Welcoming Robert Hodge
Our April double-bill of Webern’s Passacaglia and the Rapsodie espagnole by Ravel will be our first collaboration with conductor and educator Robert Hodge. We caught up with him for a mini interview to find out more about him.
We’re looking forward to seeing you in London this Sunday. What have you been doing lately, musically and otherwise?
It’s peak seed sowing season on the allotment, so I’ve been pretty busy with outdoor matters. The asparagus is cropping heavily and I would 100% recommend that gardeners grow it – the supermarket stuff is inferior in every way! In terms of musical things, I recently conducted Walton 2 in Cambridge, which is such a fabulous and under-performed symphony.
Your favourite thing about each of this weekend’s pieces?
As you’d expect with Ravel the orchestration is sublime and the Webern is so outrageously inventive.
Any less-expected must-have objects on your stand when you’re rehearsing?
My music stand can struggle with very heavy scores, so I will often have an Allen key close to hand, to tighten it up!
Which one of this weekend’s composers would you rather be shipwrecked on a desert island with and why?
That’s easy – Ravel – he was a keen gardener!
