THE INDEPENDENT
MUSIC, OPERA, DANCE
Saturday 13 July 1991
- As two national conductors’ competitions reach their climax this week, Mark Pappenheim presents platform views
ASADOUR GUZELIAN
risis? . What crisis? With
Fingers on the baton
three young hopefuls going
through to the finals of the
Fourth Leeds Conductors’ Competition tonight and a further five
finalists taking part in the launch
of the new Donatella Flick Conducting Competition "in Croydon on
Wednesday, why should anyone be worried about a future shortage of world conducting talent? But if there is really no crisis, why have orchestras like the Hallé
taken so long to find replacement music
directors — and why should the Arts
Council think it necessary to launch its
own Young Conductors Scheme to create
. work experience programmes in tandem
. with the country’s leading bands?
According to Norman Lebrecht, author
of the recent polemic, The Maestro Myth,
conductors’ competitions are only a symptom of the crisis: “Expecting a great conductor to emerge from a competition is
like expecting Mastermind to produce the
next Nobel Prize winner. What’s really
needed is to reconstruct the infrastructure that worked for 150 years — putting
young conductors back into very junior
positions in the provinces, getting them to
sit around, make the tea and watch what
everybody else is doing — if they’re any
good, they’ll get their big break.”
Mark Wigglesworth’s career stands as
the very opposite of the Lebrecht theory.
Winner of the
1989
International
Kondrashin Competition in Amsterdam,
Wigglesworth has just been appointed
both Music Director of Opera Factory
and Associate Conductor of the BBC
Symphony Orchestra. Yet, when he entered the Kondrashin Competition only
two years ago, he was fresh out of the
Academy and, by his own admission, “had
no experience at all”. Modestly, he
attributes his success to luck — “my priorities and the jury’s seemed to coincide.
My performance may not have been very
together, but I think it was quite exciting.”
Isn’t he worried that his victory has catapulted him to premature stardom?
“There’s nothing dangerous about
competitions in themselves,” he insists.
“What’s dangerous is what you decide to
do afterwards.” Which, in Wigglesworth’s
real opportunity o build a relationship
with a single orchestra and learn the craft
as you go.” That desire to learn over time
is what attracted Martyn Brabbins to apply for the new Flick competition even after carrying off first prize in the Leeds
three years ago. Where the Leeds offers
money and concert bookings, the Flick’s
£5,000 first prize is actually intended to
buy the winner a further extended period
of specialist study in the opera houses of
Italy. “I was quite surprised I was selected,” Brabbins admits, “and in fact I
the cold, passionate, Northern approach.
Now, if I'm lucky, I'll get the warm, pas-
sionate, Southern approach too. But I'm
very philosophical about these things.”
Such stoicism is perhaps born of his experience in a Japanese competition where
350 applicants were whittled down to 30
on the strength of seven minutes’ musicmaking — 3!2 of Haydn, 3!2 of Stravinsky. “I was knocked out in the first
round,” says Brabbins, “which left a very
sour taste’ — it was so mechanical.”
Lord Birkett, Chairman of the Flick
‘Expecting a great conductor to emerge from a competztwn 18 like expecting
Mastermind to produce the next Nobel Prize winner,” says Norman Lebrecht
case, was absolutely nothing — surprising
given his current commitments and the
string of bookings that went with the
prize. “Win a competition and you can get
one date with any orchestra in the world
— the trick is to be invited back. I’d rather
they asked me because of who I am rather
than which prize I've won. Maybe if I'm
still waiting for them to employ me when
I'm 90 I'll claim my rights.”
Wigglesworth reckons the best prize is
the one Simon Rattle won in the John
Player Competition — an Associate
Conductorship with the Bournemouth.
That, Wigglesworth explains, gives you “a
—
wasn’t even going to apply — I thought
I'd done enough competitions. The reason I did, though, was the opera house at-
Jury, isn’t too worried about such agonies:
“I suspect it’s probably quite good for
tachment — not the glory, not the money,
Brabbins concedes that it isn’t entirely detached from professmnal realities — “in-
steeling
their
nerves
anyway. ”
Even
but just the chance to be able to go and
work, and learn a new languagein a new
culture.” This thirst to continue learning
is the more remarkable considering that
Brabbins, like Sian Edwards, winner of
the first Leeds Competition in 1984, is a
- physical and emotional one, is a matter of
Valery Gergiev. It’s a matter of broadening his range, Brabbins explains: “I've had
being able to communicate instantly
through your physical gestures.” Any worries that flashy podium antics may fool an
audience and a jury are counteracted at
Leeds — one of the virtues of which is
pupil of the legendary Russian master,
Ilya Musin, teacher of generations of Soviet conductors from Rudolf Barshai to
‘asmuch as you're put in front of strange
orchestras all the time and just have to get
on with it. And anyway, the whole Russian
approach, which is a very all-embracing,
that the orchestra itself has a vote,
worked out through a complicated
system of PR.
All the same, anxieties about
competitions led the Arts Council
to launch its own Young Conductors Scheme last month to create
year-long work experience opportunities
for young conductors with major orchestras. The two Bournemouth orchestras,
the London Philharmonic and the RLPO
are all taking part in the scheme. While
the others have yet to decide the best approach, the RLPO have already selected
their conductor, Christopher Gayford, in
conjunction with the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Given that
he was junior fellow in conducting at the
RNCM and has already been booked by
Opera North to share next season’s Don
Giovanni with music director Paul Daniel,
some might ask whether he really needed
the assistance of the scheme. Ian Blatchford, the Arts Council music officer in
charge, is aware of the difficulties. “If
we’re not careful, it’s going to end up being a bit of a stitch-up with the music colleges, which is obviously something we
want to avoid. But a lot of orchestras are a
bit suspicious of competitions and although talent-scouting doesn’t look terribly fair, it’s often the best way of going
about things.”
O Fourth Leeds Conductors Competition:
finals 7.30pm tonight..
s Town Hall
(box office 0532-476962)
QO First Donatella Flick Conductmg Competition:
rehearsals
Wednesday
10am12.30pm, 2-6pm,; performances Thursday
10am-Ipm, 2.30-5pm. Fairfield Halls (081-
688 9291)