Interview, Jaime Martín and Sophie Galaise on the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Spanish conductor Jaime Martín was appointed Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 2022, and has proved to be immensely popular with both orchestra members and audiences alike. The strength of their partnership is attested to by the fact that it was recently announced that not only would his contract be extended until 2028, but that he would take on the additional role of Artistic Advisor to the orchestra.

In May the orchestra became the latest ensemble to launch their own record label, with their first release featuring Australian soprano Siobhan Stagg in performances of songs by Debussy and Richard Strauss.

I spoke to both Jaime and the orchestra’s Managing Director, Sophie Galaise whilst they were on tour in Indonesia, to find out how their associations with Melbourne came about, the reasons behind setting up their new label, and the importance of the touring work that the orchestra undertakes.

First of all, Jaime, can I ask how your relationship with the orchestra began and what your initial impressions of them were?

Jaime Martín: My first concert with the orchestra was in 2019. It was a fascinating programme, because in the first half we did the complete Ma Mère l’Oye, and in the second half the Mozart Requiem. I had heard recordings of the orchestra, but I knew very little, and what I found was an orchestra that was incredibly flexible. One of our two concertmasters at the time came to the concert, and he told me afterwards that it sounded like there were two different orchestras in each half. I said, "well, that's exactly what we are trying to do", and I thought that was the best compliment somebody could give, because the way we have to play Ravel is very different to the way we have to play Mozart. That's what I love about this orchestra, the flexibility and the openness about going with somebody they hardly know.

Sophie Galaise: The chemistry was quite evident between our musicians and Jaime. And so we invited him a second time, and then it took some time because the pandemic happened and Australia had closed its borders. So he could not come until 2021.

JM: I came to Australia during the time when I had to do fourteen days of quarantine in a hotel without being able to leave. And I love this orchestra so much that I did that twice!

SG: It was fantastic. I went to get Jaime out of detention, as it was called, and whilst it was evident that the other people coming out of the hotel were very grumpy, Jaime was smiling and came straight into the first rehearsal.

JM: We are now in the middle of my third season, and I would say we are still in the honeymoon period. After two and a half years, you could say people will start knowing each other and things can become a little bit like "we know what he's going to come up with", but even the other day when I was signing some CDs and I had the chance to talk to many people in the audience, all the comments I got were to say how much they appreciate what they see on the stage. They tell me they see a happy orchestra and they appreciate the energy everybody puts into performances. And this is only possible if we are still on honeymoon!

And Sophie, how did your association with the orchestra come about?

SG: I was recruited in 2016. I previously managed the Queensland Symphony, but I'm from Canada, and I came from the Quebec Symphony to Queensland. Three years after I started there I was recruited by the orchestra in Melbourne, which at the time was led by Sir Andrew Davis, whom I knew from my teenage years when he was conducting the Toronto Symphony. I came to listen and thought it was an orchestra with great potential that was also very passionate about learning and engagement. And it's been eight and a half years now! It's been a joy working with Jaime, and I hope we have many more years of fun together. We have found in Jaime someone who has the appetite for audacious projects, touring, recording, and doing things that are not just taking care of his own programmes. He is now not only Chief Conductor but also Artistic Advisor, which we're very thrilled about because it makes for a stronger orchestra.

You've mentioned the significance of the engagement work the orchestra does, and indeed you're currently on tour in Indonesia. How important is that touring aspect to the orchestra?

SG: It is super important. In the 1960s, the Australian government decided that the MSO would be one of their cultural flagships and gave a mandate to tour internationally. We started in 1965, and since then we’ve regularly toured to different parts of the world. There was a period where we went to China and to the US, but then the pandemic put a stop to it. Since 2016 we have collaborated with major music organisations in different countries including the UK and Singapore, to be more deeply engaged with those communities. Because of that we have signed multiple agreements with the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, who are really focused on music-making and being creative.

JM: This is the ninth year of members of the Melbourne Symphony visiting Indonesia to coach the local musicians and to create the foundations of what is now the Royal Orchestra, but this is the first year where we have brought thirty people from the orchestra to play side by side with the young musicians. We do this because we believe in engaging with the country and helping them to play. Just today two of our violinists said they were smiling the whole day because the level is much higher than we ever expected. One of them said that normally in a rehearsal she would be saving her energy for the concert, but she realised that she'd just done two full rehearsals as if they were performances, because she was sitting next to somebody who had a face of complete awe at being in the middle of this amazing sound. On top of that we are doing a workshop about arts management, which has been very successful with lots of Indonesian students. So it is a true collaboration.

A lot of orchestras now have their own labels, so how did you decide that this was the right time for Melbourne to join the fray?

SG: Before Jaime came to us we were making recordings for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation label, who wanted recordings of particular Australian music. But we had been discussing for years that it would be fantastic to have our own label. We have a collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra, who had created LSO Live, and so that was an opportunity to focus on recordings and not just live concerts.

JM: With the recordings for ABC, we would be doing what they required, and we still do that kind of thing because it's very important to perform some of the unknown Australian repertoire. But what we wanted to achieve with this is for everybody outside Australia to hear how wonderful this orchestra is. And yes, in a way it is a vanity project - we don't do this to make lots of money by selling CDs. I mean, I hope you buy one! But actually it's a way to show people how fantastic this orchestra is.

There are different ways to to record live concerts: you can, for instance, record the concerts and then come the next day to do retakes, in case there are noises in the hall or other things that can happen. But what we are doing is the opposite: we put up microphones in the rehearsals, because we want the orchestra to feel free to go for it in the concert, not to have to play safe because the microphone is there. The experience has been very rewarding for everybody, and I think the musicians have really enjoyed it. So far we have released one recording with Siobhan Stagg: I think the sound of the orchestra is fabulous, and the singing of Siobhan is remarkable. I've been listening to some of the reviews where people are saying, it's a short CD, and now we want more! And we are doing more: we are in the middle of recording a Dvořák cycle, and the first one will be released in November. This will be Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6, which might not be the most familiar ones, but I absolutely love both of them.

What struck me particularly about this recording was the richness of the woodwind sound in the Four Last Songs.

JM: A few days ago I had a conversation with the low brass of the orchestra, commenting on how amazing their playing is in the final chords of the last Strauss song, these chords that go forever. They look like they have eternal lungs that don't need to breathe! I mean, these people are superheroes, it's incredible. I promise you, that is not edited, they can last forever. They breathe so quickly and it's so disciplined. The hardest thing about those chords is the intonation, and to get the right balance where the tuba dominates the chord and then the trumpets and trombones sit on top of that. When I heard the first edit I thought, "oh my God, this sounds amazing". Also towards the end of the last song there is a pianissimo low oboe note which is so hard, and it sounds miraculous. I am so happy the way everybody pushes themselves to another level, and they realise that this is a chance to shine.

Our audience in Melbourne loves our concerts, but by doing these recordings we can make them feel proud of us, because if they read a review from America that says "Oh, what a lovely orchestra", then our audience benefits from that. It's very difficult to go on tour, because we are so far away. It's not like we are in the middle of Europe and can jump over to Paris in an hour, so I think the recordings are giving us this extra motivation.

This album has another Australian link through Brett Dean's orchestrations of the Debussy songs. How do these orchestrations illuminate Debussy's original songs?

JM: I knew the piano versions of these songs, but these orchestrations show what an amazing composer Brett Dean is, because they actually sound like they could have been Debussy's own. His approach was completely different to Schoenberg, for instance, who when he orchestrated the Brahms Piano Quartet wanted to add his own voice by putting in glockenspiels and things like that which in Brahms are completely alien. However, Brett has orchestrated as if he has put himself in Debussy's skin. Even the opening, having heard it now with the orchestra, I almost cannot hear it anymore just with piano. It feels as if it was always like this, and I think to achieve something as simple as that requires huge expertise.

And what did Siobhan Stagg bring to her interpretations, particularly in a piece such as the Strauss which is so familiar to so many people?

JM: It's the same for all of us: we have grown up with Jessye Norman's recording of these songs, or some other person's. You know, on paper, you think Siobhan's voice is almost too light for this music, but she brings a kind of optimism that I think is very touching. This music can sometimes be so heavy, and having a lighter voice adds freshness to the piece. I think that's amazing because we are all so used to hearing it in a completely different way.

You've mentioned the forthcoming Dvořák symphonies, are you able to share any other future plans for the label?

JM: We have already recorded Holst's The Planets. This is because we did a performance recently which involved Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, who was Composer in Residence and is now our First Nations Creative Chair. We asked her to write "Earth", not to be included within the suite, but to be performed beforehand, and we thought it would be very interesting to hear a version of Earth from one of the most prominent Australian composers.

Apart from that, we still have lots of Dvořák. We recorded No. 8 last week, and in a few months we will do Nos. 2 and 3, which most people have never heard. We spread them out because in Melbourne we serve the whole community, and we cannot spend two months just doing Dvořák. So we have to find our opportunities, but I'm thrilled that our audiences are buying tickets to listen to some of the more obscure symphonies, and have realised there is more to Dvořák than just the New World!