Not bowed by the three curses

By WILLIAM DART

A week before his town hall concert with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, violinist Richard Tognetti is in California.

"I'm actually recording a movie," he explains, "a movie where Russell Crowe plays the violin."

"And you're the violin?" I presume. "How does he play?"

"Welllll ... " (Tognetti isn't giving much away.)

"He plays like Richard Tognetti?"

"You've got it," is the Australian's laconic answer.

Tognetti has been with the ACO for 14 years and the first thing he had to do when he joined was "overcome the three curses - Australian, Chamber and Orchestra. And I didn't like the way the orchestra were playing early music. To be blunt, they seemed to be stuck in the mud somewhat. I had a vision we would be multilingual, playing earlier music on authentic instruments, which we can now do, and embrace contemporary music".

Over the 90s the ACO established themselves as a world-class ensemble. They now tour internationally - Tognetti comments drily, "Would a Dutchman only play in Holland?" - and are recording with the prestigious English company Chandos.

What is the appeal of a chamber orchestra? Does he ever feel a secret desire to be in the middle of a late romantic wash?

"You're always going to miss out on something - think of what a trombonist can't have. I suppose playing a Bruckner Symphony might be tricky, but maybe a Bruckner symphony is better to listen to than play."

These are musicians who enjoy their independence and the responsibility it brings. The 17 players we will be hearing on the town hall stage tonight "can't rely on a conductor. We're in charge of our destiny a bit more and if one violin makes a mistake you hear it. In a big orchestra it's all averaged out".

I discover a Kiwi connection during our conversation. Two years ago, Tognetti and his orchestra were involved in Parables, Lullabies and Secrets - a project that combined the talents of cartoonist Michael Leunig and our own Neil Finn. Tognetti remembers it as "a fantastic collaboration" and respects Finn as "one of the greatest of musicians".

Parables was a success, touring Australia to encouraging reviews, but did it gain any audiences for the orchestra?

"Not many," Tognetti admits. "We got new faces at that particular concert and they sat and listened to Janacek, Barber and Herrmann in the first half. Maybe we made one convert. And we certainly know our own audience didn't like the popular thing."

Marketing has also been a challenge when it comes to CDs. "When we were signed by Sony we thought it was a fantastic coup, until we realised how dismal it all was. Sony has all but stopped in Australia: they don't have a classical arm there any more. Being callow and full of hope, we recorded all this repertoire for them and they didn't push it. We wallowed around with them for too many years."

He's happier with the British Chandos. "The people there care about music and they know how to sell it. They don't want to record pop pap or dress classical music up as pop. Our new Sculthorpe CD is his first release of his music on an international label and we've just got rave reviews in the BBC magazine."

Another Chandos CD features Tognetti's various string quartet arrangements, some of which we'll be sampling in concert tonight. "Envy" is his excuse for jumping aboard the transcription train - "falling in love with the string quartet repertoire and wanting to bring it to the string orchestra.

"The first one I did years ago was the Janacek Kreutzer and it went down a treat. Sir Charles Mackerras took it all over the world."

What does he look for in the original quartet?

"If I hear something with the potential for orchestral colour I'm likely to do a job on it. Szymanowski and the Janacek Kreutzer call out for it. But I wouldn't do Janacek's Intimate Letters or any Mozart."

I'm fascinated, lured even, by the title of tonight's Paganini offering - Deviance, taken from the composer's 24th Caprice.

"It's deviant," is Tognetti's explanation. "It deviates from the original and Paganini himself was originally perceived to be a deviant. It's bizarre that back then people thought he was the devil incarnate - they passed out at his music. I thought I'd try to bring this diabolical fellow back to life and it just got wilder and wilder."

The man is becoming fired up talking transcriptions, but time is turning over and the studio on the other side of the Pacific sounds restless. He's proud to have turned the Blues from Ravel's Violin Sonata into a violin and orchestra piece because he "thought it would be sweet and it was". He's even arranged some Leonard Cohen songs for Russell Crowe.

As we tie details up, Tognetti has second thoughts about just how much he should be divulging of his work with the New Zealand actor.

"Just say you heard rumours I'm teaching Russell the violin."

Performance:


* What: The Australian Chamber Orchestra

* Where: Auckland Town Hall

* When: Tonight at 8