In the media:

Television: David recently appeared on BBC News discussing new directions for orchestral music in London. Click here to view

Radio: Coming soon: an extended interview on BBC Radio 2 “Good Morning Sunday”

Internet: A profile on the website yogaabode.com looks at the influence of yoga on David’s conducting. Click here to view

Looking ahead to the Premiere of the Shankar Symphony: http://netnewmusic.net/reblog/archives/2009/04/yogic_maestro_t.html 

In the press:

Click here for a recent profile in the Royal Society of Arts Journal

Reviews:

The (Janáček Sinfonietta) spoke of the influence of Charles Mackerras, with whom he has worked, in an account full of vivid colour and capped by a splendiferous brass-filled finale. The Sibelius, (Second Symphony) according to a note in the programme, was following a new authoritative edition and an attempt to recreate the composer’s own reputedly faster tempi, but it never sounded rushed, and the work as a whole was superbly handled by both conductor and orchestra. Matthew Rye, Daily Telegraph (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Royal Festival Hall Janáček Sinfonietta, Sibelius 2nd Symphony)

The concert began with the marvellous open-air fanfares of Janáček’s Sinfonietta played on auxiliary brass positioned behind the orchestra. David Murphy, conducting without the score, guided the players with considerable skill through the ever-changing evocation of joyous celebration of a life-time’s experience of writing idiosyncratic music that is both profound and playful.

The concert ended with Sibelius’s most popular symphony. The conductor’s recent research into the composer’s intentions regarding tempo relationships produced a swift pulse in the first movement….(at this time of his life) Sibelius evidently suffered something of a nervous breakdown. His anxiety can be heard in the symphony and a fast initial tempo in the first movement produces a sensation of fluctuating emotions grounded in a querulous state of mind….The closing peroration displays Sibelius’s ability to convert an instinctive fear of an uncertain fate to a sense of triumph over adversity. Long thought of as paean to nationalist pride, the Second Symphony now appears to be a testament of the composer’s belief in the human spirit…Murphy captured the composer’s humanity superbly well and the final moments produced a surge of optimism…..It was a considerable achievement. We should hear more from this gifted conductor.  Edward Clarke classicalsource.com (RPO/RFH Janáček, Sibelius)

David Murphy (conductor) brings out the best of the company in what is the highlight of a very successful Longborough Festival Opera. Gordon Parsons- Morning Star (Mozart Cosi fan tutte: Longborough Festival Opera)

Young conductor David Murphy does not press on the musicians, yet he most surely leads them. His technique is extremely expressive and plastique, and he has a wonderful ability to let the sound take off Culture Magazine, Moscow (London Chamber Players, Haydn, Mozart & Schoenberg: Tchaikovsky Hall, Moscow)

The young Welsh conductor David Murphy showed excellent control and insight in these masterworks, and he played a truly sympathetic part in the sarod concerto Artsmart, Durban (Mozart 25, Khan Sarod Concerto, Beethoven 5: KZNPO)

David Murphy is, in my opinion, an outstanding musician who is admired not only by other conductors but by most of the musicians who play under him. For a conductor to receive such wide approval from so many orchestral musicians as David has is rare indeed and shows the high quality and integrity of this young artist.

David certainly has one of the most interesting musical minds of any of the younger generation of conductors and I would heartily recommend him to anyone interested in a musician with an original and fresh approach to the music he conducts, plus a flawless baton technique Sir Charles Mackerras

one of the most promising and original artists of his generation Martin Lovett OBE

At peace with the world The Hindu: 27/2/09

 

ANJANA RAJAN

 

Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan collaborated with David Murphy and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to present Samaagam across Indian cities.

 

 

Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

soul strings Amjad Ali Khan performing with Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by David Murphy. If ever there was a time when artists — to paraphrase Shelley, who said it only of poets — needed to shoulder their responsibility of being the ‘unacknowledged legislators of the world’, it must be now. Even as wars across the world relentlessly reveal the futility of violence, politicians and governments continue to go to war, using words, deeds and the conventional lethal weapons. Meanwhile, artists seem all the more determined to spread peace using music, dance and the visual arts as languages of harmony. Among the latest such efforts was the concert Samaagam, when sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan and Western classical music conductor David Murphy came to India with a jugalbandi of a different kind — between the sarod and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.This past Friday, Samaagam was presented in Delhi, following a debut Indian tour that played to packed houses and standing ovations in other cities like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chandigarh. Samaagam was earlier presented to much acclaim in the U.K.Murphy, a Fellow of the U.K.’s Royal Society of Arts, is known for his interest in yoga. This interest developed out of his engagement with Indian music, said the conductor during his Delhi stopover last week. It was also a result of his interest in Indian philosophy, as the three fields are interwoven. Yoga is good for a musician of any genre, said Murphy, adding, “It frees them up physically, it frees them up mentally and it helps them concentrate.” He added that the heightened awareness gives them the “ability to hear better.”Though not trained in any Indian instrument, Murphy explained that his understanding of Indian music came with experience. “I trained as part of working with Indian musicians,” said Murphy. “I’ve learnt most of what I know working with Pandit Ravi Shankar.” He has also over the course of the years, in which he has been to India several times, worked with other Indian artistes.A counterpoint

 

Khan was his enthusiastic self while talking about the project. “They are brilliant musicians,” he reiterated, talking about the members of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. As for composing raga-based music for musicians not used to this system of melody and tala, the ustad explained that, apart from the fact that they were quick on the uptake, “The whole music is written. I play my role, and they play theirs. There is a counterpoint with the sarod throughout.”

He is particularly enamoured of the role of harmony and counterpoint, which do not find prominence in Indian classical music. “I like to say that swaras are like the sun, and the counterpoint and harmonisation are like the rays of the sun.”

World music is no longer an unfamiliar term to audiences. It has been a natural consequence of musicians from different parts of the world meeting their counterparts from various genres, because collaboration and discovery are at the core of the art of music. However, what is also at the core of world music is its state of perennial change. One encounter is never like another. So Samaagam, on which Khan and Murphy have been working for nearly three years, is at once familiar and unknown.

Both maestros felt that projects such as Samaagam are the need of the hour. Besides, noted Khan, today audiences need a really big attraction to come out of their homes to watch a live show. They needed to be convinced, he said, that those who didn’t make it to Siri Fort last week had missed a never-to-be-repeated opportunity. The crowds were obviously convinced. “There are six names responsible for helping us,” Khan emphasised, and reeled them off: “The Scottish government, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Seagrams 100 Pipers, Show House, the British Council and Askonas Holt.”

Murphy, against the backdrop of growing interest in world music, said, “Now it’s the time for this type of music,” adding that it is more relevant now than ever before.