BY JO ST LEON
One of the highlights of attending a Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concert for me is watching its principal double bass player Stuart Thomson working his magic. He has an extraordinary relationship with his instrument in which player and bass almost become one, living and breathing the music.
Stuart left for China on 9 September at the invitation of renowned Chinese composer Tan Dun, for a further performance of his haunting double bass concerto Wolf Totem, which Stuart premiered with the TSO in Hobart back in 2015.
The double bass might not immediately spring to mind as a path to musical stardom. But in Stuart’s hands, the unexpected is becoming the norm: this will be his third visit to China to perform the work.
I’ve known Stuart as a friend and performance colleague in Tasmania – but his musical life was full before he arrived in this state. For Stuart, it all began with a plastic recorder, and moved on to the double bass via the pianola. “It was such fun pumping the pedals and watching the keys flutter,” he says. Growing up in the United Kingdom, he went on to learn the piano, but says practising was not a priority, so he had to employ his considerable powers of persuasion to convince his (very supportive) parents to let him learn the bass.
Stuart credits the UK’s outstanding peripatetic music program with his introduction to the instrument, and his time in the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra with his enduring love of orchestral playing. He didn’t initially think of the bass as a career, but was encouraged by his HCYO conductor Gary Holmes, who was a huge influence and inspiration in Stuart’s early musical life.
He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Duncan McTier and Corin Long, and says Duncan gave him some much-needed discipline, while Colin imparted a musical humanity that remains with him in all that he does.
After a lengthy trial with the London Symphony Orchestra shortly after leaving music college Stuart’s career began modestly, with a tutti job in the Hong Kong Philharmonic. After two years this was followed by a year-long contract in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra before being offered the associate principal job in the Queensland Symphony Orchestra. Fifteen months later, the TSO appointed him its principal double bassist.
Stuart loves the TSO, and loves living in Tasmania – he says the orchestra is outstanding, with a great work ethic and a commitment to excellence that he finds inspiring. Further to this, he finds Tasmania itself remarkable: “If you scratch the surface, you find all these talented individuals across all walks of life.”
Stuart’s TSO job gives him a work/life balance that he enjoys. It has enabled him to broaden his orchestral life into a portfolio career, allowed him the opportunity to pursue his other artistic interests, and given him time to hang out with his two beautiful golden retrievers and Millie, his cat. Stuart loves teaching, both tertiary students and younger children, and devotes much time to his other great love, playing chamber music. For seven years, he performed in the Elanee Ensemble (double bass/viola duo), giving concerts throughout Tasmania, undertaking several tours to Victoria, commissioning new works with the support of Arts Tasmania and Tasmania Regional Arts, and collaborating regularly with other musicians.
Stuart says of this time, “it’s thanks to Elanee that I am able to do what I do now”.
“We worked so hard, and our standards were constantly rising as we met the demands of a challenging repertoire.”
Shortly after he arrived in Tasmania, he performed Bottesini’s Concerto for two basses with SSO principal bassist Alex Henery, and several years later performed the Tubin Double Bass Concerto with the TSO. Then came the Tan Dun commission, shared with four other orchestras: the Concertgebouw, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, and Taiwan Symphony. Stuart considers it the biggest challenge of his career so far.
Stepping out of the orchestra is always hard. There is a dramatic change of attitude required to move from being a sensitive ensemble player to being the star of the show. According to Stuart, “putting yourself out there is the hardest thing”.
“You have to change the way you think and how you project your sound. It’s the sound that needs to change the most.”
He is helped in this endeavour with the magnificent bass he bought several years ago. Buying this instrument was a dream come true for Stuart – something he never thought to be able to afford. But, with a generous loan from Arts Tasmania, it became a reality for him. It is a beautiful looking bass – an unnamed Italian instrument, c.1740. He tells us he loves it as much today as the day he first played it; the dark, chocolatey sound bringing him never-ending joy, as it no doubt will when he presents the Tan Dun.
Wolf Totem is inspired by Jiang Rong’s novel of the same name. Stuart describes it as “programmatic” music, evoking the Mongolian plains with their population of shepherds, wolves, horses and sheep – even baby wolves feature among the melodic lines. The overall effect is distinctively Chinese, and Stuart puts this down to Tan Dun’s extensive use of the upper registers of the bass, which at times resemble an erhu; an expressive Chinese stringed instrument.
Tan Dun became a household name in China after winning an Oscar for his Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon film score, so opportunities for repeat performances have been many. The TSO toured China with Wolf Totem early in 2017, and after a repeat performance in Darwin, Stuart was invited back by Tan Dun some months later to participate in the Shenzhen Pop Music Festival, and again next week as part of the Nanjing Forest Music Festival. He loves the piece, and his warm collegial relationship with Tan Dun, for whom he reveals he has profound respect.
Wolf Totem has taken Stuart’s career to unthought-of heights, but the future remains unknown. He has no plans to leave Tasmania for good, but as the past few years have shown him, even in our far-flung corner of the world, remarkable things can happen. Repertoire for the bass is still quite limited, so Stuart says he would like to commission new music, a process that began with Elanee, in order to contribute to a body of work that is both challenging and satisfying.
Whatever the future holds, it is certain that Stuart’s contribution to the bass, and the musical life of Tasmania, will be ongoing.
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Disclaimer: Jo St Leon was Stuart’s colleague in Elanee Ensemble.
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