BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Live music can be life-changing. It can uplift and comfort us, especially in times when we need to feel there’s some good in the world.
But for musicians, live music goes one step further: it’s the medium that allows them to pursue their careers, put food on the table, and express who they really are.
The Melbourne Digital Concert Hall was launched at the start of the pandemic, and has enabled the continuation of live music for more than 300 professional musicians across the country.
For cellist Julian Smiles, this digital initiative has become a reminder of how valuable live music can be, even when the way it is presented to audiences has evolved.
Julian and his fellow musicians in the Goldner String Quartet (pictured above) are scheduled to perform in the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall’s Sydney Spring Season. This season unites the streaming platform with the National Art School, celebrating the power of collaboration in our creative community.
Julian, it’s terrific to see you performing with the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall. What has MDCH meant to you this year — as a musician and listener?
As a musician, it’s been a life-saver. There is, of course, a little bit of income, which is greatly appreciated. But more than anything, it allows us to express ourselves as artists. I had no idea I was missing performing so much until I did my first MDCH in June.
Also, given restricted travel and cancellation of many festivals and concerts, it’s great to be able to see our colleagues around the country on stage.
It’s Goldner’s 25th anniversary in 2020. Congratulations! Still, I take it you haven’t been able to celebrate in the way you’d likely been planning for some time. You must be excited to perform — symbolic of ‘raising a glass’ when all the restaurants and bars have been closed…
We certainly didn’t expect to be celebrating this important milestone with an enforced sabbatical! Quite the opposite: we had many important events planned, including touring for Musica Viva’s 75th anniversary International Concert Season, presenting an extended Music In the Hunter Festival featuring Beethoven, and appearing as resident quartet at the 30th anniversary Australian Festival of Chamber Music in Townsville.
All being well, we plan to celebrate our 25 years in a performance sense, a little delayed, next year.
That’s quite a number of anniversaries. And coincidentally, as you celebrate 25, Beethoven celebrates 250. I can see you’re honouring this on your program, performing Beethoven’s Quartet in D Major.
Beethoven has always been very important to us as a quartet and, as such, we had many more performances of his works planned throughout 2020.
We felt it very important and relevant to continue to pay homage to his creative genius in the few concerts we have still managed to present.
What need do you feel Beethoven fills among today’s audiences?
Beethoven’s music has a sort of timeless humanity — it doesn’t feel like it was written by someone far removed from ourselves in era or spirit. He deals with the same emotions that are recognisable to us, and remarkably and with special relevance to the times in which we find ourselves. Despite the many physical ailments he experienced in his life, his music invariably triumphs with warmth, reflection, dignity, and exuberance.
Why have you coupled Beethoven with Tchaikovsky, Vine, and Sculthorpe on your program?
The other works in the program were not really selected specifically to be partner works to the Beethoven. We just thought to choose works that in each case contain beauty, simplicity, and a sense of quiet reflection that audiences might comforting at the moment.
Let’s talk about you. In addition to performing chamber music for more than two decades, you have also been on jury panels for chamber music competitions, and have held teaching positions at leading Australian institutions. How do you hope people will judge your playing with MDCH?
It’s hard for us within the quartet to escape the rigours of making sure everything is together, balanced, in tune. Hopefully, our performance will be — but more importantly, the audience can judge us on whether the music has the power to move and excite them, and whether they feel involved in the creation of something special.
No two performances are ever the same, and in our performances we delight in feeding ideas to each other and reacting spontaneously. I hope this comes across the barrier of the computer screen.
As an educator, you’ve even founded your own school of cello playing, which you teach to your students! So how has live streaming impacted the way you teach cello, and the conversations you have with your students?
This period has certainly opened up a whole new area of skills that both teachers and students have found themselves needing to hone.
I must confess that prior to this year, I hadn’t given a single online lesson — and now I’ve taught somewhere over 150 hours of Zoom lessons.
It’s been a bit of a kick along in a direction many aspects of the music industry had already been slowly travelling in. As such, I feel once this is all over, we will be very well equipped to do auditions, make presentations and instructional videos, and give lessons and masterclasses to people in other states or countries.
Returning to your own stream, this performance marks a collaboration between MDCH with presenting partner the National Art School. As a musician, what value do you find in this partnership?
Even without a physical audience present, it remains very important to be performing in a venue that gives us acoustic support. It also helps if we feel we’re playing in a special venue, and the Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School will certainly give a sense of occasion.
We’re delighted that MDCH and the school have formed this partnership for this series of concerts.
Do you have any parting words before your MDCH performance?
We’ve done a few live streamed concerts already. Even though we play in an empty hall to several cameras, we know you — the audience — are out there, and we feel that connection that is so important in live music making.
We hope that you’re all safe at home, and that you enjoy this concert as much as we will enjoy presenting it for you.
Watch Julian and the Goldner String Quartet perform live at the National Art School through the Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, 8.30pm October 15. Tickets on the MDCH website.
Images supplied.
