We all sat with the great hulk of the Sark<\/i> suspended in mid-air above our heads, preferring not to think of what would happen if the engineering failed. For those with fragile nerves it was alarming. But the Philharmonia Orchestra<\/a><\/strong> played unfazed through a programme of appropriately sea-related music. And despite the sinister presence of a small army of ship\u2019s figureheads assembled like extras from a horror film behind the performers, it was wonderfully uplifting. As, I\u2019m glad to say, were the assembled struts\/nuts\/bolts that kept the Sark<\/i> in place.<\/p>\n The young conductor who made all this happen was Oliver Zeffman, an entrepreneurial tour de force who first drew attention as a teenager devising crazily ambitious concerts of new British music \u2013 Maxwell Davies<\/a><\/strong>, Ad\u00e8s, Anderson \u2013 for a precocious orchestra he\u2019d pulled together from assorted friends. Fast-talking and persuasive, with an endearingly optimistic belief that anything was possible if you tried, he had the can-do qualities to make things like this work. And they did, impressively.<\/p>\n Now 30, he hasn\u2019t wasted the intervening years. And his concert under the Cutty Sark <\/i>was the culmination of a project to stage filmed performances in visually enticing places \u2013 notably museums, which he finds more interesting than concert halls, and accordingly called \u2018Music x Museums<\/a><\/strong>\u2019. The results have just come out, four in the collection, on Platoon, Apple Music and Viking TV. They\u2019re not your average concert films. And although made by different directors, they follow Zeffman\u2019s line that \u2018here\u2019s an orchestra in a hall, here\u2019s a violinist\u2019s fingers on the strings or a percussionist hitting something\u2019 isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n \u2018I wanted a strong visual sense and expressive focus on people\u2019, he says, \u2018not so much their fingers, which is why I started out working with Stewart French who specialises in beautiful, intimate fly-on-the-wall documentary style. The Cutty Sark<\/i> film is by Andy Staples, best-known as a singer but branching out into directing and \u2013 in the process \u2013 bringing to it a musician\u2019s sensibility. So I can truly say these things look good, and in a way that\u2019s different.\u2019<\/p>\n Sounding good was, needless to say, quite important too, and from the outset Zeffman made a point of choosing prominent collaborators. The first of the four films, shot in the Victoria & Albert Museum, features countertenor Jakub J\u00f3zef Orli\u0144ski and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. The next two, shot in the British Library and Science Museum, have the Academy again, with pianist Peter Donohoe and the Bach Choir among others. And sharing that claustrophobic space under the Cutty Sark with the Philharmonia is mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.<\/p>\n \u2018It was important\u2019, says Zeffman, \u2018that the music fitted the surroundings. At the time, the V&A was running an exhibition about masculinity in fashion: \u201cUndressed, Overdressed, and Redressed\u201d. So we thought the gender issues raised by countertenor singing would be suitable. For overdressing we had Lully<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s music for Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme<\/i>. Underdressing was the pared-down neoclassicism of Stravinsky<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Apollon Musag\u00e8te<\/i>. And redressing was a Caroline Shaw<\/a><\/strong> piece based on a traditional minuet and trio.\u2019<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the British Library programme tied in with a Beethoven<\/a><\/strong> exhibition running there; the Science Museum offered \u2018ordered chaos\u2019 through the sonic lens of Birtwistle<\/a><\/strong> and Terry Riley; and for Cutty Sark<\/i> it was Elgar<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Sea\u00a0Pictures<\/i>.<\/p>\n Getting all this together \u2013 from raising the money, finding production partners, collecting venues and contracting artists, through to the conclusion of directing the performances \u2013 was no small undertaking. But then Zeffman isn\u2019t short of experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He created his orchestra, the Melos Sinfonia, aged just 16 when he was still a Highgate schoolboy in North London. Seven years later \u2013 by which time he\u2019d read Russian and History at Durham followed by more pertinent music studies (\u2018harmony, analysis and useful things like that\u2019) in St Petersburg \u2013 he was taking his Sinfonia on tour, to give what was almost the Russian premiere of George Benjamin<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Written on Skin<\/i> (\u2018Someone got there just before us\u2019). Two years after that, in 2019, he staged the undisputed Russian premiere of the same composer\u2019s Lessons in Love and Violence<\/i>. And with his star visibly ascendent, he was starting to get serious conducting engagements from mainstream orchestras when Covid struck \u2013 the diary emptied, and he found himself wondering what to do. But not for long.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m not someone who sits waiting for things to happen,\u2019 he says with understatement. \u2018People everywhere were posting videos of themselves performing in their bedrooms, and that was OK for a time but not the most interesting way to make music. I wanted a project that went further.\u2019 And the project was \u2018Eight Songs from Isolation\u2019 \u2013 named with obvious reference to Maxwell Davies, and arguably no less mad than his kingly songs in its ambition to procure new works from leading composers around the world and allocate them to leading performers for filming on iPhones.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t hold back on big names, pairing the likes of Thomas Ad\u00e8s and Nico Muhly<\/a><\/strong> with\u00a0 <\/span>Iestyn Davies<\/a><\/strong>, Sarah Connolly or Toby Spence<\/a><\/strong>. And in accordance with his life philosophy that \u2018If you don\u2019t ask, you don\u2019t get\u2019, he took the project to Apple Music in conjunction with Marquee TV. Who said yes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018If you convince other people you have ideas and they\u2019re exciting, it seems to work,\u2019 says Zeffman. \u2018And, of course, the circumstances helped. In normal times, I\u2019d never have got someone like Ad\u00e8s on board: but the project was interesting, and as I\u2019d raised the money, I was able to pay proper commission fees. Call me a wheeler-dealer if you like \u2013 and personally I don\u2019t like because it sounds shabby \u2013 but my father\u2019s a lawyer; it\u2019s in my genes. And I really do believe in the things I try to get money for.\u2019<\/p>\n As \u2018Eight Songs\u2019 hit the internet, drawing worldwide hits, a follow-up took shape in Zeffman\u2019s mind involving an exquisitely filmed, Covid-conscious, audience-free concert at the V&A in which he conducted violinist Viktoria Mullova<\/a><\/strong>. And the success of that one-off event in turn led to the \u2018Music x Museums\u2019 series. Which brings Zeffman\u2019s career up to date.<\/p>\n By his own admission, his diary right now isn\u2019t as full as it should be \u2013 largely because he had invested time and effort building connections in\u00a0Russia that aren\u2019t useful as things stand. But his work is picking up in France. And here in Britain he has another project pending: a Barbican concert<\/a><\/strong> with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in July to mark Pride week.<\/p>\n As ever, he has big names lined up: the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton<\/a><\/strong>, bass-baritone Dav\u00f3ne Tines, pianists Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy\u2026 performing music by Tchaikovsky<\/a><\/strong>, Poulenc<\/a><\/strong> and a new commission from a living gay composer of distinction (there\u2019s no shortage).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Zeffman is himself gay, which explains his motivation; and he\u2019s keen to stress that \u2018although Yannick N\u00e9zet-S\u00e9guin did a Pride concert in Philadelphia last year, this is \u2013 so far as I can tell \u2013 the first by a major orchestra in Europe.\u2019 But you might just ask why such a thing is needed, when gay artists and composers aren\u2019t exactly underrepresented or uncelebrated in the Western classical tradition. Zeffman\u2019s answer: that\u2019s a reason in itself.<\/p>\n \u2018Classical music owes a lot to LGBT people, it\u2019s worth saying so, and Pride is the moment for it. So why not? I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve ever experienced prejudice as a conductor: orchestras these days tend to be less macho than in the past, which is great. But it\u2019s not great everywhere. Recently in Florida, the King\u2019s Singers had a concert cancelled<\/a><\/strong> because the promoter learned that one of them was gay: and that\u2019s America, home of liberal democracy. It\u2019s not too great in Russia these days either. So yes, there\u2019s purpose in a classical Pride concert. And it\u2019s also a\u00a0 <\/span>chance to engage with people outside the core audience for classical music, who wouldn\u2019t normally come to a Barbican orchestral event but might if they\u2019re drawn by the LGBT connection.\u2019<\/p>\n Somebody who sadly won\u2019t be drawn is Elton John, who was approached but isn\u2019t free. Clearly the \u2018If you don\u2019t ask\u2026\u2019 rule isn\u2019t entirely foolproof. But with Zeffman, it comes close.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On Friday 7 July 2023, Oliver Zeffman and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra present the first Classical Pride concert<\/strong><\/a> given by a major orchestra in Europe at London\u2019s Barbican, featuring an LGTBQ+ community chorus and soloists Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy, Nicky Spence, Dav\u00f3ne Tines and Ella Taylor. Presented by the broadcaster and DJ Nick Grimshaw, the programme explores music by LGBTQ+ composers, from Tchaikovsky to Poulenc and Bernstein, Caroline Shaw and a new commission from Julian Anderson.<\/em><\/p>\n
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