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| Paul McCreesh (courtesy Gabrieli Consort) |
On January 24th 2020,
I had the honour of talking to Paul McCreesh at the Dan Hotel Eilat, where
Maestro McCreesh conducted one of the concerts of the Eilat Chamber Music
Festival. With a strong reputation
in the opera house and as a conductor of many of the major orchestras and
choirs across the globe, Paul McCreesh (UK) is well-known as founder and artistic
director of the Gabrieli Consort & Players. He is also enthusiastic about
working with young musicians and broadening the public’s access to classical
music.
PH:
Maestro McCreesh, I see your repertoire includes a large selection of British
music. Is this of your own choosing?
P.McC:
You are probably referring to a recent production we did to celebrate English
coronation music, where, of course, there is a strong English bent. At the same
time, there is a tendency for a little bit of “institutionalized racism” in the
music business, where you tend to end up being asked to conduct Sibelius if you
are Finnish and to be asked to conduct a lot of Elgar, Walton and Britten if
you are British. But, for me, it is all good music, great music. With Gabrieli,
I also particularly love doing Purcell and always have done; it has been a part
of my repertoire for thirty years. But, equally well, we perform Handel and
Bach; my repertoire is very wide.
PH:
Did you start your musical involvement in the typically British tradition of
cathedral boys’ choirs?
P.McC:
Absolutely not. It’s a bit of a joke, but in Britain I think I am almost unique
to have come to professional music as a conductor, and particularly a conductor
who spends a lot of time working in choral music, not having come through that
tradition, that of choirboy singing in cathedrals or at King’s or whatever, then
off to private school, thence Oxford or Cambridge. - the traditional route for
British conductors. That was never my educational process and, even to this day.
I think one day I will wake up and this will all have been some kind of dream.
Of course, in the choral world, I have worked with so many singers who have
been through that educational process. But, because of my very different
background, I think I bring a slightly different perspective to the music.
When
I talk about cultural opportunity, I understand that from the hunger of a kid
who did not have great opportunity and who had to fight. It is a little harder
than for those who have just glided through life on that conveyer be it of
cultural production that creates the sort of musician that we have in
England - often extremely technically well-versed (and I am the first to praise the excellence
of that system producing good musicians in general) - but the cost of that
system is that it is a very small
percentage of people who are actually involved in music, and that is a
pity.
PH:
Do you come from a musical family?
P.McC:
Not especially. My mother’s family was interested in music as amateurs and my
father less so, although he has come to be interested in music through his
children. I was brought up in what now seems to have been a slightly better age
for music education, where it was possible to learn ‘cello at school, where at
least we had many school orchestras, school choirs and local authority choirs.
Unfortunately, that situation is no longer the case in the UK.
PH:
What changes have occurred? How do you see today’s music education?
P.McC:
Music is becoming more and more a pursuit of the middle classes and of the
privately educated. I think this is a real tragedy and, as I get older, I spend
most of my time fighting very hard, both working with young musicians and with
young choirs, particularly trying to work in culturally disadvantaged areas. I
am trying to spread the message that young people are passionately interested
in culture...if it is well taught and part of their curriculum. The problem is
that so much of our cultural education consists effectively of one-off
projects. It’s interesting when you look at many symphony orchestras and opera
companies; we all have education programs and it is fantastic that we do that
work, but it can never substitute core, classroom-based music teaching. The
latter is the only way one can ensure that every child has the opportunity and
that there can be a developmental process in music education. It should not be
just a little ornament on the Christmas tree that you take off once or twice a
year and eat the chocolate. For me, that is absolutely fundamental.
PH:
How did you get to conducting?
P.McC:
Sheer lunacy of youth, bloody-mindedness and arrogance! I even started
conducting a little bit at school, just getting groups of friends to do charity
concerts, etc. I actually found it quite fun to be able to work socially with
other musicians. I enjoyed that process of making music, but never had any idea
of what being a professional conductor would really be like. In fact, I started
working semi-professionally as I left university, with some of the younger early
music players part-time whilst working as a school teacher. The irony is that
between 21 (when I graduated) and 29 (I think it was), I did five years of
teaching, some freelance work and suddenly ended up with a Deutsche Grammophon
contract! So, I had to learn and learn very quickly. I think what was
interesting was that the reason they signed me up was that I was, and probably
still am, one of the great “ideas” men in music and that is partly why I have
the most success doing my own projects. Because I think the music world is actually
quite industrial, I like to challenge - perhaps I like to be a little bit of an
“enfant terrible”. I recognize the need to challenge and make people think in a
different way. Of course, some musicians love that and some musicians dislike
that whole concept! Conductors are always there to divide opinion…and that is
what we do.
PH:
You conduct opera, choirs and symphony orchestras, but you have also been
deeply involved with the Gabrieli Consort & Players. Where do you stand
regarding the authentic performance movement?
P.McC:
I am no ayatollah. I feel, for me, certainly in the very early repertoire
- Renaissance and Baroque music - that it is very difficult to get the sound
world I really enjoy from modern instruments. It’s not impossible and I have no
philosophical objection to a good modern orchestra playing Handel or even hearing
Bach played on the piano. I think with Classical and Romantic repertoire it is
easier to get a good result on modern instruments. But for me, I do prefer to
work with period instruments even in 20th century repertoire, because there is such
a range of colours there and a range of performing techniques, which is always
interesting to rediscover. But the reality is that I am a working conductor; most
of my work is with modern symphony orchestras - that is where our musical world
is centred...for better or for worse and in the opera house, where it is
relatively rare to be able to use period instruments. So, I have to be fairly
flexible and I am happy to be flexible. I think it is possible to give a good
historically-aware and sensitive, stylistic performance of music on modern
instruments. As first choice, it is always nice to have the original
instruments in your hands but it is not the only way to make music.
PH:
Do you prepare editions?
P.McC:
Put it this way: I am a bit lazy. I don’t “publish” editions, simply because I
am a performing musician. I do feel the process of research and scholarship is
very, very important, but it is something that for me is part of the
music-making and, if you actually publish editions, you have to spend a lot of
time writing notes, comparing every single source in every obscure
library; that process is of interest to me but it is not fundamentally
something I can afford to give the time to commercially. So, I often work in
conjunction with musicologists and I certainly work consistently on sources. I
do a certain amount of core research myself and like to work with a lot of other
people to exchange information.
PH:
How does this all apply to the performance style of the Gabrieli Consort &
Players?
P.McC:
One of the interesting things about the Gabrieli is that we can be playing
Purcell one day and Walton the next. You need to have to have a huge range of resources,
of skills. The Gabrieli Consort isn’t just about me - it is actually a forum of
musicians and scholars of many areas coming together to exchange and share
information. That might be as recondite as researching the beginnings of the
20th century British orchestra – we are recording Elgar’s “Gerontius” at the end of the season,
working out exactly who the players will be and the type of instruments they will
be playing; or it could be going right back to Purcell and rediscovering
different ways of playing the Baroque violin, with French bow holds and new
articulation. For example, we have pioneered a new approach to real historic
stringing. I’m sorry to be political, but a lot of Baroque orchestras are
semi-Baroque orchestras. They play very nicely, but often the instruments are
compromised and with stringing that is half-modern.
I
feel if I am going to be spending most of my life as a professional conductor
working with modern orchestras, many of whom play very stylishly, I think
period instrument ‘specialists’ have got to be a bit more serious about the
work they do and that means proper instruments, not a ‘uni’-Baroque violin for Monteverdi to Mozart. That’s not
possible. You have to take into consideration the technical setting-up of your
instrument, the type of instrument, noticing if there is a difference between
instruments that were played in Paris or in Linz or London. There are so many
permutations.
And
then you will ask “Why do we bother?” We bother because, in the end, there are
far more possibilities of orchestral- and instrumental sound than you will ever
hear in a symphony orchestra, no matter how fine it is. There is something
additional that you can bring to the party if you have this range of colours,
this different feeling for phrasing, for articulation, for balance - all those
things that help make Elgar sound specifically Elgar, Britten sound
specifically Britten and Purcell sound specifically Purcell – and SO different
to Handel, for example, even though Handel was working in London only twenty
years later.
PH:
Do you write about music?
P.McC:
No. I talk about it a lot. I rarely write. Again, it’s just time. If I’m going
to write, I want to write like the best author or the best journalist and I’m
capable of doing it very well, but I’m not a full-time writer. It takes me a
lot of time and there’s nothing that frustrates me more than sloppily-expressed
thought, so I would rather talk on radio or to journalists, hoping they edit it
properly...and leave it there.
PH:
Do you teach?
P.McC:
Not formally, but part of my work with young musicians is obviously within the
teaching bracket. I sometimes coach privately, particularly singers, but I
don’t formally hold a position...I don’t have enough time. I also think I’m a
little bit of a maverick; I don’t really see myself turning up at a venerable
conservatoire having to teach classes on a Thursday between 10:00 and 11:45. In
fact, I think a lot of my best teaching work is as a hired conductor to
go in and do a project and to get people to think. I love that process and I
think I am a natural teacher in that sense. For me, it is always nice to work
with younger musicians.
PH:
Do you write music?
P.McC:
No. Not a dot. Just simply do not have the talent. Oh, sometimes I will do a
little bit of completion...that type of thing. It’s always a great mystery to
me. Dare I say it...I think I’m a very good musician (I hope I am…I have been
paid to be a musician for forty years.) I have a tremendous instinct for music;
it doesn’t really matter whether I am conducting Josquin or I am conducting Stravinsky.
It’s all sort-of the same to me and if I do conduct a contemporary piece, with
great sensitivity I can often put my finger on little things that might be
improved or things that could work better. But, having said that, I am totally
in awe of composers because they are simply a different level of musician. I am
absolutely full of admiration for them - people who are able to create new
music and particularly good new music. When you look at some of the new music that
is coming out, it is immensely impressive. Inevitably, with contemporary music, there is always going to be a lot of average music, but, even so, the process
of making music is a really important one and one we need to encourage.
PH:
There is so much new music around us. How should the listener approach it?
P.McC:
We should be very careful not to judge a piece after one performance. As a
conductor, often the music I end up loving the most is the music that doesn’t
always grab me first time. I think that is also a very important point in the
process of education. Music is a language which takes time to discover and if
you listen to a piece of music and you don’t like it you have two options: you
can throw it in the bin and say “I will never listen to that again”
(which might occasionally be the right response), but I think sometimes we owe
it to ourselves, particularly if we are talking about music by a known, great
composer, to take the time to listen and listen again. Some of the composers I
most love now I simply didn’t understand when young, Elgar being one.
Yesterday, I had a late-night WhatsApp conversation with a young student friend
of mine struggling with Mozart. I understand why he doesn’t get that yet. When
I was twenty, I didn’t really get Mozart, but at some age you will probably realize
why people hear the name of Mozart and hold their breath. Even bad Mozart is
always greatness!
PH:
You are exceedingly interested in education. What is your main goal in this
field?
P.McC:
I try to invest care and time in younger people and developing them, and not
just as future musicians. I’m interested in creating people who have a
sensibility to what culture offers the world and ‘culture’ I define in the
broadest sense - it’s not just music, it’s not even only art, it’s also the
culture of farming, the culture of industry, the culture of archaeology, the
culture of nations. We are sitting here looking out a window, where you can see
a part of the world that has been carved up politically, as we all know, probably
rather too often. But, nevertheless, we are looking through the window at four
countries. We are in a part of a world which
is a crucible of invention and a crucible of great cultures, competing cultures
sometimes, but it is that understanding of culture which I think is the only
hope for the future, because, if we don’t understand that, we will just resort,
again and again, to bombs and guns. I think culture is a really important
thing; it’s not just a matter of being refined and it’s not just a matter of
being able to mix with a certain class. It is much more important than that -
it actually defines who we are as people.
PH:
When it’s not music, what interests you?
P.McC:
Walking, restoring my 17th century house, my family; I have two adult children
who are always close to my heart and about whom I worry, probably unnecessarily
(as is the nature of being a parent).
