It鈥檚 a foggy November night in the Italian city of Parma and the Auditorium Paganini 鈥 home of the city鈥檚 orchestra, the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini 鈥 is buzzing.
The concert hall is a towering glass box, slotted inside the yellow walls of a disused sugar factory by Italy鈥檚 superstar architect Renzo Piano 鈥 the man who designed the Shard in London.
But the conductor who silences the crowd with the opening onslaught of Britten鈥檚 Sinfonia da Requiem is a Brummie: Alpesh Chauhan, an alumnus of Handsworth Grammar School and since the start of the 2017-18 season, principal conductor of this very Italian orchestra.
How Italian? Well put it this way: the post-concert party serves whole wheels of parmesan cheese, chilled prosecco and Parma ham, sliced before your eyes. I could get used to this, and Chauhan already has.
鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to try the ham,鈥 he enthuses. 鈥淚t鈥檚 culatello, the real prime cut; they don鈥檛 export it to England. It鈥檚 so beautiful; really sweet鈥.
You get the distinct sense that, at 27, he鈥檚 fallen on his feet 鈥 and of course he鈥檚 not the first Englishman to enjoy la dolce vita. But that鈥檚 to overlook what we鈥檝e just experienced: an orchestra playing to the very limits of its powers in the Sinfonia da Requiem, followed by a performance of Brahms鈥檚 German Requiem that鈥檚 unlike any I鈥檝e heard before.
Part of that鈥檚 down to the sound of the Parma orchestra. There鈥檚 an edge to their sound, as well as a sweetness; and each player shapes their melodies as if they鈥檙e singing. The chorus 鈥 borrowed from the opera house in nearby Piacenza (imagine a city the size of Worcester having year-round opera) 鈥 charges the words of the Requiem with fiery intensity. And at the front, in his unshowy way, Chauhan is shaping their response: moving it forward, building Brahms鈥檚 long, soaring phrases into something bigger than the sum of their parts.
We鈥檙e a long way from Brum. But at the same time, we鈥檙e not so far at all. Chauhan was the assistant conductor from 2014 to 2016, and he鈥檚 still a regular at (he conducted the CBSO Benevolent Fund concert this October).
It鈥檚 barely more than a decade since he first held a baton in earnest 鈥 in Lucy Akehurst鈥檚 Bournville String Orchestra, and shortly afterwards under the mentorship of Michael Seal in the CBSO Youth Orchestra. And it was just a decade earlier that he discovered classical music, when he saw his future teacher Veronica Raven demonstrating the cello in an assembly at Hall Green Primary School.
鈥淭hat same day I went home with a cello,鈥 he recalls. 鈥淪omething just clicked for me. My parents saw that straight away, and they said 鈥極K, if you want to do this, why not?鈥. Western classical music wasn鈥檛 part of our life at home then, but there was always Bollywood music going on, which is so orchestral that the leap from that to Tchaikovsky and Puccini was actually quite small.
鈥淚t鈥檚 all so heart-on-sleeve. A teacher at my secondary school let me have some old orchestral scores, and I started looking at them and thinking 鈥榳ow, OK: what鈥檚 going on here?鈥欌
And so he took his first steps onto the conductor鈥檚 podium 鈥 first with the Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, later at the Royal Northern College of Music, and then with the CBSO. Birmingham has always looked after local talent. But what happened next seems to have taken everyone by surprise. Called into Parma at the last minute in 2015 after another conductor cancelled, once again something seems to have just clicked. 鈥淗e was amazing, really amazing鈥 says Rosetta Cucchi, the artistic director of the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, and Chauhan鈥檚 new boss. 鈥淧arma is a welcoming town, especially for someone like Alpesh, who is curious. He loves wine, he loves food, and he can take musicians out for dinner and be friends. But when they are in rehearsal there is no question: he is the maestro.鈥
The local critics are already impressed: one review hails this 鈥渇antastic English maestro鈥orn to conduct鈥.
Like any Birmingham musician, Chauhan knows just how much an orchestra can do for a city. But he鈥檚 worked hard to get this far: and he鈥檚 about to work a lot harder. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first time a local critic has actually called the orchestra 鈥榦ur orchestra鈥. That was incredibly heart-warming for me: the city鈥檚 falling in love with their orchestra, they鈥檙e taking ownership. So we don鈥檛 sit back and relax: we go on from there, to the next level. And we鈥檙e really ready to go!鈥
