Preview

National Chamber Choir of Ireland at CMA:

A Conversation with guitar soloist Stewart French

by Mike Telin

Founded in 1991 by composer and conductor Colin Mawby, The National Chamber Choir of Ireland is regarded as Ireland’s most distinguished choral ensemble and is celebrated both nationally and internationally for its fresh and innovative sound.

This celebrated ensemble will present Tarik O’Regan’s Acallam na Senórach, An Irish Colloquy under the direction of Paul Hillier and featuring guitarist Stewart French, on Friday, October 14, 2011 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium as part of the Museum’s Viva! & Gala series. The program also includes music of Bach, Brahms, Bax, C. V. Stanford and Kevin Volans.

Scored for 16 singers plus harp and guitar, An Irish Colloquy is a musical rendering of the Acallam na Senórach. Tarik O’Regan writes in his program notes “Acallam na Senórach, a Middle Irish narrative dating to the late 12th or early 13th century, translates to English as ‘The Colloquy of the Ancients’ or ‘Dialogue of the Elders’. It is one of the most important texts to survive from that period and is one of the longest surviving works of original medieval Irish literature.

The original text tells the story of St Patrick’s interactions with two of the last-surviving members of a fían (band of warriors) once led by Finn mac Cumaill: Caílte and Oisín. They are still alive centuries after the famed battles in which they fought (traditionally assigned to the third century) and no explanation is given as to why they are still roaming Ireland, with their followers, at the time of St Patrick’s arrival in the fifth century.” To read the complete notes click here.

Guitarist Stewart French holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Music. In addition to his live broadcasts and recordings, he has been involved in major collaborations with John Rutter, Jeremy Huw-Williams, the Clare College Choir and Joseph Finlay, in addition to his work with Tarik O'Regan and Paul Hillier. We reached Stewart French by Skype at his home in London and began by asking him how he would describe Tarik O’Regan’s Acallam na Senórach: An Irish Colloquy.

Stewart French: How would I describe it? Well Tarik’s tonal language: he has a vast array of influences and he has a lot of various ethnic links himself. His mother is Algerian, he was born in Morocco and grew up in London, and he has, I think four generations of Irish in him as well, which is where the O’Regan part comes from. I think in his music you hear a lot of the variety of influences. In this particular piece for example, in the guitar writing I hear a lot of the music of the Oud, the North African instrument that is similar to the guitar. Also Tarik’s background is that of a percussionist, so the rhythmic vitality is a very strong element to his music as well. As is the choral tradition that has been evolved from his music education. So I think vibrant and varied is probably the easiest way to describe it. I think it’s good in a sense because it is a unique sound, and one that has a lot of depth to it. It’s accessible but deep.

Mike Telin: I like that, accessible but deep. Have you worked with the National Chamber Choir of Ireland before?

SF: No, not before this. It’s the first time with the Choir and the first time with Paul Hillier as well. I have worked with choirs before, I worked with Clare Choir a lot, so it wasn’t my first time to work with choir, but this is a much smaller set of forces then I’ve previously been used to. And also it’s just a fantastic choir. I mean their level of singing is phenomenal and Paul — it’s been a pleasure to work with someone as rigorous and profound. He’s really a great musician so it has been great.

MT: The entire program is great. The O’Regan is on the second half. Will this be the entire piece?

SF: Yes, the O’Regan lasts about fifty-five minutes or so it does make up the entire second half.

MT: How does your part fit into the work?

SF: Obviously the focus of the project was the vocal part because it is a project about telling stories, but the interesting part of this piece is the way that the guitar isn’t so much of an accompaniment as it is a character, because it was a request of St. Patrick to hear these local people, so in that sense it’s nice that it’s not just an accompaniment.

MT: And you have performed it twice recently.

SF: Yes, we just came back from Ireland, and it was particularly nice to perform it there, given that it is the story of St. Patrick arriving in Ireland. The premiere was done in November last year in Dublin, and so it’s going very well I think.

MT: How did you first become connected with Tarik O’Regan?

SF: I met Tarik when I was studying at Cambridge as an undergraduate. He was teaching and I met him at a dinner. I was quite involved in college playing the guitar because there was a very healthy musical life at Clare College where I was. And there was a choir there that I reasonably often played with. And although we met, we never continued any real collaboration. Years later we got back in touch and he’d been proposed this project and we just got talking about whether or not it would be nice to have a guitar with it.

MT: You’ve done a number of projects with composers such as Joseph Finlay, and John Rutter, but what about Tarik’s music did you find attractive?

SF: That was one of the key things we were talking about at that time, because as a guitarist you have your own personal preferences about the kind of music you like to play and Tarik sort of matched my serious need for something with rigor with something that was also incredibly communicative and accessible. I think it's very difficult to get that balance right, and so I was very attracted to work out that balance with him.

MT: How did you first come to the guitar?

SF: I started learning the guitar when I was seven years old. It was the instrument that was taught in the school I was attending at the time and I just fell in love with it. It was always the thing that I wanted to do all of those years. It’s probably the same story that everybody tells, but it really was true. Then I got to about eighteen years old, and although I focused on playing a lot when I was a kid, I also loved math so I did a three year masters degree. Then I was even more sure that I wanted to be a guitarist, so I went straight back to college. (Laughing) I still love math, but you know in the periods when you don’t have much time to play — when I was studying for the degree — it really makes you very clear about your priorities and everything.

MT: In addition to your concerts and projects, of which you have many, what do you do in your spare time, both musically and non-musically?

SF: Oh wow, I guess normal things. I like good food, traveling, I enjoy film. I enjoy sports quite a lot, cycling, and I run. Musically speaking, the central part of my playing is in the classical projects that I do but I also like to go to hear jazz and that’s the good thing about London — we have a lot of things on our doorstep.

Mike Telin: I wanted to ask about some of those other projects. Congratulations on all of the wonderful comments from people around the world about The Brahms Guitar: I watched and listened to the video and it’s fantastic.

Stewart French: Oh thank you. One of the things I am really interested in as a guitarist is doing arrangements, because we do have this age old problem. Segovia talked about the fact that not a lot of new music is being written for the guitar. So as a guitarist you have to try to find ways to address this, and for me, making arrangements is a very pleasurable way to do this.

MT: Tell me a little bit about Tracing Beethoven.

SF: Ah the Beethoven! Yes that’s coming along. It’s part of looking for pieces to transcribe and it’s always difficult to find things that work. Things tend to be either far too thick or anything that was written for piano tends to have just far too many voices for us to handle. So occasionally you stumble on a set of pieces that look like they’re going to work. This particular set of the Beethoven now is finished so it’s a matter of preparing them and getting all of the wheels in motion for sharing, but yes the arrangements, apart from one of the movements, is done.

MT: Tell me about It’s About Time with Joseph Finlay — the video to that is really fun.

SF: Yes it was good fun, and it was done basically when we came straight out of college. Joseph is a fantastic composer and we decided to do a set of pieces where he tried to bring in different influences that affected him. It’s kind of a running theme with me and composers. The guitar is such a popular instrument that it has a lot of references for composers. They seem to be able to free themselves up a little bit when they come to the guitar because they’ve got in their mind's ears the sound of pop, jazz and ethnic instruments. So Joseph rang in pretty much each piece a different influence of his. You’ve got a big mix there, some electronica, some folk Americana type and some rock and pop. It’s a good set and it’s about forty-five minutes of music.

MT: The Mendelssohn Songs Without Words sounds really interesting.

SF: It’s been done a reasonable number of times with two guitars, because with two you end up with similar range and voicings to what you can achieve on the piano. I think it works quite well actually. The guitar is a very personal instrument and it is sort of a quick link to the person playing it so it is nice to have the Songs Without Words that feel like personal and intimate affairs.

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Published on ClevelandClassical.com October 11, 2011.

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