Day by day – May 5th – 10th 2025
Zagreb Croatia
I first came to play in Zagreb in 1999. That visit was as an ‘honorary German’, with my trio with Jörg Widmann and Jan Philip Schultze. I was immediately charmed, but unprepared for how much this city would influence my work as an artist over the next 25 years. This week, I am here, in part, to celebrate that – all will become clear over the next few days.
5th May – Monday
After an early start from Wapping, travel was easy. At Heathrow, I found a table to read and write. Interestingly, everyone seemed to want to talk about my violin: one of my neighbours ‘Do you like the Nielsen Concerto?'(Yes!)’Very difficult, but such a great tune, great melodies. I’m going to Budapest to hear the Festival Orchestra play Mahler 2’.
I have brought one book to get me through the week – Alexander Pope verse. He is very much on my mind, because of the work that Malene, Ben Hebbert and I have been doing at Chiswick House. His ‘Essay on Criticism’, completed when he was just 22, is much on my mind.
‘True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,/As those move easiest, who have learn’d to dance’. (Essay on Criticism)
That insight came to mind later in the evening, mid way through the day’s first masterclasses at the wonderful Zagreb Music Academy. Working with one, very gifted, student, on Mozart’s 4th violin concerto (which is my favourite), we discussed the necessity of never relying on naturally ability, even for the most generic, simple, musical or technical procedures. True solutions need to be found, developed, and incorporated – ‘from Art, not Chance’.
After the first sessions, I needed to walk, so I set out to wander around the old town, which rises about 400 metres north of where I am writing this (on the top of the Music Academy). This is the place where Zagreb first got to me, and which inspired so much which came afterwards. The legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in the old painted street signs (in gothic German and Serbo-Croat) and crumbling stucco of on the buildings. But there’s the sense of rebirth. In 2020. the city was hit by a series of earthquakes, which brought down the steeples of the medieval cathedral to the North East of here. In the past two years, I have watched, and reflected upon the reconstruction and the challenges attendant to that.
Here’s a piece of music written for, an inspired by this place, last year, by my friend and collaborator, Michael Alec Rose: Now I have to go an rehearse with the student orchestra. More later
Tuesday – A reason to Celebrate
One of the reasons that I am here is to celebrate a Jubilee. 25 years ago, composer Nigel Clarke and I came to the city to work with the famous ‘I Solisti di Zagreb’ string orchestra. Of course, we had a long fascination with writing for strings, going all the way back to our undergraduate years. But this was something else, the chance to develop a new piece with one of the most famous of Eastern European ensembles. After a summer of visits and workshops, a piece emerged, ‘The Miraculous Violin’.T
The piece was a great success, and we played it many times all over Croatia, and then later as far afield as Urumqi, in the Gobi Desert. We recorded it for Naxos, with my ensemble ‘Longbow’, a few years later.
Now a number of the then members of the ‘Soloists’ are still dear friends and colleagues. Laura Vadjon is the most celebrated baroque violinist in the Balkans, and Andelko Krpan is the Dean of the Music Academy here.
So it seemed a great opportunity, to bring Nigel’s piece ‘home’ to the city and people that inspired it, and to introduce it to a new generation of players.
Today, we began work with the Academy Chamber Orchestra, exploring this challenging and brilliant work. Right from the outset, it should be mentioned that this piece was designed to challenge a virtuoso string orchestra, to give them all something to get their teeth into. So it is very exciting to see what happens as the young players at the Academy, led, as in 2000, by Andelko Krpan, take the challenge Immediately, it was clear that they are excited – and that the result – the concert on Thursday, is going to be inspiring.