BY EMMA SULLIVAN
You might not immediately associate the improvisatory style of the Turtle Island String Quartet’s music with the likes of Mozart, but violinist Dan Russell is committed to searching for common threads across all musical genres.
The artistic director of the Phoenix Collective, and concertmaster of one of Australia’s newest opera companies (read on to learn more), is determined to break down the barriers of classical music.
And choice of repertoire is just the beginning.
For the Phoenix Collective’s 2019 season, Dan has connected with an exciting group of artists equally at ease with exploring classical repertoire and improvisation. He’s also sought a series of venues that offer audiences both visual and acoustic delights.
So watch this space because, as Dan points out, the Phoenix Collective is only just starting to spread its wings.
The Phoenix Collective is a relatively new ensemble, only being launched last year. What motivated you to form the group, and what do you hope to bring to the chamber music landscape in Australia?
The Phoenix Collective is a group of musicians that began performing concerts in March 2018: piano and violin, baroque trio, guitar and violin, and a tango trio made up of bandoneon, violin and piano.
In addition, the Phoenix String Quartet was launched by Charmian Gadd in September 2018 at Crossroads Festival. The motivation comes from a drive to perform the highest-level chamber music to show the versatility of classical music, while making it available and accessible to everyone.
The goal was to do away with the stuffiness of highbrow performance, and the traditional barriers between performer and audiences, while adding a country/bush Australian vibe.
Without going into too much detail, the phoenix has been with me on many levels, both personally and musically throughout my life. And, I think as musicians, the process of getting up to perform in front of audiences, time and again, is similar to the phoenix in that it represents a fresh, new approach each time we perform.
You are fortunate to present your concerts in some stunning venues – heritage-listed Christ Church in Lavender Bay is just one example. In what ways do you think the concert space can affect the experience for musicians and audience members?
I often feel that the venue isn’t given enough credit in a performance. It’s such an important factor. A venue certainly contributes a special vibe, and heritage-listed venues seem to have this in spades.
Christ Church is stunning acoustically and visually, with close-up million-dollar views of Sydney Harbour, the bridge, and nearby gardens. Similarly, the majestic Hunter Baillie Presbyterian Church – Sydney’s oldest example of English Gothic architecture – boasts an amazing acoustic, and you can’t help feel that this adds a kind of ‘dark-chocolate’ depth to a performance.
The Phoenix Collective not only performs in different venues across Sydney, but also tours to Canberra and the Central Coast. Why is touring a priority for the ensemble, and how do you select each city and venue?
At this stage Phoenix is just starting to spread its wings with the cities chosen so far being ‘home’. My career over the last 10 years has been Sydney-based, even though I live in the Central Coast.
Canberra is my home-away-from-home, as my wife’s family lives there, and I often play there in concerts.
This year, Phoenix Collective has a number of regional NSW performances booked.
All of the programs in your 2019 concert series are themed, with your upcoming concerts, Love, Life and Death featuring works that reflect different stages in life. Does adding a programmatic dimension change your approach to the repertoire?
Yes, I think it must. Although, sometimes it’s hard to say what comes first with program design: the pieces or the concept. For the upcoming concert, I chose pieces that not only work well together but also formed a cyclic pattern of life.
In Glass’ String Quartet No. 3 (written as a movie soundtrack for the 1985 film Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and then later in 1998 used in The Truman Show), the orchestra is reduced to strings for Mishima’s last day where he commits seppuku (ritual suicide); six movements, 16 minutes. Starting at the end, then working back, is [a device] used a lot in writing, because it forces us to think what the story’s about. And by starting with death, everything that comes before it has more meaning.
A more uplifting, satirical, and quirky Polka by Shostakovich follows; then we segue into the simplicity and genius of Mozart’s first string quartet, written at the age of 13 or 14 while on tour with his father and, apparently, penned at the pub.
After the interval is the main course: Beethoven’s tenth string quartet known as The Harp. For me, this piece marks a key turning point in Beethoven’s life: he was in love with a famous soprano to whom he proposed, about the time Napoleon was invading Vienna. It’s worth noting that the Eroica symphony, which Beethoven dedicated to Napoleon, and later retracted, was written in the same key – E flat – around the same time.
For the last piece, and on a more cheerful note, we are taken skyward with a rendition of Turtle Island’s Skylife, a kind of palate cleanser of funky classical-jazz fusion. I feel that for both the audience and us as performers, it’s important to see the whole picture of this program. It’s an awesome journey.
Your first program is incredibly diverse. Is it challenging to find collaborative artists who are at ease changing from one genre to the next?
I agree that the program appears very diverse, at first. However, when looking closer, one can connect the threads of similarity, through Glass’ pristine minimalism to the simplicity of Mozart; the tongue-in-cheekness of Shostakovich to the funk and good times of Turtle Island. Then, the Beethoven is all of those things rolled into one.
In terms of the artists involved, I’m very lucky to work with such versatile, creative, and considerate musicians. Not only are they exceptional performers but also wonderful human beings. In my experience, the best communicators are musicians comfortable exploring the realms of improvisation.
What projects are you excited for later in the year and beyond?
Well, I do look forward to taking Phoenix Collective interstate soon to Western Australia, but a more immediate and exciting non-Phoenix project is my appointment as concertmaster of Coast Opera Australia, a new opera company based in the Central Coast. It opened with impressive full-house standing ovations, and with internationally renowned singers such as Sally-Anne Russell and José Carbó.
There’s quite a program line-up from intimate vocal productions through to full staged operas, so I’m really looking forward to being involved in the first-ever professional opera company based on the Coast.
The Love, Life and Death concert series with the Phoenix Collective will take place from February 24 to March 7 in Sydney, Canberra and the Central Coast.
Emma Sullivan is a freelance double bass performer, educator, and writer of all things classical music.
Images supplied.
