For Ehnes, Victoria stop combines two passions
Canadian violinist says he loves the city and Britten’s concerto
Manitoba-raised virtuoso violinist James Ehnes says he appreciates having built a career where he can choose his own projects and schedule.
“Now that my daughter’s in kindergarten, I’m trying not to be away as much,” said Ehnes, 41, who lives in Florida with his wife and two children. “I like to also be able to look at a calendar and choose whether to play a piece I’m particularly passionate about or to visit a place I love.”
Ehnes’s visit to Victoria this week fulfils both criteria. He is set to perform Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto, “a piece I love to play that doesn’t come up often,” Ehnes said. The piece was written as a requiem for fallen soldiers in the Spanish Civil War and future wars, with Spanish themes, sombre motifs and a moving climax.
“Britten’s music is unusual … This is a dramatic piece that leaves you thinking about it,” Ehnes said.
He is also looking forward to returning to Victoria, where he has performed concerts with the symphony since he was 17. This will be his first time working with the orchestra with Christian Kluxen at the helm.
“The more time I spend in Victoria, the more my love for the city deepens,” said Ehnes, who has fond memories of bringing his family here last year on a Canadian tour. “It’s a great place to visit with little kids.”
Born and raised in Brandon, Ehnes started playing the violin at age four. The child prodigy grew up in an artistic household — his father was a trumpet professor and his mother a ballet dancer — and went on to study at Julliard in New York. He has won a Grammy Award and a dozen Juno Awards for his classical recordings.
For the past 18 years, Ehnes has played a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin valued at $8 million. He said that when you work with a violin for years and years, “it is very much like a partner. You benefit knowing what that piece of equipment is capable of.”
Ehnes has the violin on loan from the Fulton Collection, founded by a former Microsoft executive who was also a violinist and collector of stringed instruments.
This particular violin, made by Antonio Stradivari of Cremona, Italy, in 1715, was originally owned and played by Belgian violinist Martin Pierre Marsick. It has become known as one of two Marsick Stradivarius violins.
There are about 650 Stradivarius instruments still in circulation. Ehnes said playing one is about quality for him, not any kind of mystique or inspiration from the past.
“I have no interest in any hocus pocus ‘I feel the soul of anyone’ kind of stuff,” he said. “This tool just happens to be the best, from this great era of violin-making.”