Follow the leader: Alisa Weilerstein

How do you like Trondheim?

I wound up coming here quite by accident in 2012 and fell in love with the place immediately. I saw these wild untamed landscapes and thought wow: I have to come back here!

And now you are Artistic Partner at The Trondheim Soloists…

Yes! Another thing unique about Norway is how much musicians here like to rehearse and explore new ideas. I’ve suggested a whole gamut of strange repertoire for my new role and the response has been “great, sounds interesting” as opposed to “I don’t know if it will fit in.” Some of the most progressive programming comes from Norway and I think I’ve done some of my very best music making here.

How has it been, getting to know the orchestra?

I spent a couple of days playing with the orchestra in September 2017. We worked six hours each day on both the Haydn concertos and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht and with no end goal other than feeling each other out. I never get that kind of opportunity.

On the new recording you direct those pieces but also play ‘tutti’ cello in the Schoenberg. How long is it since you played in a string section?

This is probably the first time since youth orchestra! It feels wonderful. I would never want to be a member of an orchestra because I feel liberated doing what I’m doing as a soloist and as a chamber musician. But the truth is that I miss the repertoire. Of course my sound needs to blend but I also need to lead; so I’m not entirely blending, I’m shaping. I really like that dual role.

TTS has a long tradition of being led from the first cello’s chair…

I had never heard of such a thing before. When my manager rang me to talk about this role with TTS, I said “they do know I play the cello, right?” Of course I think the cello is the most expressive instrument but there are definite limitations to playing it. In a sense, you can express a bigger range of emotions with your body if you’re holding a violin, and in so much music the line is in the treble register. But in a piece like Verklärte Nacht the cello is an equal to the first violin. It’s a natural fit.

You are so effective in masterclasses (I looked on YouTube!) – did you feel yourself moving in the direction of leadership and instructing?

It’s definitely something you grow into. Rehearsing chamber ensembles was something I felt naturally comfortable with and which ran in my family. But you have to have willing partners, and Geir Inge [Lotsberg, TTS Artistic Director] is an incredible one. It’s like playing tennis, not darts.

Is there a golden rule for communicating musical ideas to an ensemble?

In a general sense, showing how you feel rhythm unifies an ensemble. You have to really feel the rhythm in the gut. This is something great conductors do: so that with one gesture, you know exactly where they want the sound to come from. I’ve also been trying to get better at verbalising the kind of sound I’m after, especially in music as emotionally fraught and varied as Verklärte Nacht. It used to be quite hard for me to verbalise those things.

Do you ever discuss these things with your husband [conductor Rafael Payare]?

Yes, all the time! I’ve watched how he rehearses and it’s absolutely fascinating. We try to work together as much as possible and it’s interesting to see how he gets certain colours from orchestras, in particular.

Back to the album. It has some personal significance for you…

Initially the idea was simply to put the First and Second Viennese Schools together. But I’ve also been reading quite a lot about Schoenberg and his admiration for Haydn. Schoenberg once said ‘play my music like it’s Haydn’ – he really longed for his music to be enjoyed. The other element is my own conflicted relationship with Vienna. I come from a Jewish family and my grandparents from my mother’s side had to flee Vienna in 1938. So I grew up hating Vienna, the whole idea of it – this home of incredible bigotry that was also the gateway to Europe and such an important city culturally. In a way, it’s been quite an emotional thing to do. But it’s also a celebration: our first album together for Pentatone and a strong statement for me as soloist and director.

What else will you be doing in Trondheim?

We will do several tours following the release of the recording: a Scandinavia tour this Autumn, a European tour and we’re working on an American tour as well. I can’t say much but I want to expand the repertoire we do as much as possible. We have several ideas brewing!

Andrew Mellor writes for Seismograf, Klassisk, FMQ, Gramophone, BBC, Elephant, ICON, and The Strad among others. He is Nordic correspondent for Opera, Opera Now and Opera News