Simon Halsey
Conductor
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Simon Halsey (credit: Matthias Heyde) |
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Simon Halsey (credit: Matthias Heyde) |
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Simon Halsey (credit: Matthias Heyde) |
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Simon Halsey (credit: Matthias Heyde) |
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Sir Simon Rattle and Simon Halsey's celebrated partnership wins second Grammy in as many years
In February 2009, Simon Halsey won a 'Best Choral Performance' Grammy Award for his work on EMI Classics' release of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms.
The disc features Halsey's own Rundfunkchor Berlin alongside the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. This is the second Grammy win in this category in as many years for the celebrated partnership of Simon Halsey and Sir Simon Rattle: they collaborated on the Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem EMI disc that won the 2008 award, as well as scoring wins at the Gramophone Awards and at Germany's Echo Klassik Awards.
Halsey and Rattle have been working closely together since Halsey took up his post of Chorus Director of Rattle's City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1983, a role Halsey continues to this day. The last decade has seen both Simons take prominent roles in Berlin: Rattle with the city's Philharmonic Orchestra, and Halsey with the Radio Choir. Future projects they will be working on together include numerous high profile concerts in Berlin, as well as opera projects at the Salzburg and Aix en Provence festivals.
Halsey's positions in both Berlin and Birmingham encompass extensive youth singing programmes and a wide range of education work. His education concerts have been acclaimed internationally, as has his Leader-Chor project, bringing Berlin politicians and high profile business figures together and developing collaboration through singing.
In March Halsey will conduct the German premiere of James MacMillan's St John Passion with the Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choir. Other upcoming highlights for Halsey include work on a major project around Schoenberg's Gurrelieder with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen, as well as several projects with the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra and Chorus, where Halsey is Principal Conductor Choral Programme.
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AUDIO
Hear the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Simon Halsey's Rundfunkchor Berlin conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in an extract from Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, courtesy of EMI Classics:
Hear the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Simon Halsey's Rundfunkchor Berlin conducted by Sir Simon Rattle in an extract from Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem, courtesy of EMI Classics:
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DER TAGESSPIEGEL
May 2009
How Halsey took the Rundfunkchor to the top
Being a chorus conductor is a wonderful job. Especially when you get to work with a professional ensemble as rich in tradition as the Rundfunkchor Berlin, founded in 1925. When Simon Halsey came to the German capital in 2001, he took on a very good choir, and he has since made it into one of the best choirs in the world.
When Simon Rattle needs a chorus for his concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, his first call is to Simon Halsey, and not just because the two have been friends for nearly three decades, when they were the young blood mixing up the musical scene in Birmingham. More than half of the Rundfunkchor’s current appearances are with the Philharmonie. And this summer, the choir who theoretically specialise in concert appearances will be donning costumes and appearing onstage in Aix en Provence, when Rattle and the Berlin Phil complete their Ring Cycle project with ‘Twilight of the Gods’. Even amongst Metzmacher’s empire of radio orchestras and choirs, Halsey and his ensemble stand out with their magical sound, captivatingly clear tone and rich, expressive and indefinable blend.
But being a chorus conductor can also be a dreadful job, because your work is almost always hidden from the public. The orchestral conductor spends the whole evening in the spotlight, the choir is relegated backstage, and Simon Halsey sits anonymously somewhere in the auditorium, or waits in the wings. When a slim 51 year-old wearing glasses appears alongside the soloists and the maestro for the final bow, people nudge each other and ask “Who is that?”. It must be hard for an artistic ego to take.
When the news about the Grammy arrived in February, everyone immediately assumed that the Philharmonie were being rewarded for their Stravinsky recording. But the CD was given the award for the ‘best choral performance’, even though the choir only appeared once in one of the three recorded works, and so the orchestra passed the trophy straight on to the singers.
Simon Halsey was born in London in 1958, the son of a chorus director and a singer. He studied at New College Oxford and at King’s College Cambridge, and became music director at the University of Warwick aged 22. He still conducts the 200-strong choir in Birmingham that he took on in 1980, but in 2008 he had to give up his position as chief conductor of the Groot Omroepkoores Hilversum after six years, in order to have more time for the Rundfunkchor. Halsey no longer needs to dash straight from the airport into rehearsals. To prepare the choir for concerts with the Philharmonic, for example: between Friday and Sunday they will be singing ‘Elijah’ under Seiji Ozawa, and from 22nd to 25th May, Schubert under Claudio Abbado.
According to his contract, Halsey must spend 100 days in Berlin per season – this year, he will exceed this requirement by nearly ten weeks. Chorus manager Hans Rehberg is constantly tempting his conductor with new experiments: the ‘come and sing’ concerts where Halsey conducts thousands of amateurs; the ‘Leader Chor’ project, in which executives spend a weekend preparing an entire concert programme; and above all the collaborations with other genres, in which the vocal ensemble enter into dialogue with dance, music theatre or modern art. The motto of these projects is “broadening the scope of choral music."
When you ask this British conductor about his artistic goals, a cryptic British smile appears on his face: “I would like people to say: Yesterday, I heard the fantastic Rundfunkchor with the Berlin Philharmonic. And not the other way round.”
BIRMINGHAM POST
February 2009
The joys of having a 'dream job' for 25 years
Simon Halsey's 25 years as director of the CBSO's choruses have seen a steady growth in their range and international renown.
It may seem hard to believe, but it's now a quarter of a century since the then 24 year-old Simon Halsey took over as director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus.
He will be celebrating the milestone this Saturday by conducting the chorus and the CBSO in two works very dear to him, Holst's Savitri and Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony.
"It certainly doesn't feel like 25 years," he says emphatically. "On the one hand, I've been with the CBSO since I was 24 and cannot remember life without it, on the other hand I can clearly remember my trial and my first concerts as if they were yesterday.
"It was like a dream come true to get the job," Simon, son of the great choral trainer, Louis Halsey, continues. "I'd wanted to conduct a symphony chorus ever since I'd been privileged to help out Richard Hickox with the London Symphony Chorus when I was 21.
"And the job remains incredibly fresh because there is such a sense of progress over those years and because the orchestra and management have been so flexible and enthusiastic. I know of no other institution in which the chorus feels so completely a part of the whole."
Simon explains how he is "sort of" only the third director of the CBS Chorus.
"Gordon Clinton - principal of the Birmingham School of Music - did a terrific job founding the group together with the CBSO's then music director, Louis Fremaux, in October 1973, and nurturing it in its early years. He really got the choir off to a flying start.
"He was succeeded by Richard Greening, organist of Lichfield Cathedral, who died suddenly and tragically young only a few weeks into the job. After a brief period back in Gordon Clinton's hands, the chorus was then directed by Nicholas Cleobury for two years, and I succeeded him.
"At my very first rehearsal as aguest conductor, Beresford King-Smith, the chorus administrator, announced that Nicholas would be moving on in order to devote himself to the Britten Sinfonia, and I remember hoping so very much that I might have a chance to succeed him."
And he did, moulding the chorus into one of the most sought-after vocal ensembles in the world, and seeing history unfolding before him as he did so.
When the exciting Latvian conductor Andris Nelsons takes over at the helm of the CBSO in September, he will become only the third music director of the orchestra that Simon Halsey will have worked with. How does the relationship work?
"It's different with each MD," he answers. "But I have been wonderfully fortunate that Simon (Rattle) and Sakari (Oramo) have put so much trust in us, recorded and toured with us and made us feel valued. By 'us' I mean all our choruses - CBSC, CBS Youth Chorus Seniors and Juniors, City of Birmingham Young Voices - and in the future Andris will be able to nurture the new boys' choir, too."
The relationship with other conductors appearing with the choirs is a little different.
"The choirs are in such demand that Stephen Maddock, the CBSO chief executive, and I are able to build programmes in Birmingham, with other UK orchestras and abroad in such a way that we work only with conductors who can really bring something special to the choir.
"And after 25 years they're usually people I know well already because of all my work abroad. We have particularly close relationships with the BBC Phil in Manchester, and good working relationships over the years with the Halle, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Philharmonia, Northern Sinfonia and The Sage at Gateshead, and their principal conductors.
"I make sure the choir is prepared very thoroughly for any eventuality - and that means knowing the music and the text inside-out."
As Simon has already indicated, the chorus "family" has expanded spectacularly over the years. He charts its growth.
"Twenty-five years ago we had 125 singers in the CBSO Chorus. We then moved to Symphony Hall, and needed to grow because the hall was so much larger than the Town Hall. So now we are 182 with about 150-160 singing each concert.
"In order to improve our standards we took on a regular singing teacher (currently the outstanding Pam Davies), and a full-time administrator. Then Ed Smith (the then chief executive) and Simon Rattle allowed me to found the youth chorus (CBSYC Seniors and Juniors) and, under Adrian Partington and Shirley Court they quickly came to national and then international attention. That meant the need for a second administrator.
"Then we felt we needed a community teenagers' choir without audition in order to encourage as many children to sing as possible, and CBYV under the irrepressible David Lawrence was born and quickly got wide attention from promoters and broadcasters.
"We were always worried that not enough boys were singing so now we have funded a boys' choir under the expert guidance of Julian Wilkins. So now we need three administrators.
"And we have been lucky enough to attract a fair amount of sponsorship, notably from Barclays Wealth. Meanwhile the adults have been invited all over the world with our orchestra, and by outfits as splendid as the Vienna Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic... I could go on, but the list might get boring."
And Simon is anxious to underline the importance of the commitment from the members.
"All the progress the five choirs have made over the years has only been possible because of enormous personal input by all the singers, and the astonishing way they turn up all the time."
During his 25-year tenure with the CBSC, Simon Halsey has also acquired responsibility for other choruses, and not just in this country. Busily counting his air-miles, he tells me how all the juggling is done, "with long-term and careful planning.
"I'm just coming to the end of my 11-year association with the 80-strong fully professional Netherlands Radio Choir, which required me to be in Hilversum for at least 12 weeks a year.
I'm in my eighth year as chief conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir where I have to put in 20 weeks a year and do a lot of work with Si-mon Rattle and the Berlin Phil. And I try to fly home for CBSC every Wednesday. As a result, I fly at least 200 times a year."
In fact I found myself sitting next to Simon on a flight from Amsterdam to Birmingham two weeks ago.
He'd been rehearsing the NRC during the afternoon, and was en route to Birmingham for that evening's CBSC rehearsal, before flying back the next morning.
Fortunately he lives within an easy drive of Birmingham International Airport, and still manages to lead a reasonable home life.
"You'd better check with the family - but they are all still there!" he jokes.
"Jack (18) is in CBSC and Harriet (16) is in CBSYC Seniors, and my wonderful wife Lucy spends too much time ferrying us all to the CBSO Centre."
And with his retirement from the Netherlands Radio Choir (which the Dutch turned into quite an occasion), Simon Halsey is hoping to "spend more time at home with his family".
PRESS QUOTES
Berlin Philharmonic / Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms (EMI Classics)
“Its Latin psalm settings rise from solemnity to ecstasy in music that brings the best from Rattle and choir (Berlin Radio Choir) and orchestra…”
Sunday Telegraph, July 2008
Berlin Philharmonic / Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem (EMI Classics)
"The Berlin Radio Chorus, trained by Rattle's old colleague in Birmingham, Simon Halsey, sing with restrained passion and beautifully support Rattle's conjecture that this piece is as much a private as a public statement."
Gramophone Choral Award, 2007
"Thanks to the marvellous transparency of the playing Rattle encourages from his Berlin players, and the outstanding choral singing, this is a modern version to reckon with. Simon Halsey, Rattle's chorus director in Birmingham, appears, on this evidence, to have revitalised choral singing in the German capital. Rattle's Brahms really glows."
The Times, March 2007
LINKS
» Rundfunkchor Berlin
» EMI Classics
» Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
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