Andrew Beer in Whitehead premiere - going with the tide
Violinist Andrew Beer with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra
Photo credit: Adrian Malloch
Composer Dame Gillian Whitehead invited Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra’s Concertmaster Andrew Beer to her home for tea and conversation. He was to be soloist in a new violin concerto, commissioned from Whitehead by the APO to mark her 80th birthday in 2021. She asked about his favourite composers and his style of playing the violin.
Later, he was amazed to find how she had acknowledged their chat. “I told her I loved Shostakovich and his 1st Violin Concerto has a famous cadenza. She included a cadenza in her work that’s 100% Gillian but clearly inspired by that Shostakovich concerto.” The 2021 premiere was cancelled because of a COVID lockdown, but the work has its first performance this week in an APO concert called “Ebb & Flow”, broadcast live on RNZ Concert.
Tai timu, tai pari translates as “low tide, high tide” and Whitehead wrote it on the Otago Peninsula, inspired by the everchanging view from her studio. “The tide ebbs and flows, light plays on the water, birds forage for food, rest on the water, whirl in flocks. But it’s not a soundscape – more than most of my pieces, it harks back to exploring an idea within the traditions and proportions of the classical era.”
Dame Gillian Whitehead
“The tide ebbs and flows, light plays on the water…”
Conscious of exhortations in 2020 to keep safe and be kind, Whitehead initially felt the sounds should be “gentle, nothing harsh or strident.” But as she composed “the structure of the piece took over and that self-censorship went away.”
Canadian-born Beer, acclaimed for both orchestral and solo work, has lived in New Zealand since 2014 and recently became a citizen. A champion of New Zealand music, he loves this new work, which is dedicated to him. “It’s not your typical violin concerto, all about the violin and a vehicle for showing off,” he says. “This is about the story it’s telling, the connection with nature – the violin steps in and then away, a sort of narrator. There’s something interesting for everyone to play.”
Opportunities abound for his virtuosity as soloist, of course, including that cadenza. “Gillian is masterly at building tension with fast and furious music, but also at using time and space. It’s a great combination, with moments of reflection and stillness as well.”
Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra ‘Ebb & Flow’ James Feddeck (Conductor) Andrew Beer (Violin), featuring Tai timu, tai pari for violin and orchestra by Dame Gillian Whitehead (world premiere) and Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2. Auckland Town Hall, 7.30pm June 10, (tickets here) broadcast live by RNZ Concert and live-streamed on APO platforms.
This article was first published in the NZ Listener in the issue for June 4, 2022.