Welcome to the family
In April 2001, Simon Halsey took up the position of conductor-in chief of the Rundfunkchor Berlin (Radio Choir Berlin), vacated by Robin Gritton. In conversation with Boris Kehrmann, the British conductor spoke about his international partners in Berlin and the world, the special sound of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, stage-presence, educational programmes, projects and about the challenges of the 21st century.
Simon Halsey, the Rundfunkchor Berlin is, these days, part of a large family of performing musicians, to which the Berliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle, the Deutsches Symphony Orchester under Kent Nagano and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin) under Marek Janowski belong. How did you come to the Rundfunkchor Berlin? Was it at the suggestion of Sir Simon, with whom you worked in Birmingham for more than twenty years?
No, interestingly enough, I was here 18 months before Sir Simon. Hans Rehberg called me one day, before the Berliner Philharmoniker had chosen their new conductor, and asked if I would be interested in working with the choir. As I already knew the choir I, naturally, said yes. Robin Gritton, my predecessor at the Rundfunkchor and an old friend, proposed me as his successor. I believe, however, on the quiet, that I had always hoped to be able to go with Sir Simon when he moved on from Birmingham. My relationship with him is something very special.
What does that mean?
I have rehearsed choirs for him for the past 21 years and we simply work ideally together. I know exactly what he wants and he takes my choral preparations as a starting point and takes them a hundred times further in his work.
Did you have any connection at this time with Kent Nagano or Marek Janowski?
In 2000 something interesting happened: at the same time as I began to work with the Berlin Rundfunkchor, I was also working with the choirs of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris for Kent Nagano. Nagano observed me at work and said: �that is very interesting, I liked your rehearsal, you really must come to Berlin and work with our choir, I am going to work with the Deutsches Symphony Orchester. It is not yet official�, I was able to reply, �but I am already chief conductor of the Rundfunkchor Berlin.� So I had already worked with Nagano, and also knew Marek Janowski very well as I had often worked with him during his time as conductor-in-chief of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, back in the 80s and early 90s.
Do you and the Rundfunkchor Berlin have a different way of working with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker than you do when you work with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester or with Marek Janowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin?
No. I believe, Kent and the DSO (Deutsches Symphonie Orchester) and Marek Janowski and the RSB (Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin) also see our relationship as something very special. There is a particular historical bond with the RSB of course.
What makes it so unique is that the choir leader is involved in the end product. For instance, this morning I stood on the podium alongside Kent while he was conducting. We interchangend with one another continuously, and while he gave instructions to the orchestra, I gave my corrections to the choir, simultaneously. During the break he said he wanted to work on details with the orchestra and asked me to continue rehearsing the choir in another room. You do not experience that anywhere else.
We have a similar working relationship with Sir Simon Rattle, but Sir Simon and I have known each other for so long that we understand one another without needing to exchange words.
You are still in charge of the four choirs in Birmingham, where you work with Rattle�s replacement Sakari Oramo, and you also still work with the Dutch Radio Choir, Hilversum, where your main partners are Edo de Waart and Riccardo Chailly. How does that affect your work with the Rundfunkchor Berlin?
I work 100 days a year with the Rundfunkchor Berlin, 80 days with my choirs in Birmingham, 60 days with the Radio Choir Hilversum and 20 days with the European Voices, my project-choir in London. This interchange is very important, because, sometimes I see or hear something that the choir in Holland does better and bring it to Berlin and sometimes we do something better in Berlin and I take that to Birmingham. In this way, one sees things with more than one pair of eyes. For example, stage-presence: how one communicates with the audience, how one walks onto the stage, how one holds the score... The English and the Americans do all these things better. Because they do not have the obvious musical tradition from Bach to Brahms and Wagner, they have to work harder on the presentation to convince the public that the concert is an interesting and worthwhile entertainment as well as a cultural experience! For the same reason, their education-projects are much more advanced: trying to make a case for classical music in cultures where other art forms, especially the popular forms, are dominant.
But England does have a tradition of large choral festivals.
They are all amateurs. Amateur choirs sing with love and dedication, because of this their stage-presence is fantastic. That is what we must learn here in Germany, we must unite their sense of theatre and communication with our fantastic sound.
To that end you prescribed a programme of Gospel and Spirituals for the Rundfunkchor in the Summer of 2002. Did that work?
Yes, it did work, because we had the right conductor. There is only one man in the world with whom that could work, that is André Thomas from the Florida State University, and he achieved it thanks to the strength of his personality. We introduced the Gospel-programme to make the choir more mobile. One can not sing American music with a stiff body, and the conductors we work with do not want us to sing works by Bach, Mozart or Berlioz like trees in the landscape. Sir Simon always says: �move your wonderful bodies!� The best way to learn how to do that is by singing the ultimate movement-music. Of course, it is not our core-repertoire, in this case it was purely a strategic decision.
For the same reason, in 2003 we sang motets for 40 individual voices. It was important that each individual member of the choir had solo parts to sing and assumed personal responsibility for every element of the finished product. Just as a great football team can be let down by one unfit player, so a great musical ensemble must be made up of similarly fit virtuosi.
Do you intend to pursue these programmes further?
We will continuously perform works for small groups, not in the sense of creating a chamber ensemble within the Rundfunkchor, rather, to give as many singers as possible the opportunity to sing solos or in smaller groups. Tomorrow, for instance, 16 of them will be performing Ligeti�s �Lux aeterna�, a further 6 will be taking part in a Christmas concert and in February 36 singers will be performing a new piece by Hans Werner Henze. But these groups are not always composed of the same singers, rather, I wish that everyone should have this opportunity. After all, an orchestra plays often with different configurations of players.
What profile would you like to give to the repertoire of the Rundfunkchor, in the long term?
There are several answers to that question.
The first and most important is: one must seek to encourage composers to write choral works, in order to re-establish a living choir-scene. The fact that for the past 50 years composers have not known how to compose for singers has led to a crisis, a fact which every choir and choir-leader in the world will confirm. For this reason I hope it will be possible to create the position of a Composer in residence at the Rundfunkchor. We will also conduct workshops for choral composers.
Secondly, we must re-interpret the music of the 20th century, there is a wealth of first-class repertoire which is in danger of being forgotten simply because it is not in fashion here in Germany because of the strong influence in the Darmstadt School. A great deal of beautiful music is not performed by professional ensembles in Germany because it is not complicated enough! For example, one should have another look at the English composers: Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Walton, Britten... We must occupy ourselves more intensively with the French repertoire, (which is already quite well represented). We must sing more Ravel, Debussy, Fauré and Duruflé. We must look at what is happening in central and eastern Europe and bring Kodaly, Bartók and all the lesser Eastern European, Baltic, Scandinavian and Russian composers back into our repertoire. Finally, we need to take a fresh look at the entire history of 20th century German music: Hindemith is no longer in fashion, Reger is virtually unknown outside Germany, Distler and his generation are almost completely forgotten, even here... There are many Jewish composers whose careers were ended by emigration, composers such as Hans Gál, and Günther Raphael. It is old-fashioned music, but wonderfully composed for singing. So there is a great deal still to discover and to recall.
In addition, the Rundfunkchor must learn the performance techniques of the 18th century. For that we need to work with specialised conductors, the Herreweghes and Koopmans of this world. We need to learn how one sings dissonant notes without vibrato, how to change the tone and produce slight changes in intonation, in works by Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven. The choir really enjoys this. Then we must go still further back and sing Bach and Händel in a clear, direct style. Händel can definitely be performed with big choirs, Bach is more complicated, but Händel was originally sung by huge choirs and in this respect our 64 voices are almost too few.
Haydn works better with big choirs than Mozart, Schubert�s A-flat major and E-flat major Masses and Beethoven�s C major Mass work better with 60 singers than with 30, because the orchestra in those days was so large.
Today it is important to see Haydn, Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Brahms for instance as old music, that one would ideally perform with the Akademie für Alte Musik or the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century or the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Modern orchestras are already transforming their ways of playing 18th and 19th Century music with people like William Christie and Marc Minkowski conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon himself performing Bach, Rameau and Haydn. It is a sign of our times and we need to be connected.
Stylistically correct singing implies correct use of language. What are your views on language?
For me, all music is simply an extension of the text. Music begins with the text. I am absolutely obsessed with the idea of speech training. For example, for our French repertoire we have a fantastic speech-coach, who is always there when we rehearse a French piece. She shows the singers exactly where to position their tongues when singing, where the vowel sounds are produced and teaches them the correct intonation. In addition, when we are planning our rehearsals we always allow two whole days just for the language with native-speaker specialists. To be honest, we do the same when we sing in German. We devote a lot of time to asking ourselves how correctly pronounce a sentence such as: �Die Erlöseten des Herrn werden wiederkommen� from Brahms� �German Requiem�, and suddenly we understand our own language! The same is true of English, where I personally assume responsibility for speech-coaching, although for a work like Bernstein�s Mass we have an American specialist. For Russian works we employ a Russian and for Szymanowski a Pole, because everything concerning the tone-colour is based on the correct articulation of the text. In the past five years this has posed another problem for the Rundfunkchor - an internationally active choir whose CDs are heard all over the world: should we sing Latin Masses and other choral works with German or Italian pronunciation and intonation? We have both variations in our repertoire, but we steer clear of French Latin because it is too problematic. I phone each conductor we intend to work with a year in advance and ask them what they would like. It is not something one can generalise about; for instance, German-speaking Salzburg is so close to Italy that in Haydn and Mozart�s time they would happily have sung in Italian Latin. And what should we do with Beethoven? The last time we sang �Missa Solemnis�, with a German conductor, he wanted Italian Latin!
What do you think of the middle-German tradition, to which the Rundfunkchor belongs?
We have inherited a very healthy tradition. Above all, the ensemble-spirit, the understanding of what it means to be a part of a team, are fantastic. Northern European discipline combined with the middle-German tone-colour create a very attractive choral sound. And we achieve this sound when we sing German music in the German language with a German orchestra and conductor who understand the repertoire. That is the core of our work and it is important that we work with German conductors such as Uwe Gronostay, Michael Gläser and others who are able to further consolidate this sound. But of course we also need to be aware of an international dimension and be able to sing French, English, Russian and American works as well.
How would you describe the sound of the Rundfunkchor?
The sound of the Rundfunkchor has two specific characteristics: purity and warmth. British and Scandinavian choirs have the purity but not always this intense warmth and southern European and American choirs sing with warmth but do not always achieve the same clarity and purity. The combination makes the sound of the Rundfunkchor unmistakable. I personally prefer a sound with a dark, juicy, full bass and alto foundation and I do not believe that we destroy the ideal German sound by adding a little warmth and fullness to the core, without losing sight of the clarity. But a great ensemble can, in any case, colour every word and phrase differently!
That means achieving the right balance between articulation of the text, expression and legato?
Exactly. In my opinion, the most important thing that a choir has to work on is the culture of the Cantabile legato and that is only achieved when the vowels sound well-studied, clear and pure. If the vowels are clearly articulated the clarity of the sound appears of its own accord, and when one sings with one�s whole body and allows the note to flow warmth is also produced because the vocal chords are vibrating freely. If you were to ask me what I would like in the future, I would say: a somewhat larger, more resonant, expressive sound that comes even more from the body. The Rundfunkchor Berlin works 90 % of the time with symphony orchestras. Conductors these days are ever hungrier for expression. If a text is about fear, and pianissimo is called for, they want a pianissimo that is full of fear, that sounds completely different to a pianissimo full of joy. There are very many interesting things and colours that can be brought out of the voice. The choir must be able to change expression from one minute to the next.
Do you see the danger that the old tone-colour may be lost?
Yes, and I must be very careful about it and pay attention to two things: for one thing, I must continue to learn, on a daily basis, what this original quality consists of, so that I do not destroy it. On the other hand, we work a great deal with distinguished German conductors: our choir assistant is German, our first guest conductor is German and we have a whole list of German conductors. I am not a revolutionary. Perhaps I see some things a little differently, maybe my aesthetic sense is a little different, but, after all, we sing with many German orchestras whose conductor�s-in-chief are not German. Has Sir Simon Rattle changed the sound of the Berliner Philharmoniker? If so, is that necessarily bad? We are not curators of a �museum culture� but of a living and changing tradition.
That has been controversially discussed, at least by Claudio Abbado.
Yes, but one employs particular conductors precisely because at a particular point in time one wishes to have a particular quality. Robin Gritton, for example, was employed because he was famous for concentrating on the quality of the individual vocal parts. Thus, the perfect German sound of the Rundfunkchor was , interestingly enough, developed by an Englishman. We are also forced to live in our time: we produce different sounds because the influences around us are different. For instance, we think globally, Berlin is an international city and that gives rise to the problem that we cannot invariably sing Latin with German pronunciation. We sing a wide repertoire that possibly contains less German music but therefore more French music, and also Mexican and Chinese music, something which would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.
In the past one went on tour less often but for longer periods of time; we are flying to Japan next week for just two concerts. Our bodies are bigger, we are better nourished, we work differently, we lead more hectic lives, we work faster, there is less money for rehearsals, we are continuously worried about our jobs, all of these factors have an effect on the sound.
Is there, nevertheless, such a thing as a mature sound-identity of an ensemble?
Yes, but it is dependent on the people gathered together in the room. In the Rundfunkchor we have predominantly German singers, but the training in the 1960s was substantially different to that of the 1990s: they have had quite different careers, have studied different teaching methods, are able to speak different foreign languages and consider music from differing standpoints. Some of them are choir leaders in their free time, many play the piano, cello or horn, some have studied economics or philosophy, all of that is important to me because in the future we need optimally and universally educated musicians.
Do you encourage your singers, in that regard, to perform as soloists in churches and concerts outside of the work of the choir?
I want our singers to be individual personalities, who are fully engaged in the city: as choir leaders, in education projects, as singing coaches, in their own ensembles, as soloists or whatever. However, the Rundfunkchor must have absolute priority. We work hard and for that I need fresh, rested singers at rehearsals.
At the beginning of our conversation you spoke about English and American education projects which intensify the essential exchange between the choir and the audience. What do you plan for the Rundfunkchor?
In that respect we are still very much in the early stages, but it is a point of increasing importance. Today, we are facing two grave crises. The first concerns �serious� art, because a generation is growing up around us that understands a good deal about computers, pop music and technology but nothing about classical music. Art is in retreat because playing computer games and watching videos is easier. The second point concerns the mobility of our young people in the cities, who walk and run too little, do not do enough sport and are increasingly becoming overweight. In the English speaking countries the problem has been known for 20 years, here in Germany it is gradually becoming apparent. This deplorable state of affairs in sport is countered with all manner of animation and training programmes for children and we need such programmes in the world of art, too. But we are lacking music teachers, qualified music instruction, musical instruments in families and the culture of playing music at home. These days one watches television or goes to the cinema instead of playing the piano or singing. People do not go to church on Sundays in the same way as they once did and one does not hear great music so often in the church context. So �classical� music is less and less a part of everyday life and for that reason it must be brought back to the people. There are two possible ways of doing that: the first involves organising projects in which amateurs and children sing with us. Then they can say �I know the Rundfunkchor, I have sung in a concert with them�, and then they come to hear our concerts, too. The other way is to send small groups of singers into the communities, to schools and churches, to talk to people about our music and invite them to our concerts. We work together with the Philharmonic on such projects. For instance, in December we will be giving three performances of Berlioz� �The damnation of Faust� under Charles Dutoît in the Philharmonie, at the end of which 240 Berlin school children will join the Rundfunkchor and the Philharmonic Orchestra to sing the Apotheosis. That is 240 children who have never had such an experience before in their lives, 240 children who will say �Classical music? I can do that! I have already.� That is the only way. And when we do not take it, in one hundred years there will no longer be any music.
(The interview was conducted in Berlin, in October 2003)
