He is conducting Mahler’s Fifth Symphony at this year's BBC Proms. This will be the 63rd time he has appeared at the world’s greatest classical music festival. But who is Mark Elder?
Who is Mark Elder?
Sir Mark Elder is one of Britain’s most acclaimed conductors. Now 77 years old, he will be retiring this summer as music director of The Hallé Orchestra in Manchester after 24 years, an unusually long term in one post for a conductor today. However, he will be continuing to conduct, both in guest appearances with orchestras and at opera houses across the world, and as principal guest conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway.
What other famous conducting jobs has he held?
Before joining the Hallé, Elder had several major roles. He was music director of English National Opera (1979-93) and principal guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1982-85). He later became principal guest conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1992-95). In the US, meanwhile, he served as music director of Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, US (1989-94).
When did Mark Elder first conduct at the BBC Proms?
Elder made his Proms debut on 1 September 1975, conducting the London Sinfonietta in works by Stravinsky, Bruno Maderna and others at a late-evening Prom at The Round House. His first main Prom at the Royal Albert Hall came the following year, on 29 July 1976. He led a concert of Stravinsky, Britten and Mozart with the English Chamber Orchestra. More than 60 Proms have followed since, including the Last Night of the Proms twice.
In which years did he conduct the Last Night of the Proms?
Mark Elder’s debut Last Night of the Proms was in 1987, then he returned for his second in 2006. He should have also conducted the Last Night in 1990, but was removed from that appointment shortly before the event.
Why was Mark Elder banned from conducting the Last Night of the Proms in 1990?
Elder openly questioned the appropriateness of some of the traditional programme, such as ‘Rule, Britannia!’ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, given the impending Gulf War. Though usually fairly outspoken himself, on this occasion Proms controller John Drummond decided that on this occasion the sensible option was to replace Elder with Sir Andrew Davis.
Elder is not the only performer to have questioned the place of 'Land of Hope and Glory' at the Proms. Early in 2024, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason said that the piece 'made people uncomfortable' and should not be performed at the Last Night.
So is Mark Elder something of an anti-establishment figure, then?
Not at all. Expressing his opinions in 1990 had little impact on Elder's future career in Britain. What’s more, he was knighted in 2008 and made a Companion of Honour in 2017. He has also enjoyed regular appearances on British television, not least presenting the BBC series Symphony in 2011 and appearing as adviser and judge on BBC’s Maestro at the Opera the following year.
What has he achieved at the Hallé in his quarter-century in charge?
A huge amount. When he arrived at the Hallé in 1999, the orchestra was at a bit of a low ebb. ‘They played without engaging their fantasy and their heart,’ Mark Elder told BBC Music Magazine in 2008. He went on: ‘They were extremely competent, but there wasn’t a feeling of unified commitment to the music. They had lost, frankly, the ability to express why they were musicians.
'Music-making in a large group should be a very exciting thing to share, but I felt that there was something sterile about the playing, that it was cautious emotionally. I wanted to encourage them all to be themselves, and to be confident.’ Today, in contrast, the Hallé – Britain’s second oldest symphony orchestra – is regarded as one of the finest orchestras in Europe.
How has he achieved that?
Partly by turning his attention to singing. ‘We founded the children’s choir, a youth choir and a youth training choir,’ he told Tom Service in BBC Music Magazine in May 2024, ‘as well as the community choir at Ancoats where there’s no audition and anyone can take part.
'And then there’s the main choir. My very first concert with the Hallé was WIlliam Walton's Belshazzar’s Feast in the early 1980s, so the choir has always been central to me.’ The orchestra has also won praise for its groundbreaking outreach work, something that Mark Elder himself has championed from the outset, and has made its mark with a string of acclaimed recordings on its own label, founded by Elder in 2003.
Mark Elder: best recordings
In 2013, Mark Elder and the Hallé won the BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Year for their recording of Elgar’s The Apostles. ‘It has all the tension and excitement of live performance, rising to incandescence in the closing pages,’ wrote BBC Music’s reviewer, ‘and Mark Elder has perfect control of the large forces and dramatic pacing.’ Aside from that, they have regularly won five stars for their recordings of the symphonies of Vaughan Williams, Shostakovich and Sibelius, as well as Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Wagner operas.
And what does he say about himself?
‘I’ve changed… I’ve developed… I’ve grown up, as a conductor, an artist, a performer,’ Mark Elder told Tom Service in May 2024. ‘I’m much freer. I’ve learnt to be more relaxed in myself, and I can allow the musicians to do what they need to do, rather than forcing it out of them. As I get older, I know that better conducting is related to letting go.’
Mark Elder pics by Benjamin Eaolovega
