Democracy of voices
Grammyaward winning viol ensemble Phantasm is very excited about its first visit to New Zealand. Director and founder Laurence Dreyfus speaks to Rebecca Fox about finding the right artists.
IT took Laurence Dreyfus 20 years to find the right people to make up his vision of a viol ensemble.
His desire to form a worldclass consort of viols of different sizes came to a peak when he moved to England in the early 1990s.
‘‘I thought it was the right place and time to form a viol consort.’’
He liked the idea of creating a group which did not need a conductor and allowed a democracy of voices while playing ‘‘little known’’ repertoire of English consort music.
‘‘I wanted to find people who wanted to make a similar kind of sound. Ones that wanted to commit to the highest standard of string playing . . . that’s why I waited around to find people.’’
He finally succeeded, discovering players in summer courses and in the United States.
Phantasm was formed in 1994 with the aim of challenging the status quo by developing a ‘‘rich and vibrant sound’’ based on historically aware practices, technical mastery of string
playing, and borrowings from the expressive traditions of early 20thcentury string quartets, such as the Flonzaley and Busch.
In the early years, the group regularly held retreats in Europe as they worked on the ‘‘basics’’ and their ‘‘musicality’’.
‘‘We wanted to take some chances as well. Imprint on the repertoire and bring a fresh voice to it.’’
More than 20 years later, the group is still going strong — ‘‘we’re in good nick’’ — and has added a fifth member; although they are coming to New Zealand as a foursome — Dreyfus with treble viol Emilia Benjamin, tenor viol Jonathan Manson and bass viol Markku LuolajanMikkola.
‘‘It’s really fascinating. We come from so many different backgrounds, yet when we are making music it’s as if we are engaging in this familytype way with all its stresses and strains and pleasures. The intimacy that comes from years of playing together gives you that security.’’
The members of the group all have individual careers but come together as Phantasm for 25 to 30 concerts a year.
‘‘We’re not static; we are still growing.’’
Dreyfus is now based in Germany, which enables the group to do more work throughout central Europe, as well as the Pacific.
While he has played in orchestras and loves the tradition of that work, he finds it liberating to perform as an ensemble without a conductor.
‘‘If you really enjoy making music and everyone expressing themselves in a very individual yet communal way, there is nothing worse than having someone waving their arms in front of you telling you what to do.
‘‘It’s incredibly liberating to feel we are taking the time, making it rather than gestutally being forced into a frame which is necessary when you have 100 players in front of you.’’
His love of music came from growing up in a musical family where he was taught to read music before he could read English.
His father played violin in the Philadelphia Orchestra, and his mother was an operatic mezzosoprano.
Growing up he played piano and cello and was drawn to chamber music having been coached by Edgar Ortenberg, a member of the famed Budapest Quartet in the 1940s.
As a teenager, Dreyfus (66) bought an obscure recording of Buxtehude trio sonatas, which featured a viola da gamba, which he was immediately drawn to.
‘‘I thought, ‘Wait a minute, this is a sound from another world.’ ’’
He went on to study cello at Juilliard School in New York with with American cellist Leonard Rose.
It was there he founded what was to become the Emerson String Quartet. Dreyfus played cello for that group.
He then took time out to pursue academic studies in politics and theology, but soon came back to music, studying for PhD in musicology.
Dreyfus also fulfilled a promise to himself to learn the viola da gamba, and ultimately landed in the class of Wieland Kuijken at the Royal Conservatoire in Brussels.
‘‘It was a passion for the instrument first and then this repertoire secondary. It became a lifelong abiding passion.
‘‘It was a discovery also that one needed to be very relaxed in body and expression to make my instrument sing — we are playing on gut strings, which is a very organic material, a pain in the neck in a way, as it goes out of tune so much more quickly.’’
In a modern world filled with so many different stresses, it was amazing to discover that in order to produce even a big sound he had to be absolutely relaxed.
‘‘It’s a place you’d like to live all the time. Make beautiful things without stress.
That’s what attracted me. It becomes addictive.’’
While he admits it can be difficult getting into that headspace, when the music starts it becomes much easier.
‘‘I don’t like that much hearing viols by their own, although they are perfectly nice, but when they come together, all of sudden there is this magic that calms you and gives you that access.
‘‘But it takes years to get there and to realise that if you bring the stresses into that, the instruments almost bark back and say ‘No, thank you very much. I’m not going along with that. I’m going to make a filthy noise’.’’
The ensemble will play a broad repertoire while in New Zealand.
Beginning with the Elizabethans which then links to counterpoint and polyphony in the hands of Bach and Mozart
‘‘You start recognising these wonderful personalities within this music and I think we’re giving access to very different sides of composers people might just know from Anglican evensong — William Byrd, for example, turns out to be this brilliant king of personality, scintillating in the chamber music world of consorts.’’
Then people such as Henry Percel, of the opera Dido and Aeneas, is heard as a 20yearold studying music over one summer creating these symphonies
‘‘It’s a real treat as far as repertoire, but then there is hearing four viols playing together.
‘‘I’ve been told we are playing in some lovely spaces, which should bring a feeling of intimacy to the audience as well.’’
Hearing a viol ensemble play for the first time live is often a surprise, he says.
‘‘People don’t get to hear the music live very often. It’s different, a surprise compared to hearing a recording on iTunes or Spotify.
‘‘When you see it being played in front of you, it has this visceral, almost palpable, experience. It can have a broad emotional range from the meditative to the baroque and can be unsettling and surprising. People need to be prepared for a kind of emotional engagement that might surprise them very pleasantly.’’
The group is looking forward to their time in New Zealand and ‘‘jumped at the chance’’ to come here on the invitation of Chamber Music New Zealand.
‘‘I’m very excited.’’
So much so he was arriving early to spend some time walking and cycling in the central North Island.