COUNTRYSIDE IS SWEET MUSIC FOR A MAESTRO
COUNTRYSIDE IS SWEET MUSIC FOR A MAESTRO
THE contrast couldnt be greater. One day, the organic farmer, tending his stock on Dorsets chalk hills; the next, on the podium at the Barbican, conducting the London Symphony Orchestra.
But there is one common thread, the passion with which Sir John Eliot Gardiner approaches both pursuits.
Expanding his Aubrac herd is a key project at Gore Farm, Shaftesbury. It is a breed he first encountered in the 1980s in France when, as music director at the Opéra de Lyon, he explored the Massif Central countryside one June weekend. It was a barren landscape, bright with a carpet of jonquils. "I hardly saw a person, but I saw all these cattle," he recalls.
Later, in the mid-1990s, he imported a batch, which was, he concedes, "experimental". But they thrived and, in December 1996, more arrived. Now, it is this countrys only such herd.
Musically, meanwhile, 56-year-old John Eliot continues to meet critical acclaim. "One of the worlds finest conductors," is how the programme described him at The Barbican in London earlier this month.
Next year, he is taking the Monteverdi Choir (which he founded as a Cambridge undergraduate) and the English Baroque Soloists on a cross-Europe tour to mark the 200th anniversary of Bachs death. "It will be a completely crazy year musically."
Such commitments mean much of his time is spent away from Dorset. "But I am on the phone to the farm every day. I would love to spend more time here."
His ties with this part of Dorset are long and complex. He grew up here, learning organic farming from his father, Rolf, who was also an enthusiast. But much of the land was sold after he died, and since then John Eliot has been painstakingly trying to reacquire it. "I have been trying to piece it together ever since," he says.
His farm now amounts to about 600 acres of farmland, with a similar amount of woodland. Some of it is part of the original holding, some of it is new ground. The heart of his fathers farm is not included, and it is not farmed organically now, either. "Which is a bit heartbreaking.
"I wanted to be a farmer and felt that the work my father started was incomplete. Organic farming has always been a passion of mine. It is all about doing the right thing, by the land and by the livestock. A holistic approach, based on self-sufficiency.
"I am frustrated by the governments lack of a coherent environmental policy, a really thought-out, integrated approach to low-input agriculture and the environment."
He is dismissive of suggestions that farming is just a hobby. "Farming was more of a passion to me early on than music." And commercially, it is working, he says. "We are in the black."
But it is not without difficulties. "There are huge problems, like weed control and slugs. You just have to farm that much better. You do not have recourse to the easy option.
"It is much more labour intensive, much more brain intensive. It requires a lot of technical skill and lateral thinking that you would usually get round with a chemical bottle."
Maybe getting away from the farm, travelling, and pursuing something as completely different as he does – having, really, two lives – helps this.
"Conducting is very challenging, physically, mentally and psychologically."
And farming and music are, in many ways, complementary. A good diversion from each other. Some people unwind by lying on a beach or playing chess. He heads back to the farm. "It is home, it is the soil, it is the trees, the animals, the crops, the cycle of the seasons."
It is "real", he says, in a way music is not. "Farming was my first love and has always remained that way." And you can see this, too, watching him back in Dorset. The stockman. Among his Aubrac, feeding them salt from his hand.
"People say they look like Jerseys," he says. "They are not like Jerseys at all. Look at that," he says, pointing out a particularly fine beast, "you dont get an arse like that on a Jersey."
That certainly sounds like the farmer – not the musical maestro – speaking.
The Times,
July 6, 1999, Review
of concert with LSO
"Superman on the Podium… John Eliot Gardiner has come a long way since he burst onto the musical scene 30 years ago… Is there no limit to this mans talent?"
Patrick Holden,
director,
Soil Association
"Good organic farming is a fusion of art and science and he demonstrates that. I am in regular contact with him and he always has an innovative view on new developments. I value his counsel enormously."
Barbican concert-goer, Avril Samuel
"An amazing event. The music was wonderful. He has got so much energy. It was the first time I had seen him conduct, but I will certainly come again."