Peter Whelan on swapping his bassoon for a conductor's baton: 'I feel like a teenager again'
As he prepares to re-join the SCO for a series of all-Mozart concerts, the orchestra’s former bassoonist talks to David Kettle about his new career as a conductor
“It’s interesting coming back to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – it’s one of the few places I go where people still see me as a bassoonist.” For many Scottish concert-goers, Dublin-born Peter Whelan will indeed be forever associated with that instrument: after all, he was the SCO’s memorable and charismatic principal bassoonist for a decade.
For quite a few years now, however, he’s been located out front of ensembles as an increasingly accomplished conductor or director. “I actually put the bassoon away when I left the SCO,” he explains. “It’s basically gone from my life now – I closed the case when I left, and I haven’t opened it since.” Indeed, he’s in high demand in period performance: he’s been artistic director of the Irish Baroque Orchestra since 2018 (he won an Olivier Award with the group in 2022 for their production of Vivaldi’s opera Bazajet at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), and next year he becomes music director of San Francisco’s starry Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. That’s all alongside a hectic schedule of international bookings as guest conductor. Things are clearly going well – very well.
One of those bookings is a return visit to the SCO – as conductor, naturally – for three all-Mozart concerts in December. Was that swerve from orchestral musician to orchestral director always on the cards? According to Whelan, it came about almost by accident. “The truth is I never sought it out,” he says. “It’s kind of something that happens to you.” Whelan’s first foray into directing performances came in Scotland, with his own Ensemble Marsyas. “That started with wind music, which was a big passion of mine, but then we developed into exploring music from Ireland around the time that Handel visited in 1742. I was inviting friends to work with me, and directing from the keyboard – it didn’t go terribly. Then I started working with singers, who seemed to like what we were doing, and that turned into doing more opera. And this is where the road has ended up.”
His shift in roles is far from unprecedented, of course, but hardly common. But Whelan feels it also serves to demonstrate that being a musician is more than being wedded to a particular instrument. “It’s funny, because with all the training we have, you end up very attached to your instrument,” he says. “You might feel it’s everything to you, but it’s not. You’re also a musician outside of that.” How is Whelan finding his activities now? “It’s very different, with a different set of concerns and skills,” he smiles. “But I feel like a teenager again, making a fresh start. And as long as you feel like you’re being useful, and enabling people to make music, that’s very rewarding.”
On the flipside, however, orchestral players can be notoriously unforgiving when it comes to their judgements on the conductors telling them what to do. “Yes, I’m painfully aware of how conductors are sometimes perceived by musicians,” Whelan laughs. As a man with experience on both sides of that divide, how does he use that awareness in his own interactions? Whelan is thoughtful in his response. “As a conductor, you have very talented people in front of you, with very strong, very valid opinions. But you can’t let that intimidate you – you have to find a common language together.” He’s refreshingly pragmatic, too, about the role of a conductor – and about the need for someone to guide the performance. “Essentially, you just need somebody to drive the bus from A to B. You’re taking on board how other people are feeling, of course, but you’re the one providing direction.”
These are all issues on Whelan’s mind as he prepares to return to the SCO. “Yes, it always feels a bit weird,” he admits, “even though I’ve been back several times already. Working with some of my fabulous ex-colleagues, we know exactly what things we’ve said to each other about conductors in the past. Now I’m returning as a conductor myself, there’s a kind of karma attached to that!”
The SCO, however, makes something of an ideal fit for Whelan’s passion for Baroque and Classical music – think Bach, Handel, Mozart and a whole host of lesser-known composers – and for incorporating ideas about period authenticity into his playing. Just a few decades back, period purists were insisting on sweeping away any vestiges of accumulated tradition and returning early music strictly to how it would have been heard when it was created – or at least as much as we knew about that. It served a crucial role in helping us all reappraise how this music should actually sound. But, says Whelan, things have moved on a bit. “The SCO is probably in the sweet spot of what I would call the post-historic performance world. They’re open-minded musicians, and they’re ready to try different ways of playing.”
Hence the SCO’s well-known flexible, adaptable approach to Baroque and Classical music, using old-style natural horns and lighter, brighter period timpani, for example, but perhaps asking other musicians to adjust their playing styles rather than their actual instruments. “We’re very used to hearing old instruments playing Bach, for example,” Whelan continues. “But the next thing, I think, is to use those tools creatively to our advantage. The lessons of period performance have been strong, but we’re now running with it in a different way. It’s about giving ourselves more tools to approach our craft, so that we can make music in a fresher way.”
WATCH: The Scottish Chamber Orchestra Digital Season 25/26 Part One: The Origin of Colour by Jay Capperauld
There will no doubt be a spark of period authenticity, too, to Whelan’s pre-Christmas all-Mozart programme. Not that there’s a particular historically informed theory behind Whelan’s witty idea of splitting up the seven movements of the composer’s “Posthorn” Serenade and interspersing them with opera arias, sung by Irish mezzo Tara Erraught. “The idea behind the concert was something Christmassy and festive,” he smiles. “And the ‘Posthorn’ Serenade just screamed festivity to me. It’s such a fun piece – a jamboree for that time of year.”
Also significantly, it’s a piece that Mozart composed essentially as background music, in this case for a University of Salzburg graduation ceremony. “Serenades like this would have been happening when you were doing other things, so that your attention might be pulled in or out of the music. But even the most straightforward movements have something that will pull at the heartstrings, and the instruments often take almost operatic roles.” It’s just one further step, then, to incorporate real opera in among the Serenade’s movements. The concerts look set to showcase Whelan’s winning mix of fun and seriousness, as well as demonstrating his ability to bring wit and sparkle to performances that are deeply committed in their scholarship and insights.
Peter Whelan conducts the SCO’s all-Mozart concerts at Holy Trinity Church, St Andrews, 17 December; the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 18 December; and City Halls, Glasgow, 19 December, see www.sco.org.uk. This feature was produced in association with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.
READER OFFER: As part of our ongoing media partnership with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, we're offering 20 per cent off tickets to concerts in the SCO's 2025/26 season. All you need to do is quote the code TSMSCO20 when booking – for venue contact details visit www.sco.org.uk.
The Scotsman’s arts newsletter is now sent twice a week - subscribe today
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.