In advance of her tour with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, the German violinist speaks to The Strad about what she is most looking forward to, how to sustain a month-long tour, plus what she gets up to outside of performances
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On 30 January, Julia Fischer will kick off a tour with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and long-time collaborator Vasily Petrenko with an opening concert in Vienna. The tour will then see the group travelling Germany, with performances in Munich, Hamburg, Stuttgart and more, before finishing in Frankfurt on 9 February. Fischer will be playing both Tchaikovsky and Sibelius’s violin concertos. She speaks to The Strad about what she is looking forward to with the tour, her strategies for keeping and healthy and balanced during a busy schedule, her collaborations with Petrenko, and a few suprises in store!
How are you feeling about the upcoming tour?
I’m really looking forward to it. Vasily and I have played a lot of concerts by now, and we know each other very well and I really enjoy tours with him. When you undertake a tour, it only makes sense and is inspiring if you have progress throughout it. If you’re playing the Tchaikovsky Concerto every night, you want to have a development, and Vasily is one of those conductors with whom you can have that. Sometimes people wonder what the soloist and conductor are talking about when they walk off stage, and with Vasily, he’s the kind of conductor that might straight away say, ‘You know, that development section, maybe we should have done it differently!’
It’s also the first time we’re playing the Sibelius Violin Concerto together! I actually haven’t played it for a long time, except for once last year. So I’m very much looking forward to that.
Having concerts every day seems exhausting! But is it because of this repetition, as well as the stability of having the same conductor and orchestra, that makes development during a tour possible?
Yes, because when you switch conductor or orchestra you start on a lower level straight away. But to reach a really high level of collaboration, you need to know the orchestra, the conductor and the piece together. Then you can really start working.
With a conductor like Vasily and orchestra like the RPO we could technically go on stage without a rehearsal, and it would be a decent concert. But if you want to go above that, you need time, and you need the knowledge of your past experiences with them. I think now, having played so many concerts with Vasily, we work on a different level than with other conductors I don’t know. And we both really enjoy the level on which we can talk about the piece.
Having not played the Sibelius with him before, which part of the piece are you most looking forward to?
There are so many. I think for him, and for most conductors, the third movement is really fun. But personally, I most enjoy the coda of the first movement and the whole second movement. I think it’s just the most gorgeous movement.
Having not played the Sibelius for so long, how has your interpretation of it changed?
I’ve found that my interpretations might not change much over a few years and then there’s a moment – and I have no idea when it comes – where I feel like I need to relearn the piece. I get new sheet music and start from scratch. I question everything. Maybe it’s not audible to the audience, and maybe I end up doing the exact same! But I never know what is going to come out of it. That is what is happening with the Sibelius right now.
What is it about Vasily as a musician that makes him unique and why do you enjoy collaborating with him?
He has a fantastic knowledge of the whole piece. He sees it as an entire building. And that’s very important to me in interpretation, and I think also for the audience. When I start a piece, I want to show the audience, ‘This is the entire building and now we’re going from room to room.’ I don’t think you should start and then see how it turns out. I’m not that kind of musician, and neither is Vasily.
He is also very open. After concerts he can tell me what he didn’t like and what he wants me to think about. He’s not just accompanying; he really enjoys talking to me about a very specific parts of the work.
What are your strategies for keeping healthy during a tour?
It sounds very easy but: practising. What do you practise and how much do you practise? You can’t practise eight hours a day and then go on stage at night. I always need to clean up the concert every day. So whatever concerto I am playing in the evening, early that day I play the whole piece, from the first to the last note, very slowly. I won’t leave out the easy moments or slow movements. That gives me security in the evening. And it might sound contradictory, but it also gives me freshness. While I’m going through it slowly, I have new thoughts and remember what did and didn’t work well last time.
What do you most enjoy about playing with the RPO?
Firstly, they have a consistently high level of playing when touring. It’s a professional touring orchestra, so they never go below a certain level. And they’re also spontaneous. I can do funny things or decide to do something different in the moment and they will follow and be attentive.
What kind of advice would you have for musicians undertaking their first tour?
Have a schedule every day. For me, it’s important to know when I eat, when I sleep, when I go out for a walk for fresh air. It’s easy to forget when you’re in planes, trains, or the concert hall, that you’re missing out on fresh air. You have to go for a walk every day to make sure you get that fresh oxygen. So that kind of routine is very important to have in order to sustain a whole tour.
Is there anything else about the tour that you’re excited about?
I might play in the orchestra in the second half! Sometimes I do it, as long as it’s with a conductor that I can follow – and I can follow Vasily.
Yes, I’d heard that you do that sometimes! Is it difficult to switch between the role of soloist and orchestra member?
Yes! But there are so many great things about it. Firstly, it’s just great fun, especially when you’re playing great repertoire. Also, some conductors are quite grateful for it because I can give them feedback and talk to them differently to how someone in the orchestra can. It’s also very healthy for me to learn the symphonic repertoire. You know Brahms differently when you’ve played the four symphonies.
You can learn more about the tour here
Interview by Rita Fernandes
Read: Sentimental Work: Julia Fischer on Bach Double Violin Concerto
Read: Masterclass: Julia Fischer on Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Third Movement
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