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“The orchestra worked with Tippett himself for a series of recordings in 1985 and 1990, so these recordings are a reflection of that partnership; he was a patron of the orchestra. One would think that he would have approved of these neatly turned performances, with the lines cleanly and precisely delivered by a small body of expert players. Tippett may himself once have regarded romanticism with suspicion, but his music possesses a warmth of emotion that the composer seems to have welcomed in his own recorded performances later in his life. Nevertheless the performances here are excellently turned and certainly give a superb impression of the music.”

Read more:http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2012/Aug12/Tippett_NI7026.htm#ixzz2sHvLqqtD

 

 

 

The Birmingham Post ran an extended interview with Kenneth Woods by senior music critic Christopher Morley in their September 26 issue.

You can read the published version on the Post website here.

As the item was cut slightly for space, we’ve been given permission by the author to reproduce here the complete and uncut original version of the article.

 

 

Tomorrow (Friday) evening the English Symphony Orchestra launches a major subscription series at ChristChurch, in its home base of Malvern.

And conducting on the podium will be the orchestra’s new artistic director, American-born Kenneth Woods, now based in Cardiff, who tells me how this collaboration came about.

“I think it originated with a few little threads of people who knew me and knew the orchestra, doing a little bit of matchmaking. They knew my work from SOMM-recordings, the Orchestra of the Swan, and Cardiff, so I did a little bit of research.

“And it seemed a good moment for the orchestra to do something new. Everything clicked, and here we are. It’s very exciting.”

But we go back in time, investigating Ken’s involvement with Stratford’s Orchestra of the Swan.

“Well, it’s a bit of a labyrinthine process, actually,” he admits. “I was briefly conducting an amateur orchestra in Hereford, and the horn player in that group was also the horn player in David Curtis’ Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra. He introduced us, and I did a couple of rehearsals with Cheltenham.

“He started hearing good things, and again it was a little bit of matchmaking and word-of-mouth. We met. we hit it off, we had similar ideas about how orchestras might evolve. Then I did a guest slot at the Stratford Summer Proms, including Haydn’s Farewell Symphony, which went fantastically well.”

Kenneth himself is an accomplished cellist, playing in the renowned Ensemble Epomeo string trio (named after the huge extinct volcano which dominates the island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples).  Does that help in conducting?

“Yes, not just as a a string-player, but also as a chamber-musician. Both David (ex-viola with the Coull Quartet) and I have a lot of experience playing string quartets and trios, and this is so special with the Orchestra of the Swan doing so much, playing in small ensembles, just on a practical nuts and bolts level I think I have a very intimate understanding of how string players breathe together, how they match bow-strokes, the time-pressure, so the more adept you can be, the better.

“I also think my outlook as a conductor is very shaped by my experience as a chamber-musician. I think I probably learned as much about conducting from members of quartets I’ve studied with than from any particular conducting teacher. Ensemble-playing, how you tune chords, how you balance things, and how you get people listening to each other, that all comes from chamber-music, whether it’s a string quartet or a Mahler symphony.

“It’s very much a collaboration, and the last thing you want in an orchestra is any kind of passivity. So for me as a conductor, yes, I have very strong ideas about what I want to happen musically, but what I want most of all is for the players to really engage, both with their guts and with their ears.”

Kenneth Woods has been fascinated by conducting since his childhood, and took up cello almost as a second option.

“When I was old enough to start taking string lessons through the school music programme I wanted to play double-bass, and they said I was too short, so I could start with the cello and when I was tall enough I could switch.

“By the time I got to High School I was checking out all the books I could find in the library about conducting. I taught myself all the beat-patterns, and was gradually building up scores and stuff. By my last couple of years, if the music teacher was off sick, I would conduct the orchestra rehearsals.

“I used to get to conduct some great pieces, such as Sibelius Two. It was an absolute blast for a sixteen year-old.”

Ken moved to this country only as recently as 2003. “It was a bit of a gradual transition, with a lot of back and forth to Oregon, where I was conducting the Symphony Orchestra, until 2009.”

And he has a healthily realistic view of young conductors trying to get their feet on the bottom rungs of the ladder to success.

“Paavo Jarvi said something in an interview a few years ago, and he was uniquely well-placed to say it, because he had a lot of early success in his career. He said there’s no such thing as a great young conductor, and I think it’s true.

“However gifted you are, you can’t have a deep enough understanding of the complexities of working with an orchestra as a young man, to do, for example, what Walter Weller does with an orchestra, it’s not possible.”

So now Ken moves to the English Symphony Orchestra, founded by William Boughton, conducted by such greats as Michael Tippett and Yehudi Menuhin, and, most recently, by the much-revered, late Vernon Handley. What plans does he have for the orchestra?

“I think the plan is to make the ESO everything that it can and should be. In the short term this means making this series in Malvern, the first subscription series the orchestra has done in a long time, a financial and artistic success.

“Starting with a narrow focus from there we can really broaden. There’s a real hunger in the orchestra to do the repertoire; there’s a great core of musicians who at one time were doing 100 gigs a year with the orchestra: very, very fine brass-players, percussion team, and a lot of them have been waiting to do more.

“It’s a real hunger to do the Elgar symphonies, the Shostakovich, Mahler, all that kind of stuff.”

*Kenneth Woods conducts the ESO at Christ Church, Malvern, on September 27 (7.30pm). Details on 01386 791044.

 

A lovely article from critic, broadcaster and essayist Jon Jacob has been published on his popular blog, Thoroughly Good.

Jon shares some recollections of his own time as and ESO managerial assistant in the 1990’s then moves on to an extended interview with Ken.

A short sample follows. Read the whole thing here.

 

What are the challenges for regional orchestras like the ESO? 

In a geographically small country like the UK, “regional” orchestras have to be good enough to compete directly with national orchestras. You forget that at your peril. These days, orchestras from the major metropolitan centres are queuing up to play in small and medium sized venues.  This means that any professional orchestra has to play like a national orchestra in order to survive, but that’s one of the reasons that this orchestra is called the English Symphony Orchestra and not the Worcestershire Philharmonic. Artistically, we believe the orchestra has been and must again become an institution of national significance.

However, there are also compelling reasons for orchestras not to forget where we come from. When it comes to doing educational and outreach work that has a meaningful and lasting impact on people in our communities, being a regional orchestra is a strength. The recordings we make and the works we commission should have lasting international impact, but our work with children, the elderly and other under-served groups  enriches the communities where we work in a way that a concert from an orchestra bussed in from London, however great the concert, never can.

What’s on the to-do list for the next 12 months, strategically and creatively? 

We have a once-in-a-generation chance to put the orchestra back on the national stage as an important artistic force, and we’ve got to deliver on that. That means giving powerful performances of well-rehearsed, thoughtful programmes that show we can engage audiences with unfamiliar repertoire and present core repertoire in thought-provoking contexts. On our next concert, we’re playing two works by Mendelssohn alongside one of Hans Gál. All three works are tuneful and fun to listen to, but there are interesting underlying connections- Mendelssohn was the first Jewish composer to breakthrough into the German mainstream, Gál was one of the last generation of Jews to rise to the top of the musical world in Austria and Germany who were then pushed out or worse by the Nazi’s. There are other, less intense connections, too- both Mendelssohn pieces were inspired by his travels to Scotland, where Gál lived for the last 45 years of his life.

So, first up is doing distinctive programmes really well, but we also have to make sure that the ESO is not just the tree that falls in the forest. You can expect the ESO to start performing again in London and other metropolitan centres. We’re looking to have a media presence that includes traditional radio, audio and video streaming and podcasting.  We’ve named a composer-in-association for 2014 and we’ve commissioned a new symphony. We’re also anxious to get a first CD or two under our belts.

Strategically, this means finding new friends, developing partnerships and engaging with a whole new generation of ESO listeners, funders and supporters. We can’t do this alone, and that means we’ve got to make the orchestra a cause that lots of people believe in.

Senior classical critic Andrew Clements has chosen the ESO’s performance of Sir Arthur Sullivan’s “Golden Legend” at this year’s English Music Festival as a Guardian Pick in the May 25th issue of the Guardian, calling the performance “a must for English music aficionados.”

 

 

The Golden Legend, nr Wallingford

The English music festival is now well established in south Oxfordshire, offering a bank holiday weekend’s worth of concerts devoted to the 19th and early 20th-century British music. There are always plenty of performances of rediscovered works, and the big event this year is a revival of Arthur Sullivan’s cantata The Golden Legend. Based upon Longfellow’s poem, it was first performed in 1886, and became second only to Handel’s Messiah in popularity in Victorian England, when it was regarded as the greatest of Sullivan’s serious works. In the last 75 years, though performances have been increasingly sporadic; this specially mounted occasion, with John Andrews conducting the English Symphony Orchestra will be a must for English music aficionados.

Dorchester Abbey, Sat