The man tasked with turning around Manchester’s Hallé Symphony Orchestra tells Michael Taylor how his musicians are bringing classical music to a modern audience.
So what is a business magazine doing interviewing the conductor of a symphony orchestra? Well, for a start Sir Mark Elder has been with the Hallé orchestra for ten years. You could argue, as I do, that his contribution to the region and to Manchester is on a par with that of Sir Alex Ferguson, and we interviewed him in August.
Elder is a titan in the musical world. His knighthood in 2008 was awarded for a lifetime’s achievement, but he is recognised as the man who saved the Hallé. He is, to quote a business term of the times, “a turnaround guy”. He also inspires a team of intense people to achieve peak performance.
So, let’s put it another way. Why has it taken Insider so long to interview him? Elder is a formidable presence. We meet at St Peter’s church in Ancoats as he films an appeal for the restoration work on what could be a fantastic space for music, then go back to his office at the Bridgewater Hall where he is preparing his tenor and orchestra for a performance.
This is his space, where he can be effective. “Any creative enterprise has to feel somebody is interested in what you can give. One of the most fundamental aspects of conducting an orchestra is in producing the right atmosphere so they feel something is demanded from them.”
That needed to be the method from the first day, as part of his act of rebuilding the confidence and status and then the financial stability of the orchestra. And to do so required a certain ruthlessness.
“When I renewed my relationship with this orchestra they were a different group of people. Their financial fortunes had gone from bad to worse – but that was to my advantage. The situation was so serious that bankruptcy was two weeks away. The fact that the orchestra looked into the black hole of despair meant this was the best way to rebuild.
“All arts organisations are traditionally short of money and struggling to survive. But no-one realises quite what the situation is unless there’s a particularly open management. When I arrived they realised there was a real risk that this organisation may disappear.”
He insisted the job could only be done with a new chief executive who he could work with. That was John Summers, who he had never met before, but the two have worked wonders. He also had to set about rebuilding the team.
“If we are going to get people to come to our hall on a wet night, we we have to be able to express our passion; otherwise they’d be better off listening to a CD at home. I couldn’t accept what they were doing. It’s not that it was bad, but it didn’t have any heart,” he says.
“But they are passionate musicians. Some have retired, some are with other orchestras and others I had to say it’s time to move on. Either way, they know what I expect. I often say to them, ‘now, you know the notes, but now think about what the passage is saying and bring it off with “bravura”’. All these words, Michael, that don’t exist in English. Words like panache, élan, brio; the Italians have these wonderful words which give them the passion to get across the excitement of playing live. And we’ve had some examples of doing this.”
Central to the success of the Hallé is The Bridgewater Hall, which Elder confesses has challenges because of its sheer size, but because there is no decent concert hall in London, he says people look to Manchester and Birmingham. The most daring experiment recently was Hallé’s collaboration with Manchester band Elbow, winners of the 2008 Mercury Music Prize for their epic album The Seldom Seen Kid.
“Everyone was excited. It was a wonderful idea of John Summers. At the same time, playing in a symphony orchestra behind a rock band is always going to be fundamentally tedious. Someone had the clever idea of involving the Hallé in rewriting the arrangements and make some subtle and detailed parts for the orchestra.”
The project was a way for the orchestra to reach out, he says. “I have always believed Manchester could do much more to celebrate the cultural institutions that shore up its cultural lifeblood. We should never stop saying this is the oldest symphony orchestra in the country that is regularly working.
“Without being facetious about it, Coca-Cola still advertises, does it not? To celebrate its primacy. The Hallé must always be prepared to celebrate this great tradition that goes back 152 years old; to make the orchestra part of that tradition and be active in the community. What I’m most proud of is that 75 per cent of the orchestra involved in educational programmes. It’s what being in this city is about.
“I’ve tried to make the Hallé so much a part of the fabric of the city, that even people who don’t appreciate the music we produce, at least recognise that Manchester would be a poorer place if the Hallé didn’t exist,” he adds. “We need different sorts of music. If you can show a five-year-old child a concert orchestra, they may not need that music until they are 45, but they try that and remember these people who came to school. They may move to pop music, and that’s great because music is spiritual food. We need it as much as we need fresh air, companionship, a social life or sports. Music is something to share with others. It has to have an open door.”
Also in: December 2009
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Strap yourselves in
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Life is a rollercoaster
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Land ahoy
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