The Independent (London)
Raw intensity is the essence - March 16, 2001
Posted: 2002-08-26 17:40:37
Next month Benjamin Zander conducts the Philharmonia in his acclaimed Mahler's Sixth Symphony. Sue Fox meets a man who takes musicians to the cliff's edge - and then persuades them to jump off.
It is quite likely that, when the conductor Benjamin Zander flies in from Boston, the baggage security team will want to know why he is travelling with a 4ft-long piece of lead piping. Knowing Zander, by way of explanation, he will give everyone his phenomenally powerful headphones so they can experience a few moments of Mahler's massive Sixth Symphony. By way of an encore, he will present them with tickets for his Philharmonia concert at the Festival Hall, which, he believes, could change their lives for ever. And, since you ask, the lead piping is to create the dull thud of the famous hammer blows, and that universally awful sense of being felled.
"The sound is never quite what I hear in my head. I've agonised and experimented and think I may have the answer - which is to hit the lead piping on a particular kind of timpani crate." Before rehearsals, he and the timpanist will go in search of the perfect crate. It could take a very long time.
It is seven years since Zander, who was born in England, but has lived in Boston for more than half his life, first conducted the Philharmonia orchestra. That, too, was Mahler's Sixth Symphony. Critics unanimously agreed it was among the best London has ever heard. Since then, he has become a regular guest-conductor, forging a relationship that he intends will last a lifetime. Not least because the Philharmonia are willing to go for broke with him.
"This orchestra is the most polished, elegant, sweet-sounding of the European orchestras. It has a gorgeous sound, but I often ask the musicians to go past the utter beauty where they've spent so long, to somewhere more raucous, more intense and uncompromisingly rough-edged."
He believes that raw intensity is the essence of Mahler's music. Zander has lived with Gustav Mahler for 35 years - "He's the composer who, of them all, speaks to me without an accent. Like Tolstoy - all of life is right there in the scores. As a human being, I can identify with his self-doubt, wildly quixotic emotions, impatience, intellectual curiosity, and a capacity to drive himself beyond that place where most of us stop.
"At this time in my life [Zander is 62 and about to become a grandfather], I'm very grateful for the opportunity to record his symphonies. It's like writing a book. After a certain time, you have something to say to other people - and this is a way to tell them what you've noticed."
Last summer, Zander and the Philharmonia recorded Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Together with his companion explanation CD, it will be released to coincide with the Festival Hall concert. Mahler is a huge focus of Zander's life, but by no means the only one. Last week, his brother, Michael - the professor of law - called from London to say that someone had asked him if Ben ever conducted any other composer. As the previous evening, Zander had taken his beloved Boston Philharmonic Orchestra to Symphony Hall to conduct Elgar's Dream of Gerontius - rarely performed in Boston - the question was hardly worth asking. Zander conducts an enormous amount of music, from Bach all the way to premiering American composer, John Harbison.
Working on Gerontius and preparing Mahler Six, Zander was - and still is - rehearsing Strauss's Ein Heldenleben with the New England Conservatory's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been their music director for 30 years, and in June will lead them on tour to South America and Cuba. Ein Heldenleben has probably never been played by teenagers before, but YPO is the finest youth orchestra in America and they are having a glorious time, thank you, with this vast and very difficult piece.
"Many people think that children can't do very much. I know that they can do an awful lot. Settling for something less doesn't serve them well at all," says Zander, who insists on having as much time as it takes to find the expansiveness and freedom of sound. "Which makes me very expensive," he jokes. To make his point, he bursts into "If it ain't got that swing..."
The entire first recording session for the Mahler Five had to be scrapped: "Because of the acoustic, the sound was like swimming in a bathroom. There was no impact of each individual musical voice. Telarc's engineers did something magic, and the next day we started all over again."
For the producer Elaine Martone, who has worked with many conductors, Zander was a revelation. "Ben's Mahler is all about possibility, inquiry and what it is to be human. There must be 105 recordings of this symphony already, but Ben has something different to say. He is able to communicate exactly what he's looking for by grabbing a cello to demonstrate the bass line, playing the piano or singing to the orchestra. There's nothing he won't to do get it absolutely right.
"At the same time, he enrolls everyone. This was a real collaboration. Each player was both a soloist and also part of a team - each of us striving to create something bigger and more glorious than any individual. Ben's approach to music is inspirational. He makes you look at a very familiar work in a new way. The Philharmonia were amazing in the way they were willing to go out on a limb with him."
In the music room of Zander's house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he recently took delivery of a 9ft Steinway. "Isn't this the most beautiful piano?" he says, joyously. "I can almost make it sound like an orchestra." There is an infectious, child-like wonder about music in all its infinite possibilities, which he has never lost.
Players in the Boston Philharmonic, the orchestra that was created for him, will do anything Zander asks. "BPO has a very distinctive sound. An intensity and focus, a concentration in the playing, which is very rare." It's the timing - the time between the notes where music really lives, and that's a speciality of BPO. To bring this very different kind of playing to a world-class orchestra like the Philharmonia, is asking a great deal.
"In Boston, everyone understands what I'm about. They know my madness. In the Philharmonia, maybe one or two of the players don't always like it, but time and again they've shown me that they're willing to give all they have. Beyond that, there really is nothing else."
A BPO violinist describes Ben as driving his players to the end of the cliffs. "He has us jump off and we follow. We work very hard for Ben. It's amazing to me that we get to the cliff's edge as often as we do."
A cellist confesses that part of her enormous enjoyment is that, "year after year, I'm faced with a piece of music and I say, 'Oh my God, can I do this?' I feel like a goat, butting my head against the wall but I always do it. That's why a concert with Ben is such a thrill. A thrill for the music-making and a thrill for the challenge. It's a double-dare. I see BPO as my weekly lesson and Ben's my teacher".
If the Philharmonia, back in1995, may have been shocked or suspicious of this charismatic force of nature, bursting into their lives, Zander's concerts and Telarc recordings are now all part of the long line of a remarkable musical partnership. Their live performance of Mahler's Ninth Symphony was nominated for a Grammy. In May, they will record the Mahler Six. In August, Mahler Four will be released. Mahler Eight is planned for 2002.
Telarc also have a project with Zander and the Philharmonia to record all the Beethoven Symphonies. Five and Seven have been out for a couple of years. "We've also recorded the Eroica, but I'm not happy with it, so we'll have to do it again. The realisation of what I wanted wasn't right. It was entirely my responsibility. In the end, it's always the conductor's responsibility."
Compromise is not part of Zander's vocabulary. Neither are the words, "No", or "It can't be done": "That's not where I live my life." Security officers at Heathrow had better prepare themselves.
Benjamin Zander conducts the Philharmonia in Mahler's Sixth Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall, London (020-7960 4242), 10 April, 7.30pm. Pre-concert talk by Benjamin Zander at 6pm
