What’s the most unusual place or venue you’ve ever performed?
The filming of BBC Ten Pieces Secondary took place in a huge warehouse in Salford. This was a challenging venue but allowed the camera crews and set crews (with their lights and smoke machines) to have great access around the orchestra, and provided a fantastic backdrop for the Ten Pieces film. I also remember an enormous arena - The Ziggo Dome - in Amsterdam where I conducted a live performance of Disney’s Fantasia two Christmases ago. It was by far the largest venue in which I have ever conducted - 17,000 seats - which meant it was something of a logistical nightmare.
If you found yourself with six months free to learn a new instrument, what would it be?
I would go straight back to my cello. I miss playing it very much and would love to try to get my technique back. But if I had to learn a new instrument I think it would be a wind one, possibly the clarinet, to gain better experience of how wind sound is produced physically and how early they must prepare to be “on the beat”.
What was the first ever record or cd you bought?
A CD of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony from HMV. We played it in my youth orchestra soon afterwards. It really drew me in and became my go-to piece for good times and bad times, and just to reflect.
How do you listen to music most often?
I have speakers in the two different places at home where I work so I can plug in my laptop or phone. All the music I listen to is either purchased on iTunes or streamed via Spotify. Spotify in particular is a useful resource with which to compare recordings. Also, YouTube often has great performances (especially of older recordings) both for studying and listening for pleasure. When I’m on the move, I have some superb studio in-ears which completely block out all extraneous noise, allowing me to listen and study in peace - even on aeroplanes.
Did you ever consider a career outside of music?
I always wanted to be a pilot. As a teenager I was obsessed with flight simulators and lots of my creative work (such as art or creative writing) used to be flying-themed as well. It’s funny that my profession still involves a lot of flying - just with someone else flying the plane!
What was the last piece of music you bought?
The last score I bought was Brahms’s Piano Concerto No 1. I’m going to be doing it next season with Benjamin Grosvenor, which I’m very much looking forward to. We perform it with the CBSO, and then with the LSO. The last recording I bought was of Ravel’s Tzigane featuring the incredible Itzhak Perlman. It’s a piece I recently performed in concert - with the young Esther Yoo and BBC Philharmonic.
What’s been your most memorable live music experience as an audience member?
I love chamber music and have been lucky enough to see the Borodin Quartet live three times. They make their four instruments come together and sound as one. I could sit and listen to them for hours on end - being inspired while being transported too, to an immensely high level of music-making.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
None that I’d admit to! Although, while picking out wines for my 26th birthday last month, I came across a bottle called “The Conductor” which I just had to buy out of curiosity.
Which conductor or performer of the past would you like to have worked with?
That’s easy. Carlos Kleiber. There are limited video recordings of this great conductor that was something of a god of the conducting world. He was an incredible man - mainly because of his fluidity of gesture. His gestures seemed to be perfectly crafted for the sound that he wanted and seemed always to achieve. It would have been a total privilege to see him live or even to play under his baton and be carried along by his incredible musicality.
We’re giving you a time machine: what period, or moment in musical history, would you travel to and why?
Beethoven’s time - in particular the turn of the 19th century when he’d composed, premiered and edited his third symphony - “Eroica”. It’s my all-time favourite symphony and I would love to have seen its reception for myself at the premiere of this avant-garde, boundary-stretching symphony, and also to have witnessed how people’s musical perceptions may have been developing during his lifetime.
Imagine you’re a festival director here in London. What would you programme - or commission - for your opening event?
A mixture of something well-known alongside an exciting new commission. We need to bring younger and newer audiences into our world, so the opening event would include a side-by-side system with younger musicians (maybe from music colleges) given the chance to perform alongside professionals, both in the orchestra and chorus. This could make for a large-scale inspirational performance to bring in new audience members, who might then come along to other concerts in the festival, having seen and experienced this exciting opening event.
What do you sing in the shower?
Whatever I’m working on at that time - I seem always to have something whirring around. I often study late into the night and so go to bed thinking through repertoire and decisions I need to make. On waking up, I sometimes realise that I’ve been thinking about it non-stop and then so many “answers” come once I’ve got up and am in the shower!
Alpesh Chauhan is the Assistant Conductor at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He conducts the BBC Ten Pieces proms on the 23 and 24 July.
