This year saw the violinist Adam Chalabi taking on the role of Head of Violin. We sat down with Adam to ask him about the music that has been influential in his life, and why.
I think for me, memorable music becomes as associated with or representative of a particular time in life as anything else. Photos, tastes and smells all pale in comparison to the gut reaction of hearing a particular piece that is meaningful to me.
Music was ever-present in my household growing up. Dad was a classical music enthusiast who wasn't at peace unless the radio or record player was pumping at full volume. Mum had more diverse taste, but the same raw love of music was there... and infectious. I remember the astonishing array of records that dad brought back from a study trip that he led to St. Petersburg (he sold all of his clothes to buy them!). Amongst them was the cellist Daniel Shafran playing Brahms’ E minor sonata (shamefully, I can't remember the pianist). The warmth of the vibrato, the richness of sound, the fragility of expression and the utter humanity in his playing was foundational in nurturing a belief in a certain form of sound production which I hold dear to this day.
I think the piece of music that left the most lasting impression on me as a teenager was the first time I heard Beethoven's op. 132 String Quartet performed live in concert. The third movement is the ultimate expression of Beethoven's struggle with seemingly everything in his life. There is heart-breaking poignancy here but (unusually for slow movements in late Beethoven quartets) this is also tinged with optimism. The Andante 3/8 section is as exuberant and cathartic as anything Beethoven ever wrote but his dealings in the lydian mode either side of those Andante sections are nothing short of revelatory. I remember the Chilingirian Quartet in a church in Beckenham, London, on a cold winter evening with their seemingly endless bows seeking endless expression from the music and transporting me to the certainty that music was the most wondrous world to be involved with.
At music college in England, I remember the Lindsay Quartet playing Haydn every fortnight at the University of Manchester concert series. This was not the Haydn that I aspired to play – at first it almost offended my ears. Deficiencies in intonation, raw sound production, less than perfect ensemble... the ambitious violinist in me couldn't see past any of those things. But then the spontaneity, the joy of live performance, the conveyance of a life well lived (by both composer and performers) took over and their approach suddenly transcended any aesthetic imperfections. It stirred almost nationalistic pride in me that four elderly English gents 'got' the spirit of Haydn more than any quartet I had heard before (or since for that matter). On a slight tangent, Haydn symphonies are some of the most robust pieces of music I have ever encountered. I say this not because they are on my desert island disc but simply because I have heard so many bad performances in which the music somehow survives unscathed. I think that is worthy of a mention in itself!
My years in Switzerland were dominated by baroque and early classical repertoire. I had not encountered Ignaz Biber before we played 'Battalia' with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. That piece made me want to leave the orchestra just so I could find another orchestra to lead and play it my way (I was Principal 2nd Violin at the time)! It's a raucous mess of a piece depicting a battle scene with astonishing dissonances, percussive and futuristic string sound effects and searching melodic material that demands expressive ornamentation. Somewhat paradoxically I had a movement of this played at my wedding!
And onto the present day – well I'm glad to report that my tastes have somewhat broadened. I actually love Taylor Swift (in all seriousness), Chris Thile, Sia (Chandelier, what a song!). I’m not sure I have ever heard a piece as poignant as Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight.
Most goosebump inducing? The coda of both the first movement of Mendelssohn's Octet, and the first movement of Beethoven's op. 74 String Quartet plus anything by Coldplay.
Words by Adam Chalabi.
First published in volume 51 of Music Makers.