Take that, Mozart: Gary Barlow tunes up for classical career

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/classical/article6858866.ece

Take that, Mozart: Gary Barlow tunes up for classical career

t is a musical leap that may shock Take That’s millions of fans. Gary Barlow is the latest pop star to try bridging the cultural chasm between pop and classical.


With five Ivor Novello Awards for songwriting and 30 million record sales behind him, Barlow’s work has become one of Britain’s most successful musical exports. Now he is seeking entry into the world of symphonies and arias as composer and talentspotter.





Speaking to The Times from a New York studio, Barlow said: “I’ve set up my own record label, Future, and my first signing is a classical soprano.





“I had a small amount of classical training as a child and my mother was disappointed I didn’t go down that route. Now I’ve come round to her way of thinking.”




Pop stars who have dabbled in classical forms include Sir Paul McCartney, who composed Liverpool Oratorio, and Sting, whose album of lute music divided critics.





To begin with, Barlow will guide the career of Camilla Kerslake, 21, a four-octave coloratura soprano, who bombarded the star with demo tapes of her singing Ave Maria at his London recording studio. “I never thought a classical artist would be my first signing but I was entranced by this beautiful, pure voice,” he said.





Barlow, 38, who admits that his knowledge of classical terminology is nascent, added: “She didn’t have that wobbly, operatic sound.”





As for the kind of music he is better known for, he confirmed that there is to be a reunion between Take That and Robbie Williams. A chance meeting at the New York studio where Take That are putting the finishing touches to a live album went well.





Barlow said: “It was great to see Robbie. I’ve heard his new album and it’s absolutely fantastic. We definitely will work together in the future, we just don’t know when.”





A master of the three-minute radio hit, he is ready to broaden his composing style: “I’m using the classical skills I learnt more and more. I really like that world and I’d like to take it further in the future. The biggest issue is getting mainstream radio audiences to hear classical.”





Barlow could even become a classical Simon Cowell. “X Factor-type shows only discover a certain kind of performer,” he said. “I’m looking for people with a different set of values, in pop songwriting or classical.”





With illegal filesharing wiping £180million each year off the value of the recorded music industry, Barlow will leave the limelight to become a backseat impressario. “I love my stagework but I see my future as helping to discover the next generation of talent. As Take That we only get to record 12 songs every two years. I want to be involved in music all the time.”





Will Kerslake be a success? Terry Wogan is a fan of her version of She Moved Through the Fair, which suggests that she is heading for the lucrative classical crossover market.

Kerslake said: “I knew it was uncool to listen to opera as a kid, but I didn’t care because I loved it.”





She said of her four-octave range: “I am more like a boy soprano, someone who can sing so lightly and so high that, in the upper ranges, I become almost like an instrument.”

Source: GBML