Sir Mark Elder
As he approaches 70, Sir Mark Elder has the same zeal for all things musical as when he first set out. In the company of Fiona Maddocks, the conductor takes a look at times past and future plans
As the great conductor turns 70, he looks both back and to the future with Fiona Maddocks
It’s the morning after. The night before in this instance was a devastating performance of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius in Bridgewater Hall. Pacing around the airy, industrial beauty of his Manchester apartment, Sir Mark Elder has that look of shattered exhaustion which goes hand in hand with achievement and elation. For a world-class conductor, this must be a common experience after a marathon performance involving hundreds of musicians with whom you have a close working relationship: the Hallé orchestra, of which he has been music director for 17 years, the Hallé choir and youth choir and three top soloists.
Elder, who turns 70 on 2 June, has nurtured his players, watched the adult choir reach ever greater heights, and delighted in seeing a large, fast developing youth choir. He tackles everything he does with matchless passion and commitment. The Dream of Gerontius was the climax of the Hallé’s recent Elgar festival. Elder, who shares a birthday with the composer, has a special affinity with his music and, even after a post-concert party and a night’s sleep, is still living the moment.
‘LOOK AT THIS,’ he urges, almost whispering. He retrieves a red and goldembossed score of Gerontius from its own slip case. ‘I was given this precious volume… I’m pretty overwhelmed… it must be priceless.’ The reason for its personal value to him is two signatures on the title page: John Barbirolli, saviour and conductor of the Hallé from 1943 until his death in
1970 and a legendary Elgarian, whose spicy chorus markings (‘Don’t laugh’ is one) are scribbled through the score in blue pencil; the other, more miraculous still, is in the elegant scrawl of the composer himself. Whoever gave the present to Elder chose well.
Is he bothered about age? He looks younger than his seven decades, hair swept back stylishly, clothes a co-ordination of blues, right down to his striped socks and blue suede shoes. ‘I don’t feel in any way old,’ he grins. His manner is at once serious but smiley. He speaks in complete sentences that could be written out verbatim. ‘But I do know I am getting older. I make a great distinction there. Of course there are so many places in the world I’d love to visit, things to learn. But the things that count most are experience, time, self-criticism, hard work.’
His 70th birthday celebrations in Manchester include a performance, on
4 June, of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. As
Elder says, this epic choral work, with five soloists, narrator and vast orchestra, owes much to Wagner, a composer central to his conducting career. ‘Gurrelieder, this huge orchestral song cycle, is almost like a fourth act of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in terms of style. It looks over its shoulder very markedly to Tristan und Isolde too. It’s a piece of late, late German Romanticism. One thing that’s changed for me over the years is that, having been so concerned with the mature works of Wagner for so long, I’ve come to realise these enormous pieces need to assimilate slowly, like cooking a chilli – apparently.’
Can he cook, I ask in passing. He has made an excellent cup of coffee. He looks askance. ‘I can look after myself. It’s not something I would ever do as I am married to one of the greatest cooks, my wife Mandy, I can possibly imagine. But I do understand the business of marinating, of adding a bit, stirring, waiting, until gradually the flavour grows. That’s so much the case with studying these great works of the late 19th century, especially these Germanic ones which have such a big symphonic path.’
Surprisingly Elder has not yet conducted a complete Wagner Ring, though the Hallé is exploring the work opera by opera ‘in the wrong order’, with a cycle likely though unconfirmed. Elder’s Lohengrin live recording with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw has just been released. Parsifal from the 2013 BBC Proms is out on the Hallé label this month.
‘I’ve listened to Gurrelieder for years,’ he continues. ‘First I thought it was really hard to understand musically, to make sense of it, to follow the musical line. Now it seems completely straightforward. It’s clear how
‘There are so many places I’d love to visit, and things to learn’
it’s structured. It’s not clear how all the notes will sound – the chilli is still cooking.’ He is delighted to be doing this performance jointly with the BBC Philharmonic, ‘our wonderful colleagues here in Manchester’. These collaborations are becoming a regular feature of Manchester musical life, and that means a great deal to Elder.
‘I did Mahler’s Eighth Symphony with the two orchestras. My great colleague Juanjo Mena did [Strauss’s] Alpine Symphony. This is the next logical step. It’s thrilling to have it as a birthday present. Doing these big works is also a statement to the public that the musical life in this city is into collaboration. We’re not sparring shots off each other.
We’re trying to work together, to make the musical life of the North West a rich and enjoyable, committed, united place.’ His roots in Manchester are now deep: the Royal Northern College of Music recently awarded him a Companionship, their highest honour.
The son of a dentist father and a musical mother, Mark Elder grew up in Crouch End north London, near where he still lives when not in Manchester. He was the second child of six, and the first male. Serious musical education began when he became a chorister at King’s Canterbury. ‘My parents wanted us all to have as good an education as possible. Somebody said to them “if he seems musical and loves to sing, send him to choir school. It’s an amazing musical education”. When I was small I sang all the time; every morning the moment I woke up I’d lie in bed singing – hymns, that kind of thing, and I made things up. I think my mother saw an advertisement in the paper for voice trials at Canterbury. That would have been 1957.’
He still values the training, and thinks about aspects of it on a daily basis. ‘It was an incredible preparation for the music