Thierry Fischer, Image © Chris Stock

In Wolfgang Rihm at 60, you’ll be conducting several UK premieres.  How do you approach learning unfamiliar scores?

It very much depends on the complexity of the piece, the length, and the compositional technique of the composer. I usually take a systematic approach to the piece; going bar by bar, in detail. I then read everything I can about the context in which the composer wrote the piece and then come back, as many times as I need to, in order to find a natural approach to the piece. It is honestly different for every single piece, every different composer, and also depends on my schedule around the time of the concert. Sometimes I will prepare for months in advance and sometimes it is much closer to the concert date.

If you could name one piece of new music that changed you, what would it be?

The Scardanelli Zyklus by Heing Holliger.

You perform a vast range of repertoire with a variety of different ensembles.  What attracts you to new music?

New music opens my cultural appetite. I need/love to study and perform new scores on a regular basis. I believe that this is one of the conductor’s responsibilities. Rehearsing and performing new music is galvanising my creativity. It shows me new worlds, new sound possibilities and creates cultural connections. I need to feel challenged by new compositional technique; it is an irresistible attraction and enriches my perception of looking at music written in the past.

We live at the start of the 21st century. As well as bringing technical and expressive possibilities to players, new music expands the potential for extreme reactions, hopes, curiosity and fun for audiences. I simply couldn’t live without actively participating and supporting the creative composing process of today.

And what piece(s) of music are you listening to right now?

Three different Masses by Wiliam Byrd.

Thierry Fischer’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be in Wolfgang Rihm at 60, on Tuesday 24 January.

Joan Atherton, London Sinfonietta Principal second violin

In our second Principal Player Focus, the London Sinfonietta’s Principal second violinist Joan Atherton tells us about touring to the Arctic Circle, her most valued possession and which London Sinfonietta concert she’s most looking forward to in 2012…

What was the first recording you bought?

When I was ten I received a record token for Christmas.  I chose Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite (attracted by the pretty cover) and would spend many hours dancing to the music.

What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

It’s difficult to pick one just one because there have been numerous good ones. I particularly enjoyed a ten day tour of Norway in January 1994, when we went to many places including the Arctic Circle.  Everywhere we played the local people were so hospitable and the landscape at that time of year was breathtaking; the sky exhibiting different shades of blue and turquoise.  I enjoyed the tour so much that I chose to go back the following year with my two daughters on our annual skiing holiday.

When did you realise you wanted a career in music?

I was about twelve, but at that stage I wasn’t sure in which direction I would go.  I loved singing, playing the piano accompanying my friends and adored orchestral playing and chamber music.

Who or what inspires you?

My late father, who taught me the piano, was a great mentor.  Today, I’m inspired by my wonderful colleagues.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

Meryl Streep

What is your most valued possession?

My Italian violin (Mantegatia) made in Milan in 1764.  I once accidentally left it in a restaurant in Basel and was distraught when I realised.  Fortunately, when we returned, the violin was where I’d left it.

And finally, which London Sinfonietta concert are you most looking forward to in 2012?

I’m looking forward to In Portrait: Harrison Birtwistle on Thursday 24 May at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, when we’ll perform Cortege.  We have challenging solos to play and the piece, which was written for us, has become like an old friend.  It’s also an opportunity for me to catch up with my brother David who will be conducting the rest of the concert.

Joan Atherton’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be in Wolfgang Rihm at 60, on Tuesday 24 January.

The concert on Saturday 5 November was one of those strange, surreal experiences.  In my opinion, I had the country’s finest instrumentalists on stage ready to perform my piece Valentine’s Rhapsody.  So I was at ease… in that sense. The issue, I must confess, was the feeling of self-doubt.  You see, I had written an extremely personal and difficult piece emotionally, and it is dedicated to someone I love dearly – Valentine Davies – and who has (without exaggeration) saved my life.  I wanted this piece to show a transition, mirroring my life. This is what the piece is about and how Valentine’s impact changed who I am, and for the better.   My doubt was that, on a personal level, this is the most significant piece I have written.  Will it ever have that massive, heart-wrenching impact it had on me whilst thinking and composing it, but in performance? …to others?

I think the conclusion is that one shouldn’t over-think these things (something I have to remind myself every second of everyday).

A) I wrote a piece.
B) I quite literally translated an almost brutal auto-biography.
C) I was honest.
D) The performers respected that honesty.
E) It all represents this eventually positive journey into a short, purposefully understated piece.
F) It was performed better than I could imagine, and it had the opportunity to be heard.

First Conclusion: A+B+C+D+E+F = What more could I want?

Second conclusion: once a piece is written – it is permanent – it does not wither.  So the person the piece was written for will have a permanent reminder of how she helped me, and especially, helped me help myself.  And as for ‘Writing the Future’, quite literally I hope the piece lives on in the future (or at least, I hope that the score of it that I threw into the River Thames off the Embankment Bridge, drifts like a message in a bottle… at least in my thoughts and ponderings).

Thank you to the London Sinfonietta’s Writing the Future for supporting and promoting new music with the same relentless, unique passion as it takes for me to write the music.  This is a relationship that I will cherish, and will inspire me further, both musically and personally.

Click here to  listen to Valentine’s Rhapsody and other Writing the Future works premiered on Saturday 5 November.

London Sinfonietta Principal clarinettist, Mark van de Wiel

Over the coming months we’ll be profiling a selection of the London Sinfonietta Principal players, giving you the chance to learn a little more about the people you watch on stage at our concerts.  This month, Principal clarinettist Mark van de Wiel tells us about his favourite London Sinfonietta experience, what piece of music makes him smile, and what inspires him…

What was the first recording you bought?

I can’t remember that, but I can remember the first recordings I listened to as a child on LP’s belonging to my father, of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, and Mahler’s First Symphony.

What has been your favourite London Sinfonietta experience?

Our week in Sydney during January 2003 when we started out with lunch for the whole group at Doyle’s fish restaurant on Watsons Bay and played a wide range of repertoire in the Sydney Opera House over three concerts, was very special.  However, playing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time in the Italian Chapel on Orkney a few years ago was probably the most special of all. We played this very emotional piece twice, at 10 pm and then 11.15 pm, I think, emerging after midnight- and it was still daylight.  An amazing experience!

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to do in a musical work?

To sing down the clarinet while its bell rested on top of a timpani, adjusting the angle of the bell and making fast pedal changes to the drum with my right foot, all at the same time, in Vinko Globokar’s Dedoublement.

What piece of music brings a smile to your face when you see it on your music stand?

Ligeti’s Piano Concerto. It’s very difficult, but great fun and exhilarating to play- and I know that my trying to negotiate the ocarina solo (which the clarinettist is required to play) will always amuse my colleagues….

Who or what inspires you?

My colleagues and my students.

What piece of new music changed you?

Ablauf, by Magnus Lindberg, for clarinet and two bass drums. It was the first piece I performed with extensive use of such techniques as multiphonics, quarter tones, and simultaneous singing and playing, and encouraged me to make this type of music a major part of my career.

Who would play you in a film of your life?

It would have to be myself. Nobody else would accept the part.

And finally, which London Sinfonietta concert are you most looking forward to in 2012?

In Portrait: Harrison Birtwistle, on 24 May, which contains so much great music, including Cortege, which was written for us, and the marvellous Five Distances for Five instruments, for wind quintet.

Mark van de Wiel’s next performance with the London Sinfonietta will be in Wolfgang Rihm at 60, on Tuesday 24 January.

Sunday 30 October, Vienna

The Mozart Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna

I had been looking forward to revisiting Vienna and going to Bratislava for a long time.  It is always a very special occasion to play in Vienna, partly because you are treading the same streets trodden by the world’s greatest composers and also because of the many marvellous experiences I have had there.  I first went to Vienna in 1969 at three hours notice to assist Sir Georg Solti in a Decca recording of The Magic Flute.  In the cast were two of my singer friends from Covent Garden, Yvonne Minton and Stuart Burrows who I later accompanied in the Brahms Saal of the Musikverein many times. The Musikverein has one of the most important collections of original scores in the world and on several occasions I was allowed to see manuscripts of Mozart piano concertos, the Eroica Symphony, Schubert’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’ Four Serious Songs and on one occasion a Beethoven song that I had performed the night before.

But enough of the past!  We arrived at our hotel, which was near the Belvedere Garden which Mahler walked round at lunchtime,  in good time to have dinner at an atmospheric beer house set in the Belvedere itself.  After dinner my colleagues went back to the hotel but I had plenty of energy left to walk round the floodlit centre, past the opera to the Hofburg and round the Musikverein.

Monday 1 November, Vienna

It was a ten minute walk to the Konzerthaus in warm sun for our 11 o’clock rehearsal.  I remembered as I walked in that it was here that the London Sinfonietta gave it’s first concert outside the UK with Luciano Berio, followed by concerts around Europe with Pierre Boulez and David Atherton. (Click here to view the programme for this first concert).  This time we were not in the main hall where we gave a Steve Reich concert a few years ago but were in the very lovely Mozart Saal. Vienna has what, apart from the Wigmore Hall, I believe we don’t have in London, halls which not only have a rich and warm acoustic but also are beautiful and have an atmosphere that positively demands music.  All this without lighting effects or an auditorium so dark that you can’t read the programme!

After lunch overlooking the Burggarten there was time to see the Gustav Klimt exhibition in the Belvedere and an afternoon sleep before the concert.   We played an all British programme including works by Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Simon Holt, George Benjamin and Thomas Adès which we had (or most of us had ) played many times before, and the programme was very warmly received. At a reception after the concert Cathy Graham, our previous Cheif Executive, said it was a programme of “London Sinfonietta Greatest Hits”.  She also said how lovely the magical chords near the end of Adès  Living Toys sounded. We were all very excited that Christian Barraclough, our young trumpeter deputising for London Sinfonietta Principal Alistair Mackie, had played so superlatively well in both the Benjamin and the Adès.  After the concert we all went to the beer house near the hotel taking up two large tables, hoping to play at the Wien Modern festival again soon.

Friday 11 and Saturday 12 November, Bratislava

We didn’t arrive at our hotel until after midnight so I went to bed straight away, however, we did have the next morning free so I explored the old town which most of us had not seen before.  It was brilliantly sunny but much colder than Vienna had been, there were no cars in the old town and very few people either. I happened to find an exhibition of Picasso drawings and etchings in a baroque palace after visiting the cathedral and wandering along deserted cobbled streets.  In the afternoon we presented a workshop of works by Slovakian composers plus Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Silbury Air to a public audience.  It certainly enhances a visit when we can do something involving local composers as well as playing a concert.

In the evening we had to rehearse for our concert partly because we had a different first violin to the concert in Vienna, but also because we were playing a new work for wind quintet and piano which involved quite a lot of unusual techniques, by Slovakian composer Iris Szeghy.

Sunday 13 November, Bratislava

John Constable, London Sinfonietta Principal pianist

The coach took us over the Danube to the theatre where we were going to perform. It was immediately obvious that it was a typically dry theatre acoustic unlike the Konzerthaus.  After the rehearsal we all walked back over the bridge, and, after listening to the Police Band play outside the National Theatre and watching a busker who appeared to be sitting suspended in mid-air, a group of us had a good Italian lunch before a sleep and then the coach back to the theatre.  After the concert, there was a lovely reception with food, excellent Slovakian red wine and speeches as it was the end of the festival. Iris was delighted with the way her piece had been played, we all felt that it was the sort of music which has a lot of atmosphere and really comes off in performance. We met many interesting people, all of whom were very enthusiastic about the concert and we certainly hope we will be invited back very soon.

Monday 14 November, Bratislava

We drove to Vienna airport along country roads in, at times, quite thick fog, however, luckily we were not delayed very much and our last trip abroad in a very active 2011 was over.

Back in June, you were listening to Shostakovitch’s String Quartet No.13, Peter Gabriel’s eponymous debut album and Ben E. King’s Stand by Me.  What’s on your favoured playlist right now?

Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me, Olivier Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux, The Fall: Totally Wired – The Rough Trade Anthology, Dirk Bogarde: Lyrics for Lovers

Tell us a little about your previous experience of working with the London Sinfonietta. Is there anything you might do differently this time?

Matthew Bourne in rehearsal

It was a great experience and I learned a lot from the London Sinfonietta players.

I sketched out some rough ideas and took them along to the workshops and we recorded the results. I then decided which sections would be kept or altered, worked on a new piece and finally ordered the sections.This time the line-up is roughly the same so I’ll be sticking quite closely to the original piece albeit a little shorter in duration…

You’re also to be joined by percussionist Vladimir Tarasov.  How do you think this might alter the process and end performance?

I have no idea! It’ll be fun finding out, though.

Check out our blog next week for an update following the first batch of workshops for Written/Unwritten.

Enno Senft and Dai Fujikura in rehearsal (image © Briony Campbell)

The Double Bass Concerto grew out of a close collaboration between Dai and I.  After  performing two of Dai’s  challenging ensemble pieces, Fifth Station and Blue Sky Falling, I was excited as well as daunted by the idea of him writing a bass concerto for me. We met at my house looking for inspiration for Dai’s creative mind. I first freely demonstrated the instrument’s more conventional characteristics- its timbre, resonance, harmonics, gentle dynamics, and colours in the middle register.  Then I moved to more experimental, extended techniques, for example treating the bass like a big guitar  (many taxi driver’s preferred description of the bass!), using arpeggio chords, fast tremolo and slap effects.

Dai’s lateral approach to the instrument encouraged me to get carried away with suggestions like changing the tuning of the instrument altogether, extreme tremolo effects on high treble harmonics (imitating an electric guitar) and playing both parts of the stopped string. I forgot in this process that Dai videoed all of this, but certainly remembered when the score of his first preliminary solo piece ES  landed on my music stand! This piece introduced many of the ideas that later became the material for the Double Bass Concerto.  Now I faced unprecedented technical challenges, partly brought about by myself!

Subsequently, we worked closely together to find realistic solutions which make musical sense and fit with Dai’s aesthetic language.  In some ways, the new techniques used in the Double Bass Concerto has meant that learning the concerto has been like learning a new instrument.

I believe that Dai has created a truly innovative concerto that tells its own story and well as realising the full potential of the solo double bass.

Enno Senft, London Sinfonietta Principal double bass

Click here to hear extracts of Enno and the London Sinfonietta rehearsing the Double Bass Concerto.

Charlie Piper

On Saturday 5 November we’re presenting a feast of new music in Pavilions: New Music Show 2.  We caught up with Charlie Piper to hear more about his new work Insomniac, which you can hear at the event.

Your work Insomniac portrays several different forms of insomnia.  Can you tell us a little about the different states reflected in the music?
Insomniac has three movements. The first movement has a frantic feel and portrays the sort of insomnia caused by anxiety or stress when your mind can’t shut down and thoughts spin frustratingly round and round in your head. The middle movement is a much calmer portrayal of the surreal sensation when floating between sleep and wakefulness. And the last movement looks at the effects of external influences on the ability to sleep.

One of the common causes of insomnia is anxiety.  What single thing makes you most anxious?
Deadlines.

Whilst writing this composition, I believe you spent some time in Sweden.  Do you find that your surroundings affect your writing at all?
Absolutely. I was staying in Gotland, which is a small Swedish island and very serene and beautiful. My work studio looked out over the sea and so, when I wasn’t staring distractedly out the window, I was in a good calm state of mind to work. However that isn’t always ideal – if I’m trying to write frantic music it helps to be in my rail-side London flat! Also I was in Gotland during the summer and so I experienced, for the first time, all-night sunlight – which certainly doesn’t help with insomnia – but the extraordinary colour and iridescent glow over the sea was a big influence in the atmosphere of the middle movement of this work.

And what time of day do you find is the best to compose?
I usually give myself 9-to-5 business hours to compose (unless there is a deadline looming!) which helps me focus my energy but I think the morning is probably my most productive period.

Your programme note for Insomnia states that ‘the final movement is concerned with insomnia caused by other external influences – such as a neighbour having an all-night party’.  Describe your ideal party.
One that I haven’t had to organise…

And finally…Insomniacs are often told to play music to relax before trying to sleep.  What is your favourite piece of music to relax to?
Possibly the Aria from the Goldberg variations.

You can hear Insomnia on Saturday 5 November at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall.  Click here to book tickets.

I last saw the Writing the Future composers in early August with, what were then, preliminary sketches and drafts of what are shaping up to be four fantastic quintets to be performed by some of the London Sinfonietta’s forces as part of our Pavilions: New Music Show 2 on 5 November.  Shiva Feshareki, Edmund Finnis, Tim Hodgkinson and Isambard Khroustaliov were asked to continue on the programme following the performance of their solo works at our Pavilions concert in May this year, where they were amazingly well received. Now, the composers are refining new ensemble works for flute, clarinet, horn, violin and cello (with a few familial deviations here and there!).

Tim Hodgkinson works with London Sinfonietta principal Michael Thompson

Next week they’ll be meeting the players again to workshop near-complete versions of these works. As always with these four composers I’m excited to hear how their work has developed and to listen in on the insight the players receive about what’s going on ‘behind the notes’. It’s also great to hear the feedback on the music from the players as well!

I’ll be posting again after we’ve had the workshops to give a further update on these new pieces, but in the meantime, check out some of the Music Streams on the London Sinfonietta website for solo works from Tim, Edmund and Shiva. And don’t forget to book for the world premieres of these works at Pavilions: New Music Show 2 on Saturday 5 November at the Southbank Centre!

Michael Duffy

Assistant Producer, Creative Projects

Dai Fujikura

What do you fear the most and why?

“Will musicians play the actual notes I wrote at the concert?”…”What if someone collapses in the audience during my piece and unwittingly disrupts the performance?”…”What if a power cut happens during the performance, and all the monitors for observing the conductor also shut down, will the musicians still be able to see the conductor and play?” and so on….

I think I don’t need to explain why…

Which mobile number do you call the most?

I hardly call anyone, nor does anyone call me. If I decided to cancel my phone, I don’t think anyone would notice!

What ­or where­ is perfection?

If it is music, music which doesn’t have any bits I dislike.

A perfect world exists only in my imagination where nothing I dislike exists, which I try to recreate in my composition. In a way, that’s the reason why I compose music.

 Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera) ­ and why?

Right now? I don’t know….when I was a child, I guess Dragon Ball and all those heroes in Japanese comic books; I am sure any kids in Japan (who were born in late 70s) would say the same.

What’s your favourite ritual?

Taking a long bath where I write emails, sketch, read books etc., but also think. Almost all of my compositional ideas come from the bath. I can’t live in a flat without a bath.

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?

I never thought about it…. even musical talent (since your question is “OTHER talent” so I presume you think that I think I have some musical talent?), do I have a drop of it, or not, I never thought about it…..

I don’t know, I am ok, being like this; maybe this would not be ok for others, but I have always done and am doing everything I want to do in my life, so I don’t think I have any desire for an extra talent or skill in addition to what I have already.

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

You can’t have everything, and it is always good not to set your expectations too high so that when something good does happen, however little it is, I will feel positive.

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?

Secret of the Beehive by David Sylvian.