Interview: André de Ridder
André de Ridder is ‘one of the world’s most daring conductors’ (The Wall Street Journal), working across the classical, pop, electronic and opera worlds. He is the founder of s t a r g a z e, whose projects range from Bach to reworkings of Beethoven to avant-garde electronics, and is the co-curator and conductor of Unclassified Live, a series of genre-defying concerts at the Southbank Centre based on the BBC Radio 3 programme. His discography includes Max Richter’s hugely successful The Four Seasons Recomposed as well as the Gorillaz’ album Plastic Beach, Damon Albarn’s De Dee and the Copenhagen Phil’s recording of works by Jonny Greenwood and Bryce Dessner.
Like almost all musicians, de Ridder has had all of his work cancelled for the foreseeable future. We chatted about how the Coronavirus pandemic is affecting the music industry, online content that’s caught his eye and where he sees innovation in classical music going next.
What were you doing when lockdown was announced?
I was conducting the Chicago Symphony for the first time. We’d finished the dress rehearsal, I got back to the hotel and had a nap. Then I got up to get dressed for the concert and received a phone call saying that all events were cancelled, then I was on a flight home the next morning. Of course in the scheme of things it doesn’t matter, but the financial implications of this whole thing are really serious, especially in America, where orchestras are so directly dependent on their income of each concert and rely on philanthropy, sponsorship and endowments. Because of the economic crisis, they could suffer really, really badly. If they can’t perform for two or three months, this could mean losing an orchestra or redundancies.
Is it in some ways liberating to have a pause in your hectic schedule?
Normally you’re chasing from one week to another, through repertoire to repertoire, with different programmes and so many deadlines. You hardly ever pause to question what you’re doing and educate yourself in new things. It’s a big moment of winding down and reflecting on yourself, your artistic practices and how you’re living in general. I haven’t been so concerned in the last few weeks about learning new scores. Mostly it’s been about relearning how to read a book from beginning to end without watching three Netflix series in between. It’s a slow process.
Are there any silver linings that can come out of this global crisis for the music industry?
Readjusting to community based, local-based performance practices and building audiences in the community with local orchestras and artists. Being in one place for longer and making a real difference instead of jet-setting around. Some chief conductors are chief conductors of three different orchestras on three different continents. Obviously that doesn’t work at the moment, so we should think how we can make a difference to our own community.
The arts are being so strongly impacted by the pandemic yet it’s also the moment they’re being heavily consumed by people self-isolating around the world.
Once we do back to theatres, festivals and gigs, we will really have experienced what it means to be without it and maybe there will initially be a peak in interest and in buying tickets. Hopefully that will be the saving grace. People will find ways to get the performing arts back on track and do anything to make it work again, they just have to become entrepreneurial and pioneering in their methods.
There’s been a lot of digital activity from musicians and arts organisations (live streams, concerts, podcasts). Has anything innovative caught your eye?
I’m wondering how much of it is actually innovation. Some of it is based on using innovative techniques and simultaneous streaming. Making music together via Zoom or other apps isn’t really possible because of the issues with delays. There’s a bit of overkill of everyone singing/playing solos or duetting with themselves. It’s been done a lot and it’s been done best by somebody years ago.
I was one of the people who said ‘maybe I should start my own podcast now’ but everyone’s doing it and there are already so many good podcasts from people who’ve done it really seriously.
There are a lot of concerts that have been recorded in the past that orchestras are putting out now. The only one I got deep into was the Berlin Phil Concert Hall. It’s a real treasure trove that you can get lost in. It’s almost like a YouTube for classical music nerds. So much repertoire and so many amazing performances.
This is too big a topic to cover here properly but how do you think classical music can reach a broader audience?
There’s a mix of orchestras going out and playing in different contexts and halls. There are some festivals like Glastonbury that have been inviting the ENO to play Wagner or the London Sinfonietta to do a concert of Reich and Greenwood. I think that’s great. How do you get these people to remember that and invite them to where you normally play and do a festival like that in your concert hall? Really invest in that as a regular thing, not just a one-off. A lot of people try to do something cross-over-y but their bread and butter remain these subscription concerts with this formula of overture, concerto, symphony. The repertoire that would enthuse young and non-classical audiences is often in the second half of the concert so I think you should start with the second half (e.g. The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky) and put the Mozart concerto in the second half. You get people overwhelmed by the experience of The Rite of Spring and then you can say right, let’s talk about what people were doing 200 years earlier.
If organisations make changes to their programming and it doesn’t work in the first year, they often go back to what they’ve done before because at least it’s the status quo for those who normally come and know what they’ll be getting. If you’re trying to move forward, you have to do it with all your heart and knowledge and then you have to stay at it and move into this new territory with pride and conviction with the possibilities of some losses at first.
You can follow André de Ridder on Twitter or Instagram @andrederidder.
Hannah Fiddy is a creative entrepreneur based in Bristol, developing new audiences for classical music. She is the Co-Founder of Alternative Classical and the creator of Humans of Classical Music and Concert Roulette. Hannah interviews prominent artists from around the world and writes articles about classical music.
Follow Hannah on Twitter @Hannah_Fiddy.