Beethoven to Tango via Finland

It is the month of May - the crazy one, where so much is happening!
Beethoven starred in a Mother's Day concert last Sunday. There were a few of his early violin sonatas and a couple of early cello and piano works. What a miserably wet day is was, but the audience were treated to a feast of music and what looked like some incredible cupckaes (among other tasty treats)!

There are ten sonatas for piano and violin by Beethoven.
Number one in D Major, tick!
This was admittedly a little hastily put together - maybe all within the space of about three weeks. But I guess the good thing about a work like this is that I'll have it in my repertoire hopefully as long as I live, and will have a lifetime to refine it.

From Beethoven sonatas to Beethoven violin concerto with.....(insert drum roll here)...Pekka Kuusisto!

Enter the one-week residency of Pekka Kuusisto, violin and Iiro Rantala, piano.

I'm not sure I had any idea what to expect, apart from lots of fun and experimentation. And that's what we got. The concert at the end of the week was in three stages:
Set I: Beethoven's violin concerto and Haydn's 88th Symphony
Set II: Great Mistakes (Hietala) for piano trio, and some improv
Set III: Subterraneo, tango improv (Finnish style...)

I signed myself up for Set III with little idea of what was expected of me. I had obtained a copy of Subterraneo and had a listen of Pekka and Iiro tango-ing it up. Certainly not really tango as I expected - that is, not via Buenos Aires! If you are looking for something new to listen to, I highly recommend this; it is INCREDIBLE. I have had it on repeat for at least two weeks now.

So, we turned up to our first Set III rehearsal with some nervous anticipation. I seriously felt not qualified to be there, but we got into it.

Our first task was to learn some Finnish text:
Lämpöni lempeni annan
Kaunis on nuoruutein
Näät suven ruusut kannan
Itseni yksin tein

Ei ole muuta antaa
Kuin tama nuoruutein
Sulle sen tahdon kantaa
En ota itsellein

And then we had to learn the melody that went with this song. Let  me tell you: learning a new song and its melody is made significantly more difficult when you don't know what you're singing about, let alone how to say the words. Lucky Matt pulled out his iPhone and recorded Pekka and Iiro singing it so we could all have this forty second sound clip of sheer spontenaeity and helpfulness.

We also did some improvising on a basic G chord ('white notes') that would form the sections between more structured bits that P&I (yes, this is how I'm going to refer to them from here on in....) play. We came up with various combinations where the voices would interact with each other while others provided a background soundscape in which to improvise over. We also learnt Tango Ouh and where to come in.....
Day one complete.


The next day, I was fortunate enough to have about an hour or so one-on-one with Iiro. I didn't really know what to expect; I'm not sure he did either! Only much later in the week and upon reflection do I realise how fortunate I was for this time. You should also totally look him up on Youtube and what not to see what he does. Briefly, I admire him because he's a classically trained pianist who is an amazing jazz artist and the way that he uses the instrument - technically and tonally. So, what does one who hasn't really played much jazz do in a private lesson with such a great artist?

Well, he was really nice. Genuinely interested. He asked what I was currently playing, what sort of stuff I listen to, who my favourite composers are, whether I'd improvised and played any jazz before. That sort of stuff. And then we talked about what might be good ways to start improvising and listening and trying out stuff. I never dreamt that I would ever hear or witness the likes of ABBA, Queen or The Beatles being played on the pianos that are within the walls of the South Melbourne Town Hall, but there you go. No kidding. Awesome.

Then we experimented with some of that floaty stuff that we had done the previous day in our rehearsal. He encouraged and murmured approvingly as I added some colour notes and fiddled about with different motifs. Then he suggested adding a rhythmic pulse, which totally changed the feel of things. Funny that...
He demonstrated, and said "Here, you have a go, just like that." Ummmm........maybe not 'just like that'...!
But again, he was very encouraging. Then we tried some improvising on the chords in the intro of 'Autumn Leaves'. We talked about various other jazz pianists and some of their styles. I asked all sorts of questions, including some about 'wrong notes'.


In-between all that, he played me some of the things he's thinking about, like a pop song ditty he's written. Very catchy and cute. Incidentally, a few of us went to their gig at Bennett's Lane the night before the concert and he aired it for the first time there! I feel priveliged that I'd already had some of it! He also talked a bit about doing some improvisation on Bach's Goldberg Variations, whereupon he whipped out a well-thumbed copy (Henle, no less) of the piece and opened up to the first page and started playing a bit and improvising. I remarked to him after that it was astonshing that even though he was adding colour notes, like 9ths, 11ths and other fun things, the basic harmonies were not shocking - they all sounded plausible as Bach had written them. I think this is one of the things that makes me admire Iiro so much is that he is classically trained. He has this background of being well-informed about the history of Western music and technical security (there is no way he'd be able to play half of what he does if he didn't have it!), and there is that understanding of how music has evolved over time, and how he can do stuff now that is different. It was also quite humbling that such a great jazz artist would still return to Bach and love every moment of it.

Our next few rehearsals for Set III involved more improvising and having fun with the Finnish tango. In one of the songs, Adios Muchachos, I put my hand up for a 32-bar solo. Deep end? I think so. Bring it on! The ever-encouraging Sam popped in to have a listen during the week and had some very wise words for me that included "don't freak out about your solo" and the fact that I wasn't (and never will be, funnily enough..!) Iiro and that we are totally differnet people with different ideas and totally different experience. So I should just play what I do and not worry about any sort of comparison. [Sam, I know you'll read this, so thank you :)  ]
And in the concert, I decided that I should just get on with it and do it. Have fun and what not.
Unfortunately, I don't really remember exactly what I did in my solo, but I remember thinking, 'Who cares about wrong notes? Make them into something. Do something fun and interesting!'

And you bet I had so much fun. A few people commented about how much fun it looked like I was having through the entire set. And  not that I don't have fun when I play classical music, but I think it's a totally different mindset that I have. And perhaps it shouldn't be different. It was such a joy to do this concert and to be (almost) totally spontaneous and love doing it.

Maybe that's what I need to be practicing more of - having fun!

I think this project is one of the most enjoyable I've ever worked on. I know I've raved about other things (even so many this year already!) but this one has been hard to put into words and I'm not even sure if I've articulated any of the sentiment this week well at all. You might just have to imagine how amazing it was if I tell you that my eyes glaze over when I think about how incredibly fortunate I was to experience this.

And if you ever get the chance to see them, do it. I went to their gig and can say that it was one of the best gigs I've ever been to.