Violin virtuoso James Ehnes takes a half-glass-full approach to orchestral maneuvers in the pandemic
The internationally celebrated musician joins VSO for a streaming of Beethoven & Sibelius
The pandemic has obliterated violinist James Ehnes’s travel schedule, but he still considers himself fortunate. Photo by B Ealovega
Violinist James Ehnes appears in the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven & Sibelius program on November 1 at 2 pm via TheConcertHall.ca
FOR A MUSICIAN who has made a name for himself on global stages, having to stay mostly in one place because of the pandemic has been a shock to James Ehnes’s system. The violinist typically spends more time on the road than at his Florida home, so when Stir catches up with him there by phone, he admits he’s still adjusting eight months in.
The virtuoso, who’s on the line from his mom’s house in the same sunny neighbourhood halfway between Sarasota and Saint Petersburg, is quick to acknowledge he’s grateful that he and his loved ones, including his wife and two kids, are healthy. However, having been a guest of orchestras in Boston, Chicago, London, Vienna, Los Angeles, New York, Munich, and Berlin, among many others, he says he can’t help but feel somewhat lost.
“It has been a horrific time in the industry, no question,” Ehnes says. “The ramifications are not going to be fully understood for a long time. On a personal level, almost all of my work disappeared, and it became and continues to be a tense time of trying to figure out a path forward from a strictly professional and financial standpoint.
“But there have been some organizations, like Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, that have been wonderful about finding paths forward,” he says. “The Chamber Music Festival in Seattle, where I’m artistic director, was able to go forward with a complete virtual summer festival season. I’ve been doing some performances on my own from home, some recordings, and working with other organizations to be able to come up with creative ways to reach their audiences.”
The VSO was swift to pivot in response to the pandemic, having introduced TheConcertHall.ca with its season-opening concert. The new virtual home for performances, presented by TELUS, is like Netflix for symphonies, with most of the 2020-21 shows accessible online for the duration of the season.) Ehnes took part in the launch and will appear with the VSO in its November 1 program, Beethoven & Sibelius.
Ehnes plays violin and also leads the orchestra in the concert, which was filmed in September on one of the rare travels Ehnes has made since COVID-19 became a reality. He was in New York City on March 12, the day everything changed, rehearsing with his quartet at 9:30 in the morning. By 10 am, all concerts were cancelled, and by 2 pm he was back in Florida. His first work trip in the pandemic era was at the end of June, for the Seattle festival. For his initial visit to Canada since the onset of the pandemic, he and his family first went to Quebec for the season-opening concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. His wife, six-year-old son, and eight-year-old daughter came with him, the family spending quarantine in a cabin in the Laurentians.
“That was really a magical trip,” the Canadian-born Ehnes says. “We never would have done that before, and it ended up being such a special time for us. We were very, very, very lucky to be able to do it that way. It was one of those glass-half-full type of things.
“After a week of work in Montreal, we came to Vancouver for a week, and it was just wonderful to be there,” he says. “Of course, it was strange and difficult and challenging, but another thing that was psychologically very special about that week is that I had been booked to be in Vancouver all along; that was to be the opening for the VSO season. Even though it ended up very sadly not being so many things it was originally intended to be, I was still where I had planned on being for two years. That actually meant a lot. With everything else being so uncertain, it was really special to me to have something that remained, even in a tangential way, intact.”
Ehnes and Misha Aster, VSO vice president of artistic planning and production, worked together to design the program.
Ludwig van Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major, Op. 20 was one of the composer’s most popular works during his lifetime. With #Beethoven250 tributes happening all over the world, Ehnes and Aster wanted to celebrate the master’s legacy while presenting something a little different.
“The Septet was one of his great early successes that really cemented his reputation,” Ehnes says. “But I think that nowadays we think so much of the brooding Beethoven—deaf, old and railing against the world, writing pieces of such spiritual depth and profundity, and we forget sometimes the early Beethoven, the young man coming to Vienna to conquer the European capital of culture with optimism and virtuosity and how full of life and humour his music was. That’s what I love about this piece: it’s such an optimistic, ambitious piece of music that’s so full of life and vitality.”
Joining Ehnes are Emilie Grimes on viola, Henry Shapard on cello, Evan Hulbert on bass, Jenny Jonquil on clarinet, Julia Lockhart on bassoon, and Oliver de Clercq playing horn.
Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Suite for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 117, meanwhile, comprises three pastoral sketches that sat undiscovered for many years and that are rarely performed despite their charm and beauty. Ehnes will be soloist and will also lead the orchestra from his violin. “I would call this a sweet suite,” Ehnes says. “It’s a very friendly, very lovely piece.”
Known for his lyrical, serene musicality, Ehnes (who has earned Grammy Awards and a JUNO nomination for his work) says the instrument he started playing at age five is his way of communicating; “it acts as my voice.” He’s grateful to have streamed performances such as the VSO offering, but he’s still navigating this entirely different approach to performing. The digital realm is new territory, the celebrated musician playing not for hundreds or thousands of people in a magnificent theatre but rather in front of a camera in an empty space.
“Recording these streamed performances is a strange process for me,” Ehnes says. “For me, my confidence going into performances has to do with my comfort level, which has to do with the amount I’ve done it. I know how to play for a live audience, and I know how to play for a microphone. But playing for a microphone for an audience that maybe later can go back… The whole process is strange and feels unfamiliar.
“And, you know, playing in a mask is awful,” he says. “It is no fun at all. It’s hot. It’s uncomfortable. It affects your peripheral vison, and it also affects the way the instrument resonates back at you. When you’re in a business where the tiniest change in feedback is a big part of what we’re dealing with all the time, that takes some getting used to.”
Again, Ehnes puts things in perspective: he knows wearing a mask isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and he doesn’t argue with the rules. Despite his schedule for the coming months looking far lighter than he would like or is accustomed to, he looks at the bright side. He’s just happy to have the chance to be performing at all.
“It’s something, and that is huge,” he says. “I can’t overstate it: it is something at a time of nothing. I know any musician who is able to be involved is so grateful for the opportunity. And I think there really is an opportunity to make something great of this medium. It’s not going to replace a live concert experience, but I think in a weird way it’s an exciting time where people can explore what is an essentially new medium and find creative ways forward.”
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