by Mike Telin
Created in 1967 to perform larger chamber works, the Chamber Ensemble of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performs in all shapes and sizes, from quintets to octets, drawn from the principal players of the orchestra. On Thursday, October 19 at 7:30 pm in E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical will present the venerable ensemble in a performance that will include music by Antonín Dvořák and George Enescu. Tickets available online.
Although the London-based Ensemble is celebrating its 50th year, “what many don’t know is that the Academy began as a chamber ensemble playing Baroque music in Neville Marriner’s living room,” violinist Harvey de Souza said by telephone from Northridge, California, where the Ensemble was in the middle of their North American tour. “At that time, people were into these huge massive forces performing Handel’s Messiah with a thousand-voice chorus and huge orchestras and I think he got tired of that. He wanted to get back to the purity of playing concerti grossi with a pair of violins, and that is how it all got started.”
Prior to joining The Academy in 1993, de Souza was living in Philadelphia. “I had just graduated from Curtis, so I was trying to make ends meet. I moved back to the UK because I had joined a string quartet and at the same time I auditioned for the Academy. That was another thing about Neville, he did favor musicians who had a chamber music background. When I first joined the Orchestra, all the players either had or were currently playing in professional quartets. It was natural for him to gravitate to people like that.”
The Academy Chamber Ensemble last appeared on the Tuesday Musical series in May of 2015. De Souza said that he looks forward to seeing old friends again, and to performing one of his favorite pieces, Enescu’s Octet for Strings in C. “It’s a great piece of music but we don’t hear it an awful lot — mostly because it is very difficult and requires a lot of work. But there is something quite extraordinary about it.”
The violinist said that it is “mind-boggling” that Mendelssohn was only sixteen years old when he composed his Octet, and Enescu was also a teenager when he composed his. “You get a sense with the Enescu that the nineteen-year old was absolutely pouring his heart and soul into it. You can hear that he was overwhelmed with ideas. I like to say that he has thrown everything and the kitchen sink into this piece. It is 40 minutes long, and what I love about it is that he’s already a master of form and architecture.”
Thursday’s program will also include Dvořák’s Sextet in A. “I don’t think we’ve played it on an American tour, at least not during the last three, so it is nice to come back to it,” de Souza said. “I once heard a wonderful description of Dvořák — he is the Schubert of the East, melodies just flow out of him.”
Touring is a major part of the Academy Chamber Ensemble’s yearly schedule, and de Souza said this one is going well, although they have had a cancellation due to the fires in California. “We were trying to see if there was any way we could help by playing a benefit concert, but right now, they are struggling just to make sure people are alive.”
During this tour the Ensemble will perform eleven concerts in seventeen days with a repertoire of octets by Shostakovich, Enescu, and Mendelssohn and sextets by Korngold and Dvořák. What are the secrets for the musicians to stay on the top of their game? “Each of us have our own routines, but there’s so much that we do together that we can’t avoid — like getting on flights, hiring cars, and driving six hours to the concert — so we’re all in the same boat. And particularly with this group, what is important is food. People are always planning where we’re going to stop so we can have something nice to eat.”
Another part of that is keeping the repertoire under their fingers throughout the tour. “On this tour, we’re only playing the Enescu twice, but I remember tours in the past where we performed fifteen concerts and played it only once. On the other hand, we’ve played the Mendelssohn so many times and although we love it, sometimes we do want something different.”
For de Souza, part of the passion for touring is taking in the local scene that each stop has to offer, even though there is not a lot of time for that. “For example on this tour it’s hard to do things in nature because most of the hotels we’re staying in are near highways, and we’ve got to get in the car and get going. But with the cancellation we’ll have a free day on Sunday and we’re planning to drive out of Los Angeles and go for a hike. We try to find things to do that get us away from the routine of the travel.”
A tour de Souza remembers well was in the fall of 2015, which included a stop in Cleveland. “I think on that trip we did twelve performances of the Schubert Octet — sometimes six days in a row. It was hard for us because often we were up at 5:00 in the morning to make sure we got to the next concert on time, so it was exhausting physically. But having said that, one tremendous blessing we do have is the repertoire that we play. And the minute you walk onstage and you begin the Schubert Octet, for example, it makes everything melt away. Ironically, when we’re performing is the only two hours of each day that we are totally in control. You can’t control massive traffic jams, so being onstage is our time.”
During an Academy Chamber Ensemble podcast, de Souza’s colleagues said that while on tour, he is ‘the guru for everything computer.’ “I’m the resident nerd,” the violinist said with a hearty laugh. “I do have a passion for technology. I follow it closely and read all about it. But my colleagues are very kind when they say that, because mostly I think they just forget to push the on-off switch when they have a problem. But now when we’re using our phones for everything, if they do push the wrong button they come to me for help.”
Published on ClevelandClassical.com October 17, 2017.
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