with Sylvain Cambreling
with Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov
I just returned from Japan, where I gave the world premiere of a concerto by Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas. Georg is one of the great musicians of our time and a warm person and friend. The emotion in his music has meant so much to me since meeting him eight years ago as an ensemble player and playing his music for him – his violin piece “de terrae fine”, the US premiere of “In Vain”, and other works. I’ve since performed “de terrae fine” many times.
At the release concert for my album including “de terrae fine”, I was beyond thrilled when he told me he wanted to write a concerto for me. I’m so moved and honored to have this work. Our premiere in Tokyo’s Suntory Hall received a very enthusiastic response. Prior to the concert, I wrote:
“Georg Friedrich Haas’ music has revealed new dimensions of musical meaning and an astonishing richness of expression conveyed in the exquisite distances between notes, in powerfully pulsating harmonies, and in the accumulation and contrast of surprising sound-colors. While the innovative compositional aspects are fascinating, what has excited me most about his work is its profoundly visceral impact and the deep psychological and emotional sources that he connects to with his music.”
The concerto is microtonal, using quarter, sixth and eighth tones. It’s in nine continuous sections: Praeludium-Kadenz-Resonanz und Feedback-Dreistimmige Invention-Sgraffito-Sotto voce-Interludium-just intonation-Aria. In some parts it evokes the Violin Concerto by Alban Berg, who dedicated his piece “to the memory of an angel”.
Shortly after we first met, Georg and I discussed our Austrian family histories. Much of his violin concerto has a programmatic significance regarding the life of my grandfather, Erich Engel. “Engel” means angel in German. My grandfather was Jewish and he had to flee from Vienna during WWII, first to England and then, after the war, emigrating to Australia with my English grandmother and their two children.
To address another aspect of Georg that’s gotten publicity: he and his wife Mollena are kind and intelligent people whom I like very much and respect, but I don’t relate to their BDSM lifestyle. I just want to be clear and public about that. I relate to the emotions in his music, which are universal ones we all share. But I am not “submissive” or “dominant”, and I am not attracted to pain, except for an occasional well-applied massage or knuckle-crack. A person can be very sexy without BDSM. That’s all I have to say about it.
The violin concerto was co-commissioned by the Suntory Festival and the premiere was with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. I also played “de terrae fine” on a concert of Georg’s chamber music. The next performances will be July 2018 with the Staatsorchester Stuttgart and Sylvain Cambreling and December 2018 with the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música and Baldur Brönnimann.
composers Toshio Hosokawa and Georg Friedrich Haas in pre-concert talk
performing “de terrae fine” for solo violin by GF Haas