Violinist climbs out of the pit to return ‘home’
One member of The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House has special reason to be very excited about playing Symphony Hall in Birmingham. He talks to DIANE PARKES
WHEN violinist David Chadwick performs with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall later this month it will be a homecoming for the musician who studied in the city.
David, now 37, took his BMus (Violin) at Birmingham Conservatoire – and his time studying in Birmingham also meant he frequently saw concerts at the hall where he will now be playing.
Originally from Nottinghamshire, David knew the Conservatoire was his ideal college after attending an open day. And his decision was to prove the right one.
“I was in Birmingham for a few years and I was at the old Conservatoire building in Paradise Place,” he recalls. “There was such a brilliant and positive atmosphere about the whole institution. Like a lot of people at 18 I made applications all over the place but I withdrew all the other applications once I had been to Birmingham because I absolutely knew that was the place I wanted to go.
“I liked the fact it was a smaller music school than some of the others. I think I would have felt a bit lost in some of those really large colleges at that point in my life.
“Birmingham was a very nurturing place for me. I had a brilliant teacher and I was able to borrow a couple of instruments from the Conservatoire for a while. I feel I was given opportunities which I may have missed out on if I’d been in London.”
David first picked up the violin at infant school when he was offered free music lessons.
“We all played recorders and then when I was about seven I was given the choice of the violin or the guitar and I thought the violin was the better option.
“I was fortunate because I had a very supportive family so that practising and all the activities which come along with learning a musical instrument just became part of our family life.
“Gradually it became more and more serious. I ended up in youth orchestras and by that point, at about 16, I started to think about whether to go to university or music college.”
Studying in Birmingham meant fantastic opportunities to watch internationally renowned musicians right on David’s doorstep.
“We were lucky to have Symphony Hall. I was regularly able to go and watch concerts given by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras. Then there were Sunday recital series and it was brilliant to go and see string quartets.
“Seeing so many world class performers and residing in a city which has the CBSO was brilliant for a student.”
And since graduating and becoming a professional violinist, David has had the opportunity to play these venues himself.
“For all of the time I lived in Birmingham the Town Hall was behind scaffolding and barricades – in actual fact the first time I saw the Town Hall was as a professional going back to play,” he recalls.
“I’ve played Symphony Hall a few times now with different orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. But not as much as I would have liked to so it’s really nice to be coming back with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.”
Symphony Hall is famed for its sound quality and David says that ensures it a place on many musicians’ wish lists.
“As a performer, Symphony Hall is superb. It has fantastic acoustics which get performers really excited,” he says.
“We play for the opera and the ballet for 99 per cent of our time and that means we largely play in a pit. The Royal Opera House is a dream place to work but acoustically we are in a very different situation from playing somewhere like Symphony Hall.
“When you are in the pit you don’t get a very good sense of the sound of the orchestra. Any time I have been to see productions at the opera house I am always amazed at how rich and lovely it sounds in the opera house but when you are in the pit you’re not in a good place to judge that.
“Interestingly where you play doesn’t affect the playing – the sound of the orchestra is the sound of the orchestra. But what I would say is that the feedback from the hall which we get as individuals is very satisfying in a place like Symphony Hall because you get the bloom of the sound.
“When we play at the Royal Opera House we are just one component – there is the performance on stage and the orchestra – so a concert like this where we are on stage is a bit of an event.’’
After graduating in 2005, David moved to Glasgow and played with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and then the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Relocating to London, he initially freelanced and then joined the Royal Opera House in 2015. And he’s enjoying the challenge of performing in an opera and ballet orchestra.
“It’s all new repertoire for me because I hadn’t worked in an opera company before so I’m doing everything for the first time which is really exciting. I like the variety and the freshness of it all.
“I’ve had so many highlights playing with this orchestra,” he says. “One actually has a Birmingham connection because we did Der Rosenkavalier by Strauss which was conducted by Andris Nelsons who used to be at the CBSO. That was a bit of a dream – it’s hard to call it work.’’
The programme for Symphony Hall features Stravinsky’s Feu d’artifice, a selection of Rachmaninoff songs and Tchaikovsky’s Suite No 3 in G major.
“It’s an interesting programme,” says David. “I’m familiar with some of it but lots of it is new to me. I didn’t know the Rachmaninoff songs so I’m looking forward to performing those. Also we’ve got a really fantastic singer in Anita Rachvelishvili. She sang in Il Trovatore at the Royal Opera House and she has a very special voice.”
The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conducted by St Antonia Pappano, perform at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall at 4pm on Sunday, February 10. See thsh.co.uk / 0121 780 3333