Desire to sail on the ocean of learning

Hidden Treasure: Elizabeth Wallfisch says,

For a week, I have been regularly dipping into the violin concertos of Giuseppe Tartini, the "Devil's Trill" man, through a new reissue of Elizabeth Wallfisch's marvellous 2003 recording - all in preparation for meeting the charismatic Australian violinist who brings her travelling Wallfisch Band to Hamilton and Auckland over the next two nights.

She may have moved to Britain in her late teens, but Wallfisch still has fond, vivid memories of training in the Australian Youth Orchestra and its National Music Camp, not to mention growing up in a musical family that included an engineer father who played clarinet and a mother and sister who were both cellists.

"The magic thing about having a twin sister who plays the cello is that you always have a chamber music partner," she says.

Her father had an inclination for the scholarly and "would put ornaments in my Corelli sonatas for my exams", Wallfisch remembers. "Then I'd get this comment from the examiners saying what an interesting edition I was using."

She admits that, like her father, she is a "natural pedagogue", having been teaching since she was 16. It is this impulse that lies behind the Wallfisch Band in which a core of four players, including the distinguished Dutch cellist Jaap ter Linden, gather together talented local musicians and intensively rehearse a concert programme.

"I work as a teacher, but on the road, I've got my eyes open for talent all over the world. We've got a wonderful group of principals and the chemistry that happens when the younger musicians join in is very special."

She recently commented in an interview how young musicians were positively hungry for music. "Everyone's hungry, but it's really more a curiosity, a desire to learn and, if we can help a little bit in the ocean of learning, we will."

The Wallfisch Band describes its musical offerings as a Venetian Carnival, an evening of Vivaldi and Locatelli that may well include some New Zealand premieres, albeit 300 or so years late.

"There's an awful lot of music out there that isn't known," she says. "We're doing this double double concerto for two violins and two cellos by Vivaldi. It's a fantastic little piece but nobody knows it. People think they know Vivaldi, but they don't."

As for Locatelli, Wallfisch reels off a veritable encyclopedia entry about the man.

"I was known as the Principezza di Locatelli once because I played so much of his music," she laughs.

Wallfisch extols the Italian's "absolutely to-die-for slow movements" and faster movements "where Locatelli brings out all the flashy things", pointing out how we can see the composer's own violin-playing talents revealed in these works.

"He published his compositions too, with great attention to the music. There are hardly any mistakes in Locatelli's scores and parts. He really proof-read and knew what he wanted." Wallfisch's 1994 CDs of Locatelli's L'Arte del Violino are a benchmark release, as are her recordings of Telemann's complete violin concertos a decade later. When I suggest Telemann is a less interesting composer than Bach, she retorts, "But no one's as interesting as Bach. Telemann's a more primitive composer but he's one of the most skilful. There's not a bad note in his music and, if we can't bring it to life, then we haven't understood it.

"You have to dig deep as he doesn't give away secrets easily."

PERFORMANCE
Who: Violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch

Where and when: Venetian carnival, WEL Energy Trust Academy of Performing Arts, Hamilton, Sunday at 5pm; Auckland Town Hall, Monday at 8pm

On disc: Tartini, Violin Concertos (Helios, through Ode Records)Elizabeth Wallfisch is spreading the word on Vivaldi and Locatelli, writes William Dart