A concerto for silent soloists: my encounter with Gavin Sutherland, music director of English National Ballet

Gavin Sutherland rehearses Kenneth MacMillan's Song of the Earth with English National Ballet
and the ENB Philharmonic, Manchester, October 2017

The conductor Gavin Sutherland is a busy man at the moment, the music director of English National Ballet (ENB), he is in the middle of the company's Christmas season, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake and Manon at the London Coliseum from 13 December 2018 to 20 January 2019. When we meet up, he is engagingly enthusiastic and knowledgeable about ENB, ballet and more despite having had the opening of The Nutcracker the night before.

When I ask him how things are going, he tells me that much of the season is a sell-out and only Kenneth MacMillan's Manon remains a harder sell. Manon is dear to Gavin's heart because it was his first new production as music director in 2008, and is part of artistic director Tamara Rojo's desire to keep challenging audiences, rather than presenting them with wall-to-wall Nutcrackers at Christmas, as well as aiming to expand ENB audiences. (Manon is not the only MacMillan ballet in ENB's repertoire, the company also dances Song of the Earth).

The production famously challenges the Royal Ballet on its home territory, and the production of Manon (a work created for the Royal Ballet by Kenneth MacMillan) was taken into ENB's repertoire when Wayne Eagling was ENB's artistic director, and Eagling had danced in the early performances of Manon at Covent Garden (according to the Royal Opera House performance database Eagling danced a small role in the premiere of Manon on 7 March 1974, and with Jennifer Penny led the second cast later the same month).

In fact, ENB are using a production of Manon taken from Royal Danish Ballet which Gavin describes as very spartan, and he feels that it achieves the right balance with a minimum of suggestion which heightens the audience's delight in the work.

That ENB is mounting such a different production at the London Coliseum, a short walk from Covent Garden, only heightens the element of competition, something that Gavin loves. He feels that ENB is in strong form at the moment, with a large company, impressive principals and tight ensemble.

Gavin Sutherland and the ENB Philharmonic in rehearsal, The Warehouse, London, June 2017.

The orchestra is on good form too, and with so many performances to play over a six week period, the orchestra members have started taking sports science classes; this year was the first time that they were offered and 28 players have started doing them.

The company's season has a nice Christmas atmosphere, of a reserved kind feels Gavin, and this year there are just 23 performances of The Nutcracker alongside Swan Lake and Manon. When we meet, Gavin was just recovering from the previous night's opening of The Nutcracker, and the company has eight shows during the following week (Tuesday to Friday evenings with two on Saturday and two on Sunday). And whilst Gavin does not conduct every performance, it can still be tiring, as it can for all the players.

He feels that they rise to the occasion, particularly as they have an appreciative and enthusiastic audience, and are performing music by some of the great Romantic composers. And with The Nutcracker, Gavin comments on Tchaikovsky's cleverness at not putting into the suites the music from the two big pas de deux, so that you only get the real meat of the show during the full length ballet. And this remarkable music is accompanied by some challenging choreography (ENB's version of The Nutcracker is choreographed by Wayne Eagling), so there is no room for injury with the dancers.

Gavin will be conducting 10 performances of The Nutcracker (out of 23), seven of Swan Lake (out of 14) and five of Manon (out of eight). He has pulled back a little this year, and some years he has conducted 28 performances of The Nutcracker and by the time you reach performance number 26 the smile is getting a bit tight and Christmas is well past. In fact, he comments that it becomes all too easy to simply give the audience a show, to just click the baton but Gavin feels that it is important to bring much more to each performance. And in the process he manages to burn around 1750 calories per performance!

English National Ballet in Manon © Laurent Liotardo.

Conducting ballet is a very particular art.