Branford Marsalis used to tell the story, with a wry chuckle, of how he was fired from his trumpet-playing brother Wynton’s jazz band for joining Sting on tour. The reason went something along the lines of, to be great, you need to focus on one thing.
It’s why Wynton stopped playing classical trumpet for a long time. He appears to have mellowed; these days Wynton has a solid side hustle as a classical composer, having written several symphonies and a couple of concertos, including one for violin, which Auckland Philharmonia plays on November 28, with concertmaster Andrew Beer as soloist.
It’s a lot of concerto. At 42-43 minutes, this is Beethoven and Brahms territory, but Beer, who will be the first violinist to perform it in Aotearoa, says the work sustains that length.
Forty minutes of fiddling, though – what’s that like for a soloist? “Once you get into any concerto, after the first couple of minutes you’re in the zone and you don’t lose that focus And although it’s long, there are a lot of stops and starts with orchestral interludes. In that sense, it’s almost like a concerto for orchestra.”
It’s also Marsalis’s most successful attempt to date at melding classical traditions with Americana. Along with the lush, John Williams-like orchestration, Marsalis prescribes a bluesy language that George Gershwin and, particularly, Duke Ellington might have approved of.
The fourth movement, titled Hootenanny, is a wild west call and response between violinist and group, like a barn dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers reworked for the concert hall.
The concerto is more virtuosic than that might suggest. That’s Nicola Benedetti’s fault. Marsalis wrote the concerto for the star violinist. She sent it back telling him to make it harder.
“It’s tough,” admits Beer. “I mentioned the stop and start, so it’ll be really difficult for 30 seconds and then not for a while. But everything is violinistic, and you can sense the close collaboration between Marsalis and Benedetti.” (The two are rumoured to be a couple who share a child, though neither has commented publicly.) It may be that closeness that allows Benedetti to play around with the music.
The concerto is improvisatory rather than improvised, but the violinist’s recording with the Philadelphia Orchestra often strays from what’s on the page. “Many of the violin parts are different,” Beer confirms. “I talked to a violinist who had spoken to Marsalis about it. He told her, ‘Just do what you want. There are a lot of jazz elements, do what feels right.’ So that’s what I’m going to do.”
Auckland Philharmonia, City Lights, Auckland Town Hall, 7.30pm, Thursday November 28.
