Auckland's bestie celebrates a big milestone with Mozart
“It has honestly been one of the great highlights of my life getting to know the Auckland Philharmonia and through them the country of New Zealand. It’s been a very special place for me and my family,” says James Ehnes, when asked what keeps drawing him back to Auckland, where he has been a regular guest with the Auckland Phil.
“Artistically, I always love working with these musicians and playing in the Auckland Town Hall… an acoustic gem, a really rewarding place to make music. I’ve also just connected so strongly with the people of Auckland and the country of New Zealand in general. My wife and I joke that we really should have only bought a one-way ticket!” This trip is particularly special, being part of James’ 50th birthday season, with highlights both onstage and off. Offstage highlights including returning to the Coromandel – “We’ve got our favourite little spot out there that we just adore,” he says.
As far as onstage highlights, James will be returning to a concerto that has marked many significant occasions for him. Like many violinists the world over, James initially learned violin through the Suzuki method and first learned the Mozart Fourth Violin Concerto (which he will perform in Auckland this May) as the tenth and final book of that method. “I actually learned it to play for a Suzuki conference that was happening in Edmonton, where I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Suzuki,” he says.
It has been a great favourite of James’ ever since: “The music is so alive and operatic that I think it’s actually a very rewarding piece to play over and over. It’s like a story where I know how that story goes, but within it, there’s so much room for inspiration - and that’s where working with inspirational colleagues comes in. I know that working with the Auckland Phil will bring all sorts of new life and freshness to this.”
Personal connections through music have been a consistent theme for James. He shares his birthday with Mozart, and he particularly relishes the memory of recording all the Mozart violin concertos with a handpicked group of friends and colleagues in honour of his 30th birthday which coincided with Mozart’s 250th.
As the world nudges into the second quarter of the twenty-first century, James reflects that for all the changes globally and the music sector (not least many new concerti for violin rapidly becoming standard), “one of the things that has been comforting is that, in a way, many elements of performing life have remained exactly the same: there’s this love and devotion for an art form that is very much alive, but also very much rooted in tradition.”
Similarly, reflecting on his journey with the violin, his love for the instrument has only grown since first being attracted to both the sound and the repertoire of the instrument as a child. “I love the instruments themselves,” he says. “Being made of this organic material each violin has something different you can find in it that’s special and beautiful.” Looking to the years ahead, James knows the violin still has more to offer him: “It’s such a marvellous instrument in the sense that you can always find more in it. And that’s what I hope to do.”
Classic Series: Ehnes Plays Mozart
7.30pm, Thursday 14 May
Auckland Town Hall