When violinist James Ehnes arrives in Melbourne this month to step into his role as MSO Artist in Residence, it will represent the culmination of months of planning and celebrate a relationship that has been 17 years in the making.
“My first performance in Australia was with the MSO in Geelong,” he says, recalling a performance of the Bernstein Serenade in 2008. The following week he was at Hamer Hall playing Tchaikovsky; regular invitations followed. Melbourne can’t get enough of James Ehnes, and the feeling is mutual. “I feel very much at home in Melbourne,” he says.
“Australia reminds me of my native Canada, but like the hot version.”
The Artist in Residence role has professional and personal significance for Ehnes, and both he and the MSO were determined that it would be meaningful. The tyranny of distance and a condensed time frame brought certain limitations, but “I wanted it to be more, and they wanted it to be more”. The result is an intensive month with three concert programs and a masterclass.
Ehnes’s MSO projects have always gone beyond the “typical in and out concerto date”. Many have been play-direct programs, leading the performance from the violin without a conductor. But then, Ehnes is more than the typical touring virtuoso. He also leads the Ehnes Quartet and is artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and he brings a programmer’s sensibility to his guest engagements.
The Heart of the Violin is a play-direct concert in which he’s programmed two miniatures by New York composer Jessie Montgomery. Montgomery is no stranger to Melbourne audiences – both Strum and Starburst have been heard here in recent years. “These pieces have caught public attention,” says Ehnes, “because they’re fun and inventive and good to listen to.”
The Montgomery pieces are joined by a Mozart violin concerto (K.218) – “it’s one of the reasons I play the violin” – and Dvořák’s Serenade for strings. “It’s not easy to do the Dvořák without a conductor, but it’s very rewarding because it requires a certain kind of immersion and commitment.”
One key to a successful conductor-less performance is allowing enough rehearsal time to “truly dive into things”, another is mutual trust in a collaborative process. There are practical limitations, since Ehnes can’t be playing and giving conductor-like direction at all times, but he’s emphatic when asked if there are interpretative limitations. “No. Some things might be harder to do, but there’s nothing that can’t be done. A good play-direct program is one where you can achieve everything you could with a conductor, but which also takes on a distinctive personality that might be very difficult to do with a conductor.”
At the end of March, Ehnes reprises Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, this time in the compelling context of a First Nations vision of the seasons. It’s a reminder that Vivaldi’s descriptive concertos can bring surprises, despite their familiarity. “I grew up in Central Manitoba,” Ehnes explains, “and in winter, Vivaldi’s sonnet is talking about the rain, and I was so confused because it doesn’t rain in winter in Canada. And summer is such a wonderful time of year, but in Italy it’s full of storms and incredibly hot. So when I learned those concertos as a boy, my preconceptions didn’t fit the music.” Perhaps Melbourne, where four seasons in one day is de rigeur, is the perfect location for Seasons: Vivaldi & More.
In April, Ehnes returns for the residency’s capstone, playing the Brahms Violin Concerto in his first concert with chief conductor Jaime Martín. The program is an intriguing one, pairing the Brahms with Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, and it catches his imagination as a whole. “When I put programs together in Seattle,” he explains, “I explore all sorts of connections and themes, but the most important thing for me is: ‘Would I go to that concert?’ And when I see this concert, I think, ‘Yeah, I would come a long way to go to that concert!’”
Fifteen thousand kilometres, give or take, we can be very glad he did!
Words by Yvonne Frindle
