Kenneth Hesketh Interview
with Christopher Thomas - 2007
In
September 2007 Kenneth Hesketh will
officially take up the position of Composer
in the House with the Royal Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra, an appointment
that will take the composer back to
his native city on Merseyside.
Pioneered by the Royal
Philharmonic Society in partnership
with the Performing Rights Society Foundation,
the scheme aims to place the composer
in the heart of orchestral life, allowing
time and space for creative energy and
synergy with both the musicians and
their concert going audience. Hesketh
becomes the second of four such regional
residencies, the first having commenced
in autumn 2005 with Stephen McNeff working
in conjunction with the Bournemouth
Symphony Orchestra.
It has been an immensely
productive six years for Kenneth Hesketh
since Musicweb last talked to the composer
following a performance of his work
for chamber orchestra, The Circling
Canopy of Night at the 2001 Proms.
Hesketh has continued to add prolifically
to his catalogue, with works spanning
a wide range of genres from his first
foray into opera, the two act The
Overcoat, drawing on the short story
of the same name by Nikolai Gogol and
which has since spawned the orchestral
suite Two Lapels and a Pocket as
well as Notte oscura for chamber
orchestra, to numerous chamber and ensemble
works. Notable amongst these are Threats
and Declamations, written during
his tenure as New Music Fellow at Kettle’s
Yard, Cambridge, Music of a Distant
Drum, premiered at the 2006 Spitalfields
Festival and Ein Lichtspiel for
seventeen players, which received its
premiere in February 2007 and will be
featured in a concert by the RLPO’s
contemporary music group Ensemble 10/10
in November.
Hesketh’s new Liverpool
appointment will involve the composer
working closely with both the full orchestra
and its related ensemble’s in several
new commissions, the first of which,
A Rhyme for the Season, will
open the orchestra’s new concert season
on 14th September 2007.
CT: It seems incredible
that it is six years since we last chatted
in the wake of the 2001 Prom performance
of The Circling Canopy of Night.
A lot must have changed musically and
professionally for you since then?
KH: In many
ways, looking back over the six years,
I must admit to realising how unprepared
I was for the future. Teaching at the
Royal College of Music, as well as privately,
has increased with new courses and demands
alongside the usual run of commissions
per year. Add musical successes, disappointments
and changes in our artistic environment
to the list and I'd say that the last
sixyears has gone very quickly indeed
and has certainly contributed to the
composer I have since become.
CT: Are you conscious
of your music having changed or developed
in any way since you wrote The Circling
Canopy of Night?
KH: I have tried
to keep the substance of my music constant;
it's a part of who I am and I wouldn't
feel comfortable making any sort of
stylistic volte-face. But what I have
certainly and very consciously tried
to change is the means by which I achieve
things. Notationally I have certainly
striven to find simpler solutions (my
students are very aware of this hang-up
of mine!) and if anything the general
contours in my work, especially on a
contrapuntal level, have become more
direct, the gestures more forthright.
I view The Circling Canopy of Night
and Detail from the Record
(a work only 2 years later) within a
somewhat decadent period, fond but now
distant. However I still feel the emotional
impulse of these works in my compositional
approach and still feel very comfortable
with what they achieve.
CT: One important
event since that Prom performance must
have been your period as Contemporary
Music Fellow at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge?
KH: In many
ways my time at Kettle’s Yard introduced
me to the actual nitty-gritty of concert
and programme organisation as well as
stage management and administration.
What makes a good concert, how to make
it compact and how each work will interweave
to form a thought-provoking contrast
or compliment: these are all issues
I had to confront on a regular basis
whilst at the same time juggling the
needs and expectations of performers
and audience, hopefully projecting my
own personal stamp on the concert series.
Whatever its legacy I feel satisfied
that the audiences heard interesting
works be they repertoire or newly commissioned.
CT: You must be
delighted with your appointment as the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic’s Composer
in the House, particularly as it takes
you back to your home city of Liverpool?
KH: It's a wonderful
opportunity to work directly with the
RLPO as a more mature composer and what
is so nice about the appointment, apart
from the creative freedom that it entails,
is to see people in the orchestra who
were there when I was attending RLPO
concerts as a teenager. There are also
people from my Merseyside Youth and
National Youth Orchestra days who are
now in the RLPO. It's a great pleasure
to see them working as professionals
and to be able to work with them myself.
Liverpool has certainly
changed since my formative years and
very much for the better I feel. Contemporary
music has always been a very important
part of the musical fabric of the city
but over the last ten years the Ensemble
10/10 (principal players from the RLPO)
has made a stunning contribution to
musical life there, as well as in
the Northwest generally and it continues
to go from strength to strength.
CT: You must already
feel that you enjoy a particularly close
relationship with the RLPO then given
your formative years in the city?
KH: I was very
lucky at an early age to have my works
performed by the RLPO and MYO and equally
important, to see the business side
of music making as well as the creative.
I was also lucky to meet, if only briefly
at that time, so many creative artists
who came to the Philharmonic Hall such
as William Mathias, Oliver Knussen,
Charles Groves, Libor Pesek and Simon
Rattle.
CT: One of the orchestra’s
former Principal Conductors Sir Charles
Groves was one of your early mentors
but you must be relishing the opportunity
of working with the recently appointed
RLPO maestro Vasily Petrenko?
KH: I met maestro
Petrenko last year after a wonderful
concert he gave of semi-staged Russian
operas (The Gambler, incomplete as it
was, was a true joy!). He is very sharp,
incredibly focused and having seen his
work with the orchestra I am eager to
begin what promises to be a very positive
and creative working relationship.
CT: And with your
tenure coinciding with Liverpool’s year
as European Capital of Culture 2008
the timing must be particularly exciting?
KH: Exciting
and somewhat daunting as there will
be a lot of attention focused on the
city. However, for me and for all the
composers working there (such as Steven
Pratt, Emily Howard and Ian Gardiner
to name a few) it affords the opportunity
of greater exposure and interaction
with the RLPO and other ensembles visiting
Liverpool during the year.
CT: Are there any
aspects of your appointment that will
specifically tie in with the Capital
of Culture theme?
KH: The first
big commission of my residency is a
work for soloist, chorus, youth choir
and orchestra and has the subject of
the sea as its starting point. Whilst
it’s not conceived as a celebratory
occasional piece as such, the very presence
of the piece in a concert in the Capital
of Culture year will give it added excitement.
Liverpool's history as a port city was
one of the first stimuli for this work,
as was the idea of different cultures
co-existing along side each other. I
see these as aspects of the city itself
and have tried to reflect these to some
extent in the new piece.
CT: It must be quite
an opportunity for a composer to integrate
musically with the members of an orchestra
to the degree which your appointment
will allow?
KH: The orchestra
is currently at the peak of its powers
and having the chance to try things
out and to write large scale works for
them will be an incredibly valuable
and rare experience. Not only
am I looking forward to writing for
the orchestra as a whole but for individuals
within the orchestra as well. Working
with the chorus master, Ian Tracey,
who I have known for 30 years, as well
as developing a working relationship
with conductor Vasily Petrenko also
reflects the consolidation/development
side of this position.
CT: A key part of
your appointment will be to write a
number of works specifically for the
orchestra and its various chamber groups
and ensembles. Could you tell us a little
more about these?
KH: I have been
given many opportunities to write to
all my strengths and the new works will
include pieces for the orchestra (from
a short 4 minute opener to Like the
Sea, Like Time, the 35 minute
choral piece I mentioned earlier) to
chamber works and even Christmas carols
and a gospel number! I'm particularly
pleased that earlier pieces will also
be performed to give context to my work.
The new works will be recorded for the
RLPO's own CD label as well.
CT: Given that you
teach on a regular basis will you be
relishing the educational aspect of
the appointment and the opportunities
afforded to take your music into the
community?
KH: At this
point there is still a lot to be decided
but given the potential opportunities
at the University, the RNCM (just up
the motorway) and other schools it is
quite exciting.
CT: Much is said
about audience reactions to contemporary
music. Do you feel that the opportunity
to interact with the RLPO audience over
an extended period of time will be as
important as your interaction with the
players?
KH: It has to
be important as it's a matter of developing
trust I think. Once the audience knows
what to expect from my work, feels comfortable
with my approach and reasoning through
performances and pre-concert talks for
example, then I can share with them
my own musical motivations and encourage
their understanding of the more modernist
lineage of music being written now.
Achieving this I think will make my
interaction with both orchestra and
audience a very fruitful one.
CT: Are you able
to sum up what you hope to achieve from
your two years as RPS/PRS Composer in
the House?
Producing some successful
new additions to the repertoire, developing
understanding and friendship with players,
the freedom to show audiences that music
written today, however challenging,
is there to be embraced, experienced
and enjoyed are all at the top of the
list. I sincerely hope that my own musical
journey will be shared by both orchestra
and audience and perhaps this will be
the most important aspect of this position.
