Interview with violist Lawrence Power | EUROtoday

Lawrence Power gehört zu den führenden Bratschisten unserer Zeit. Am kommenden Samstag eröffnet er die Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele mit der deutschen Erstaufführung von Cassandra Millers Konzert für Viola und Orchester mit dem Titel „I cannot love without trembling“. Wir trafen ihn vorab in Kronberg zum Gespräch.

Woher kennen Sie Cassandra Miller?

Ich habe Cassandras Musik durch unseren gemeinsamen Freund Ilan Volkov kennengelernt. Dann bat ich sie, im Rahmen meiner zehn Lockdown-Kompositionsaufträge etwas für mich zu schreiben. Das Stück war so großartig, dass ich sie auch um ein Bratschenkonzert bat. Das gaben die BBC Proms in Auftrag, letztes Jahr habe ich es in Brüssel uraufgeführt. Es wurde wunderbar aufgenommen, darum freue ich mich sehr auf die deutsche Erstaufführung in Ludwigsburg.

Finden Sie in den Auftragskonzerten strukturelle oder stilistische Kontinuitäten, die die Kompositionen verbindet?

Nein, nicht wirklich. Ich denke die beste zeitgenössische Musik ist immer unvergleichbar. Das gilt besonders für Cassandras Kompositionsprozess, in dem sie bereits existierende Musik aus ihrem ursprünglichen Kontext herauslöst und sich neu mit ihr auseinandersetzt. Ausgangspunkt des Bratschenkonzerts etwa waren Tonaufnahmen des griechischen Geigers Alexis Zoumbas. Es ist ein völlig anderes Konzert als das vorherige von Anders Hillborg. Sie sind beide dramatisch und kraftvoll, Hillborgs ist geradezu ein Feuerwerk, während Cassandras zum Nachdenken anregt. Vielleicht nimmt man es als ruhig und gleichförmig wahr, aber darunter liegen starke Spannungen. Eine wichtige Inspiration für Cassandra war auch die Spiritualität des Stücks „The protecting veil“, das John Taverner für Steven Isserlis geschrieben hat.

Miller beschreibt ihr Werk als einen Ausdruck des menschlichen Bedürfnisses zu trauern und verbindet das mit Gedanken von Simone Weil. Fällt es Ihnen schwer, einen Zugang zu einem solch individuellen Werk zu entwickeln?

Mich zieht es immer zu individuellen Kompositionen, denn bei neuer Musik bin ich der, der sie erstmals entdeckt, keiner hat sie je vor mir gespielt, deshalb kann man noch nicht von den Meinungen anderer abgelenkt werden. Aber im Zugang kann ich mich wie bei jedem guten Werk an den Verhältnissen von Harmonien, Spannungen und Rhythmus orientieren.

Ein ziemlich handwerklicher Ansatz…

Ja, das stimmt, ich denke, es steckt viel Handwerk in dieser Musik. Obwohl sie so klingt, ist sie nicht nur frei, da ist noch mehr. Ein bisschen wie bei Satie, der zunächst auch nach „weißer“, ruhiger Musik klingt, dabei steckt so viel Emotionalität darin. Außerdem wirkt ihr Konzert im Saal ganz anders als auf der Aufnahme. Ihre Musik braucht diese Liveness, vielleicht mehr als andere.

The similar will be mentioned about Gideon Klein's string trio, which you’ve simply labored on with younger musicians in Kronberg…

I perceive that! I don't assume individuals would love the music of Wolfgang Rihm or Harrison Birtwistle in the event you simply performed them recordings of it. I really like that music, however I don't hearken to recordings of it. I feel in the event you can see music being created, it turns into a lot simpler to grasp. With Klein, there's a people melody right here, a pizzicato there, and sharp chords there. Seeing that and the interplay of the musicians makes it a lot simpler for listeners. Context can also be necessary for them. The trio was composed in Theresienstadt, shortly earlier than Klein was deported. Of course he heard the trains within the distance, figuring out that type of context impacts the way in which you hear.

How do you, as an interpreter, take care of the context of a piece? We know the situations underneath which the trio was created, however it’s not a programmatic piece.

Ultimately, nice music all the time stands by itself deserves; you don't have to know the context, though after all there aren’t any disadvantages. I discover it fascinating to review a composer's life as a result of it offers me necessary insights. Klein's trio could be very properly composed and easily works. I strategy it no in a different way than I strategy different works. But I’d say that with the variations on the Bohemian people music, it’s good to know the way necessary this music of his homeland was to him, whose melodies he sang within the camp.

Composition commissions, instructing, music training – you’re very busy.

I do quite a bit. I began with the viola, it's my musical mom tongue, it's my favorite instrument. But I'm amazed at our instances, when everybody desires to specialise. Today you're a violist or a composer, however these are very new titles. 100 years in the past it was far more versatile. You composed, performed the piano, viola, violin, performed – in the event you look again, being an artist used to imply rolling up your sleeves and being able to do something. At the second I play the violin quite a bit and conduct orchestras. In this and in chamber music I can discover works by baroque and classical composers. But I additionally love instructing, commissioning new music and instructing music. That's why I based my manufacturing firm ÂME, with which I attempt to mix movie and music in a worthwhile means that may be mixed with my live performance work. Bringing fields collectively appeals to me greater than specialisation. I inform younger musicians that too. Today you’ll be able to not count on to get live performance engagements simply since you play the violin properly. Those days are over. The German-speaking international locations, because the Mecca of classical music, are maybe the final place the place you’ll be able to nonetheless specialise, however within the UK, the place I come from, it’s a must to assume in a different way to maintain your enterprise going, you’ll be able to't depend on a promoter coming to you. It's a really economical strategy, however the music world is altering.

I used to make numerous CD recordings – it was an exquisite journey, however I needed to ask myself what I nonetheless have to supply for the longer term. Finding new methods to expertise music, together with visually, will develop into extra necessary sooner or later. The CD trade is coming to an finish. Now commissioning new works is an important a part of my life as an artist. I even have my little pageant. There I can create packages wherein I uncover new music and construct a bridge to the viewers. It is necessary to actually speak to the viewers. We ought to encourage the viewers to change concepts, every of us may do extra on this regard. My long-term dream is to construct a brand new repertoire for the viola. Without Rostropovich, for instance, cellists would don’t have any trendy repertoire, no concertos by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Myaskovsky, Lutosławski, Kabalevsky, Penderecki. That is why I began the Viola Commissioning Circle, which brings collectively individuals who wish to promote new music. Commissioned live shows have develop into an integral a part of my repertoire. This exhibits me that we’re heading in the right direction.

How do you discover people who find themselves prepared to present cash for brand new music?

At first it was an experiment, I attempted to hurry up the method of commissioning a composition: when a composer is able to write a piece, you first have to search out six or seven orchestras that may contribute cash. That annoyed me as a result of it takes a really very long time. It takes about 4 years for the work to be completed. With the Commissioning Circle, we accumulate cash from personal sponsors and advance it in order that the composer can begin writing. Over the following one or two years, we then discover orchestras which might be prepared to pay the cash. This mannequin has confirmed profitable; in reality, by right this moment's requirements, the sums that an orchestra has to contribute are fairly small, round 6,000 euros. When the supporters then hear what the work they’ve sponsored feels like in live shows, a group of music lovers is shaped. I simply need extra music to be created.

So, not like so usually in classical music, you have an interest in establishing slightly than reconstructing?

Absolutely! I discover the way in which many issues are introduced boring and it’s important that that is questioned. Germany is an attention-grabbing instance, right here you aren’t pressured to vary a lot as a result of there’s public subsidy for tradition and many individuals go to live shows, however that’s the exception, not the rule. I’m focused on artists who implement their very own tasks and rethink issues as an alternative of standing nonetheless with our packages. I’m wondering what classical music will appear like in fifty years.

Back to the Klein Trio – within the rehearsal you have been in search of a uncooked, coarse expression that will also be discovered within the live shows of Miller and Hillborg. What position does this concept of ​​”rawness” play in your understanding of musical aesthetics?

We string gamers particularly all the time try to supply stunning sounds, that's what we're taught from the start. But music encompasses every little thing: it must be uncooked, ugly, cheeky, stunning, the ingredient of rawness makes the attractive components all of the stronger by means of the distinction. I don't consider that Bach or Brahms solely wished to listen to stunning sounds. I'm not focused on pure stunning sounds, it couldn't be extra boring.