Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017

Beat by Beat | In with the New
Max Christie on
New Music
Performance
WENDALYN BARTLEY
QUICK PICKS
Nov 5: Nocturnes in the City presents the eminent Czech violinist
Ivan Zenaty (who continues the Czech violin tradition he learned from
his mentor Josef Suk) in works by Franck, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák
(with pianist Dmitri Vorobiev).
Nov 5: Trio Arkel (with guest, cellist Shauna Rolston) paints a
musical picture of Russia in the years before the Revolution: Taneyev’s
Trio for Strings (1907), Arensky’s Cello Quartet (1894) and Cello Duos
(1909) by Glière.
Nov 9: Women’s Musical Club of Toronto presents the Zodiac Trio
in a recital geared to their unusual makeup: piano, violin and clarinet.
Formed in 2006 at the Manhattan School of Music under the guidance
of famed clarinettist David Krakauer and Beaux Arts violinist Isidore
Cohen, the trio has made a career out of their unique sound palette.
Nov 12: Pocket Concerts’ ebullient co-directors, pianist Emily Rho
and violist Rory McLeod, in a rare duo recital, play music by Kenji
Bunch, Brahms and Rachmaninoff.
Nov 15 and 16: Peter Oundjian leads the TSO in an all-Vaughan
Williams program showcasing orchestra members Sarah Jeffrey
(oboe) and Teng Li (viola) as well as Canadian superstar Louis Lortie
(who also gives a solo recital Nov 19 at The Isabel in Kingston). On
Nov 23 and 25, Deutsche Oper Berlin general music director Donald
Runnicles leads the TSO in Mahler’s biographical Symphony No.6,
a massive work the composer wrote as an answer to Strauss’ Ein
Heldenleben.
Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote.
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 - 1:30pm
Deck the Halls: Downtown Carol
Sing with the Metropolitan Silver
Band and Organ
Sing favourite carols
~ Freewill donation helps Metropolitan’s
community work in the downtown core
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 17 - 7:00pm
Annual Candlelight Service of
Lessons and Carols with the
Metropolitan Choirs
~ Freewill offering
www.metunited.org • 416-363-0331, ext. 26
56 Queen Street East, Toronto
Donald Runnicles conducting the
Orchester der Deutsche Oper Berlin
MetUnited Music
MetUnitedMusic
Often in this column I write about what’s happening in the
world of new contemporary music from the composer and
presenter perspective – their ideas, visions and inspirations.
However, this month I want to focus on those who undertake to
bring these ideas to life – the performers. New Music Concerts’
event “Concertos” on December 3 provides the perfect context for
this conversation as it will feature three works designed to highlight
the role of the solo performer. The concert will present concertos
written for soloist and chamber ensemble by composers Robin
de Raaff (Netherlands), Linda C. Smith (USA/Canada) and Paul
Frehner (Canada), featuring percussionist Ryan Scott, pianist Eve
Egoyan and clarinettist Max Christie, respectively. Frehner’s piece,
Cloak, is a newly-commissioned work for clarinet and chamber
ensemble, so I contacted Christie to find out more about the work
from his perspective and also about his extensive career performing
contemporary music for a number of the new music presenters
in the city.
Christie began by explaining how he sees his role as a performer.
“My job is to observe the language of the composer and then utter it.
Every voice is unique, whether a performer’s or a composer’s. I don’t
try to make my voice suit the music, I just try to hear and understand
the piece and bring it out from the potential into the actual. That
is often fun for me. I love puzzles. A new piece is a puzzle to solve. I
don’t think that’s the composer’s intention, it’s just part of learning
music of any era.”
Christie says that the musical language in Frehner’s Cloak makes
sense to him. “He’s done a good job of choosing the multiphonics for
the opening section, which is extremely mysterious yet approachable
from a performance standpoint. The title, Cloak, is a hint; it’s
word play really. There’s a masked quality to the opening, whereas
the thematic material from the later movements could almost be
from a noir thriller soundtrack What’s mysterious for me right now
is what’s going on with the ensemble while I’m playing these long,
held notes. Sometimes you get something to work on and it’s really
hard, and you’re working on the hope that you hit 60 to 70 percent --
and if I can’t get 90 to 100 percent of this piece, I’m just bad. It’s definitely
the kind of writing that makes you realize how wonderful it is
to encounter a composer who writes that well for your instrument.
It makes you look good and therefore you have a better chance of
making him look good.”
Christie has been an active performer within the contemporary
music community over the years as an ensemble member of
Continuum, Esprit Orchestra and New Music Concerts. I asked him
what it was about new music that sparked his interest and had him
pursue a career with such commitment. “A huge part of what used to
be my profile in so many groups was just my willingness to try stuff,
and my flat-out refusal to give up on the hardest pieces. As you keep
working in a particular area you get pegged as a such-and-such type
of player. I’m pretty much at home with any era of music where the
clarinet is involved, but I’ve come to accept this designation because
it’s at least partly true.”
There is often a lot of additional pressure performing new
music due to the usual constraints of limited rehearsal time being
compounded by the challenge of the music itself. Christie enjoys rising
22 | November 2017 thewholenote.com