Richard Tognetti is an innovator. He's not afraid to put together what may seem at first like an unusual collection of pieces. So don't be startled by the idea of combining three remarkable works by Beethoven with a new work by Radiohead guitarist and film music composer Jonny Greenwood. But then one realises that these two composers, working more than two centuries apart, share a common achievement: both have blazed musical trails.
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When Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C, Op. 21 was premiered in Vienna in 1800 it ushered in a new phase in the development of symphonic music. Beethoven would become one of the greatest innovators in the history of music. And Greenwood, in the words of Tognetti, "is, I believe, the first celebrated pop musician who has been able to straddle the world of classical music."
While Beethoven (as far as we know) never played the guitar he played the violin and viola as well as the piano and other keyboard instruments. Greenwood, best known as a guitarist, also plays the piano along with a plethora of other instruments. Greenwood is an aggressive player who, in the 1990s wore an arm brace to relieve repetitive strain injury. Beethoven was also known as an aggressive performer, notorious for damaging pianos with the ferocity of his playing. The two of them would probably have got on famously.
In 2010 the Australian Chamber Orchestra performed the Australian premiere of Greenwood's Popcorn Superhet Receiver, an intricately detailed, multi-layered work. Then in 2012 Greenwood spent several weeks in the orchestra studio in Sydney working with Tognetti and the orchestra to create his new work, Water, which will also have its Australian premiere on this tour. It's a work for strings, piano and the South Asian instrument, the tambura, which Greenwood first encountered in India.
The concert will open with a dramatic Beethoven work: his Coriolan Overture, Op. 62, followed by Beethoven's Triple Concerto in C, Op. 56. Joining Tognetti and principal cello Timo-Veikko Valve as soloists in this work will be Russian-born pianist Yevgeny Sudbin. He's been described by Daniel Steans in Piano magazine as "an artist who seems destined to take his place among the elect," and by the Independent's music critic as "a pianist of uncommon sensitivity and refinement."
Sudbin was in Australia last year playing concerts in Adelaide but he hasn't yet fulfilled his ambition to perform at the Sydney Opera House and to visit the cities that he missed on that last trip, including Canberra. Sudbin's first musical training was in St Petersburg where he lived until he was 10 years old. "It was very intensive musical training," he says. "I didn't realise how disciplined I was until I came away. But if you do something well it is recognised and you feel very satisfied." He says that a superficial but noticeable difference in Russian training is that when a performer plays a concert he is not allowed to smile or show any sort of happy expression when he finishes. "Perhaps that's why many Russian musicians look as though they hate playing concerts!"
Sudbin's Russian teacher accompanied him to Berlin where he spent the next ten years before moving to London where he now lives. He has also spent time in the United States working with the Finnish conductor, Osmo Vanska, and the Minnesota Orchestra. "He's a fantastic personality," Sudbin says, "I think we clicked immediately and we made several recordings together of Beethoven concertos."
We discuss the importance of a comfortable understanding between conductor and performer. "It's the most important thing," he says. "You need understanding and respect as well. I don't usually argue no matter how famous the conductor but if you have to, you argue through music." While during preparation for concerts he is willing to compromise about interpretation and tempo he is much less willing to do so when making a recording. "A recording is something for posterity; it's forever, so for me it's very important to have it played with the best interpretation."
So how does Sudbin feel about playing the Triple concerto with Tognetti, one of the soloists, also conducting? "I've not done this before," he says. "It'll be interesting to see how it works. I'm very curious and excited because I know that the orchestra is fantastic. I can't wait to work with them."
And is the Triple Concerto, as The Guardian declared, "three times the fun?" Sudbin laughs. "I'm not sure. It's a great piece and quite challenging. It's not like a typical concerto where you can dominate everything. You really have to listen to and appreciate the other performers."
He describes making a recording and playing a concert as almost two different art forms. The perfectionist Sudbin loves to make recordings even though in the studio a performer is so exposed when every note must be crystal clear, every entry immaculate, every nuance of interpretation perfectly executed. And doesn't he miss the vibes from an audience? He laughs again. "But I'm very good at imagining things," he says. "I guess I'm a very self-contained person."
Richard Tognetti and the Australia Chamber Orchestra play Llewellyn Hall on Saturday, November 1, 8pm. Bookings on ticketek.com.au 1300 795 012.