Performer thrives on journeying to the edge

By ANNAROSA BERMAN

Pianist Roger Woodward, on a seven-concert tour with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, remembers trying to persuade the legendary Sviatoslav Richter to visit Australia by boat from Odessa, playing chamber music all the way.

Richter, who thrived on performing in the outer republics of the former Soviet Union, agreed and everything was settled. A few weeks later he called with an apology, explaining that he could not cope with the idea of the sun rising "the wrong way".

Australian-born Woodward holds no such reservations. Having collaborated with musical giants such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Kurt Masur and Zubin Mehta, received dedications from Leo Brouwer, Arvo Part, Toru Takemitsu and Yannis Xenakis, and made close to 100 recordings on the world's top classical labels, he has been declared a genius by the Guardian in London and a national treasure by the Australian National Trust.

Yet like his late friend and colleague Richter, he enjoys nothing better than performing away from Europe and America's metropolitan centres. In Australia he crisscrosses the countryside. Here, he will perform in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Invercargill.

Having "fallen in love" with New Zealand on his first visit in 1975 (there have been three subsequent tours), Woodward has been impressed by "the exceptionally fine quality of New Zealand musicians".

"On previous visits I've played Bartok's Second Piano Concerto, some Schoenberg and Xenakis' Synaphai, and every time the musicians of the NZSO rallied and played with total commitment," he says from San Francisco, where he is professor and director of the State University of Music and Dance.

For his Auckland concerts on Friday and Saturday he will be performing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3 and Cage's Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra on the first night, and Liszt's Totentanz on the second.

To perform Cage's work, each piano string is prepared with small but precisely shaped pieces of wood, rubber and metal screws, nuts and bolts. The pressing of a key thus yields a complex sonority combining several different pitches and timbres along with unpitched buzzes or thumps.

The orchestra, too, is expected to make unusual sounds, with the help of (among other instruments) a "water gong" (the composer's invention) and a radio.

The pianist's part comprises a "book" containing 84 different kinds of composition, and the pianist is free to play any elements of his choice, wholly or in part.

Woodward, who knew Cage well, comments: "The musical interaction is spontaneous and [the pianist's role] is adapted to the fragments selected by other players, much like in jazz."

This means no two performances of the work are ever the same. Woodward has performed it seven times.

Audiences might be more familiar with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3, but if some musicians find audience familiarity with a work daunting, Woodward is not one of them. "As I discover and rediscover Beethoven's music, it always remains a joy because as one learns more, the process of musical enrichment grows."

He disagrees with the notion that Liszt's technically daunting Totentanz might be considered a showpiece. "I would most certainly not describe such a visionary and seminal work as a showpiece. As for the phrase 'technically daunting', it purports some kind of non-musical intention - acrobatic or empty gestures and absence of poetry and musical intention."

Woodward, who founded the Sydney Spring International Festival of New Music in 1989 and directed it for 13 years, is widely respected for introducing the work of contemporary composers to the public. Yet he is uncomfortable with the term "new music". "I ask you, what on earth do you mean by this cosy term: new music? New for whom? I know artists who play 'Early Music' as far back as Debussy and Ellington, in addition to those who believe that the music of [Renaissance composers] Ockeghem, Lassus and Gibbons as well as [the contemporary] Yannis Xenakis is worth hearing and preserving as 'new' all the time. Personally, I believe that it should be - otherwise it would be impossible to play it all one's life with commitment, dedication and love."

Despite the accolades, the dedications, the collaborations and the 100 recordings bearing his name, Woodward is happy to continue devoting a large portion of his time to teaching. "How can you possibly be expected to play well if you are not prepared to learn?" he wonders.

"I learn a lot from my students and have taught all my life. Nearly all artists do - it was an example set by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt."

Performance

* Who: Roger Woodward with NZSO

* Where: Auckland Town Hall

* When: Friday March 28, Saturday 29