When the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra performed at the London Promenade Concerts on 19 August 2014 they couldn’t have been in better hands than those of their chief conductor, Sir Andrew Davis. Now 79 years of age, Davis is a veteran of Promenade concerts, a memento of his time at the helm of the BBC Symphony Orchestra which he mentored for just over 11 years.
At the Proms, the MSO performed Strauss’s Don Juan, Elgar’s Cello Concerto and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. On the second leg of this blitzkrieg of a tour they played Percy Grainger’s “music to an imaginary ballet” The Warriors at the Edinburgh Festival which required some extra pianists while the last leg took place at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. “A great hall, but not the easiest place to play in” is how Davis describes the venue, “because of its wide stage the orchestra has difficulty hearing itself.”
During his term with the BBC SO, Davis was instrumental (!) in restoring a tradition established by Sir Malcolm Sargent where the head of the orchestra also conducted the Last Night of the Proms. He first conducted at the Proms in 1971 with the 1990s seeing him becoming a permanent fixture plus he conducted the Last Night 10 of the 11 years he was at the helm of the BBC SO.
Born in a Nissen hut in the grounds of Ashbridge House, Hertfordshire during the war years, Davis grew up in Cheltenham and Watford where he attended the local grammar school. His extra-curricular work saw him play the organ at the Watford Palace Theatre and his musical training took him initially to the Royal College of Music and thereafter to King’s College Cambridge where he graduated in 1967 as an organ scholar. Later he honed his conducting skills in Rome with Franco Ferrara.
Davis’s first conductor appointment was with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra which he joined in 1970 as associate conductor. Five years later he became music director of the Toronto Symphony, a post he held till 1988 before they made him their Conductor Laureate. This was followed with the position of music director at Glyndebourne which is where he met his current wife, American soprano Gianna Rolandi. His BBC Symphony tenure commenced in 1989, a position he held till 2000 where, once again he was appointed Conductor Laureate.
He joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he was instrumental in mounting Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in 2005. The cast included Placido Domingo (Siegmund), Jane Eaglen (Brunnhilde), Eric Halfvarson (Hunding) and James Morris (Wotan), not to mention Bonaventura Bottone (Loge), Andrea Silvestrelli (Fasolt), Michelle DeYoung (Sieglinde), Larissa Diadkova (Fricka).
Meanwhile in 1992 Davis was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and in the 1999 New Year Honours list was appointed a Knight Bachelor. Three years later he conducted the Proms at the Palace Concert at Buckingham Palace in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee.
Following his appointment as the music advisor at the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1995 he left in 2007 by mutual consent and in 2013 joined the Melbourne Symphony as their chief conductor with an initial contract of 4 years.
Davis first conducted the MSO in 2009 and “absolutely fell in love”. The first concert included Elgar’s Symphonic Study Falstaff, a very demanding piece the orchestra had never played before but they impressed him so much he returned when they “started to twist my arm. I adore the city and the people,” he is reported as saying. “It’s a very exciting place and they are a great audience. I also have a cousin near Melbourne, so it’s an added bonus that we have time to spend together on each of my visits.”
Meanwhile Davis’s contract at Chicago has been extended and although he’s been conducting orchestras for 42 seasons “Melbourne is still only my third orchestral post.” Continuity is very important to him.
Davis has performed a wide range of repertoire, and his love of the British composers, such as Michael Tippett, includes conducting the British premiere of his work The Mask of Time. Davis has recorded for NMC Recordings, Teldec and Deutsche Grammophon, including a critically acclaimed recording of Harrison Birtwistle‘s opera, The Mask of Orpheus.
Davis and Lady Davis reside in Chicago. Their son Edward Frazier Davis, born in 1989, is a composer and a graduate of Knox College.
Harking back to the London Proms again, Davis recalls the deep impression Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius made on him when he heard it initially. The first record he bought was that same piece. It came as two LP set and as he wasn’t earning enough from a paper round, he bought part one. Very much later he performed it in Berlin and quipped that if he played the first part better than the second, that was the reason.
For a musician whose links with the Proms hark back to the time his aunt took him to enjoy a concert when he was 12, he still gets very nervous before any conducting stint. “It’s a huge responsibility bringing this wonderful music to life,” he told the BBC. “I’m addicted to it.”
