Welcoming Fabio Biondi
As conductor and violinist Fabio Biondi joins the Maestro Arts roster for general management, he gives us some insights into his approach to music and conducting, and explains his optimism about Baroque music
Whenever I learn a score, I try to take a fresh approach. First, I concentrate on the original writing of the composer. It’s important to respect their tempo marks and articulation, and not to be influenced by previous interpretations, even though it’s good to listen to versions from the past. I always start with this attitude and say, ‘Okay, I’m discovering a new piece. I want to investigate this.’
I am not interested in reproducing Debussy, Wagner or Mozart like they were played the first time, though. I don’t believe in the ‘authenticity’ of a piece of music. It’s important to make our own interpretations. We are modern interpreters and everything comes through the filter of our own times. We must respect the music, and be modest, but after that, we have to place it within our own reality – where we live, our society, and how the audience expects to listen to music today.
Working with Baroque music is a lesson in being attentive to details – understanding where the phrase goes, what the articulation is, bar by bar. This has been a very effective school for learning more modern repertoire. These details are part of Romantic music, too, but sometimes we forget this and don’t consider that everything in the score was put there by the composer for an important reason.
I change my interpretations every month, fundamentally, and if I have two or three concerts together, every day. This openness is built into music – including the concepts of invention, ornamentation and fantasy. Every concert is different because the acoustic and audience are always different. This is part of everyday life for musicians, because music is not a piece of marble. It’s something you must manipulate in relation to reality.
I don’t do strange things on purpose, but I try to leave a personal touch. I’m happy when the people say, ‘I was listening to the radio, and I heard a symphony or a sonata and I knew immediately that it was Fabio.’ The audience needs to hear different interpretations.
When I started Europa Galante, we were lucky, because it was a revolution and it was possible to be quite free and to change people’s thinking. In Baroque music today, there is a lot of imitation, and I often hear groups trying to play like Europa Galante.
There is some confusion between being historically informed and playing historic instruments. You can listen to a Brahms symphony on original instruments where the interpretation is completely conventional. It’s important to work on the language and vocabulary and not only justify yourself through the instruments you use. The instruments are secondary. I always say that I prefer to hear Bach played beautifully on a Steinway than badly on a harpsichord.
I like to mix pieces by well-known composers with music by their contemporaries, to compare their languages and understand the complexity of music history. For example, I conducted a programme of Mendelssohn, Mozart and Kalliwoda, who lived at the same time as Mendelssohn. The audience and critics were so excited, because it was the first time they’d heard Kalliwoda, and his music is wonderful. This kind of mixed programme shows how complicated the history of the music is.
As a conductor, I am attracted to early-20th century Italian repertoire, such as Malipiero, Pizzetti and Casella. This is a very important generation of Italian composers and it’s a pity that audiences around the world don’t have access to their work for political and social reasons. It gives people the idea that the history of music was made by a few geniuses, which isn’t true. For example, when you love Rossini it’s important to know his contemporaries and the musical language of his time, too. Rossini was a genius, but there were also many fantastic opera composers at the same time.
We can push the idea of conducting from the violin until the Romantic era. Of course, it also depends on your relationship with the orchestra. With orchestras where I am invited regularly, I can even conduct a Beethoven Symphony from the violin, but with other orchestras, it’s a little risky, so it’s better to use the baton.
To conduct opera well, you must be there from the first rehearsals, rather than arriving for the final week. When you’re there from the beginning, you have time to spend with the singers, making little adjustments and talking about articulation, before you even start work with the orchestra.
I don’t believe that the relationship between opera singers, conductor and orchestra should be one of accompanying – that the singers should what they want in the moment, with us following them. We are creating a work together. I help them if they need to take time or breathe, but it’s not like when a singer sings and a pianist accompanies.
The idea that we must change the expectations of classical music in order to increase our audiences and encourage young generations is wrong. We should use our talent to show how wide-ranging and fantastic classical music is, rather than using classical music to show how talented we are. Leave behind the focus on the musician and focus on the music. This is a very important difference in perspective.
Communication is very important, including how we present programmes, meeting the audience, and being a little less severe in how we behave and dress. These are all good revolutions.
I am extremely optimistic about Baroque music. When I play Baroque programmes, we usually have 20 per cent more young people than in Romantic and newer music. Baroque music has a lot in common with jazz, with its ornamentation and improvisation. Young people appreciate this spontaneity and liberty, which doesn’t exist in Romantic music.
