Music that Changed Me
Guitarist Milo Karadagli
Born in Montenegro, Milo Karadagli went on to study at London’s Royal Academy of Music. Blazing a trail for the classical guitar, he performs everything from Rodrigo to Radiohead and has premiered many new works, including concertos by Howard Shore and Joby Talbot. He had four albums under his belt and an international tour in the pipeline when, in 2016, he was struck by a hand injury. Following an enforced extended break, he returns to his career this month with a new Decca recording, The Sound of Silence, and a tour.
Ididn’t have access to many recordings back home in Montenegro, so most of my classical musical enthusiasms developed later in life. When I was a student at the Royal Academy, I found a CD of RACHMANINOV’S Third Piano Concerto played by Martha Argerich. It was the first time I had heard a piano concerto – it was an epiphany. I don’t think there is a week that passes that I don’t listen to that recording. There are other pianists who play it really well, but Martha truly captures the essence of the music.
I met guitarist DAVID RUSSELL just after the Bosnian war in 1995; I was at a turning point in my life and he encouraged me to follow my dream of being a musician. His David Russell plays Baroque Music, which features transcriptions of keyboard works by Scarlatti, Handel and Vivaldi, is inspirational. Transcriptions are important for guitarists: we don’t have as much repertoire as other instruments. There are some fantastic arrangements of Spanish orchestral music too, such as works by Albéniz and Granados. When these composers wrote for piano and orchestra, they had in their minds the sound of Spain, which is the guitar!
I love opera and orchestral music, and for me VERDI’S Requiem embodies both. I particularly like the Claudio Abbado and Berlin Philharmonic version with
soprano Angela Gheorghiu as one of the soloists. Angela has been a big influence on my musicianship. I first heard her as Margherita in Gounod’s Faust at the Royal Opera House and have been a big fan ever since . My phrasing is inspired by her – I often think, ‘How would Angela sing this?’ Many years later we met and eventually collaborated at the Verbier Festival.
As with the piano concerto, I hadn’t heard much opera before I came to study in London. There isn’t an opera house in Montenegro, but suddenly I was in a city with several opera companies and dozens of concert venues. I was like a sponge. Recently, I have had the chance to reflect on those years and I can see that I needed some time off as I had been on the go since I was eight. My life had become very hectic.
In September 2016 I was forced to stop performing. Putting my career on ice was very tough. I had no Plan B – all I knew was music. The hardest thing was the search for a ‘cure’ for my illness because I didn’t really understand what was wrong with me. During this time, everything I listened to resonated deeply within me. I listened to a lot of jazz; I especially like American jazz singer-songwriter MELODY GARDOT’S album My One and Only Thrill. It’s exceptional – such colour and atmosphere.
I realised, with the help of specialists, that even though there was physical pain when I played, that actually there were some emotional challenges too. A few months into my treatment, I had a moment where I picked up the guitar and played – and the music spoke to me. I slowly built up the strength in my fingers and my mind to ease myself back in.
I spent time working on Howard Shore’s concerto, which I recently premiered, and alongside this serious, virtuosic music, I started creating arrangements of pop songs – I’d done this when working on my Beatles album and had enjoyed the process. My The Sound of Silence disc was born out of that experimentation. The most personal track on this album is a little-known song by SKYLAR GREY called Moving Mountains. The lyrics include the advice ‘For once, once in your life... push your ambitions aside and instead of moving mountains, let the mountains move you’. It’s a powerful message and exactly what we need to hear sometimes.