Several years ago, I met a composer named Donald Fraser.
Arranger Donald Fraser and conductor Kenneth Woods following the world premiere of the Piano Quintet, a 2015 Classical Music Magazine Premiere of the Year
It turns out his wife Bridget was the executive director of my old youth orchestra organization, the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. At the time, my mom was the board chair, hence the connection. When Charlotte (my mom) told me about Bridget’s husband, I hadn’t heard of Don, but a quick google search opened my eyes pronto. Here was a guy who had studied conducting with the likes of Adrian Boult, won the highest composition prizes in the UK, produced records for Jessye Norman, started his own TV show and arranged and produced for the likes of Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones. In a nutshell, Don was my kind of guy. As one of my colleagues in my orchestra said after working with him for the first time “Don’s a leg[end].”
We met in Guildford before a concert I was conducting. It turned out to be of historic importance that we met in a pub – somewhere unpretentious but where they do the important things right. Don wanted to talk to me about a project he was working on called “Connections.” It was to be focused on the music of Elgar. Don had grown up under the wing of some of Elgar’s closest confidants and greatest interpreters, including Boult. They had given him a special connection to Elgar’s musical legacy, as had Yehudi Menuhin. Menuhin had, of course, made the most famous recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto with Elgar on the podium when he was just a teenager. Menuhin wanted to take more of the music of Elgar to America, so he asked Don for some arrangements he could take on tour. Another connection.
Yehudi Menuhin’s historic recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto under the baton of the conductor. Menuhin was just 16 when this was recorded in 1931. At the end of his long career, he served as Principal Guest conductor of my current orchestra, the English Symphony Orchestra, for nearly a decade after retiring from playing.
Don had the idea to combine Menuhin’s recordings of those 1980’s-era arrangements with new recordings of his arrangements of the Elgar Piano Quintet and his song cycle, Sea Pictures, now arranged for choir. The recording was to take place in Abbey Road Studio One, the space that was opened by Elgar himself, and where many of the great Elgar recordings of the past were made. Another connection!
Elgar conducts the first music ever heard in Abbey Road Studio One – “Please play this tune as if you’ve never heard it before.”
But Don wanted to find an ‘Elgar conductor of the future,’ someone who could carry forward some of what he felt he had inherited from the likes of Menuhin and Boult. To my utter amazement, having seen a video of me conducting Elgar’s First Symphony on YouTube (“you took the introduction too slowly, but it was still good” said Don), Don had decided I fit the bill. Taking him to a good pub didn’t hurt.
That project proved to be life changing. Today, I am the Artistic Director of the Elgar Festival in Elgar’s home city of Worcester (UK). And, between us, Don and I have worked on many more projects together – two more CDs of his arrangements and we went back to Abbey Road just before Covid to record his amazing Sinfonietta for Strings.
Fast forward to 2021, and my sister Cynthia, also a conductor, wanted to commission a piece for her orchestra in Cambridge (MA). It would be a big piece, at least 30 minutes, for cello, soprano and large orchestra. Who could I recommend? Don, of course. Another connection made.
About a month ago, Cynthia wrote to say “Don’s piece is AMAZING.” I was happy for her and for him, but a felt a little twang of FOMO (fear of missing out). Here was this great new Don Fraser project, and I wasn’t involved in it. It wouldn’t even get to hear it.
The last time Cynthia and I collaborated on a cello concerto – the Philip Sawyers Concerto with the Wisconsin Youth Symphony
Then last week, Cynthia messaged me. Their cello soloist had dislocated his shoulder. We went down the list of who might be free and able to learn the piece, and eventually we figured out that I was free. Could I learn the piece? I would have three days to do it, this Sunday- Tuesday. I’d fly from London to Boston on Wednesday, rehearse with the orchestra on Thursday and Saturday, concert Sunday. Could I learn the piece? It’s not like I’ve been touring the world playing cello concerts the last 2 crazy years….. Well, I thought, there may be more athletic cellists in better shape than me, but I know Don’s musical language as well as anyone, and, when it came down to it, this sounded FUN. I know, it should sound dead scary (and may yet be so), but it sounded FUN. Learn a piece at the the speed of light, jump on a flight, have some time with friends and family, go to the pub, play a gig, go to the pub again, come home. Fun! And, after the last couple of years, I’m definitely ready to embrace a bit of risk in the name of adventure and fun.
With that, I was in, and tomorrow, I fly to Boston. A reconnection!
So, if you fancy some great music, pop on down to Somerville on Sunday. You may even make some connections there.
Ken Woods
Post script – Tested positive at the airport. Trip cancelled. What a world we live in.
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