Violinist Rachel Podger, an internationally acclaimed specialist in the baroque and classical eras, will make her debut in the role of Tafelmusik’s Principal Guest Director to launch the ensemble’s 2024/25 season. The concerts take place September 27 to 29, with a spotlight on Mozart.
Podger first performed with Tafelmusik back in 2012. She returned in February 2023 for the Passione concert which was recorded in Jean Lamon Hall to create her first album with the ensemble.
October 11 is the official release date for their first recorded collaboration, titled Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione. A limited number of advance copies of the CD will be available for sale at September’s concert dates at Koerner Hall.
After September’s concerts, Rachel will lead Tafelmusik on the Bach and Baroque Brilliance South Korea Tour from Oct 22 to Nov 3, 2024, which will see them perform seven concerts in five different cities. She’ll then return to Toronto in 2025.
We caught up with Rachel to ask a few questions about the season ahead.
Rachel Podger: Q&A
What were your impressions of Tafelmusik the first time that you performed with them?
I have been a fan and admirer of Tafelmusik’s work for many years. I love the way the musicians in Tafelmusik engage not just with the music, but with each other, musically and personally, and the sense of being part of a musical family when playing with them.
There is a common musical language that we share, namely the language of all the various international baroque and classical styles. The members of Tafelmusik have been steeped in these various styles for years, as have I. Musical communication is easy as the basics are understood. This in turn allows for a broader exploration of freedom and flexibility; it is rare when this happens so naturally, and very inspiring and exciting when it does. The joy that flexibility creates is infectious for all involved, including the audience.
Do you have any specific areas, repertoire or other, that you’d like to explore with Tafelmusik over the next two years?
I adore Bach (well, who doesn’t?), and also the Bach family around Johann Sebastian (so before and after his life), and although I have played a fair amount of music by the Bach family, there is so much more to explore.
The great thing with JS Bach especially is that his music seems forever new: it’s the kind of music that gives you everything you could ever need as a human being, and more besides! His musical thought processes are so clear that the musical structure in his compositions gives you that sense of parameters and boundaries; his use of harmony and keys are so well chosen that you gain and regain a sense of knowing where you belong, often within a movement or even a single phrase. His word painting is exemplary, his use of rhetorical gestures is compelling, and he so thoughtfully guides the musician through his language by being extremely clear with his use of it and the punctuation therein. This gives you, as a player or listener alike, an acute sense of satisfaction like no other composer can create, in my opinion!
Having said that, I personally have a similar reaction of feeling uplifted and moved by other geniuses like Purcell, Biber, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert… so the menu for pieces with Tafelmusik will be rich and varied, and very tasty indeed. I’m very much looking forward to creating more programs together with them.
Tafelmusik recorded Haydn’s Symphony 43 with conductor Bruno Weil in the 1990s, whereas for this new recording, you lead the orchestra from the first violin position. How does that change the interpretation?
Directing a symphony from the violin is an exciting task! You are not ‘just’ the leader of the violin section and orchestra, but in charge of giving direction in terms of a musical vision and ideas of the story of the piece, as well as taking rehearsals and making sure everyone knows what they’re doing. This requires a fair amount of juggling and priority setting. I do enjoy this challenge although sometimes I do get carried away with the fascination of experimenting with a particular affect in a phrase, and get close to running out of time!
Having said that, play-directing Tafelmusik is not at all difficult; in fact the musicians know each other so well and play so well together in the first instance, that they therefore ‘read’ my directions pretty much as one voice. That makes my work easy, and it becomes more about trying out musical ideas and experimenting what works best.
Back in the day in the eighteenth century, symphonies (especially with the smaller number of players than the 19th century orchestra) were often directed either from the violin position or the keyboard placed in front of the orchestra. Playing without a conductor is more akin to playing chamber music, and any directing as such feels quite immediate, as it is executed by a player who is part of the ensemble rather than interpreting a conductor’s beat (not that I have anything against conductors!).
How would you describe your approach to the two contrasting symphonies? How do you feel the new recording will add to Tafelmusik’s relationship with the composer’s music? On the same lines, and related to the recording of course, what does Haydn have to offer contemporary listeners?
You might be forgiven for thinking that Haydn’s 106 symphonies might all sound rather similar to each other, since there are so very many! But there is something different about each one of them; Haydn’s musical mind was a well of ideas and tunes, often full of wit and vivaciousness, often charming and melodic, often dramatic and rustic (as with his early symphonies, and very much the case with no 49). You can hear just about every emotion and affect in his symphonies, and they are well worth exploring.
His 43rd is in the key of E flat and has a compelling warmth to its tunes as well as some surprising turns of phrases. Overall, it feels entertaining and full of good humour.
In contrast, his symphony no 49, entitled ‘La Passione’ is in the dark key of F minor, and has a brooding quality from the word go. It’s a fabulous piece to listen to when you want to listen to something of an introverted quality, but at the same time you don’t mind being caught off guard by dramatic changes with sudden dynamics and accents.
This symphony is very much part of the ‘Sturm und Drang’ trend in his symphonies written in the 1760s and 1770s (a literal translation of this being ‘storm and urgency’). The musical ideas are often of an unpredictable nature showing sudden dynamic contrasts, often accented and full of tension, and foreshadowing some Beethoven traits! But then they can also just as well have tender and uplifting expressions revealed to you, or you can be entertained by a humorous turn of phrase and experience endless joyful musical lifts and surprises — there is definitely never a dull moment!
What do you think lies behind the enduring appeal of the music of the baroque and classical periods?
As with any music and musical expression, the music of the baroque and classical styles are full of everything — life and death and everything in-between. Our task as musicians and performers is to make these stories, emotions and expressions come alive in the moment of performance. We do that by immersing ourselves into the language of a particular style and composer by getting underneath the skin and as much as possible, into the musical mind of an artist. The better we understand what they are imparting to us through their scores, the better we can translate their creations to the listener.
In doing so we hope to make each phrase relevant, telling and totally fresh in the moment. The ideal of a good performance for me personally is when you know the listeners’ hearts and minds have been moved in some way, and this happens best by channeling as much of the composers’ intentions as possible.
- You can listen to the first two singles from the upcoming Haydn Symphonies 43 & 49: Mercury & La Passione album [HERE].
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