Maxim Emelyanychev on his plans for five more years with the SCO

Not at all. When I catch orchestra and conductor preparing for their performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh International Festival, what’s most immediately striking is Emelyanychev’s intense focus – on the detail of the music, on what he wants to achieve with it, and, crucially, on how he can draw on his clearly warm relationships with the SCO players to do so. Yes, he’s driven, and he clearly expects his musicians to work as quickly and efficiently as he does, but it’s his sense of purpose and clarity that’s most immediately evident.

“In a chamber orchestra especially,” Emelyanychev later explains, “the role of each musician is super important – and we’re lucky to have the rehearsal time to discuss things. It’s crucial to listen to the players’ opinions: music can obviously be performed in many different ways, and often the players will have read a lot about a piece from letters, treatises, other evidence, to understand the style – I often don’t have much time to go to the library!”

There is, indeed, something of a workshop spirit to Emelyanychev’s rehearsals. He might try a passage in different ways, mull over contrasting approaches with players, often dig into meticulous detail. There might be lots of laughter, but the conductor clearly knows what he wants, and keeps the process tightly focused in order to achieve it.

Given he also regularly plays piano, harpsichord or organ alongside his SCO colleagues, does that make him feel more like a fellow player than a conductor? His reply is perhaps unsurprising: “No, I feel like I’m the conductor.” He goes on to explain the difference. “It’s about different types of control and interaction. If you’re playing solo, you only need to care about yourself. When you conduct, however, you need to take care of everyone. If I listen to music from the audience, I can go deeply into it and allow myself to get emotional about it. But when I’m conducting, I can’t allow myself to become emotional because I have to stay in control of everything. The SCO is so great that of course the musicians could play without a conductor, but I’m there to inspire them and the audience. The conductor should do their job.”

It’s another reminder that, behind the spontaneity, the bracing freshness and the fiery enthusiasm of his performances, there’s a musician with a laser-like clarity about what he’s doing. Which is, no doubt, one of the many reasons that the SCO asked him to stay in the role of Principal Conductor until at least 2031. It’s an extension to his contract that has delighted audiences and SCO players, and has also allowed Emelyanychev to think on a broader timescale. Not that it’s easy to get anything out of him in terms of his ambitions for the coming years.

“I just want to continue,” he smiles. “I’ve not got big plans. But we have a fantastic team, and I’m heavily involved in strategy as to what the orchestra needs, and what the audience needs, and how to combine those things.” That relationship with Scottish audiences, in particular, played a clear role in Emelyanychev’s desire to continue his relationship with the SCO. “I feel a lot of warmth, especially in the cities where we play regularly. I often see the same people, and sometimes it almost feels like a family. I do feel it during performances, but maybe I don’t have much time to think about it then – but it’s very special when you receive their applause at the end.”

He’s happy to shed one bit of light on future plans, however. “I’ll let you into a secret: I’ve been learning a new wind instrument. It’s one that everyone knows. And I’d like to play it with the orchestra at some point.” He’s tight-lipped about any more details, but given Emelyanychev’s already hugely broad activities with the SCO, it’ll be yet another side to his creative personality to watch out for in future seasons.

But back to more immediate issues, and Emelyanychev looks set to make some major statements with the two opening concerts in the SCO’s new season, which focus on two equally grand but very different monumental works – though he might question that description.

First up is Berlioz’s epic Symphonie fantastique, whose notorious storyline of a drugged-up obsessive hallucinating that he’s murdered his beloved and been guillotined as a result is surely the ideal fuel for Emelyanychev’s vivid interpretations. He’s more concerned, however, with articulating the composer’s very specific ideas about orchestral sound. “Berlioz knows precisely what he wants to hear, and he uses so many effects in his orchestration.” Indeed, wasn’t the composer also known for dreaming of bigger and bigger orchestras for his lavish, over-the-top music? How does that square with a chamber orchestra playing the piece? “With an orchestra of the SCO’s size, we can hear all the details of what’s going on,” Emelyanychev explains, “and we can work closely on balance and sound quality. That’s a real benefit to the piece.”

I suggest that the next work Emelyanychev conducts – Bach’s St Matthew Passion – will be equally monumental. But he corrects me. “I don’t see it that way. To me, it’s very personal and intimate – it’s more about each individual musician and listener, and their personal connection with the piece.” It’s clearly a deeply religious work – its story of Christ’s last days was specifically intended for liturgical use – but do you have to be a believer to fully engage with it? “It’s a very powerful story, and you can see it as entirely religious, or you can see it in terms of morality and ethics. It gives us a great example of how we should live, how to forgive, how to find peace. For me it’s more than religious, and of course it’s extremely powerful too.”

It’s also the first time Emelyanychev will be conducting the piece, and – falling just a week after Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique – makes for a typically bold kick-off for the SCO’s new season. Should we expect the unexpected from both of those concerts? Very possibly – but then again, that’s probably exactly what Emelyanychev had planned all along.

Maxim Emelyanychev conducts the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in Perth Concert Hall, 23 September, The Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 24 September and the City Halls, Glasgow, 25 September; and in Bach’s St Matthew Passion at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 1 October and the City Halls, Glasgow, 2 October). This feature was produced in association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Scotsman readers can claim a 20 per cent discount (off full price tickets) when using ‘TSMSCO20’ promo code. The offer is available via box offices at all the orchestra’s partner venues.

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