Vienna, Violins, Virtuosi
Benjamin Schmid joins the Australian Chamber Orchestra as guest director and lead violin for its Viennese Serenade tour from 12 to 25 September. Simon Moore chats with the versatile Austrian violinist about inspiring performances and repertoire.
‘To experience the calibre of someone like Yehudi Menuhin, standing next to him in a big hall, and playing the Bach double concerto right next to you with all the energy he had – that power, that determination of sending a message to the world with every note that you play – it’s a feeling I cannot forget.’
Violinist Benjamin Schmid says his early encounter with the great master definitely shaped his development as a musician, and inspired his performance. And I suspect Benjamin will be thinking of that experience as he comes to Australia to guest direct the Australian Chamber Orchestra in a program that includes the very concerto he performed with Yehudi Menuhin 25 years ago.
‘[Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins] is of course one of the best-known and loved double violin concertos on the planet. It is always a special feeling for me to play this piece – not only because we all know that Bach was the greatest master of all, but because it is such a privilege to go into a real chamber music coalition with the orchestra and put together that feeling of concertare in one of the most beautiful pieces ever written.’
Benjamin’s passion for the more famous repertoire is irrepressible. My quiet admission that the Bach double violin concerto is perhaps my favourite piece of music only encourages him.
‘For me, this piece has a special meaning because it was part of my Salzburg debut in 1986 when I was 17,’ he says. Yehudi Menuhin had asked him to perform the piece with him. ‘He was over 70. It was one of his last instrumental encounters, as I think in his later years he only conducted. So I will never forget the feeling of what it meant to play this piece with one of the biggest classical legends ever.’
This will be the first time in Australia for Benjamin Schmid, who has a string of recordings behind him, not to mention a solid stack of critical acclaim for both his classical and jazz performances. The Viennese Serenade concert, which Benjamin is guest directing, features a goodly representation of Austrian composers, including a movement from Erich Korngold’s Symphonic Serenade.
‘For me he is more Austrian than he is American. Korngold was one of the biggest Austrian music talents ever, and it’s not only me who says so! Gustav Mahler said that about the 13-year-old Korngold when the Staatsopera in Vienna performed his opera, Der Schneemann: “this is the biggest talent since Mozart, we have to support him.”’
He notes that there seems to be a bit of a ‘Korngold renaissance’ in the last ten years in Europe. ‘He had everything that great composing needs – he had the inner ear, the melodic inventions and he had incredible ability for instrumentation. Anything that Korngold wrote, whether for orchestra or for chamber music, just sounds so good. If we talk about first and second Viennese school, then along with Schönberg and Webern I think Korngold was creating a third Viennese school. They were looking for connections after Brahms, and extended harmonic musical writing even further than people could imagine before. It was a wonderful writing that had a lot of modernity in it without being abstract atonal music. The Serenade displays some of his beautiful string music.’
The conversation naturally moves to Korngold’s involvement with Hollywood. ‘He invented that kind of Hollywood language. When he wrote film music, he looked at the movie two or three time and improvised on the piano beside him and only then would he try to write down his ideas and to organise them. It was a win–win situation for both Korngold and for Hollywood. They needed someone of his capacity and talent, and Hollywood can take the credit for realising what a genius they had found. They gave him a very good contract and very good conditions.’
The program will also contain some music from more recent Austrian composers. ‘Heinz Karl Gruber – we all call him Nali – his second violin concerto, Nebelsteinmusik, is one of the best Austrian compositions of the last 20 years. He is an original talent throughout the entire European music scene. Nebelsteinmusik is modern music that is absolutely comprehensible, and touching for the audience. It lifts very strongly off a complex rhythm that is quite difficult to realise without a conductor, but I understand the ACO are the absolute champions of playing without a conductor! I think everybody there studies the score in a really deep way, which I have to say is not always the case!’
He is reminded of a recent performance that perhaps was not going quite according to plan. ‘I had one situation with this concerto where we wanted to play without a conductor and in the end it didn’t work out, we had to hire somebody! So I have since talked about this program with the composer and he said, “no it is possible to play it without a conductor – just very difficult!” I talked about this with the people from the ACO and they said, yes, they were aware of the problems but they absolutely wanted to do it without a conductor. So there is a challenge with this concerto but in the end what counts is that it is very strong music, probably one of the best pieces Nali has written. It is not abstract music, difficult to understand, it is really something that grips you, that takes you on a musical journey, you can’t help it. It’s forceful – very good modern music – exactly what we need nowadays.’
He continues his praise of the composer. ‘Nali is an incredible actor and chansonnier, he can recite Kurt Weill lieder like no one else. Once I did the Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat with him, and he performed the speaker, and it was the most impressive thing you can imagine. He knows music making and the music market from every angle. He’s very intense, very human. Always when we meet we find ourselves [having] long and inspiring discussions.’
We return to the more familiar territory of Schubert’s Rondo in A. ‘It is one of my favourites. It sounds like easy, virtuosic music, but it is the most heart-felt and profound Vienna classic that I know. It has a beautiful introduction, then a rondo form which is quite a challenge for the soloist, but Schubert is in one of his supreme moments with this work. It is one of the best pieces for this kind of combination of violin and strings. I just love it very deeply.’
‘Schubert is Schubert only because he knew so much about Ländler (Austrian folk dance) as well as Austrian folk music,’ he continues. ‘The real creator of Vienna waltzes was not Strauss, but Joseph Lanner, who lived before Strauss in Vienna, and who is regarded here as the creator of the Vienna waltz. It is such subtle writing of the essential Viennese folk music that it is a simple, pure pleasure to listen to.’
And the music of Joseph Lanner is included in this program. ‘It is a very subtle reduction to the necessary I think,’ he muses. ‘If you enjoy the Viennese music feeling, you will enjoy the Lanner waltzes.’
Benjamin will bring a touch of jazz, too, to this concert, with a pair of works by prominent Austrian jazz figure Georg Breinschmid.
‘He is one of my very favourite local jazz bassists and I’ve played with him, not just dozens but probably hundreds of concerts! He has written two pieces that we always played in our trio and quartet, and I have asked him to do fuller versions for string orchestra. Georg lets himself be inspired by Balkan folk music in the final piece we will play, called Wien Bleibt Krk – it has a reference to a kind of very Viennese music, so it is quite a melting pot. It is in a 7/8 meter, and very fast. It’s quite difficult too because you have to get into an odd meter which people are not so used to in the classical music world. But for Balkan music it is in the blood, it’s like 4/4 for us. But it’s a wonderful tune and it is a wonderful finale for the concert, and I get to play another jazz solo in it!’
Thinking of our opening discussion about Yehudi Menuhin, I ask him about the importance of mentors, not just for him but for musicians generally.
‘I cannot underestimate the importance of these encounters,’ he states. ‘When I was a kid, seven years old, I would listen to Stephane Grappelli’s music, my father gave me quite a lot of them. I loved that elegant sound from the first moment. My father would play some of the tunes on the piano, and I more or less transcribed the solos. I grew up with jazz by Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt. Both of them were incredible figures because very so few Europeans became important to the legend of jazz.’
The 16-year-old Benjamin met Stephane Grappelli following his success at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition. ‘Stephane invited me to play solo parts with him. He was my idol in the jazz world, in many ways. Meeting him, and jamming with him, and getting to know him as a person. He was like how he played – he was genuinely sweet – friendly, very well educated, elegant, witty. It was his personality that really captured me. I knew he was getting old and he was not going to be there forever, but to breath the same stage air like him a few times and get a few hints from him, or tricks, it was too nice to be true. He showed me how much elegance and love there can be in jazz music.’
‘I think every young musician has crucial experiences like this that tell them “yes, it’s worth it”. I have a lot of students myself now, and I try to give them my knowledge, and I can already see all these young kids take so much inspiration from the experience that I’ve had. And for me, the two great personalities of Yehudi Menuhin and Stephane Grappelli gave me that feeling.’
VIENNESE SERENADE
Tuesday 13 September 8pm, Wednesday 14 and Saturday 24 September 7pm
City Recital Hall Angel Place
Sunday 25 September 2pm
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Tickets: from $38
Bookings: 1800 444 444
www.aco.com.au