Fully immersed in New York City, playing on all manner of projects in Manhattan, New Jersey and in Philadelphia, living in Astoria and I was almost a year into a relationship. I thought that this could be the one, but we did argue a bit. The only other precarious element was my tourist visa status. I needed, on paper to appear to be only visiting the US.
The raison d'être of doing the audition for the Berlin Philharmonic was simply that when they invite you, you go. I wasn't drawn to Germany, but with a job like that I would make it work. Saskia encouraged it, though there wasn't much point discussing the idea because there would be a world of competition for the position.
I flew to Berlin and was let into the apartment belonging to Toby's big brother. He showed me how to get the coal burning in the fireplace, and told me where to buy coal. It was very Eastern Block.
It was a unique experience doing the audition. There were only nine of us there, and most of us knew each other or at least we knew of each other. We had time to kill back stage at the Philharmonie while the orchestra's viola section had a meeting in the auditorium where we would play - on stage.
When they were ready they called us in one by one at 20 - 30 minute intervals. Each of us warming up just five minutes before while the rest of us chatted amicably over cups of tea and coffee.
One of us —also still a violinist — commented on how different the violin audition experience is: tears, loud cadenzas in every corner of the room and a full competitive atmosphere, egos flailing in the air. Meanwhile the violists would come off stage, shrug or mutter something friendly or encouraging and then put their viola away and rejoin the group drinking beverages.
I played well: Stamitz -and cadenza that I had written- slow movement, noticing what a fine pianist they had provided, then the Bach E major violin Partita, prelude and Loure, no repeats that I had done in Siena for Bashmet.
A couple of guys from the viola section came backstage to talk to us. They had decided to run the auditions again at a later date as so few of us had been able to attend. I suppose that it was what they were talking about for so long before we began, but they let us play anyway.
Brett Dean, the Aussie violist from the orchestra had a nice chat with me and he talked about my playing being very exciting, but a more tenor viola sound was what the section required.
We were destined to meet again in Melbourne when I brought my harp trio out and we played and gave classes at the Australian National Academy of Music, where he would be the director.
I felt no disappointment. Happy to have had the experience without the change in destiny. I took in the feedback though and tucked away the idea to try some bigger instruments.
The following year there was a "Landon viola" at Christoph Landon's shop in New York that a Berlin Phil guy was selling. It wasn't cheap, and Christoph propositioned me with a straight swap for my Smith, as he knew Smith's work and really appreciated my instrument.
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| Peter with a Christoph Landon Viola later in 2000 |
I played on the Landon for a few months, now fully understanding what Brett Dean had been referring to. The viola had a deep, fat cabernet sauvignon tone. Saskia listened to me in a hall and said that the sound was good but it didn't have much variety like my Smith —a comment for which I am thankful to this day—.
I flew back to New York. Hung was floating around still. He'd been investigating the comedy scene which by all accounts was very tough. People waiting in line around the block to get on the list to do an unpaid ten minutes of material. He took me to a few of the venues, and we had a bit of fun. Any audience participation was welcome, a bit of good natured heckling...
I'd met a conductor who was putting together an small international orchestra to go on tour in Germany with Nigel Kennedy. He asked me to come and play for him the following day, and we got along well. He gave me the dates. I'll admit it, I was a huge fan of Nige. We used to sit around in the late 80s and listen to his four seasons while we drank and smoked. (Como Quartet guys). I had always liked his attitude. He let his weirdness show without being self conscious.
Meanwhile my friend in Köln, Christine Moran who had decided to stay in Germany permanently, now with child, having lent me her viola in Germany and let me stay with her when I was in need, kept kept on being good to me, this time passing me the name of a man with whom I would faithfully work for fifteen years: Jörg Michael Schwartz. His group: Rebėl was a chamber group which expanded to a chamber orchestra for its long residency at Manhattan's landmark Trinity Church. Jörg immediately contracted me as principal viola, which I remained for eleven years. I dearly loved that gig. We played beautiful baroque and classical repertoire at a very high level.
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| Jörg Michael Schwartz and Peter backstage |
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| Rebèl |
Trinity also had a professional choir whose director was in and out of hot water for various reasons, but I liked him, despite accusations from the choir of him being a bit abusive. I never noticed, and he was nice enough to get one of the sopranos pregnant, which was very generous.
So I was playing with Germans in America, and with Germans in Germany.
The tour with Nigel Kennedy went beautifully. A healthy contingent of Bulgarians in the orchestra who were easy going and all fine musicians.
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| Malina Mancheva laughing with the Orchestra on break |
The principal violist, Vincent Roth, had to return home having sustained a hand injury and the conductor put me principal, but I thought it best if the three of us violists shared the position, each getting to play principal in the major city of his choice. That worked well, and the guys were happy. It was a classy viola section.
Nige was a trip to work with. He played the Beethoven concerto every night and some Bartok duos with the director. He had a contract rider that stipulated Veuve Cliquot x 15 bottles or so in the dressing room. He almost always partied with us and often his 'beater' violin would come out, caked in Rosin.
His Dad was a famous alcoholic, and Nige had a good amount of his dad's genes plus a penchant for good hashish which the road manager was tasked with obtaining.
Passing through Köln, I got to see some of my old Hochschule friends at the show and for a very late night party afterwards.
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| Nige and Pete |
Mr Gutman was with his friend Yehudi one day to listen to a young Nigel in a lesson. He said that the kid didn't seem so impressive.
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Saskia and I decided to have a potentially permanent time-out from each other over the summer, as we couldn't seem to work through our issues. Back in New York again, we reunited, agreeing not to talk about what either of us had been up to during the last few months. I was now thirty-one, and we needed to find out for sure if we could get over the mountain or should just let each other go so that we both had a chance to find our real partners for life.
One afternoon I noticed a very pretty girl on the platform in Astoria. I asked her what the story with her makeup was. She laughed and said:
"I was the bride in a Tony 'n Tina's Wedding." big smile.
We talked for a while and got on the N train and headed into Manhattan. She was a theatre girl, making her way in the improv world. We dated for a short while. Turned out she was a Miss Staten Island. She had the crown in the top of her closet.
Mitchell Stern
A small music academy on the East Coast invited me to come and play quartets and be coached by members of the Emerson Quartet. We did a nice job on Ravel's quartet which he wrote when he was around my age.
We played for the festival public one afternoon, and a couple of days later gave a pretty stunning performance at a maximum security prison in New Hampshire. It was the quietest audience I have ever had in my life. I stood up and spoke to the prisoners at the beginning, introducing the girls. I broke the tension asking the audience how much I could get for my visitor's pass.
After the performance we had a tour. I was locked in solitary for a couple of minutes, which wasn't a great feeling. Had my mugshot taken....
Greta, one of those active types, got me outside. We hiked up the mountain, drove to spacial places, and talked a little of our Mums who knew each other from the art world. Strong Australian women, all of the above. A contrast to the young girls among whom I was currently immersed—American summer camp style—.
The admin had put me up with the older students in the motel, a short walk down the hill. I didn't have many obligations, just Ravel and private practice. The first violinist in my quartet was Gabby Painter, a doctoral candidate at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, soon to be the assistant of Professor Mitchell Stern. Currently there was no viola professor at Stony Brook, and the dwindling viola class was studying with Mitch who was the backbone of the string faculty.
His story with the viola was that his violin teacher Dorothy DeLay had suggested that he audition for the principal viola position that was about to come up at the New York Phil. He just had to learn the Bartok concerto and, I suppose, a few trinkets of repertoire. The funny way he told it was that he made it to the finals and between him and another they just didn't want to give it to him, a violinist who practiced viola for five minutes and was suddenly better than everybody... it simply wasn't done.
Mitch very gently invited me to come and join the Doctoral program starting in 2000. It clicked in perfectly to keep me on the rails. It was going to help greatly with two things:
1/ A Doctorate was almost a requirement to get a professorship, which had long been one of my goals.
2/ It would solve the problem of my visa status.
What I couldn't know yet, but would come to understand in six months' time, was that Mitch was a GREAT teacher and he would serve to polish some of the rough areas of my technique and instill real confidence in my musicianship and ability. Every single one of his students loved him because of his deep understanding of human frailty, the challenges musicians faced and his desire to help his students.
Unfortunately I would be speaking at his funeral before two years had passed.
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Elektra
Simone Young was going to do Elektra (Strauss) with the Sydney Symphony for the Festival in 2000, along with some other concert programs. It was the Y2K moment during which Australia would be one of the first to experience the sudden loss of technology and the breakdown of society.
Still in Astoria, playing regularly on the baroque circuit, East and West Coasts, I took time out to scour the difficult Strauss viola part which I had played at the LA Opera nearly six years earlier.
Saskia, with whom I had reunited immediately after the summer was over, expressed interest in coming out to Australia with me for a visit, so I began putting out feelers to locate a Bass in Sydney and one in Melbourne for her to keep up her practice over the Christmas break. I also had to find accommodation in Sydney for us both. There would be a lot of moving parts on this trip, even just for me.
I flew out first on a cheap but crazy Continental Airlines flight that if you landed Honolulu on a Wednesday, the connection to Cairns didn't depart til Friday, so I had a free stopover to go surfing at Waikiki. There was also a stopover in Guam during which I met some local girls who showed me the island and we ended up drinking with some marines from the aircraft carrier, dropping them off late at the ship in very bad condition. Cairns, I did a 14,000ft tandem skydive, video, did a couple of 'try dive' scuba dives off a day boat and visited the rainforest. An adventurous way to get to Sydney. I'm sure Continental don't have those kinds of loopholes anymore.
Finally arriving in Sydney to start rehearsing, I moved into my old college friend Jamie Adamson's house, which was a short ferry ride to the Sydney Opera House. What a great way to go to work. Sydney is a wonderful city to live in, better if you are somehow involved with the harbour, whether it's boating on the weekends, or just walking by it, which is what you do every day if you work at the opera house.
Saskia arrived soon and we played house there and in a couple of other people's places, each time having to move the Bass, which surprisingly fits in a Volkswagon if you know how to do it.
We went down to Melbourne for Christmas and Saskia met my family, She also met her next Bass.
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| Saskia meets Mum, 1999 |
We didn't have long in Melbourne because the Sydney Symphony was involved in the New Year's Eve: Lord Mayor's Mask Party, that was to take place on the area right in front of the Opera House. Tickets to the party were $400 each but they were impossible for 'civilians' to get their hands on. I asked my old friend Sarah how many she wanted, "four," she said.
Each member of the orchestra was given two free party invitations, so I gave two of my symphony viola colleagues $800 each and I had Sarah sorted out. Everybody was happy, some richer, some $400 poorer, but they were only Australian dollars.
The hoard started amassing early on the 31st, trying to stake out their uncomfortable spot to spend the day and the night, watch the $6 million worth of fireworks and drink.
By the end of the night they would all be ankle deep in bottles and broken glass. I know because we had to wade through it.
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| Sarah Wells & friends, Peter and Saskia The calm moment before we got rolling |
The orchestra played at the beginning of the party. We had some music to play with Iva Davies from Icehouse, a very extended version of "Great Southern Land" with Richard Tognetti playing an electric 6 string violin improv over the top. A series of enormous sea creatures cruised across Sydney Harbour on barges as we played.
