Dutch-born cellist Pieter Wispelwey will fulfill a long-held ambition this week, when he performs for the first time with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, one of the world’s oldest and most distinguished classical music groups. This meeting, however, will not occur in Europe or North America, but in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Sydney, where Wispelwey says he feels surprisingly at home.
‘It’s never too far to come to Australia,’ he says, after being asked about his motivation in undertaking the journey. ‘I have a long-term relationship with Australia, and in particular with… the Australian Chamber Orchestra – also a lasting friendship with [its Artistic Director] Richard Tognetti… I have really loved going there.’
Wispelwey calls it an honour to perform with the Gewandhaus, which has been premiering and interpreting the music of its home town’s distinguished musical citizens – including Bach, Mendelssohn and Schumann – for some 260 years.
However, the cellist adds, it is also ironically a time of reinvention for the likes of Gewandhaus, which since the 1980s has increasingly had period instrument orchestras clipping at the heels.
‘It is one of the oldest orchestras in Europe… one of the very few left,’ he observes. ‘But, at the same time… the established orchestras are desperately renewing and restyling themselves, because of the Early Music movement… Now that conductors are more informed and have a broader stylistic awareness, the mainstream orchestras are really… redefining their style of playing 19th-century music.’
The likes of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, which have grown and achieved increasing technicality over the past two decades, have not only brought a new sound to classical music audiences, but have radically altered the landscape for conductors as well.
‘Now, finally, we can see the fruits of this in the mainstream orchestra circuit,’ Wispelwey observes. ‘Conductors from the Early Music [scene] started spilling over, so a famous conductor like Nikolaus Harnoncourt was conducting [Amsterdam’s] Concertgebouw Orchestra, but in the ‘90s was working with the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic. Now, one of the greatest conductors alive, Sir Simon Rattle, is Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment… He’s the first example of the conductor who is really at home in all styles.’
But for solo players, he admits, it’s still unusual to be a specialist across time-periods – something for which Wispelwey is renowned. ‘It’s still quite rare [among cellists],’ he notes. ‘And it’s the same in violin and piano fields. Nowadays, there are quite a few opera singers who are active in more than one style, but it’s not the case with other musicians.’
Trained firstly in Amsterdam, under Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma, Wispelwey went on to study with Paul Katz in the US and William Peeth in the UK. He was the first cellist ever to win the Netherlands Music Prize for promising young musicians, and has over the past few years performed with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, the Camerata Academia Salzburg, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
In a neat irony, Wispelwey will play in Australia the work he recorded in his first collaboration with the ACO, Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A Minor, on the ‘cello he describes as his ‘regular’ – an anonymous French, 18th-century instrument.
He admits he’s lucky that this particular ‘cello has such an amazing sound, given that he – like so many other virtuosi the world over – can no longer realisitically afford to buy antique instruments.
And, as for it being an arduous journey to come to Australia, Wispelwey cites working with ACO as well worth the trip. ‘The ACO is my faviourite chamber orchestra in the world,’ he says without hesitation. ‘The experiences I have had with them are the best moments in my career… That’s partly the genius of Richard Tognetti, who is a unique [musician]… therefore, the performances are always of a unique standard, in all aspects.’
Following his performances with the Gewandhaus, Wispelwey will make his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic later this year, and will be a performer-in-residence at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam during the 2004 summer season. He is also booked to perform a series of recitals in cities including London, Paris and New York, as well as at the Edinburgh Festival and with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in coming seasons.
