orchestra believe may be a NYPO premiere) and Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.

A really wide-ranging programme! I think that especially, working on Haydn, Mozart and Schubert is indispensable if the orchestra is to develop and evolve.

I couldn’t agree with you more! And I’d also add Beethoven’s 1 st, 2 nd and 4 th Symphonies. With the Viennese classicists an orchestra can develop its style, technique and blend – these things will benefit every other aspect of our work. Looking back to the December concert, I noticed that the OPL has no house Mozart style. That is one of the first things I mean to work on.

Interview by Guy Wagner