Exciting to see younger audiences getting curious about music: British conductor Mark Elder

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New Delhi, Feb 2 (PTI) British conductor Mark Elder has witnessed a shift in the audience over his 25-year association with Manchester's Halle Orchestra, noting that more and more younger people are becoming increasingly curious about music.

Elder, who will be conducting the Symphony Orchestra of India on February 15 as part of its spring 2025 season, said that "it is exhilarating to know you got through" to the young audience and are able to change their opinion about orchestra music.

"When I look at the audience, there is maybe a girlfriend and a boyfriend, or maybe a group of six young people, but they are interested. They are curious to come and see what we are doing, and to see whether or not it is boring, because their view might be 'of course it's boring, it's something my grandfather used to go to,"' Elder told PTI in an interview.

"They assume it's boring. It's exciting and exhilarating when you feel you got through to these people, and this used to happen in Manchester more and more," he added.

The SOI opened its spring 2025 season on January 25 with a performance led by legendary conductor Zubin Mehta at Jamshed Bhabha theatre here at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA).

The nearly-month long celebration of Western classical music will also feature Elder, along with internationally renowned operatic voices, including Roberta Mantegna, Olesya Petrova, Luciano Ganci, and George Petean, and the city’s own choirs.

Elder has long been an advocate of introducing Western classical music to children in school.

In 2007, Elder was one of eight conductors of different British orchestras to endorse a 10-year classical music manifesto, "Building on Excellence: Orchestras for the 21st Century", to take classical music to all British schoolchildren.

"It's very beautiful. We take the orchestra into schools, we play for the kids in whatever space they can manage, and try to talk to them before too many other things get in the way in their lives. It's very important to me, so they understand the thrill of live orchestra music, because they will never hear it again like that in their school, in their hall, in their gym," the 77-year-old said.

From 1973 to 1993, Elder served as the music director of English National Opera. His longest association was with The Halle in Manchester where he was appointed music director in 1999 and retired in 2024 after 25 years.

Talking about his association with The Halle for quarter of a century, he said when you stay with one group of musicians for such a long period it provides a chance to develop as an artiste.

"The time that I spent in Manchester has been really extraordinary because there are things that I don't have to talk about, that I can just do, they will know what I want even before we get there. And that's very precious," he said.

This will be Elder's first visit to India, where he will conduct an Indian orchestra, an experience he is eagerly looking forward to.

"To work with this lovely orchestra has given me the chance to see India. I just rehearse and make the music live and help them to master the music, which I imagine would be very familiar," Elder said.

The conductor will lead the orchestra to perform three iconic pieces, including Beethoven's Eroica symphony.

"It's a fantastic piece, it's very enjoyable to play and to listen to. It's very hard. The first movement is very long but very brilliant and energetic like waging a military campaign, it goes up and up. The second movement is a funeral march, it's a completely different piece," Elder explained.

He added that it was the first symphony that was based on an idea.

"Beethoven very much admired Napoleon and thought he was doing something really important. And there is an energy that was perhaps inspired by Napoleon's success as a military leader,” he added.

The other two pieces, included to "make a balanced program," are the overture to "Oberon" by Carl Maria von Weber and Robert Schumann's "Overture, Scherzo, and Finale".

"It's a lovely piece (Schumann’s), and I am very fond of it. It's rarely played, even in Europe, but it's a masterpiece, and I thought the orchestra would enjoy getting to know it. The three pieces come from the same German-Austrian background, and they fit together very well," Elder explained.

Self-admittedly "ignorant" about Indian music, Elder hoped that his visit to the country would introduce him to some Indian musicians and the music that is "expressive and exquisite".

"When I hear Indian music being played, I find it so beautiful, I find it so amazingly different from Western music and so expressive. There are different rules that govern it, there are different things that are important. One of the reasons I wanted to come to India was to learn about Indian music. I would love to hear Indian musicians,” he said.

"I find it exquisite. It's a fantastic musical tradition, it's just as important as Western music. It has its own history and its own rules, its own traditions and we should all listen to it with open ears," the conductor added. PTI MAH MG MG