NZSO bassist Nicholas Sandle reflects on 50 years in concert

NZSO Assistant Sub-Principal Emeritus Nicholas Sandle. Photo / Supplied.

After 50 years with the NZSO, bassist Nicholas Sandle is hanging up his bow. He tells Richard Betts why the orchestra's in better shape than ever and about the need to be in good order for every performance.

It's 1970. New Zealand is home to 2.8 million people. An average house costs $8719. US Vice-President Spiro Agnew visits and is welcomed by hundreds of unimpressed Vietnam War protestors.

In music, there are massive hits for Simon & Garfunkel (Bridge Over Troubled Water) and John Rowles, whose Cheryl Moana Marie makes a splash both here and overseas. However, the biggest songs come from The Kinks and our own Maria Dallas, who each spend six weeks atop the national singles charts with, respectively, Lola and Pinocchio.

In Wellington, 19-year-old double bassist Nicholas Sandle gives his first performance as a trainee with the NZBC Symphony Orchestra. Fast-forward half a century and roughly 2500 concerts – and throw in a name change from NZBC to NZSO – and Sandle puts away his bow for the last time when he retires after this week's concerts in Wellington and Auckland.

He was almost a clarinettist, choosing double bass, aged 13, only at the suggestion of his father, who reasoned his son would find it easier to secure a job. Sandle's been an orchestral musician ever since, though he enjoyed a harmless flirtation with bluegrass in the 70s.

"[Bluegrass] was fairly popular at the time," he says. "I think it was as much a social activity as a musical one." Sandle does less socialising these days – "I'm much happier to be at home in bed with a cup of cocoa" – and admits that when he started out, orchestral musicians weren't as professional as they are today.

"There's certainly much greater awareness of the need to be in good order for every performance," he says. Correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation but Sandle says the main way the orchestra has changed during his tenure is the rise in quality. A greater dedication to sobriety isn't the only reason for the improvement; the players also undergo a more rigorous selection process.

NZSO Assistant Sub-Principal Emeritus Nicholas Sandle. Photo / Supplied

"There's been a policy that when someone retires, try to find someone even better," Sandle notes. "It's a much more difficult orchestra to get into."

In the 1970s, when graduating from trainee to fully fledged orchestra member, the bassist faced only a brief audition and had none of the angst musicians experience now when they apply for a job. "Ten minutes later, the orchestra manager came in and said, 'That's fine; you start on Tuesday.' I was the only candidate."

Every place is now hotly contested, with dozens vying for every vacancy. Sandle thinks that in many ways musicians are better prepared than he was. Orchestral players are mostly university-educated, many to masters level and beyond.

"Young people's education is wider than mine was and equips them to do other things. You might learn about composing, arranging and even administration. The type of training I had would not be so good because the chances of going straight into work [as an orchestral musician] are a lot smaller today."

Not everything is rosier now, though. Sandle reckons that some aspects of life as a full-time player can't be learnt in a lecture theatre.

"My observation is that since the demise of training orchestras, [graduates] are not so prepared for a career as an orchestral musician," he says. "We learned the skills needed on the job."

Sandle is reluctant to single out favourite performances – he mentions concerts with the legendary cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, New Zealand bass-baritone Sir Donald McIntyre and the Dutch mezzo Jard van Nes, and reckons Franz-Paul Decker was the best conductor he's played with – but says it's the small things he remembers most fondly.

"Sometimes it's one of your colleagues; maybe a wind soloist will play something absolutely striking and you think to yourself, 'Oh, that was quite something'."

When you've played 2500 concerts, of course, not all of them will be quite something and you won't like every piece you play. Sandle's not a fan, for example, of spiky mid-century modernism – he calls it "squeaky gate music" – but he insists his opinion of neither the pieces nor the performances matters.

"To my mother, every [NZSO] concert was wonderful. I didn't understand this. I'd say, 'Didn't you hear this or that?' Now I can see she was able to immerse herself in the music and have an experience that the odd blemish didn't detract from."

Sandle insists music is best heard live, and that streaming concerts from an empty hall, as the NZSO did during the Covid lockdown, is a completely different sensation to playing before an audience.

"Music involves the people and the space and the tangible feeling of excitement. One of the most important things in my career has been the enjoyment the audience shows after concerts.

"The thing is," Sandle says, waxing philosophical, "in a way we're not just playing to people in a concert hall. The people [who attend concerts] take that experience out to their families and workplaces and spread that feeling of wellbeing."

The Lowdown
What: NZSO Podium Series – Spectacular
Where and When: Saturday November 21
See nzso.co.nz for more