Can you introduce yourself, and talk about your current musical role and responsibilities?
I am Kazuki Yamada, the chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. As to my role, of course, the chief conductor of the CBSO has to make good music! It’s my responsibility to make every performance very special, I am always trying to do my best to achieve that. This is my main job! But there are many other things besides this I have to do. The orchestra and I have to try many new things together – but I’m always excited to work with the CBSO.
What particular abilities are required in your current position, both generally and more specifically in Elgar’s music?
For me I feel it’s very important to perform English music, with English orchestras. Of course, Elgar is an English composer – but actually to date I have not done so much English repertoire. But now it’s great timing, for me to take on this new repertoire. I am performing many English works together with the CBSO.
Do you remember the first time you performed the Enigma Variations? What impression did the work make on you?
Actually, it was last year! Beginning of last year, March or February. I had never done the Enigma Variations until then, and I thought it’s good timing! I conducted with the Luxembourg Philharmonic; it was a great moment. And then the second time with the Orchestra RAI, in Turin in November. And then with the CBSO this February, it will be the third time for me.
This piece is very special, and especially the first time it was very emotional. It’s not as if I’d been avoiding it, but performing the piece for the first time I thought, how can I put it: “this is it!” I realised, wow. It was a special moment for me.
Do you have a reference version of this work – either a recording or the memory of a performance?
I heard Elgar himself conducting this work, a very old recording but quite good quality. I was very surprised: always the strings are moving with glissandi and portamenti. Almost always like that – I didn’t expect that. But a very warm sound, I was really impressed by the performance.
And an early performance I heard was with Colin Davis. He was conducting a youth orchestra – it was really wonderful. In fact, it was the only time I saw Colin Davis. A wonderful memory, and his interpretation was absolutely fantastic. And the youth orchestra performed so well, a great moment.
What is your favourite passage in the work, and why?
Ha! Normally many people would answer Nimrod – the most emotional moment. And why not? But I also love the variation just after Nimrod, titled Dorabella. A very simple variation (and can be rather boring! I heard a few recordings that are a little boring…). But actually I find this variation very interesting, that after such an emotional moment, it becomes very simple. I love that variation so much. And of course, the finale is fantastic, but if I had to choose only one, it would be the Dorabella variation.
In performing this work, what do you find most difficult?
It can sometimes be tricky to find the right tempi for each variation. Each one has a basic tempo – from the theme through to the end of the finale. But some variations have special elements, we have suddenly to become very quick, or very slow, with changes in dynamics and dynamism. Many different characters. The most difficult thing is to maintain one continuity, from the beginning to the end, through many different variations. It’s almost as if there’s one tempo, lying behind it all.
How do you overcome this difficulty? Do you have any advice for musicians performing Elgar for the first time?
If I can feel my heart beating – every person has a slightly different tempo to their heart beat – but if I can feel my heart beating, and the movement of the music, begin to combine in sympathy, synchronising, it will be fine! But it means I have to very natural, very neutral, to feel it for myself, to feel my body, my heart, my head, everything like that. If I can combine everything, maybe we can find the right tempo, the right bliss.
What images or thoughts come into your head when you perform this work?
Perhaps, the conductor’s life itself. Many people ask me what the most joyful thing is about being a conductor: I would say it is that I meet so many people. But sometimes they ask the opposite, what is the most difficult thing about being a conductor: that I have to say goodbye to many people, people who pass on. This piece represents the same thing for Elgar. He met so many people, but he also had to say goodbye to many of them too. It’s a piece that captures human life.
Can you tell us an anecdote about this work, or an unexpected moment?
When I was young, when I first heard this music, the beginning is very calm, but suddenly one variation is so active, with timpani and celli and bassi, very fast: daka-dun, daka-daka-dun. And then the melody is quite funny, in G major – for me it was like a tropical island! Like Fiji or Papua New Guinea. I really didn’t expect that, for my imagination to take me to the south islands. But at that moment I find myself imagining the Caribbean, tropical islands. Still when I conduct this moment, I always have the same feeling!
Why should one come to hear a performance of the Enigma Variations?
For me the Variations really capture a human being’s life. Of course, everybody has their own friends, their own relationships. But how to make one’s own life? People can make their lives by themselves – but many things happen through relationships with friends, relatives and so on. It’s so important to be close to one’s friends. The music makes portraits of so many of Elgar’s friends, so as listeners we think about that too, our friends, relationships, how to survive, how to be alive – through music. That’s why we do music, I think! To share this experience, with others.
Kazuki Yamada conducts Elgar’s Enigma Variations with the CBSO on 22nd February 2024.
This article was sponsored by City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
