It was a fortuitous day for Perth when Joseph Nolan arrived from the UK to take up the role of Organist and Master of Choristers at St George's Cathedral. He established the Cathedral Consort as one of Australia's most elite singing groups and musicians from around Australia have been enticed to perform at his critically acclaimed concert series. Now settled in Inglewood as an Australian permanent resident Nolan continues to expand the cathedral's music program and maintain his overseas touring and recording career.
What
music gets your heart racing?
Poly choral works by any great renaissance composer when sung supremely
well.
What
calms you down?
Jonathan Agnew or Henry Blofield
on Test Match Special.
Why
the organ?
As a young man, the sheer power was the thrill of course! Like most very
young musicians I began life on the piano, but as the organ came so easily to
me it was not a hard decision to switch.
What
motivated you to move from playing for the Queen on the Buckingham Palace
Ballroom organ to sunny Perth at St George’s Cathedral in 2008?
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| Nolan at the organ of St James Palace London |
The silver tongue of the former Dean of Perth, Dr John Shepherd. He
promised me, and delivered, fantastic moral and financial support whilst
expecting great things of me in return. I am delighted that our very new Dean, the Very Reverend Richard
Pengelley, is already proving to be a great supporter of the music here.
Having said that, it was an enormous wrench and a real risk to move here
in terms of my career. I was advised against it at every turn in the UK and
during my first year in Perth I certainly found myself questioning the wisdom
of such a big move. However, something magical happened on Easter Day in 2009 when I chose a
very demanding and controversial mass setting by Naji Hakim. It went
spectacularly well and from that moment I realised my dream of building
something from the ground up that could become of genuine international
standard was possible.
I would add that I was fortunate to move here with a lot of contacts
around the USA and Europe and I invest a lot of time maintaining these contacts
via email/Skype. Travelling abroad to perform and record is really important to
keep your focus and a sense of perspective of what’s going on in the wider
world.
August is going to be a Brahms
extravaganza in Perth with WASO presenting four concerts of Brahms’ concertos
and symphonies and the Cathedral musicians presenting Brahms’ Requiem on August
14th. Have you conducted this before? Where does this work fit in Brahms’
output?
I think it is wonderful that this is all happening in Perth and the timing is indeed most fortuitous. I have not conducted the Requiem before, and I always find conducting something for the first time truly exhilarating. The Requiem is extremely profound and powerful, providing a complete picture of Brahms‘ compositional techniques, as well as his inner beliefs. Brahms’ was quoted saying he would be happy with the Requiem being called a ”human requiem”.
You are also performing Brahms’
rarely heard Alto Rhapsody with Fiona Campbell. How did this idea come about?
The Alto Rhapsody is seemingly
very seldom performed, even internationally. It’s an incredible piece of music
and we have the best mezzo in Australia, Fiona Campbell, residing here in Perth
to perform it.
What is your job description at
the Cathedral?
My role is a very varied one
and no day is the same. I am required to
be able to play the organ to an international standard, train both the
Cathedral Choir and Consort to the highest standards, choose a great deal of
attractive music for the year and devise a fiscally sound but very innovative
season for the Cathedral Consort Series. With meetings, emails (dealing
with around seventy people now involved in the department) and fundraising for
the Concert Series, preparation time for international concert and recording
tours has to be carefully organised.
Where did you learn
the skills that have enabled you to straddle the politics of the church and the
professional music world?
The only significant road humps I have
encountered have been outside the realm of church politics. In those cases, all
I can say is if you encounter a toxic work environment, you resign - and quickly.
No artist can afford either to be tainted or drained of energy because of less
than ideal circumstances.
JS Bach wrote in his bible margin “At
a reverent performance of music, God is always at hand with his gracious
presence.” What do you believe is the role of music when you perform in church
services and concerts? Or another way of putting it, what do you hope listeners
will experience?
There is no doubt in my mind
that when sacred works of genius (i.e. Bach, Palestrina, Mozart etc) are
performed to a very high standard even a hardened non believer feels
something or is elevated at least spiritually. I have lost count of the times
my body has tingled being involved with music in a sacred space, it’s so very
different a sensation to the excitement of the Concert Hall or the Opera House.
The Concert Series (and
Cathedral Consort), which I founded in 2009, has provided for those people who
might not normally want to come into the Cathedral to experience great choral
music in a spiritual place. Concert newcomers often email or write to me
describing with wonder that they had experienced ‘something transcendent’ or a
‘new spiritual experience’.
Crucial to this experience is
both the quality of music and the performance and personally, I believe God
deserves the very best. If we are ‘elitist’ then I am proud of it. Elite sport
is worn as a badge of honour within Australia and it bewilders me when this
charge is occasionally leveled at the music here and other cathedrals with
very high quality music programmes.
Lully Lulla (Leighton) St George's Cathedral Consort
You
have a soft spot for the organ works of Widor (you recorded his complete organ
works for Signum Records).
Bach and Widor (and maybe Messiaen) are really the only composers that
are associated with the organ in terms of world recognition. I first heard
Widor’s ubiquitous Toccata from Symphony No 5 when I was 15. I was immensely fortunate, due to the generosity of the Countess of
Munster Musical Trust and Hattori Foundation, to study gratis with Marie Claire
Alain in Paris for two years, so naturally the French repertoire has always
called to me. With Widor, I do feel a particularly close affinity to his music,
and I am pleased that the critics obviously agree with my decision to record
all his organ music. Widor, unlike any other, had a feel for the organic whole
of the organ and how it works, whilst writing music that could appeal to
everyone. The organ and its music all too often fails in this regard, having a
negative image of being a funeral or church instrument, often played poorly.
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| Nolan discusses the organ works of Widor with Andrew Ford in this podcast from The Music Show |
In your concerts I often marvel
at the precise diction and pitch you draw from your singers. How do you shape a
choir to this kind of level?
I will not pretend it has been
easy. It takes a long time to build a choirs’ sound and it requires total
professional discipline from everyone involved. This starts from the
preparation of the music by a singer before the rehearsal and their being ready
to start ten minutes before the call time. Without a doubt, instilling this
culture here in the first two years proved my biggest challenge and I knew
without these elements the right results could not be found.
Happily, the professional and
singing culture at the Cathedral is now absolutely fantastic and the music
making is relaxed but very focused and disciplined. Of course you have to choose
the right team and that’s a huge part of getting ‘the sound’. From there I almost treat the choir as if
they are an organ, constantly drawing on blending the sounds and using certain
timbres at the right times.
A fundamental aspect and
character of my organ playing is based on absolute rhythmic discipline or
appropriate amounts of elasticity. These two elements are very important parts
of my technique with the choir. Mutual trust plays a part and this might sound
obvious, but that the choir and conductor look at each other. So many, on
either side, don’t! If you don’t look at each other, it sounds and looks dull! You
would be surprised how often this occurs though.
Finally, and most importantly,
it all comes down to the ears and instinctive musicianship of the conductor.
Degrees and diplomas in choral conducting are perhaps all well and good, but if
you don’t have great ears, the ability to communicate and fix the problem
quickly and then motivate your singers to the highest standards, no degree on
earth or conducting tuition can help you.
The beat and gestures that
matter are important too, but the real secret is the mutual preparation, mutual
respect and the eyes of all concerned communicating what can’t be said.
A Spotless Rose (Howells) St George's Cathedral Consort
Do
you have a soft spot for anything else in life or is it all about the music?
I do enjoy fine dining and big, powerful red wines! Watching Wimbledon obsessively and in
particular Federer (imagine he was a musician-he would be the epitome of
musical expression and control). Above all else, I value time with my son,
Alexander. He has made me realise what life is really all about.
***
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