Q&A with the conductor of Dyson’s Symphony, Toby Purser
While an orchestra is basking in the limelight, their most important member has his back turned to the audience. Conductors are the glue which keeps as many as 120 musicians all playing from the same stave. As the founder of the critically acclaimed Orion Orchestra and the current holder of the Mackerras Conducting Fellowship at the English National Opera, Toby Purser is a rising star in the world of music. We ask him to explain what does a conductor actually do?
What made you decide to become a conductor?
I knew pretty early on that I wanted to be a conductor. It actually came about by an amazing accident. At school we had to do acts of community service once a week, and, in my case, it was to visit a retired gentleman who turned out to be not only a retired musician, but a retired conductor. The first time I visited him he asked what I was reading. I said, “I’m reading The Point of the Stick by Sir Adrian Boult,” and he said, “Well, he was my teacher. Next week bring a baton and I’ll teach you how to conduct.” It all began there.
What role do you play in an orchestra?
One of my favourite conductors, Mark Wigglesworth, who was the ENO’s music director, described a conductor’s role as actually being a “connector”. There’s a way in which you react to everything which you hear around you, connecting the composer to orchestra, and the musicians to each other. Having a deep knowledge of the music and the score enables you to react to every eventuality without losing control.
Do you get nervous before going on stage?
People often ask me if I get nervous before a concert, and the answer is, no I don’t, but I get nervous before rehearsals, because it’s at this time that the conductor makes the most difference, and you have to have done all your homework before the first rehearsal. If you know your stuff you’ll be able to make everything work. That’s why making sure I really understand the music in front of me is so crucial.
How do you prepare for a performance?
I’m very good at learning music quickly, but that’s never ideal as it also means that it’s only in the front of my brain, rather than really deep. Different pieces of music have different demands. If it’s a massive opera or a symphony, it can take months or years before it’s in your blood. But when it is it feels totally organic and spontaneous when you conduct it. With a new score, you don’t know what the demands are going to be until you see it.
Do musicians need a conductor?
Some people think that musicians just turn up and play what’s in front of them. I frequently get asked why I need to be there. After all, the players have the right notes in front of them during the performance. But if there wasn’t conductor nobody would take responsibility for how the final result should sound. With 80 players, too much democracy could end up watering down the sum of the parts. So, yes, an orchestra can play together without a conductor, but to take a simple example they won’t know exactly when to get faster, when to get slower, and if so, by how much.
Could there one day be a robot conductor?
No, I don’t think so — at least, not an inspiring one. About six months ago I remember seeing a documentary on TV in which somebody created a robotic conductor’s arm and had it conduct a piece of Rossini. Hearing it just confirmed what I always suspected, that you need to be human to conduct. It just sounded really mechanical and disjointed. There was no empathy. I’m not sure true emotion is something a machine can replicate.
If an automated conductor isn’t possible what about an orchestra of robots?
I think it would sound synthesised, because, as a conductor, you’re not forcing every person in the orchestra to play in a certain way. You’re providing a framework for them to be able to be themselves musically, while working together as a group. Sometimes, you have to encourage them to be individuals and other times, to let others step into the limelight.
Isn’t that what you are working on by including Dyson machines for your first Alpha & Omega orchestral performance at the Cadogan Hall?
We’re trying to show that, in the right hands, almost anything can be used musically. It’s about collaboration, because this is bringing together the traditional aspects of music, such as a composer, conductor, and an orchestra, with a technology company and cutting edge acoustical science. It is fundamentally experimentation, because we don’t really know what the final result will be until the rehearsals begin.
When did the idea of a “Dyson symphony” begin?
It started as a throwaway question when I asked Sir James Dyson if he’d thought of having a piece of music for Dyson Technology. He jokingly said, “yes, [he’d] love a duet for hairdryers.” But it developed, quite quickly, in to a much bigger project. We held a competition, in order to find a composer, and found David Roche who we thought really understood how to link an innovative tech company like Dyson with a traditional symphony orchestra.
What was it about the project that interested you?
The whole project is unique in pretty much every way. I don’t know of any other piece which has integrated what people would normally think of as non-musical equipment, into an orchestra on the scale we’re trying to do.
Do you think that people will think that using electrical appliances in your orchestra is mad?
I think it’s very important to stretch boundaries. Look at Beethoven; everyone thought he was mad, when he was alive, because he insisted on pushing instruments beyond their capabilities. What we’re doing is not so different. We’re talking, admittedly, about non-musical instruments, but, nevertheless, all sound, at some level, is musical if you listen to it as such. On a superficial level, many percussion instruments are just pieces of metal or fabric which you hit — it’s simply a matter of perspective.
Watch the full performance of the “Acoustical Anatomy” which was performed at London’s Cadogan Hall on 18th February 2018. This article was originally publishing in Dyson on: magazine.
