Mystery helps spontaneity flow

Baldur Bronnimann is curious to experience Midori's take on the Beethoven Concerto. Photo / Supplied

Swiss conductor Baldur Bronnimann has been associated with some of the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra's most memorable programmes and, on his latest visit, he works with not one, but two violinists.

Josef Spacek performed Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole a couple of nights ago, while next Thursday's concert features Japanese violinist Midori playing Beethoven.

"It's like a blind date," Bronnimann laughs, when I ask him about the anticipation of first getting together with a soloist. "A little like when you meet someone from the internet and there's no way of knowing whether you're actually going to get on or not."

He prefers a certain mystery, not listening to recordings and waiting until they meet to make music together.

"I like to stand close by, hear how he or she plays and take it from there. It means you can have a certain spontaneity and your ears aren't blocked by what went before."

He remembers the American cellist Gary Hoffman in the Dvorak Concerto. "It's a difficult work because, as it is done so much, a soloist can just go into automatic mode. But Gary was open to all kinds of suggestions and that was really exciting."

Midori must be the casting coup of the season and Bronnimann was curious to experience her take on the Beethoven Concerto.

"It's such a milestone. It depends on what the soloist makes of it. That long first movement in which you have to find a balance between being spontaneous and yet make the form and structure clear. You can't get away with being flashy. There's nowhere to hide."

The other major offering on Thursday's programme is the Suite from Bartok's The Miraculous Mandarin. The original ballet caused an uproar at its 1926 Cologne premiere, showing as it does the graphic murder of a mandarin, lured to his death by a prostitute. Yet, for Bronnimann, this work is far more than lurid Expressionism. "There's a grotesque, sensationalistic side but there's also something deeply psychological about this alien figure who's searching for something deep, only to be confronted by the cynicism of the world. Fundamentally he's looking for love, but just looking in the wrong place."

Bronnimann is still involved with the Colombian National Symphony Orchestra. As music director, he balances concert hall performances with playing in the largest open-air coalmine in the world.

"The audience sits up right next to the orchestra, so they can almost physically feel the musicians play."

He often fields questions from youngsters about becoming a conductor.

"Not surprising," he says. "Movement and music are deeply connected. From their very earliest years, children dance to music; it's their way of visualising it. In the concert situation, the conductor's movements provide the same visualisation."

Next year, he conducts English National Opera's production of John Adams' The Death of Klinghoffer.

In January he is taking on the inaugural concert of the Palestinian National Orchestra. Two concerts in Ramallah and East Jerusalem will probably feature Beethoven's Eroica.

"It celebrates so wonderfully the freedom of the human spirit." One thing is certain; both programmes will open with a work by a Palestinian composer. "After all," he insists, "music is not just an art form from Europe. It's important that the Palestinians feel they own it too."

PERFORMANCE

What: Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, Thursday at 8pm