{"id":242493,"date":"2023-11-29T04:52:14","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T04:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=242493"},"modified":"2023-11-29T04:52:14","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T04:52:14","slug":"a-musical-score-is-full-of-secrets-the-conductors-task-is-to-hear-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/a-musical-score-is-full-of-secrets-the-conductors-task-is-to-hear-them\/","title":{"rendered":"A musical score is full of secrets \u2013 the conductor\u2019s task is to hear them"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The energy changes when Jaime Martin walks into a room. It doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s a concert hall, a meeting room or the bar attached to a distillery, there\u2019s a sudden feeling of both alertness and joy.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jaime Martin has been the MSO chief conductor since 2022.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Simon Schluter<\/cite><\/p>\n

That, he says, is part of being a conductor. They set the mood, and the ripple effects from there can be astonishing.<\/p>\n

As a young musician, years before taking up the baton, \u201cI found myself fascinated by figure of the conductor\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

He was curious how, sitting in the same room, surrounded by the same colleagues, the sound would change completely depending on the person at the front of the room. He always wanted to know why. The answer, it turned out, was energy. \u201cDifferent people create a different state of mind for the orchestra,\u201d he reflects.<\/p>\n

Martin was born in Spain in 1965. \u201cAt that time, Spain was a dictatorship,\u201d he says. Martin mentions this because, when he was growing up, pursuing a career in music in his home country wasn\u2019t really feasible. \u201cDictatorship [does not] try to encourage the arts because the arts make people think make people feel free,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Originally, he had wanted to play violin, but the only way to do that in Santander was via private lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not shy to say I come from a very humble family,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were six brothers and sisters, we lived in a flat on the third flor with no elevator, and [had] 65 square metres … so I couldn\u2019t have asked my parents to pay for music lessons.\u201d But, through a program at the local town hall, \u201cI found I could learn the flute for free\u201d.<\/p>\n

With the flute, he thrived. After moving overseas, he performed with orchestra after orchestra \u2013 but his fascination with conducting never faded. It was when he was principal flute for the London Philharmonic that an opportunity to conduct an orchestra in Sweden arose \u2013 and so he stepped down a new pathway in his career.<\/p>\n

Now chief conductor for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, he is in town to head up a series of performances to close out the year. The day before we speak was, in theory, a rare day off for Martin, though he confesses that he spent his evening going over the score for an upcoming concert \u2013 despite it being for a series of symphonies he has done many times in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will sound like I\u2019m a bit of a freak,\u201d he says with a laugh. \u201cBut it was so peaceful. I found myself in front of the score looking at this amazing music and I had a fantastic time.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Conductor Jaime Martin leads the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra at their opening gala, February 2023.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Laura Manariti<\/cite><\/p>\n

When a concert is on the horizon, Martin\u2019s approach shifts depending on whether he has conducted a work before or if it is entirely new. Even if it\u2019s the former, however, \u201cI try to look at it as if I\u2019ve never done it before.\u201d<\/p>\n

If a piece of music is new to him, the process starts months before performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, what I like to do is start finding out about the composer, even before I open the music,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to try and understand a bit about what happened at that time for this person, what stage in life it was, and what was happening at that time in the country where the composer was working.\u201d<\/p>\n

From here, he holds out as long as he can from listening to past recordings to form his own understanding of a work in his mind. \u201cNo preconceptions,\u201d he reflects. After that, he actively seeks recordings out, \u201cto get the feel of the piece from different eyes or ears\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s different again for a new work \u2013 of which the MSO has plenty on the horizon, with 12 world premieres in its 2024 season. Here, Martin normally has access to the composer directly, and can ask them questions about what is behind the music.<\/p>\n

Knowing what the composer was going through while creating a work allows Martin to understand a piece more deeply and translate the truth of it for an audience. At first, maybe, a particular work sounds sad, \u201cbut actually the composer is not trying to describe sadness\u201d. He pauses. \u201cAs a conductor, I have to play with emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

As part of the upcoming Rachmaninov\u2019s Rhapsody<\/em>, the evening will round out with a performance of Shostakovich\u2019s Symphony No.10, which Martin describes as \u201can extraordinary [illustration of] what was going on in the Soviet Union at the time\u201d. Shostakovich was \u201cafraid of Stalin and was afraid for his future\u201d, Martin says.<\/p>\n

The score is full of secrets and layers, details that even the most attentive of listeners is unlikely to pick up, but which all weave together to create the overall feeling and story of the symphony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many little messages hidden inside,\u201d Martin says animatedly. He points to the many times the composer uses his own initials as musical notation, and the fact the second movement is \u201cvery short and ugly and aggressive\u201d in a potential reference to Stalin. There is the rising terror that forms the backbone of the symphony that builds to an intense high and then stops, in a suggestion that \u201cafter all that, we will prevail\u201d.<\/p>\n

Martin explains how he listened to the symphony when he was a young boy not knowing anything about it and enjoyed it. \u201cBut once I knew what happened during that time, I was almost terrified listening to this music and I think it\u2019s extraordinary,\u201d he says. As a conductor, bringing this context to a performance enriches the experience.<\/p>\n

When Martin returns in March 2024, one of the new works he is most excited to work on is a composition by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon. \u201cShe\u2019s completing The Planets<\/em>, and she\u2019s writing Earth<\/em> for us,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Once again, working with a living composer gives both Martin and the orchestra the opportunity to connect with a work on a different level, to create a back and forth between artists. \u201cSometimes even the composer changes things, according to what he or she hears, and I think that I think that\u2019s very nice \u2013 it feels like the music is alive somehow,\u201d says Martin.<\/p>\n

Jaime Martin will conduct the MSO\u2019s performance of Rachmaninov\u2019s Rhapsody<\/em> at Hamer Hall on November 30 and December 2, and at Costa Hall, Geelong on December 1.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger. Get it every Friday.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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