| but which is very good for them to play – good challenging stuff to actually stretch them sometimes – through to the fine balance between conductors, soloists and every other contributing factor. It’s one of those things where there’s no right or wrong answer, he says. ‘What we try to do is to balance a single season, any particular season, on a one-year, a three-year and then a five-year scale, so that whatever we are doing in that year needs to be balanced of itself but it also needs to fit in with what we are going to do in other years around it.
So it’s a very complicated business putting it together.’ An additional factor, as Jeffes explains, is working on five or six different years at the same time, ‘because in a single meeting you could be dealing, as I did recently, with the wrap-up from the financials on 2008; with all the 2009 operational issues here; with the 2010 launch; then with issues arising because we’re just about finalising our 2011 season and already planning 2012. And even now, [we are] beginning to finalise certain dates for 2013.’ Jeffes says that the fascinating thing about his job is that very often ‘we have to remind ourselves what year we’re talking about, let alone what year we’re living in. It’s an extraordinary kind of business really.’ He tells of Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Ashkenazy producing his paper diary and pulling out the sheets, which go up to 2015: he already has things pencilled in for that year!
The 2010 season is headlined by the start of Ashkenazy’s two-year Mahler cycle with the orchestra, next year being the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth and 2011 being the 100th anniversary of his death. ‘We’re absolutely delighted that Ashkenazy has chosen to do this Mahler cycle with us over those two years,’ Jeffes says. ‘I think it’s a great testament to how he feels about the orchestra, the fact that he has chosen to do that [the cycle] with the Sydney Symphony rather than with any of the other orchestras that he has title positions with.’ Jeffes explains that whereas composer festivals that the Sydney Symphony have previously done with Ashkenazy have been much more concentrated, over a two- to three-and-a-half week period, the Mahler cycle is spread over the two years, ‘because if we tried to do a Mahler cycle in a month we would get lynched by our subscribers! So the idea of doing it across two years gives a really good bedrock, it gives an idea of what the 2011 season is going to look like as well. Jeffes says that the challenge then, in terms of balance, is how to program the rest of the season around that to ensure variety, balance, interest, for all tastes of music lovers amongst our subscribers and the broader Sydney community, and to give the players variety in what they are playing. ‘It’s a very good solid season next year. The thing I love about the season next year is every concert next year has a reason for someone who loves the great classical music that they know and love to come, but it also provides some challenges and some surprises.’
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The 2010 season also sees the return of conductors of the calibre of David Robertson, Simone Young and Oleg Caetani. ‘These are conductors that we’ve worked with before; the orchestra loves working with them. They each have particular strengths in terms of repertoire, and we have very much tried to focus the repertoire that we will be performing with them on their personal strengths but also on what they’re particularly passionate about.’ Jeffes explains that there are no filler concerts next year, there is nothing that is there just to be a balance for something else, all of the concerts are focused on the strengths of the visiting conductors. He is particularly looking forward to the Australian premiere of John Adams’s
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Doctor Atomic Symphony with David Robertson, to whom the piece is dedicated. Returning to the importance of balance, one of the things the Sydney Symphony tries to do is to balance the star visiting soloists such as violinists Midori and James Ehnes, who will be attractive for audiences, and to play for the orchestra, with the best of Australian soloists and conductors. The Sydney Symphony are committed to putting Australians onto the podium and onto the soloist’s rostrum as often as they possibly can – next year the number of Australian artists who will be performing with the orchestra is approaching one hundred. The Sydney Symphony is proud of that, says Jeffes, because supporting them is part of the role of the premiere orchestra in the country.
Looking ahead to the Sydney Symphony’s vision with Ashkenazy in the medium to long-term future, Jeffes says that the orchestra is in extremely good form and that Ashkenazy really helps to bring out the best in them in all sorts of ways. ‘The restlessness I feel in this job is about making sure we make the most of that over the initial four years he is with us, making the most of that opportunity.’ In the longer term, Jeffes says that the Sydney Symphony, certainly with Ashkenazy, has the capacity to be a cultural ambassador for Australia in a way that has never been possible before, in a way that say the Vienna Philharmonic is such a great ambassador for Vienna and Austria, and is used by the state and the city unashamedly. ‘We’d be very proud for our city and for our state to use us in that way, indeed for Australia to use us in that way, as an ambassador of the cultural sophistication of Australia, which perhaps has not always been the case, but certainly is now.’ Jeffes explains that longer-term, it is also about ensuring ways for both the content and style of what the orchestra does to remain relevant and contemporary, keeping pace with all the changes in the way that people consume entertainment. ‘That’s something which we have some quite strong ideas about, in terms of developing ways of making sure that our performances stay connected with the community, without undermining the fact that we are here to perform great music, not great music by dead people – that has its place – but great music, and that includes contemporary music and Australian music, [which] will always be important to us.’
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For more information on the 2010 season visit www.sydneysymphony.com
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