Interview: Sir Andrew Davies - Conductor

Published on Tuesday 18 May 2010 19:07

EARLIER this year, Sir Andrew Davis made a rare reappearance in Scotland.

Until then, the former chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra – through which he became best-known as the man in charge of many televised Last Nights of the London Proms, not to mention the thankless speeches that go with them – had hardly set foot north of the Border for decades, despite cutting his teeth back in the 1970s as a staff conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

The programme he directed in January, part of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's main season, was a typically eclectic mix of Tippett, Shostakovich and Schumann. Much the same could be said for the programme he returns to conduct in just over a week with the RSNO, towards the end of this year's Perth Festival of the Arts, which bursts into action today.

Also appearing with Davis in Perth is American lyric soprano (and keen golfer) Barbara Bonney, whose light-hearted mix of songs by Lehr, Haydn and Grieg is interspersed with orchestral lollipops by Mozart and Schubert. Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony rounds off a concert that is specifically designated part of Perth's ongoing 800th anniversary celebrations as a Royal Burgh.

All that could so easily lead to a perception of Davis as a lightweight operator, and he himself recognises the misleading tendency of observers to view his "jolly" demeanour as an exclusive trait. Nothing could be further from the truth, as his significant CV illustrates.

For 12 years, he operated simultaneously as musical director of the BBC's flagship Symphony Orchestra and of Glyndebourne Opera, required in each of these to explore the extremes of the repertoire from Mozart to the present day. In 2000, he moved to the United States to become music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, a post he combines today with guest conductorships of the Toronto Symphony, Bergen Symphony and BBC SO, as well as regular stints at the New York Met and other of the world's leading opera houses, including a long overdue return to Covent Garden next season.

There was a time, however, when his presence in Scotland was a permanent one, occupying the apprentice post (like Alexander Gibson and James Loughran before him, and later Simon Rattle) of assistant conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. "It was an extraordinary experience, where I would be expected to conduct around 40 programmes a year, sometimes three a week. I got to learn a huge amount of repertoire for the first time," he recalls of the years (1970-72) he spent in the post.

Forty years on, Davis is now in his mid-sixties. When I spoke to him last week, he was globetrotting in Madrid with the Spanish National Orchestra, conducting music by Elgar, one of the many British composers that rank high on his broad range of specialities, both as a recording and live artist. Indeed, one of the great musical milestones of his BBC SO career was to encourage the reconstruction of Elgar's sketchy Third Symphony by composer Anthony Payne, then later to premiere and record it.

It was a controversial move, given the scantiness of original material and the reluctance of some Elgar factions to recognise the veracity of the project.

"There were many times when Tony would come to my house in Sussex to play me the latest instalment, and I'd say, 'Oh Lord, this is quintessentially Elgar,' only to discover that that particular bit was completely Tony's", Davis recalls. "You could argue that there are a few creaky moments, but just to be able to hear where Elgar was going with this was a remarkable opportunity, and so many conductors have taken it up since."

Elgar may not feature in Davis's Perth Festival programme, but coincidental with next week's visit is a major Elgar recording session in Glasgow with the RSNO for Chandos Records. And this time, Davis is taking the opportunity to resurrect a work that is one of Elgar's least performed – his 1915 orchestral fantasy, Polonia.

It's a work he believes deserves reconstitution within the repertory. "It is a substantial piece with very beautiful music, yet it only exists these days in one very old recording, so it's important we fill that gap with this new recording."

As it happens, Polonia has a remote historical link with the RSNO. Written to bolster London's First World War Polish Relief effort, the suggestion to write a fantasy on Polish airs was made by the Polish composer and conductor Emil Mlynarski, who at the time was chief conductor of the RSNO's forerunner, the Scottish Orchestra and had written his own Polonia symphony.

"I hadn't appreciated that connection until (RSNO chief executive] Simon Woods told me," Davis admits. The other work being recorded next week is the more famous Violin Concerto, with Tasmin Little as soloist.

But the immediate public face of Davis's repeat Scottish visit is in Perth, where he will help round off a ten-day festival that looks to be as popularly appealing as ever.

There's opera from English Touring Opera (Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream), Russian orchestral classics from the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, trumpeter Alison Balsom and the Halle Orchestra, chamber concerts by students of the RSAMD, Tommy Smith's Scottish National Jazz Orchestra, Gary Shelford's solo theatrical performance of George Orwell's Animal Farm, as well as solo appearances by the singer-songwriter Don McLean, comedian Rich Hall, writer Will Self and singer Michael Marra with Mr McFall's Chamber. Don't expect Davis, in his orchestral concert, to throw off Mendelssohn's Scottish symphony like some routine piece of tartan kitsch.

"It's my favourite Mendelssohn symphony and played the right way – without breaks between the movements – it carries such tremendous intensity," he says with a characteristic chortle.

Behind the bearded, upper-crust laugh is a serious, worldly musician whose return to the Scottish concert platform is long overdue.

"There's more to come," he promises, hinting at further RSNO involvement, "though we're still working on it."

&#149 Perth Festival of the Arts runs from today until 31 May. Sir Andrew Davis conducts the RSNO's Perth 800 Concert on 28 May at Perth Concert Hall. For more information, visit www.perthfestival.co.uk