Gresley BY BENJAMIN ELLIN AND C HRISTIAN JONES
On 7 October Christian Jones gave the world première of Benjamin Ellin’s bass trombone concerto Gresley, at the Town Hall, Huddersfield, accompanied by the Orchestra of Opera North. Benjamin and Christian tell the story of how the work came into being and how it took on even greater meaning as the COVID pandemic developed.
Benjamin Ellin I’ve known Christian Jones since 1996, when he and I were part of the National Youth Orchestra. As a young tuba player, and a budding composer and conductor, I found myself sitting a ‘few doors down’ from one of the nicest people I’d ever met – who also loved playing low octaves in great symphonic repertoire – which we did with great commitment! I was immersed in a world of wonderful music-making and great camaraderie. Both our lives have evolved somewhat since those early days, but there was always a desire to collaborate in the future on a big composition project and Gresley has provided the perfect vehicle to realise our long-held aim. At a meeting before Covid had changed the landscape of all our lives, arguably forever, the broad plan for a full concerto commission for Opera North and Christian was hatched. We were both committed to creating a work that did not go near any of the stereotypes of what a trombone concerto is, the typical ‘licks’ – to use the jazz phrase – or theatrical gestures that people often associate with the trombone and with which they subsequently pigeonhole the instrument
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and player. We wanted to leave a substantial work, one that players would want to challenge themselves to play, enjoy playing but also feel musically satisfied with. Equally, we knew we had to create a work that would be seen as a serious offering to the entire concerto genre, a strong concerto in its own right and not just bracketed as a brass concerto. The challenge was high. I knew Christian would be incredible and the Orchestra of Opera North are first-class so where would I start to hang the many musical ideas we both had? I hadn’t immediately decided on the influence of Sir Nigel Gresley, the famous railway engineer, on the work. What I was fascinated by, following talking with Christian and exploring subtle and new ideas for the solo writing, were machines, gears, systems, the mechanical textures and layers of how things work independently to enable a much bigger ‘thing’ to exist and work. The work of Sir Nigel then became an obvious direction: the creation of huge, beautiful and thrilling steam engines that broke world records and transformed journeys, noted for their beauty but also their mechanical brilliance. There was also an obvious connotation, an association really, between heavy engineering and the might of the brass instrument and as this concert was born in the North of England it all resonated true. Then, two things happened. At the same time as researching the tragedy of Sir Nigel’s wife, who had died from cancer, the Covid pandemic struck the world. All our lives had been changed overnight in the UK when the lockdown hit and anyone who hitherto
