JOEL ASHFORD, the horn soloist in the Strauss Horn Concerto No. 2 in our November 2023 Concert, talks to our regular KPO interviewer, PHILIP RHAM

 

Philip  Joel, welcome and thank you for being interviewed for our KPO website. Normally I ask about our soloist's past, but actually we already know you because you played for the KPO horn section while you were growing up.

Joel  Yes, I used to help out at occasional rehearsals as quite a young schoolboy until there was a vacancy and I joined on a more full-time basis.

Philip  I noticed you were principal horn for the National Youth Orchestra from 2014 to 2016 but I have a feeling you played for us before then, didn't you?

Joel  Yes I did, and actually it was because of the KPO it all started: when I was very young I was taken along to KPO concert days by mum, and during rehearsals sat behind the wonderful horns of the KPO including Jeremy, Laurie and Stephen.

Philip  I was going to ask you how you came to play the horn and in fact it was the KPO - that's great to hear! I And before I go any further, I must just clarify that your mother is in fact our principal oboist Liz Rantzen and you have a sister who plays the viola, don't you?

Joel  Yes. My sister's a wonderful musician but she doesn't play as a professional.

Philip  So how did it go on from the early days?

Joel  I started with a teacher called Clare Gibb at seven, and seeing that I was keen, she recommended me to go to her former teacher Sue Dent at the RCM Junior College. Sue was a really amazing teacher, and I was lucky to have her for about eight years.

Philip  Was there ever a time when you said, "I don't want to do this anymore, it's not working for me, I'm not making the right sound", or did you always feel "I'm really gelling with this instrument"?

Joel  "I can't do it; I'm not making the right sound": that describes a lot of the days I play - I'll let you know when that feeling goes away!

Philip  Well, the horn is renowned for being the most challenging of instruments to learn.

Joel  There's a lot of chat about horn playing and I think people really get bogged down, especially in the States. They get obsessed about breathing, about embouchure and about the diaphragm - this membrane over which you have no control. Because it is a difficult and unforgiving instrument people get quite neurotic about it and try to search for reasons why things aren't going right, but some of the best advice I ever had, was from old-school teachers who insisted I "just blow the bloody thing and forget everything else".

Philip  In a way I think you're right - you can become too precious, can't you?

Joel  Yes, you can really tie yourself in knots especially with an instrument that's so temperamental, or you yourself can be dehydrated or tired, or burn your mouth on some hot food...

Philip  Or the atmosphere in the room might make a difference?

Joel  Yes, and the altitude you're at.

Philip  Just to finish the training history...

Joel  I didn't go to a specialist music school, I did my A levels at school in London, and I'm very pleased that I had a rounded education. I have lots of interests outside the horn, and to be quite honest, trying to schedule practice in the lunchtimes was good practice for time management, which has proved quite useful as a freelancer.

Philip  So, you finished A levels and then you went to RCM?

Joel  I got the opportunity to study with a real hero of mine, Jeff Bryant, who dominated the scene for about fifty years. He was principal horn of the RPO, the LSO and the Midlands Light Orchestra. He tried retiring three times and only succeeded on the fourth attempt. I caught him right at the end of his career, and he was very uncomplicated and unpretentious. Jeff was a wonderful musician, but also incredibly practical - he used to say that there are precious few days as a professional horn player when you wake up and everything will feel good. You'll either be tired, coming back from a trip, or have had a heavy concert the night before. He taught me the importance of a practical approach.

Philip  Well that would be very useful for you, because I notice you've played with a lot of orchestras already; how long ago did you leave the RCM?

Joel  Two years ago now, and orchestral rather than solo playing has formed the bulk of my career to date, on stage and in the pit for opera, ballet and West End shows.

Philip  Is orchestral playing what you prefer?

Joel  Solo and chamber playing is great as an occasional treat, but I get huge day-to-day job satisfaction from orchestral playing.

Philip  Is it a nice break for you to do West End shows?

Joel  I wouldn't call it a break, Philip, they're pretty heavy lifting , but you're right that it's a different style. I am lucky enough to do Phantom of the Opera, Lion King and Les Miserables all quite regularly. West End has been a new departure for me since the pandemic, and I absolutely love it. If you're playing the French horn you want to be surrounded by nice people, and the population of the West End pits is hugely collegiate and big-hearted - it's a real community feel.

Philip  And have you got into session playing?

Joel  I do a bit of classical recording and the occasional video game.

Philip  But I'd suggest to you, Joel, that your ultimate goal would be to become a principal horn of a leading symphony orchestra?

Joel  I enjoy all orchestral playing very much - I love playing the tunes as principal, and I think I raise my game when given that sort of challenge, but also sitting downwind from great horn players you learn so much. They make bits you consider difficult sound so easy. It's good in fact to do both, as principal and as part of the supporting group.

Philip  So it's a mutual benefit society, the horn section then?

Joel  Absolutely! It's incredibly collegiate.

Philip  So you're going to be our soloist in the Strauss Horn Concerto no. 2 at our forthcoming concert. How do you approach it? Listen to recordings? Look at the history of the piece?

Joel  Well, I'm very conscious that the two horn concertos are in a way the book ends of Strauss's life.

Philip  Yes, he wrote the second in 1942, seven years before he died.

Joel  It's a massive contrast to the first one, which he wrote as a teenager - I find it fascinating that they're such different pieces. The first one is lovely but the second includes everything that went before: the 'Four Last Songs', his operas, and so much else.

Philip  And yet it was not a nice period for him, 1942. He had a Jewish daughter-in-law in Nazi Germany and he was struggling to make ends meet.

Joel  And he was under fire from both sides: the Nazis thought he wasn't toeing the party line and everyone else thought he was a collaborator just because he carried on playing under them.

Philip  But despite those stresses, he produces this music which is full of long lines - it's almost as if the horn is trying to calm us down; the orchestra has moving agitated phrases, while the horn is riding above them.

Joel  Absolutely so. The bit that comes to mind is the last section of the first movement. The movement starts full of bravura, and then suddenly it just winds down into this dreamy passage. I think it's one of my favourite bits of all Strauss because there are these wild chord progressions where you think, "Where did that come from?" and then you realise that they could never have been otherwise.

Philip  What are the challenges for you technically in this piece?

Joel  It's such a conversational piece, there's a different challenge every line until it gets to the last movement where it sets off at a rate of knots and it's a case of, "see you at the end, and may the best man win!" There's this great moment which will be very special for me, where the solo horn leads the orchestral horns into battle, right on the last page of the solo part; everything stops and it's a case of "Come on, the lads!", which will be a lovely thing to play with the KPO horns.

Philip  Well, we're looking forward to it immensely. I just wanted to ask you, now that you're a professional horn player, it's full on, isn't it and so I was wondering what you do to chill out, like sports, or cooking or crosswords, or what?

Joel  Well, being a musician regularly means quite unsociable hours, but I do love life on two wheels. I like cycling round London to unwind and when I go out of London, I tend to get on the motorbike.

Philip  Do you go on cycling holidays? Do you go that far?

Joel  I'm not good at taking holidays in general, actually! But in terms of hobbies, it'll come as no surprise to a lot of people that I'm pretty obsessed with trains - I really love trains!

Philip  Steam trains, normal trains?

Joel  All trains!

Philip  Are you a secret trainspotter, Joel?!!?

Joel  How dare you! I don't collect numbers, I just like looking at trains and travelling in them.
And I'm my mother's son so I do like cooking - my mother's brilliant but she can't cook porridge.

Philip  Well, your father can do that.

Joel  No, he cooks curries.

Philip  Sounds like a culinary household. What's your speciality?

Joel  Ooh, I love cooking Chinese food.

Philip  Well that almost leads seamlessly to my last question, but I just wanted to finish asking you about your training - I notice you've been coached by Vlatkovic, the great horn player - what was that like?

Joel  Amazing - yes that was part of this fantastic scheme called the Erasmus Project, for which UK students are sadly no longer eligible because of Brexit. That was in my third year at RCM, and I spent five or six months in Salzburg at the Mozarteum.

Philip  Did you learn a lot there?

Joel  I did. It was really interesting because it's a very different pace of life, and studying with Radovan was amazing.

Philip  Were you one-to-one or in a group?

Joel  It was very different from British conservatoire tradition. You always had your one-to-one lesson, but all the other students would watch - and that was a real culture shock! Then you'd have group lessons and warm-ups, and class concerts where you'd play for your peers, so basically you had to become completely desensitised to who was in front of you. It took me a while to get my head round it.

Philip  Have you ever been tempted by the baroque world?

Joel  I studied natural horn at RCM with Roger Montgomery who's the supremo of the natural horn world. It's in my arsenal for a rainy day, but I don't do much of it at the moment.

Philip  Is it quite a select group? Is there a lot of crossover between natural and modern?

Joel  There is a small group who focus on period instruments all the time, but equally there are modern horn players who also play natural horn and they are marvellous musicians. I'm really glad I learned natural horn, because as the ancestor of the modern instrument it really does inform your playing, especially in Mozart and Beethoven where certain tone colours were available with the 18th century instruments which haven't translated into the modern horn.

Philip  Now, do horn players insure their lips, because they're your lifeblood, aren't they?

Joel  That's a good question. I'm sure pianists insure their fingers, but in the end you can't worry about being in cold weather and possibly splitting your lips, and there are so many other possible injuries which could bring your playing to a sudden standstill.

Philip  Now you've just played horn for the Aurora Orchestra in The Rite of Spring at the Proms - what was it like playing in that and how on earth did you learn that music off by heart?

Joel  I listened to it a lot - I probably looked angry in Tesco's while I was listening to the Sacrificial Dance. In the end I could sing it in my head from start to finish and I tried to have the music in front of me as little as possible when practising. I'd been told that the scariest moment in any Aurora project is when the music stand is taken away and you're left with this void in front of you, and of course the conductor doesn't have a score either. It requires a crazy amount of things to not go wrong, but in the event the concerts didn't feel dangerous memory-wise at all. It was really thrilling, actually, because we knew it so well.

Philip  OMG! Mind-blowing. Final question which I always ask at the end of my interviews - who would you invite to your dream dinner - and obviously I know what you'd cook for them, as we've already mentioned it?

Joel  I hope you're not expecting a serious answer. I'd definitely have Rik Mayall, Sir John Betjeman....

Philip  No horn players then?

Joel  Nah, horn players are a really odd bunch! I'd love to invite Princess Margaret as well.

Philip  I'm loving it! What are you going to cook for this marvellous array of people?

Joel  I'd make them a lasagne and butterscotch Angel Delight for dessert!

Philip  Wonderful!! Thanks again for your time, Joel, and looking forward to your performance with us in the Strauss.

(Photo credit - Kira Doherty)