Sheila Chisholm
CONDUCTING an orchestra is an art many aspire to – though few succeed. Its not, as often thought, a matter of being able to read a score... that’s an art in itself. Nor is it waving a little “white stick” about giving musicians an up or down beat.
Essentially a conductor needs to keep control of his/her orchestra – numbers regardless – knowledge behind the composer’s intentions to interpret their music as well as having the skills to stamp their own personality on the orchestra. Think back on performances given by past greats Sir Thomas Beecham or Sir Neville Marriner, or exhilarating performances by the CPO at the City Hall, under (among others) guest conductors Conrad van Alphen, Bernhard Geuller and Victor Yampolsky to understand the importance conductors play in orchestral music making.
Taking a large step beyond conducting a symphony or concerto is conducting ballet. There’s an ongoing “battle” between dancers and conductors about who it is that sets the tempo. Any dancer who has danced under a conductor who “sticks” with the composer’s tempi (especially music used, but not specially written for ballet) knows it can become disastrous. Particularly in Allegro movements for tall dancers as, technically/physically, it can be discomforting to keep with a pace not suited to their build – the reverse is also true.
Alternatively if a conductor follows the dancer – who for whatever reason wants a variation taken at their chosen tempo – purists complain about “music distortion”. Worse, is performing under a conductor who enters the pit, mounts the podium, gives perfunctory bows, picks up his baton, opens his score never to lift his eyes from it – rather conducting as his/her digestive track dictates.
So, as Brandon Phillips – well known CPO principal bassoonist, CPO and CPO Youth Orchestra conductor – sets about training to conduct ballet a natural question to ask was how to overcome these problems. “Compromise, compromise, compromise.” he answers, and it’s a word frequently used during our interview. “Only by compromising between dancer and music can a satisfactory result be achieved. Not only is it a must to know what’s happening on stage, its is a must to understand the music.”
For this task, Phillips, is being mentored by Paul Hoskins, musical director of London based Rambert company. Hoskins has been engaged to conduct Veronica Paeper’s Spartacus of Africa season which opened in Johannesburg last week and will be at Artscape on June 27. Meantime Phillips, who is scheduled to make his “ballet” conducting debut in Johannesburg and again in Cape Town has regularly been attending rehearsals of Spartacus of Africa.
Continued Phillips: “Conducting ballet is a new and exciting experience for me. Therefore Imust do my homework thoroughly. I am becoming familiar with Veronica’s choreography and her choreographic interpretation of Khachaturian’s complex score. As well as taking note of the different musical textures each cast change introduces to their characters... an awesome task.
“Khachaturian composed Spartacus in 1954 and with Leonid Yakobson choreography the ballet premiered at the Maryinsky in 1956. Khachaturian is known for his lively rhythms and strong energy, but it’s a complex score. I have studied the score at length, and after watching Veronica’s various casts rehearse I am fairly confident about what’s happening. However, Veronica has shaped the ballade by making several cuts to Khachaturian’s original score so my next task is to sit down, study these until the music becomes second nature. Then when Paul arrives, he can guide me further.”
Hoskins arrives shortly specially to conduct Spartacus of Africa production. Acclaimed as a conductor in all musical genre Hoskins has specialised in conducting ballet since 1993.
“Conducting ballet all began in 1993 when I came second in a competition called Conduct for Dance. After that I was invited to conduct a few performances of The Nutcracker for English National Ballet.” That’s when his conducting career in ballet took off. He’s conducted performances for New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, the Royal Ballet, English National Ballet, SFB at the Liceu, Barcelona, Royal Swedish Ballet, Scottish Ballet and Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures – repertoires which embrace 18th, 19th and 20th century ballets.
Yet he hasn’t conducted Aram Khachaturian’s Spartacus before. Asked how he finds Khachaturian’s score Hoskins replied enthusiastically “It’s fantastic, a revelation! I knew the famous Adagio before, but not the rest and I have really enjoyed learning it. The music is very exciting. Some of it is clearly reminiscent of the Soviet’s 50s – all fanfares, drums and marches. The real surprise was some of it has a bluesy, smoky sound reminiscent of American films of the time. Its very hard to play – trumpeters need lots of stamina!”
Asked what differences he finds between conducting orchestral concerts and ballet Hoskins answered thoughtfully “In orchestral music the conductor is a visible focus for everyone else’s work: he/she should mould everything in to a performance, and is responsible to a large extent for that interpretation and performance. In ballet this role is more complex, as the conductor is part of a bigger team, and has wider responsibilities. Also there are some aspects of interpretation (for example tempo, cuts, even the order in which the score is played) that have been more or less decided before the conductor becomes involved. This is because of the performing tradition or history of the production. Believe it or not there are
Prokofiev ballets that have never been performed as he wrote them!”
Hoskins is looking forward to the aspect of being mentor to Brandon Phillips. “Conducting can be a lonely experience, so it will be nice to have another conductor to discuss things with. I hope to share as much as I can all the experiences I have had working with orchestras and dancers. Brandon is going to rehearse the Cape Town Philharmonic before I get to Cape Town, so I hope to get a chance to see him conduct and give him encouraging feedback. It’s so difficult to practice conducting. You can study the music all you can, but you still need 60 odd people to play for you to gauge your progress.”
Those wise words come from one of the worlds best conductor’s of ballet. With a star in the pit and a stellar cast on stage Spartacus of Africa promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
l Tickets: R125 - R375, Computicket 0861 915 8000