Violinist flourishes in dual role
One string to his bow isn’t enough for Anthony Marwood, who loves the challenge of conducting as he plays
If violinist Anthony Marwood finds Thomas Ades’ Concentric Paths hard to play, it’s his own fault. They were performing together in the mid-1990s when Marwood came to know the then 20-something composer, who was fresh from his first great success.
“I was completely blown away by Powder Her Face and there was a voice in my ear telling me that I must ask him for a concerto,” he says of Ades’ reputation-making chamber opera.
The work, which Marwood plays with the APO on Thursday, took a decade to emerge but the violinist reasons one can never wait too long for a masterpiece. When it did arrive, Marwood received Concentric Paths one page at a time over two weeks, via fax.
“I had to pick [the pages] up from a hardware store in rural Vermont. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, coming together piece by piece.”
The assembled picture is among the most intriguing concertos of recent years, constructed from circular patterns, with glittering outer movements orbiting the emotional (and literal) core.
Though a brief 20 minutes, Concentric Paths is as satisfying for the listener as it is taxing for the soloist.
“From a technical point of view, Tom asks the violinist to do things I’m not sure I’ve been asked before,” says Marwood.
“He really uses the extremes of the instrument. I simply don’t know how he knew it was possible but he has such assuredness and clarity that it is all possible. Just.”
Ades knew it was possible because he heard Marwood do it. The composer was inspired by listening to the violinist practise, which is why Marwood can only blame himself for the concerto’s difficulty.
“When I say to Tom that it’s hard to play, he says, ‘Well, I remember when we were [rehearsing] you’d be messing around and trying something ridiculous at the top of the instrument’. He claims that gave him an idea or two but
I was half fooling around.”
Marwood is a regular visitor to New Zealand — when we speak he’s in Nelson at the Adam Chamber Music Festival and he returns later in the year to judge the Michael Hill International Violin
Competition. In 2010, he gave the world premiere of Christchurch composer Ross Harris’ Violin Concerto while his performance of Distant Light, by the Latvian Pe¯ teris Vasks, was a highlight of the APO’s 2012 season.
“It’s a very special joy to play music for people; you feel like some kind of pioneer.”
However, he doesn’t consider himself a contemporary music specialist. He played all of the core works for piano trio as a member of the acclaimed Florestan Trio and is the principal artistic partner of Canadian period instrument orchestra Les Violons du Roy.
Marwood’s tastes are eclectic and his repertoire broad. Beethoven, though, remains a constant. When we speak, Marwood’s about to travel to St Louis to play and direct the violin concerto.
The violinist enjoys combining performance with conducting: “Those of us who do that know just how much it involves. But the rewards are high if the work goes well, because you play completely as a team; there’s a fusion that is very exciting.”
The first time he directed Beethoven from the violin was in late 2017, with the musicians of the Australian National Academy of Music.
“When it was all over we had a wonderful party, which I left at about 3am, and I got stuck in bizarre weekend traffic in the middle of Melbourne. I looked at my phone and there was an email which looked so much like spam that I was irritated by it and almost deleted it.”
The email wasn’t junk, it was to advise Marwood he had been awarded an MBE for services to music.