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An interview with Pekka Kuusisto
I met Pekka Kuusisto just after
he’d been interviewed live on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune, which included a
three minute slot where he improvised freely from scratch. ‘I just want
to say thanks for having me on the show’ Pekka had said to presenter Sean
Rafferty before the improvisation started. ‘I’ve never done this on live
radio before and it could be the last time you invite me on. It could
even be the end of my career.’
An hour later when we met, he
seemed totally unfazed about the entire experience. ‘It was interesting,’
was all he said. ‘I’ve been hanging out here, drinking a beer.’ I knew
then that the critics’ descriptions of Pekka as being relaxed in performance
were equally applicable to his off-stage persona.
I was talking to Pekka ahead of
The Fiddlers
project, which sees him directing Britten Sinfonia on a four-date tour
around the UK, including his QEH debut. The programme, chosen by Pekka
himself, is an eclectic mix, featuring music by Bach, HK Gruber, Schubert
and fellow Finn, Einojuhani Rautavaara.
It’s clearly important to Pekka
to play music by his compatriots. ‘I’m extremely proud that such a small
country produced such a lot of really great music,’ he says. ‘Wherever
I am, playing the Sibelius Concerto, I can see the landscapes of my homeland.
It’s a bit like carrying around a small box of soil from your garden.’
I ask whether it was therefore inevitable that The Fiddlers project would
feature a work by a Finnish composer. ‘No, not inevitable. But I’m really
happy that the Rautavaara piece is there.’
Following Britten Sinfonia’s
slightly unusual approach to concert presentation, Pekka has suggested
that the violinists enter the stage playing the 200 year old folk tunes
that inspired Rautavaara to write his short piece, The Fiddlers. Pekka
explains that ‘The Fiddlers’ is not really an accurate translation of
the original Finnish title, ‘Pelimannit’, which literally means ‘folk
musicians’. ‘It’s more to do with the style you play in, not the kind
of instrument you play,’ he says. ‘To play like a Pelimanni is to play
with a certain attitude, a sense of enjoyment, of always being ready to
play, whatever the occasion, whether it’s the right time or not.’
Each movement of The Fiddlers
tells a story about someone who plays their instrument in this way – for
example the church organist who illicitly stays behind after services
to improvise on Bach hymn tunes. Pekka clearly feels a close connection
with the Pelimannit, and has been described by the Times as having ‘all
the natural fun and relaxation of a folk musician’, whether playing classical
repertoire, or more contemporary music.
Known increasingly for his
work directing ensembles from the violin, I asked Pekka what makes this
approach different from being conducted from a podium as a guest soloist.
‘I just love the control,’ he jokes. ‘No, not really. You know, it’s not
about wanting to be the conductor or being in a position of power. It’s
about being a chamber musician, just like the other players. It’s the
best way of ensuring there’s good communication between everyone on stage
– and good communication in music is just the best thing. When I direct,
I get feedback straight from the musicians and develop individual relationships
with them. Yes it’s more pressure because I’m there directing throughout
the concert, but it also offers many more possibilities for good collaboration.’
He described the first time
he directed an ensemble. Having arrived at a rehearsal with the Australian
Chamber Orchestra, their director (whom Pekka had assumed would be taking
the rehearsal) said, ‘welcome. It’s all yours.’ ‘That first rehearsal
they played well and I didn’t say anything to them,’ Pekka recalls. ‘It
was only when the players approached me and said ‘you can tell us to do
anything and we’ll do it’, that I started to appreciate what was happening.’
I ask if he prefers to play
without a conductor and he gives a diplomatic reply. ‘If a conductor is
on my wavelength then it can be great, especially in certain repertoire,
where there are a lot of notes for the soloist to get his/her hands around.
But performing something by Mozart or Vivaldi with a conductor who felt
differently from me about the way it should be played – that would be
a nightmare. It’s always better to play that kind of music as chamber
music.’
He cites last spring’s collaboration
with Britten Sinfonia, the Bach ‘Double Concerto’ with Jacqueline Shave,
as an example. ‘It felt free and easy. The players were looking up all
the time, listening, reacting and making independent decisions, and it
felt so natural’.
He’s clearly looking forward
to working with Britten Sinfonia again. ‘I can’t wait to do this project.
‘It’s going to be so much fun,’ he grins. ‘That’s the other bonus of directing.
It’s much easier to socialise with the band because I’m one of them.'
I suggest that the Schubert
Death and the Maiden Quartet, arranged for string orchestra by Mahler,
will give Britten Sinfonia’s string players a great chance to show off
their chamber music credentials. ‘Absolutely,’ he enthuses. ‘I have a
very strong view about how that piece can be played, and this band is
exactly the right group to be exploring these possibilities with.’
I ask him why he’s chosen the
Schubert to go alongside the Bach E major violin concerto and two lesser-known
works. ‘It’s a good collection of different musical languages that will
fit together really well,’ he explains. ‘They’ll complement each other
and the whole will be more than the sum of its parts’ (he asks me if he’s
got this ‘very English phrase’ the right way around).
‘This is basic, proven ‘genius’
repertoire,’ he continues, ‘but presented in a fresh way, even for the
person in the audience who’s heard it a hundred times or more. For the
person who’s never heard it before, I think it’ll be inspiring.’ On the
subject of fresh interpretations, he states quite bluntly, ‘no-one wants
to play as if they’re in a museum, do they? I don't play to be different
or the same as anyone else, I just play it the way I think it and feel
it.'
To prepare for The Fiddlers
tour, Pekka admits he’s going to do a lot of practice to ‘get into a good
violin shape,’ but he also stresses the amount of work he’s going to put
into finding new sounds. I’m not sure what he means so he explains: ‘I’m
going to improvise a lot and identify how we can all get the best sound
from our instruments. A violin can do so much more than most people realise
and it’s important to spend the time finding out how different sounds
can be produced’.
He reveals that this attitude
comes from his love of playing many different styles of music. ‘Playing
folk, jazz, electronic music and improvising as well as classical music
has really given me the relationship I have with my violin. It has taught
me that a fiddle is not something to control – if you want to play in
a free way you have to feel free and most folk musicians I know would
agree. They couldn’t play the Sibelius Concerto to save their lives, but
they are some of the happiest musicians I know.’
Following a prodigious childhood,
Pekka went on to win the Sibelius Violin Prize, aged just 19, and is now
in the enviable position of being able to choose his projects to suit
his own, finely-honed but wide-ranging musical tastes. As well as regular
invitations to play with the top orchestras and to give recitals in major
venues, Pekka is Artistic Director of the Lake Tuusula Festival and is
active in composing and playing jazz, folk and electronic music.
He’s quick to point out that
this eclectic approach doesn’t extend to cross-over projects that blend
‘the most basic and worst elements of various styles of music. I just
hate the term ‘crossover’. It implies that there’s something to cross
over in the first place,’ he explains. ‘That’s a dangerous idea – it’s
all just music.’
It was here that Pekka leaned
over the table and drew my attention, in conspiratorial fashion, to the
pink glittery nail polish he was sporting. He sighed. ‘It’s from last
weekend when I was invited to play a gig with an electro-hip hop group
the Don Johnson Big Band’, he explained, the irony, apparently, being
that there are only four of them. 'We decided to dress up in drag. The
trouble is, I can’t get the varnish off. I tried the most abrasive stuff
I could find in Boots and it’s still there. I got quite alarmed playing
live on In Tune just now - I looked up at my fingers and thought, ‘wow,
they’re all glittery’’.
Before The Fiddlers tour he
has a project with the Finnish ensemble the Tapiola Sinfonietta that involves
a circus performance featuring music he has composed. ‘I can’t wait,’
he chuckles. ‘It’s going to have singing, dancing, a contortionist, acrobats,
video artists and a conductor who’s going to stand on one hand and conduct
with the other. The process of putting it together has been amazing.’
Chloe Priest
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