Profile: Alexander Shelley

Alexander Shelley

Next on the podium of your Houston Symphony is Alexander Shelley, who will conduct Bartok Violin Concerto No. 2 (with Augustin Hadelich as soloist) and Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5.

***UPDATE*** Mr. Hadelich had his travel plans disrupted by Sandy the Snowicane. Our own concertmaster, Frank Huang, has swooped in to save the day. Instead of Bartok, it will be an all Tchaikovsky evening with Huang performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

(Follow the links to view some exemplar performance).

So, for two weeks in a row, the soloist with our orchestra come from the orchestra itself. Bravo.

Now, on to the conductor.

Alexander Shelley, a good looking young chap from Great Britain, is one of a new type of artist that seems much more prevalent since I disconnected from classical music a couple of decades ago.

After the jump, a warning about me and my biases. With any luck, a little objective background too on the training and experience that Mr. Shelley brings to the task at hand this week.




A couple of decades ago, I went into musical hibernation. Like a Rip Van Winkle of sorts, I lost track of all that was modern and current in musicians and marketing.

Sometime in the intervening years, record companies, managers, and impresarios started cultivating artists with matinee idol sizzle--dare I say "sex appeal."

Bring on the trumpeter or violinist or pianist with the perfect skin and the white teeth. . Have her recline on her album cover wearing that strapless gown and staring off into space.

Aged and ugly need not apply.

Gone were the days of portly sopranos with ample, matronly . . . uhm . . . features.

Gone were the grizzled savants who waived the stick. Gone were the bald and bespeckled instrumental prophet.

Rudolf Serkin? Slava Rostropovich? Gunther Wand? Ew! Seriously? That's totally gross.

Sure, we old timers had Karajan and Bernstein with their photodelphic hair and videoriffic profiles. Their vanity surely knew no bounds. But Karajan and Bernstein never went to the gym to work on their pecs.

I say all that to say this: I have a bias, gentle reader.

Not being a photogenic six-footer myself with cinematic hair or a winning smile, I have a chip on my shoulder for those who are. Rather than being wowed by their charisma, I'm skeptical of their hype and doubt their talent.

After all, if they looked like me, would they have that job? I wonder.

Notwithstanding my (somewhat tongue in cheek) prejudices, there are some things to note and to like in Shelley's background to engender hope that he is not just another pretty face. According Shelley's website and Wikipedia (the font of all knowledge), here are some of the pros:

• Instrumental Chops: As you know, I am afflicted with an anti-singer/pro-instrumentalist prejudice. I think there is no substitute for being a top-notch musician if one is going to tell other musicians what to do. 
• Shelley ticks this box with piano and cello studies along with an ability as player sufficient enough to put him in the World Orchestra for Peace tour of 2003. Most orchestral musicians that you know could not get into Gergiev's band with a gun.  
• Leadership Experience: Shelley ticks this box with some four years experience as principal conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra.
• Opera Experience: He debuted with the Royal Danish Opera in 2008 and has been asked to return. 

Now, because I am a crank and a cynic, some potential concerns:

• He is young--really young. By the time he was born, I was already playing Mozart concerti--albeit not very well). 
• Both his opera and leadership experience are necessarily limited by his age.  
• By comparison, Orozco-Estrada has much more trigger time even though not much older, but his is an exceptional biography. 
• Like Orozco-Estrada, he's busy. 
• The Neurembergers have extended his contract through 2017, and his duties are described as "intensive." 
• If one wants to hire him, one could very well have to pay the state-supported orchestra in Neuremberg for a buy out--an odd place for an American orchestra to be spending money in a year where major orchestras struck or were locked out over financial issues. 
• And did I mention he is young? Do you pair someone like this with a mentor? Is he willing to be paired? Do you dare just let the marketing department run the orchestra instead of the music director? 

Again these are risks and rewards to consider. But whilst you are doing that, here are some musical treats from Mr. Shelley to enjoy. Among other things, this page contains audio for:

• A really muscular and virile Don Juan with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic.
• Death and Transfiguration with the BBC Philharmonic
• And just to prove I'm not too much of a Deutchephile, Daphnis and Chloe with the New Zealand Symphony.

Video of Mr. Shelley is mostly with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, which diminishes what little one can tell from video. But here's one to consider: Copland's Appalachian Spring.




Performances are Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Go out, support your Houston Symphony. Buy tickets and make your own voice heard about the orchestra's future.