Sir Alexander Gibson centenary: celebrating the 'maestro frae Motherwell'
Sir Alexander Gibson’s extraordinary impact on music in Scotland is to be celebrated this month in a number of special events, writes David Kettle
More than three decades after his death, Sir Alexander Gibson remains a revered figure in Scottish music. It’s hardly surprising: this was the “maestro frae Motherwell” who ran the Scottish National Orchestra for 25 years (the now RSNO received its royal patronage during his time there), who founded Scottish Opera, and who was in high demand as a conductor right across the world. Gibson injected Scottish music with the values, the energy and the pride in itself that it still maintains today. No wonder he’s still spoken about in reverential terms. And no wonder, either, that the centenary of Gibson’s birth – which falls in February this year – is being celebrated across three organisations with strong links to him: Scottish Opera, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
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Indeed, Gibson’s current successor at Scottish Opera, General Director Alex Reedijk, looked back directly to Gibson’s guiding vision when he took on the job in 2006. He remembers a crucial meeting with Gibson’s widow, Lady Veronica. “I found myself saying that I thought it was my duty to do all I could to sustain his vision for opera in Scotland,” he says. “I know that sounds sentimental, but it came from a place of sincerity too.”
Many facets of that vision, Reedijk feels, are hardwired into the company. “We have a continuing duty of care to make sure that live opera is offered across as many communities in Scotland as possible, and we have the longest-standing education department in Europe. I think Sir Alec would see what we’re doing now and think it absolutely makes sense.”
Also maintaining Gibson’s vision is Scottish Opera’s loyalty to Scottish artists, in the broadest sense. “Gibson was a Scot who got his career off to an amazing start in London, but then chose to come back and do his bit in Scotland. Part of that ethos flows through our Emerging Artists programme, for example,” Reedijk continues. “We don’t choose artists for it who are exclusively Scottish per se – they may be of Scottish descent or they may have studied in Scotland – but we aim to support them in a performance enhancement programme.”
Given Gibson’s broad impact on music in Scotland, it’s entirely appropriate that his centenary celebrations should bring together three of its most important arts organisations. Scottish Opera, the RSNO and the RCS all come together for a special centenary evening at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 25 February, while the opera company and orchestra both dedicate February performances to his memory. “There’s great strength in all of us celebrating this together, because we’re all kind of standing on his shoulders in one way or another,” Reedijk explains. “We’re broadly in a world of collaboration. And I don’t think it’s any surprise that four of the five national companies have been founded in the west of Scotland – for all that Edinburgh is the capital and the centre of banking and finance, the west was the nerve centre of enterprise.”
It’s no coincidence, either, that Scottish Opera’s own celebrations should centre around a brand new opera – The Great Wave, written by Japanese-born composer Dai Fujikura and Glasgow-based librettist Harry Ross. Gibson was a passionate advocate for new music – he founded Glasgow’s Musica Nova festival (originally as Musica Viva), which brought cutting-edge sounds to Scottish audiences. That’s another Gibson legacy that the company has continued: rarely a season passes without a new or recent opera, and Reedijk has fostered significant new operatic collaborations (composer Stuart MacRae and librettist/author Louise Welsh, for example, have so far produced three major works for the company).
As General Director since 2006, Reedijk knows a lot about the qualities needed to run an opera company. What does he feel Gibson would have needed to launch one from scratch, as he did in 1962? “A sense of courage, definitely,” he smiles, “but also confidence, vision and belief – and he must have been amazing at simply reading the zeitgeist.”
“I think it’s true that he was very driven and committed,” agrees Philip Gibson, Sir Alexander’s second son. But he also remembers his father as a modest man reluctant to talk up his achievements, and with a deep love for his family. “When he did get a chance to relax,” Gibson Jr continues, “he had a great sense of humour – he was always great fun on holidays, and he loved crosswords and board games, all those kind of dad-like things.”
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He feels, he says, a particular closeness to Scottish Opera, since his own origins are so closely aligned with those of the Company. “The company’s second night – in June 1962 – was a performance of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, and at some point after the interval, my mother – who was heavily pregnant with me – had to disappear. I was born at two minutes past midnight – so officially my birthday is 7 June, although everything was really happening on Scottish Opera’s second night.”
Growing up, he remembers being aware of but not immersed in his father’s activities – which included combining family holidays with locations where the great man was conducting. “Dad would be rehearsing and performing, and the rest of the family would go swimming or visit places – we did that in New York, for example. And in 1993 we met up in Copenhagen, where dad was conducting Peter Grimes at the Royal Danish Opera. I remember we had seats in the stalls, right behind him conducting, so I was watching the opera through his vision and his hands.”
There is, however, one figure who should share a lot of the credit for Gibson’s visionary success, Philip Gibson feels: his mother. “Behind him, there was my mum, and she contributed to everything from the very start. He could never have achieved the many things he did without her, and without the very solid, loving family.”
The Gibson family, Philip explains, remain proud of their forebear’s achievements, and with that in mind it’s only right that they should be so deeply embedded within February’s centenary celebrations. Meanwhile, for certain younger members – notably Philip’s own children – The Great Wave will be their own first experience of live opera. The cycle continues.
Scottish Opera’s world premiere of The Great Wave at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, on 12 February is dedicated to Sir Alexander Gibson, see www.scottishopera.org.uk. The RSNO marks the centenary with a concert of Strauss and Bruckner in memory of Sir Alexander and Lady Veronica Gibson on 20 and 21 February, see www.rsno.org.uk. This feature was produced in association with Scottish Opera
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