BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
You may have caught Emma Sullivan’s interview with Dan Russell a couple of months back: Dan is artistic director of the Phoenix Collective, which tours its themed concert programs to venues across Australia.
But in this interview, we meet an artist who has never before performed with Phoenix. Christopher Bennett will join this collective for the first time in The Baroque Bizarre. Though he’s a well-experienced cellist (think: The Metropolitan Orchestra, Quay Quartet, Sydney Bach Society), Christopher is a fresh new face in the Phoenix team.
We ask him what it’s like to be a guest artist, entering an ensemble’s existing music culture; and, on the other side of the coin, how an ensemble can best welcome a new performer into the mix.
The cellist will perform alongside violinist Dan, and harpsichordist Christian Lillicrap.
Hi Christopher, thanks for chatting about your performance with Phoenix! How did you get on board with the collective?
It was quite serendipitous, really. I was actually pulling together a scratch orchestra for a Christmas carols concert. I needed a concertmaster, and I knew of Dan because I had seen him perform a Beethoven quartet a few years before.
He had come up in conversation recently, because a friend of mine was playing with him. I contacted Dan to ask if he could lead this Christmas carols concert. He was unavailable, but then in turn asked if I wanted to get together to play some Baroque music.
It’ll be your first time performing with Phoenix. What goes through your mind when you prepare to perform with a group you haven’t before?
Like all performing musicians, I assume, there is always that element of insecurity: Am I good enough? Will I be able to fit in musically? Will I be able to add value to the group more than just playing the notes? However, I usually find those feelings subside pretty quickly, and are replaced with excitement and anticipation. Throughout my whole musical life, I have always found chamber music to be the most satisfying avenue of music making.
I always look forward to playing with new people, because you never know how things will go. The process of discovering a piece of music together with new colleagues is always exciting. How will our sounds and ideas blend to create a fresh voice as an ensemble? You can never know until you do it, and it is different with every different group. Even just swapping out one person can often completely alter the end product.
I endeavour to prepare as best as I can – learning the notes, marking cues, listening to recordings, etc. – but I try to leave the deeper levels of discovery to the rehearsal. I don’t want to get stuck on an idea before we have even begun collaborating.
How can musicians welcome a fresh face into their ensemble and their musical culture?
With openness! We are all here to make music and to share it with willing audiences, and people who are new to the ensemble should be invited into that process from the word go. This has actually always been my experience, and similarly I try to project the same feeling to others when I have invited people into my projects in the past.
I think this idea of musical culture within a group is an interesting one. A group, and its culture, is made up of its parts. As soon as you swap one person out, everything can completely change. I have experienced this with other groups in the past. The energy a new person may (or may not!) bring can have an enormous effect on the group dynamic. I think it is important to realise this when inviting new people in, and not hold on too tightly to any musical culture that may exist within the group because it will surely change.
What are some of the benefits of performing with a new group?
The opportunity to learn from new people! One little mantra that has guided me throughout my musical life as an adult is ‘more is caught than taught’. Chamber music can be so intimate. Throughout the process, you get to see up close every aspect of another person’s musicianship – their technique, their sound, their musical ideas, their rehearsal and practice process. There is so much there to learn from one another if you approach it with an open mind. I could list many different musicians whom I have learnt so much from, just through chamber music.
Another thing that pops into my mind is the opportunity to expand my professional network. Perhaps you are acquainted with one member of an ensemble, but you might not have had a chance to play with or even meet another member. The wider your network, the more music-making opportunities that tend to present themselves.
As a freelancer, you really have to drive your own career, and that includes fostering relationships with new colleagues. You never know who you will end up working with, but at the end of the day we are all working towards the same goal. So why wouldn’t you want to expand your musical world?
What have you encountered in rehearsals with Phoenix that you weren’t expecting?
Dan and Christian have been wonderful to work with. From the word go, there has been a relaxed and collaborative workflow that often takes a while to develop with a new ensemble.
One challenge has been with the Vitali Chaconne. The arrangement we are performing, from 1911, is an example of how early 20th Century performers and composers would often chop up and put back together pieces from the Baroque and Classical eras to more closely resemble the style and technical demands of the time. We are presenting this piece as a specimen of exactly that. The challenges lie in making it fit with a traditional Baroque trio including a harpsichord and continuo cello. We have worked together to construct our own realisation of the continuo part through referencing both the original and 1911 arrangements.
This sort of re-composing of my own part is something, as a cellist, I have never done before; but the needs of the ensemble call for it, so I have enjoyed the challenge.
What are you most looking forward to when it comes to presenting The Baroque Bizarre to audiences in Australia?
Audiences are very familiar with both Bach and Vivaldi. Most of this program is, however, music by composers whom audiences are generally far less familiar with – and I must confess, myself also. It is rare that one gets to perform music by such a diverse range of Baroque composers, so this really is a treat!
Playing continuo is something I really enjoy sinking my teeth into. The cello has a lot of influence over the phrasing and musical direction of the piece because the part is primarily concerned with harmonic material. I like to play around with it, following how the harmony progresses, and supporting that progression with my sound.
That being said, as a cellist, I am most looking forward to the Vivaldi. My part here is not a continuo part, but rather it is of almost equal standing with the violin. This really is a trio sonata. It is in the Vivaldi I really get a chance to let a bit loose and have a serious play!
Anything else you’d like to add?
As a guest artist, it really is a privilege to play with Phoenix Collective. I think there is an enormous amount of room for entrepreneurship in music in this country. This is an assumption that has underpinned my career so far, and I always relish in collaborating with other people or groups who hold a similar view. To get a concert series up and running with 12+ performances a year, and audiences of 70+ people, I think is a huge mark of success. I look forward to catching some of that energy that Phoenix Collective has.
See Phoenix Collective present The Baroque Bizarre on 9 May in Canberra, 12 May in Sydney, and 19 May on the Central Coast.
We are very proud to collaborate with Phoenix Collective: the group’s 12 May performance features as a pop-up point in our Roving Launch, so be quick to grab your FREE copy of CutCommon print issue #2 when you attend!
Images supplied.
