Stylishly dressed in a cashmere jumper and scarf, perfect for the unseasonably cold, Dutch April weather, the petite British conductor, Kerem Hasan talked to Clare Varney about all things musical and his love of flying as he prepared for the first of three performances with PHION Orkest in the Netherlands.
Joined by French soprano Véronique Gens for a performance of Berlioz’s Les nuit d’été followed by Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, there was just a hint of excitement in the air. I wanted to learn more about the man behind the baton. One who increasingly traverses the continents with ease, and slowly by slowly, is building a discrete and loyal base.
Where it all started
Hailing from the leafy suburbs of Surrey, Hasan started the piano aged five before quickly progressing to the rigours of the Junior Royal Academy in London. His love of conducting stemmed from a beginner’s conducting class with the mighty Peter Stark.
Sixth-form studies at The Purcell School, a specialist music school in London, led to studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow “because they were the only institution in the UK that offered me an undergraduate course in conducting”. Undergraduate courses specializing in conducting are common in Europe, especially in Germany, “but in the UK, the tendency is to associate conducting with a much older person’s profession, so they’re all master’s students and certainly the London colleges weren’t really interested. But Glasgow was incredibly accepting, and I entered a joint honours programme of piano and conducting, which was great because I think every conductor needs to hone their instrument first.”
“It was either going to be flying or music. You could probably get a squadron of conductors who are also into aviation”
As a pianist, he spent much of his time in Glasgow working with singers who “sort of got me into opera. The moment you offer your services, you will be inundated with requests”. Having previously been very much a solo pianist playing Beethoven sonatas, Liszt and Chopin etudes, Hasan now found himself in a world where “you have all this brand new repertoire thrown at you”.
The world of opera conducting beckoned
“You get to really get under the skin of the work. Opera needs more time, so I would say that as a conductor, I go between opera and the symphonic world quite nicely. I think I’m quite lucky in that I can sort of traverse both worlds, and sort of come in and out.”
Subsequent studies at the Zurich University of Arts and the University of Music ‘Franz Liszt’ in Weimar along with exposure as finalist in the LSO Donatella Flick Conducting Competition (2016) and winner of the Nestlé and Salzburg Festival Young Conductor’s award (2017), led to offers of work from Welsh National Opera, Glyndebourne Touring Opera, English National Opera; relationships he still maintains today.
Pivotal moments
However, it was perhaps his debut at Het Concertgebouw in June 2018 which proved pivotal.
Stepping in to conduct Mahler’s 9th Symphony with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra after his mentor, Bernard Haitink, had suffered a serious fall the previous evening, may well have provided the young 26-year-old with the self-belief every musician needs at the outset of their career. Hasan elaborates:
“Assisting Bernard Haitink for his final performances with the Chicago Symphony and the Concertgebouw certainly sticks in my mind as an incredibly poignant moment. Haitink was a monumental influence in my development. My work watching him and assisting him with the (world’s) finest orchestras, as well as receiving hands-on advice was extraordinary.
“Watching his work with the RCO at a time when he had known the musicians for decades was truly unique. There is almost nobody else out there with whom you can observe such a chemistry. A chemistry that is built over time; with experience and a sixth sense from both conductor and orchestra as how they shape the music.
“Amongst the many, many things I learned from Bernard, two of the most valuable were to truly understand what playing quietly can mean.” The other, “the economy of gesture required to have a concentrated and lasting impact upon these musicians.”
Travelling the world as a professional conductor
Creating ‘a lasting impact’ remains key. After spending four years as chief conductor of the Tiroler Symphonieorchester, Austria (2019 – 23), Hasan forged links with amongst others: the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Dresdner Philharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony, MDR Sinfonieorchester, Leipzig; RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Dublin; Noord Nederlands Orkest, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Opera North in Manchester as musical director of a new production of La Rondine, for which he received critical acclaim.
How is such flexibility possible in a post-Brexit world when so many musicians struggle with the varying visa requirements essential for international work travel?
“I have to say I’m very lucky. My grandparents are from Cyprus. So I’ve been lucky enough to have dual citizenship, and without doubt I’m eternally grateful for it. The bureaucracy is just extraordinary”. His grandfather, “who always thought that a Cypriot passport would be useless”, gifted “the one thing that really saved” him.
Kerem the storyteller
What this does highlight however, is the vast amount of dance and programmatic music in Hasan’s canon. I wonder if this is a conscious decision? A move perhaps with a view to ending up as chief conductor of one of the great ballet houses of the world…
“I feel a strong connection with music that that tells a story. Stravinsky ballets or awesome Bartok stage music, and they just speak. I find them very, very inspiring. Working on a piece like Daphnis et Chloé is particularly enjoyable. Being able to give an orchestra those dramatic incentives – perhaps the first moment that Daphnis and Chloé kiss – and trying to figure out how to find a certain colour. Not merely by asking for louder and softer, but by trying to give that sort of dramatic impulse which can achieve something more. Gently nudging people in the right direction, in a calm but professional way.”
Hasan in concert with PHION
Whilst the reading of Berlioz’s Les nuit d’été with Véronique Gens later that evening, may not have tugged on the heart strings, evidence of a flair for storytelling was apparent in Daphnis et Chloé – an interpretation full of swing and sway, of suave and even a certain cheekiness.
This was not just a ballet score!
This was a symphonie chorégraphique as perhaps originally intended by Ravel. One where the narrative reigned supreme – just minus the dancers and choir! A total of nine percussionists lined up like soldiers on guard high at the back of the stage, periodically interjecting military precision before the solo horn transformed the mood, softly slipping up to those sultry top notes.
The trombone enticed before ominous low and sustained clarinet and bassoon notes resolved, almost as an afterthought. An enigmatic cello solo and distant, muted trumpets jostled with a wind machine, a beguiling horn, an enchanting flute, and sprightly clarinet and trumpet solos. The many programmatic elements always at the fore.
PHION seemed to delight in the oscillating, seductively rich French harmonies, bringing to life a ballet score commissioned by Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in 1909, and premiered in July 1912 with Nijinsky dancing the role of the goatherd.
This was a conductor who relished the excitement of sudden climaxes and was not afraid to unleash the power and might of an impressive brass section or demand strict discipline from the musicians, especially the strings. His clear, precise beat coupled with an expressive yet contained left hand ensured that under his tenure, balance and control were high on the agenda.
A glorious Sunrise where the trombone countermelody soared over the glimmering strings gave haste to the unfolding love song. Advice gleaned from Haitink in his final days, never far from the mind of this rising talent.
Fun facts about Kerem Hasan:
- What music did you listen to when growing up?
“When I was growing up, my father (a barber) was, and still continues to be a huge Iron Maiden fan. And so there was a lot of Iron Maiden playing. Classical music came later.”
- What music do you listen to now?
“Italian classics from the 1950s and 1960s. Fred Buscaglione, Jerry Vale and Renato Rascel amongst others. And jazz, I love listening to, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and things like that.
- What do you do to get away from music?
“I love going to the theatre. I went to see Othello at the National and that was incredible because it was a new production. Fantastic! I went to see it twice!”
- Lots of musicians enjoy good food. Would you put yourself in this category?
“Yes, but I’m also in the very long process of trying to get a pilot’s licence. Not in an intense way, but just to sort of buzz around the southeast coast. It’s really good fun. And it’s also a very unmusical thing to do, but a stimulating thing to do. I have to think very, very differently.
There’s less to do with instinct, and more with checklists and instructions. And that’s quite nice. You could probably get a squadron of conductors who are also into aviation. I know so many of them. I don’t know what it is.
“For what it’s worth. It was either going to be flying or music for me when I was a kid. I was obsessed! Now I’ve got to a point in my career where I can quite literally dabble and do both!”
Return visits to The Netherlands
This series of concerts in the Netherlands is the first of two engagements for Hasan with PHION, both featuring ballet music. Stravinsky’s Petrushka later this year, is a collaboration with soprano Aylin Sezer and Arthur Japin, the Dutch author of Vaslas, “a gripping novel about the famous dancer and choreographer Vaslas Nijinsky for whom Stravinsky composed the ballet Petrushka”. Dutch orchestras are so good at presenting the classics in new and accessible ways.
Hasan will also return to The Netherlands in May 2024 to lead a further programme of ballet music. This time the Firebird Suite by Stravinsky with the Noord Nederlands Orkest. He will be joined by the amazing Russian Luxembourg violinist Alena Baeva for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. The eagle-eyed may remember Baeva’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major with PHION and Alpesh Chauhan in March 2022.
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