Hi there, and welcome to Notes from the Stage,
a show from the musicians of the Calgary Philharmonic.
We're the people playing our hearts out every
week of the orchestra season. I'm Adam Zanatelli.
Usually I play first trumpet in the Calgary Phil,
but today I'm your host, and I'm here with Arthur
Bachman, violist in the CPO. Hi Arthur! Hi Adam,
how you doing today? Very well, thanks. Thanks
for coming over and sitting down with me. Oh,
no problem at all. How's this season been going
for you so far? It's actually been great, and
I was on Salt Spring Island for the entire month
during Christmas, so... i'd say that's great
as far as playing wise that's working really
well too so i'm real happy about that so that's
wonderful well i'll spill the beans a little
early here arthur this is your last season playing
with the cpo it is it is for clarity you're retiring
yeah yeah no i'm retiring i haven't been fired
and i'm just retiring and i just thought it was
time to do it it's been 39 years here and uh
i did play But for three, four years with another
orchestra before and, uh, Oh, which orchestra
was that? Uh, orchestra of London. Oh, great.
Yeah. Yeah. When I was going to school there,
I played there. I was part of their core group.
It's as much smaller orchestra, obviously a much
smaller season. I was able to actually play with
their core group and go to university. Even though
it was kind of funny because they, the university
wasn't very happy about that. And they said,
no, you're only supposed to do university here.
And I'm sort of going, well, I, I'm. Trying to
get into an orchestra here and here I've got
a job and I need it because that's the only way
I can afford to go to university So hey, I was
it was actually a lot of fun to do that. Very
very informative about the orchestral culture
compared to youth orchestra culture, which was
Perhaps the biggest thing that I did before that
sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think well at least
in my experience I think schools have become
a little more realistic as far as what What the
students are trying to do and what sorts of experience
actually will help them do the thing? Absolutely.
Yeah, I think so and it was it was quite surprising
that they were they had a problem with that and
I'm and but I guess they were just Looking up
for their number one, which is like I want this
student to stay in this Program and give us tuition
and blah blah blah. Yeah, but recruiting to write
when you have successful students Yeah, that
should be a good thing saying. Hey, look at this
here. He's already where he's already working.
Yeah So, yeah, when I was at Glenn Gould, the
rule was that you could get out of school commitments
for gigs with Oxum orchestras. That was sort
of the threshold to pass. OK, well, that's the
organization of Canadian symphony musicians.
So those are those are sort of the more established
orchestras in the country that have full time
contracts and that sort of thing. Yeah, that's
that's awesome. They actually did that. That's
great. It's kind of what you want. So, yeah.
Well, 39 years, that's a long time. That's a
lot of Beethoven nines or whatever. Yeah, it's
a lot of Beethoven nines, a lot of Beethoven
fives. Yeah. There's a, there's a lot of repeats
that, uh, surprised me actually when I, when,
when they started happening. Uh, one of them
was I obviously Beethoven nine, which, well,
didn't expect to play that as many times as we
did when, uh, some of our music directors decided
to do it every year. And, uh, and it's like,
Oh, okay. All right. Well, that's okay. And,
you know, it's. You get to see what differences
that they're going to do. And sometimes it's
good differences. And sometimes you're sort of
going, well, that kind of didn't work the way
I think he wanted it. And I've always entertaining
that way sometimes. I'm curious of all the pieces.
OK, we're going to two part question here. First
part of all the pieces you've played over and
over and over and over again. Like which one
or which handful of pieces have really stood
the test of time for you? Which are the ones
that even though you've played them and played
them and you know them inside out, you always
look forward to? That's a good question because
I've never really thought of it that way. It's
always the typical orchestra thing going, oh,
we're doing this again. Sorry, that's not a very
nice way to say about orchestras anyhow, but
it's a, it is a realistic thing because we do
play a lot of repertoire. I would kind of think
that, uh, it probably is the Beethoven ninth
is the one that it's, it's never failed to deliver.
because it just has everything there that you
want. It's got lovely orchestral bits and it's
got lovely vocal bits and I love vocal music
as well. And it ends with a real good bang. Sometimes
it's interesting how fast it ends. I remember
in the Minchuk years it was really really fly
really fast and there's a bunch of notes there
that were certainly flying everywhere but uh
where they should have been but uh yeah it's
always always fun to end that piece because uh
it just seems to get the audience going it's
it's it's quite quite spectacular that way so
yeah for sure yeah second part of the question
what are some pieces that you've only played
once that you love that i love hmm Well, we didn't
actually play it only once, but we only played
it. We only played it a very, very few times
as the Berg violin concerto. Oh, okay. I've never
played that one. Yeah. We did it on tour when
we were in Europe and, uh, that was one of the,
we had two soloists and one was the Berg. The
Berg was, was awesome. I just absolutely love
playing that stuff and getting to know it. When
you're on a tour thing, you get to know pieces
really, really well. And, uh, I just, I just
absolutely love that piece. sure so you know
when you're saying that you get to know pieces
really well when you're on tour we see some music
over and over again like you know Beethoven 9
like we were talking about but you know you sort
of have you know five days at work with that
every every couple of years right but when you're
on tour you're playing the same program for you
know two or three weeks yeah which is not something
that we otherwise ever really get to do no so
to have that sustained uh, sustained focus on
a specific program or two programs. It's, it's,
it's fairly exceptional. Yeah. And I, I, it's
unfortunate that we can't do as much as, as we,
we used to do. Cause I think that was one of
the things that, uh, well, when in the, again,
the Mario Bernardi years, I mean, he, he made
us do a lot more touring, shall we say it was
even though if it was, uh, uh, down to medicine
hat or local places or smaller local places but
we did go to the east of Canada one time but
that was all I'm absolutely sure about this here
that he was he was making this orchestra into
a better orchestra by doing all these things
and making us do these things making us do the
if we had a concert series that was the 20th
century music. That's where we did the Busoni.
We did all sorts of Stravinsky. We did all sorts
of... I just remember the interesting thing that
happened is that the only time that we've ever
had somebody actively really, really boo us.
It was a flute concerto, brand new. We did the
premiere of it with Bob Aiken playing it. Robert
Aiken, who's a phenomenal flute player. And I'm
trying to think if it was a Michael Colgrass
or if it was a Schaeffer. But anyhow, I just
remember at the end of that, somebody in the
front row stood up and very loudly cupped his
hands and went, boo. Wow. Clearly made an impression.
Well, it did. And I think that's, that's really,
I think that's a really good thing. That's not
an encouragement. No, no, but for the audience
out there. But what it does is it shows that
you actually care about what you're listening
to. And I think that's something that I don't
think that's a complete negative. So I think
doing those touring things, it's an awesome way
for an orchestra to get better because what you
do is you get to live with this repertoire for
a little bit more than just one or two performances.
You get to do it over a week or so. You get to
get uh in different halls you have to adapt very
very quickly to the acoustics of the hall and
you've got the same conductor but maybe that
day he's feeling a little bit friskier or a little
less frisky a little more melancholy and uh that
all comes into the music and uh and you respond
and that's i think what started this orchestra
off to become a really good orchestra is is the
stuff that mario did for us, you know, as popular
or unpopular as he might have been. He was, I
think, a really, really good builder of orchestras.
And then we got to work with Hans, Hans Graf,
and he's the one where we went to the European
tour. And again, there was it's absolutely made
the orchestra. Absolutely. He took the orchestra
and just put a superb shine on it. So it's too
bad that we can't do more of that now because
Obviously economically it's really really difficult,
but it's really good for an orchestra to do that.
I think I feel Yeah, I mean an orchestra is such
a large operation that you know even even a quote
-unquote tour That would be like one night in
a hotel For everyone is so expensive and so complicated
to organize that it's pretty prohibitive. Yeah,
yeah, unfortunately Mm -hmm Arthur in addition
to your work as a violist. You are also a composer
I am And I've played some of your work and I've
really enjoyed it so much in fact that I commissioned
a piece from you, but a year ago. And that was
really great. But tell us, where did that start
for you? Were you playing a lot and then you
decided at some point to dip into composition
or are you always composing? Were you more interested
in composing and that led you more towards performing
as well? How did this all happen? Well, this
goes way, way, way back. It started when I was
very young, I think 10 or 12. I just, you know,
I did those little exercise books where you say,
here's the beginning of a tune and here's the
end of a tune. You have to make the end of the
tune kind of a thing. And I always loved doing
those things because I thought it's, this is
really cool. And then... It just grew from there
because I would be in little chamber groups and
I'd say, Oh, I got to write for this chamber
group and see what happens. And, uh, I didn't
actually have anybody tell me how to write or
anything like that. So I basically had to learn
it all by myself. And with basically looking
at music that I liked and saying, well, why,
why are those notes there in that particular
order? And why does that note and that combination
make me feel. This way, uh, thing, even in high
school, we had a very, very progressive class
called lit 31. And, uh, this was the entire.
Your entire Mark was based on one project and
it can be about anything as long as it has a
remote connection to literature. And so I thought,
Oh, great. I'm going to write a string quartet
about Beowulf. I always loved Beowulf. Cool.
So I did that and, uh, performed it in class
and, uh, got a really good Mark, of course. And,
uh, well, not of course, but yes, I got a really
good Mark and, uh, thought, wow, this is really
great. I really liked doing this year. Then I
went to university and, uh, it's interesting.
I don't know. I, I, I find university sometimes
are, are not about learning. They're about, sometimes
we have teachers who. want you to just learn
it their way, as opposed to learning a lot of
other things. And it's funny because it kind
of killed the composition spirit in me. I did
take a composition class there and I don't know
what, anyhow, but I stopped writing for probably
about 10 years after that. And then I was in
a little chamber group and we were doing a recital
and he needed another piece. And I thought, Oh,
I'm gonna, I've been doing arranging and doing
all sorts of stuff like that. And so still keeping
kind of a hand in it. But I thought I'd just
write for this thing. So I just wrote a little
piece for that. And that's when it all started
again, and kind of haven't looked back, thankfully,
and kept getting bigger and bigger pieces. And
yeah, it's been a lot, a lot of fun. Yeah, that's
amazing. That's amazing, Arthur. I'm sorry you
had that experience that kind of squashed it
out for a while. Well, it's funny. I mean, it's,
it could have been just me too, because I was,
you know, your late teens, early twenties, and
you have your own ideas about things and you
just sort of, sometimes you just, you're an idiot
to be honest. And you do stuff there that you
think, oh, this is so great. And you're just
all, you know, up in arms about stuff. I'm not
going to do that work because it's stupid. And.
Looking back on it now, it's probably wasn't
the teacher's fault. It was probably more my
fault. And I just sort of ended up hurting myself
in that sense. Right. You know, I thought it
was interesting. You were saying that when you
were very young, how you were looking at pieces
and thinking like, well, how does this work?
And why is it this way? And why does this make
me feel this certain thing? And it reminds me
that when I was younger, music theory was sort
of held up as this thing that you had to learn
to be literate about music. But I don't think
that's really the healthiest way to think about
it, right? Isn't the understanding that I've
grown into, and I'd love to hear if you have
a similar understanding or a different one, is
that music theory is a system of describing this
human expression that is happening, right? Like,
Palestrina did not have a rule book that You
know, he painted by numbers from Bach was not
consulting textbooks of rules. Bach was just
being Bach. And sure, I'm sure came up with codified
systems for himself. You can't work at that speed
and that precision without having sort of either
just going by feel. But the way that we talk
about invertible counterpoint and all this stuff,
like those aren't rules handed down from on high.
Those systems are ways of describing things.
that people have written to be expressive and
creative. Yeah, actually, exactly what you think
what you just said about describing it. I think
my theory about theory is that it's people trying
to figure out how these people wrote this stuff.
And so they look at it and they see these patterns
or they see these things and they go, oh, well,
this pattern keeps recurring all the time. And
so therefore is let's call it a rule. You know,
one, four, five, one, right? Kind of thing. And,
uh, but the people who originally did it didn't
have those rules. They might've had a lot of
stuff that they listened to before and went and
had figured it out on their own. Yeah. It's,
it's, I think a way of people to try and describe
how to write music, but it doesn't work that
way because it's way, way too rigid. And in fact,
uh, like the Berg, the Berg Violin Concerto,
it's a 12 tone piece, but. he breaks his own
rules about 12 tones because at a certain point
it gets to a point where this tone row just doesn't
work anymore and so he just does something musical
and that's the interesting thing is that because
all the advances in music all the changes into
different forms and different uh what we call
styles classical baroque romantic and all that
stuff it's all people going i want to do something
slightly different because I'm different. And
I think that this would be more interesting for
me to hear. And so when, you know, Beethoven
used a trombone in a symphony or Mozart used
it in an opera, that was a new thing. But now,
you know, trombones are always there. And so
for us, it's not a new thing. But even some harmonies
that they were they were doing, like, I mean,
I remember Haydn String Quartet, where he was
Playing away happily in G major and then suddenly
there's an E flat chord. I'm going huh Where
did that come from like and why and and I loved
how it made me feel and that's really what? my
whole entire thing about Listening to music and
trying to learn from the stuff that I I like
is it's that Why when you're in G major and suddenly
you go into this E flat major? Why does that
give you this kind of a feeling? And did Haydn
know that when he was writing it? Or did he just
stumble upon it and go, oh, I like that. Oh,
I really like that. By the way, the guy wrote
so much stuff. I didn't see it that often, actually,
from the G major to A flat. So he could have
been just experimenting at that point. He did
a lot of experimenting with his quartets. He
had a lot of stuff that he was writing for his...
patron, the Prince of Astor Hazi. That's a real
rambly answer, isn't it? No, no, that's great,
right? Because like, we're talking about this
idea that like, when you're writing, like when
something takes you, that you can go with it.
Right? Yeah. And so too was your rambly chat.
Yeah. You were demonstrating the concept by getting
into this particular bit, little bit of hiding.
That's great. But it is true, though, and it's
one of those things that I try to write not by
rule and reason like that I try to write a little
bit more like this will get me this will not
get me or this will catch me this is something
I'm interested in and so when I start a piece
I generally generally sometimes I have an idea
of where I want it to end and or what kind of
a thing I want it to do but generally I start
and if I go okay this is good and then it gets
to a certain point and then it it may stop and
then I have to Go in that direction. No go in
that direction. No go in that. Oh, that's it.
Okay go there and then it keeps going that way
Yeah, so it's it's I go from beginning and to
the end and I'm not quite sure always when the
end is gonna be and how the end is gonna be there
and Hopefully most the time it's successful.
I know sometimes it hasn't been as successful
for for myself about you know, how I organized
it because it's but heck That's the whole thing.
It's a learning curve. I always think if I stop
learning, I'm probably dead. Yeah. And don't
want to stop learning. Well, I remember when
you were writing The Darkling Thrush for me.
the piece that I commissioned from you and that
I premiered at the Sound Atlas Festival last
summer, the summer of 2024. We were sort of giving
me running updates every once in a while at work
about how things were going. You're like, I don't
really know how it's going to end. I know that
must not have been very reassuring for you, I'm
sure. Well, the suspense was exciting. I know
I gave you a lot of challenges in that one, that's
for sure. Oh, sure. But that was like that was
the first trumpet solo piece you ever wrote.
True, it was. But, you know, now I know a heck
of a lot more. And if I write another one, it's
going to be absolutely a real awesome piece.
But at the same time, it's great that like a
lot of what you wrote was not accommodating the
proclivities of the instrument. Right. And I
think that that Sometimes things need a little
tweaking, but I'd much rather do that than fall
into the tropes and have something that feels
very derivative. I always try to do that, is
try and write something that is not necessarily
idiomatic for the instrument, completely idiomatic
for the instrument. Obviously there's always
things that work better on certain instruments
than on others. I know one of the things that
uh, has gotten me into trouble is, is being a
string player. I mean, I just have to change
bow and I can make a really, really long note
and really long thing. I don't have to breathe,
right? Still being conscious of that. I still,
I still tend to light, write really long phrases
that are, I would love it if you didn't have
to breathe in it, but of course that's not going
to work. Yeah. But you know, like to, uh, to
a singer or any wind player, I think we find
ways. Our vocabulary is finding ways to make
the breaths a feature, not a bug. Yeah. And that's
part of the learning curve, I think, for me as
a composer is to find out where I can make that
more easy to figure out for the performer. Because,
I mean, I wrote the flute concerto for Sarah.
I know it's... It's a beautiful piece, Arthur.
Thank you. I love that, hearing that piece is
why I thought I'm going to commission a piece
from Arthur. Well, thank you, Adam. That was,
I really, really enjoyed writing that piece too.
And that was one of those things that was for
Sarah and I loved her playing and I know she
could play very long legato phrases. And I know
it's kind of, you know, a few times after when
I gave her the final product and oh, it was still.
maybe a month before our performance. And, uh,
and she came back and she says, Arthur, I just
need, I just need a rest here or there. And I
just, just, just cause you know, I, I just can't
do this without breathing. And so you just, and
I need to recover. Right. And that's the thing
you never think about as a string player is that
you need to recover. Like, what do you mean?
I just put the bow down and I play, right. But
I mean, obviously I've learned a lot more about
that. And that even, even. five seconds is sometimes
enough for an instrumentals to reset. Yeah. And
it's always interesting because then you sort
of go, oh, okay, how do I make this work? And
I think, okay, I still want this tune. I want
this here. Oh, well, hey, let's put it into the
violas. Yeah. And, you know, just for absolute
clarity, we're talking about Sarah Hahn here,
the principal flute of the CPO. And we're talking
about your flute concerto, Daughter of Elysium,
which was commissioned by the CPO. to be sort
of a companion piece for Beethoven 9, of all
things. Of all things to Beethoven 9, yeah. And
it was interesting, so the way it became a companion
piece, it's a very, very loose companion because
daughter of Elysium is three of the words in
the Schiller poem. He says, Joy is the daughter
of Elysium, which is what the tenor sings when
he first comes in. He goes, Freude, which is
Joy, is the daughter of Elysium. And I just took
daughter of Elysium because I thought that was
very interesting to think of what a daughter
of Elysium would be. And that's the way that
whole piece sort of got started. I was lucky
that they allowed me to use a full choir. Yeah,
because the choir is there for Beethoven Nine
anyway. Yeah, yeah. It's an interesting thing
because I find when I... I'm trying to shop this
piece around a lot of orchestras go oh my god
you got a choir oh no oh can't do that and I
try to say well you know it doesn't have to be
with Beethoven I could be with the bronze requiem
it could be with any of that or it could just
be by itself and it was proven that we just did
this last year and the choir was just there for
this piece, and it worked fine, right? And there
are no trumpets in this piece, just by chance.
I remember you telling me that you just, you
know, when you were writing it, there were trumpet
parts there on the page for you to work with.
You just didn't write anything in them. Yeah,
and that's funny. I'm not sure exactly what that
happened. And I think there was maybe something
in my subconscious going, like, I wanted to have
the whole orchestra playing with Sarah, and I
was sort of thinking, well, the trumpet... Sound
is very. distinctive sound, and I didn't want
that to conflict or to compete with Sarah's sound.
Yeah. You just carve out some acoustic space
for that. Yeah. Yeah. And I just sort of thought,
well, maybe that will help. And I'm sure Adam
and Miranda would not be having a problem with
that. Well, what it meant the last time around
is I got to sing in the choir, which was good
fun. I think that's so funny. That's great. It
was a hoot. And if anyone's considering programming
this, the choral parts are not difficult. Even
I, a very untrained singer, could muddle my way
through as a tenor. That's awesome. Thank you.
Well, for those of you really excited to hear
some of Arthur's music, I think you should be.
And one great chance you have this season at
the CPO is to hear a paintbrush for Piccolo,
which is going to be part of our Symphony Sundays
for Kids series on May 11th at three o 'clock
at the Jacksingers Julianne Galant will be conducting.
Tell us a little bit about paintbrush for Piccolo.
Paintbrush for Piccolo is a well, it's basically
almost an hour -long theatre musical piece and
it's the story of a little boy in Renaissance
Italy about the time that the Sistine Chapel
was being painted by Michelangelo and this little
boy whose name was Piccolo is a leather worker,
or his father is a leather worker, but he's always,
Piccolo has always wanted to be a painter, always
loved painting, loved going into the little churches
that were in his little village and seeing the
artwork there. And at one point he goes with
his father to Rome and they get beset by bandits
and he gets hit on the head and loses his memory.
This is a story that was originally by a Calgary
author who was a teacher here in Calgary. Her
name was Anne Gathe. She lives in Vancouver now
and who is actually going to be coming for the
show, which is awesome. And it features a young
actor, actress, and actually we can, it's, Piccolo
can be either male or female. It doesn't really
matter. And And then there is a narrator and
that's going to be Jonathan Love doing this,
which he's an awesome guy. He's the one that
did it very, very first way back. He was one
of the, he was the first fellow and he does every
character other than Bella the dog. And Bella
the dog is done by Dean Barham and he is a puppeteer
from Green Fools Theater. And, uh, he has a dog
that he created especially for this called Bella,
which is awesome. It's a very, very entertaining
little story. The music in it just follows along
with whatever is happening on stage. And I think
everybody would absolutely love this. Wonderful.
I'm really looking forward to it. I've never
played this before. You haven't. I haven't. Somehow
I missed it, and a couple of times it's happened
since I started here at the CPO. But my colleagues
just rave about this one. So I'm really looking
forward to giving it a go myself. Oh, that's
awesome. Yeah. No, it's a fun piece. I always
enjoy hearing it. I actually, I've played it
all the time, every time. Oh, the only time I
didn't play it was when I was at NAC. So it did
get played in NAC, which was really, really nice.
They enjoyed it very much there. So that was
awesome to do that. Great. Yeah. Great. Arthur
in your 39 years at the CPO you have heard so
much great music making on stage I want to ask
you usually I try and contain my guests to a
single a Single highlight, but for you as a retiring
member of the orchestra I want to ask you to
highlight some colleagues past and present whose
playing has inspired you over the years Wow That's
okay Let's just go through this here. Okay. So
one of the ones obviously is Sarah. She's been
a very good friend and I always have absolutely
loved her playing. You as well, Adam, are one
of these players that has always inspired me
because you always come to, you're always supremely
prepared and your legato stuff is just, that's
the stuff I absolutely love about your playing.
Yeah, and, uh, you know, after that, I mean,
everybody's had their moment to shine. It's kind
of tough to sort of single out more than, more
than a few people there because, uh, some bass
players that I, uh, really, really enjoyed. It
was Graeme, Graeme Mudd, who's a very good friend
of mine. And he's done a number of my little
pieces, including, uh, with, uh, Chuck Garrett
and Trish Beretti. Uh, they did the Bugler's
holiday for three bases. Excellent. And, uh,
so he did it for three bases string quartet and,
uh, somewhere around in the world, there is,
uh, there is a recording of that somewhere, but
I would love to hear. Yeah. That might be the,
that might be what we can use there. Other than
that. I mean, I think just, just being in this
orchestra and seeing how much great. orchestral
playing that there has been going on which means
it's egoless ensemble playing where everybody's
really really all what they want to do is play
great music with other great musicians that are
around them and that that for me has been the
best because when when that actually happens
that is the the magic moment for me in and all
that stuff it's everybody's playing and contributing
and there is no There's no egos. It's just music.
Yeah, and that's I think that is this most spectacular
thing about orchestral music orchestral playing
so they're wonderful Arthur we're gonna miss
you. I'll still be there I'll be the one going
Thanks for coming and sitting down with me and
talking about this today. It was really great
to chat with you. Thank you very much, Adam.
It was a pleasure. Notes from the Stage is an
independent production of the Calgary Philharmonic
Players Association. The opinions expressed here
are our own and do not reflect those of the Calgary
Philharmonic Orchestra. Our thanks to Nathan
Chandler for his technical expertise. The music
you heard in this episode was two works by Arthur
Bachmann. The Darkling Thrush performed by pianist
Akiko Tominaga and me, Adams in Italy, on trumpet,
and Nauthis performed by Kensington Sinfonia
from their CD, Views from the Americas. On our
next episode in two weeks, I'll be talking with
the Calgary Phil's principal violist, Laurent
Crier -Kim. Talk to you soon!