Live Hangout 16.05.2013: Christian Lindberg live from Melbourne talking about composing,conducting, trombone playing and not having a “stop button”… The internet connection wasnt great that day but we think the spirit of the interview comes through anyway…enjoy!
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
We’re in trumbone land it’s very early in the morning here in Berlin and we have the most spontaneous hangout ever about I don’t know about 12 12 hours to my wonderful Web Master Tim was sitting in a rehearsal in Melbourne and said hey Christian lindberg’s in Melbourne let’s get him on a hangout and I said okay and you know what we did and here he is
Christian Lindberg welcome to the hangout it’s so great to see you thank you it’s it’s a lot of fun to be here I’ve seen your Hangouts they’re really good great well the Trum owned world was really getting at me to get some more trombone players on because we had Mick right at the beginning and then we went a bit quiet in the trombone world so thank you it’s really fantastic and the chat is going crazy with all sorts of questions for you um but tell us what are you doing in
Melbourne uh I am doing a piece that I wrote for nine trombones and Orchestra and also I’m doing celio’s second Symphony I’m doing a master class in conducting on sellus 5 and I do a trombone master class and I’m playing Leopold mosat kerto no singing or dancing while you’re doing all that no singing of dancing or dancing this week this week it’s a little bit more conventionally
I asked because I spent last night with you on inter on the internet I mean not literally I was watching everything I could find about you and um you were singing you were playing you were dancing you were swimming underwater playing your trombone at one point I just shut my computer and I just thought this guy’s a genius it is incredible all the all the different things you are doing and your programs these days seem to comprise um all all of your talents
Al together you play pieces you’ve composed and you conduct them as well um yeah crazy wonderful yeah I did I don’t know why it became like that but I think it’s part of it is is wanting to be in control actually some of my my friends say that I am a control freak ah and what do you think are you a control freak no
I’m a complete I’m a complete Maniac that try to behave in a disciplined way that’s but um you make your life more difficult by doing all this no I think it’s easier it’s easier now because I was when I when I was in the orchestra playing in the Opera Orchestra I felt I was someone that people fooled around with
I mean I was always in other people’s hand and I became a soloist but I was still in the conductor’s hand and in or in in also I had the the literature was not very Greatful Trumbo I tried to sort of like like a defense lawyer really defense defend the repertoire but it wasn’t all that great and then then when
I was 39 I started to compose you wer you said you weren’t going to compose you composed one piece ages ago and it wasn’t received very well so you said never again never again never again and uh uh but it was my friend JN sunstrom who wrote the Motu BYU a piece that I mean most of the people on the chat know it here
I played it 699 times what yes I didn’t find that on Google and uh and then JN srone said no don’t don’t commission any more pieces write it yourself and since then uh composing has been my main subject actually so you would say you’re a composer first and then a conductor or a trombone player yeah well the thing is the the the the the thing is that the conducting at the moment takes the most time once you get get there’s so many orchestras and once you get a couple of orchest like
I have have about 10 orchestras now that I have a great relationship ship it just consumes so much time I mean every single week a new a new and and this the three last years I’ve only done two two uh solo engagements with other conductors one with kako and one last week with Suba great yeah Zu fabulous yeah he was so much fun to work with his such a great man 77 and still like an eight-year old amazing amazing um but with those sort of conductors then it’s you’re
I I would be happy to give the control up to those sort of conductors yeah yeah yeah that’s that’s that’s fantastic to do you just stand there and and relax and it’s like compared to doing all the things one once you get I get used to it I get very very tired but I also get stronger and stronger when getting used to doing your own piece and conduct it and rehearse it and everything you get going back to being a solo feels like a holiday week maybe
I should try that I it’s like it’s like like running with with his sand thing on the on the back and then taking them off a little bit that feeling but it’s not only conducting and and composing and playing you were I was watching you be Lucifer you were singing as well while you were conducting and then you you were playing
I mean I just yeah I saw someone else on your chat uh the singer uh doing the same thing she was cond acting in legy Barbara yeah Barb Barbara Barbara H yeah and uh and I perfectly understand it I mean it’s it’s a trombone is quite a good instrument to to do it with because you have the the slide and you can show a lot with a slide and when you write the music and then you can if you can talk you can talk that’s true actually every time
I even have to give a a a downbeat with the horn I end up splitting a note horn players hate to give any sort of down beats because it takes it away from lips but I guess you guys can really conduct with your slide I never thought about that yeah you can a little bit no when you’re playing otherwise you you do it with the hands but of course it is it is not but but it’s so far away so you don’t have to move so much yeah it’s yeah it’s okay and you can play one-handed we can’t that’s right correct correct that’s my
I’m sorry it’s very early in the morning here that’s about the most profound statement you’ll get out of me this morning so of course French horn is so so much more difficult here you’re right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um Christian um uh from Ireland Ireland says please come back and and play again there soon um they uh
J G Brady he’s a trombone player in Ireland he said please come back and play there but you you just conducted there as well well you did everything there I conducted there was a fantastic Orchestra there’s there were both Orchestra I worked with them but uh Irish National and I’m going back there very soon again to do
Jackowski 5 and and and helon wasp and some other things because I will definitely come back to Ireland people in Ireland are so friendly and one wonderful and they can drink yes and they can make beer they can and Scandinavians like beer the Oslo philonic were just here oh yeah by way I have to say a very big hello to you from um
Chris D goling chef Schulz yes B sis um they were all playing they were here yesterday I got your number from Stefan in the big Panic to try and contact you and chrisad ging said to me um our principal trombone he said Christian yes the trombone world is very very lucky to have him without him we wouldn’t have anything to play very very kind of him you commissioned you’ve commissioned you’ve played
Over N you’ve got over 90 keros I wrote I read yeah it’s over 90 now I think 92 93 something like that so so yeah yeah when you think of it um I mean the thing is with me I I have always I was born with a lot of energy and if I don’t get rid of that energy
I get very irritated and do bad things so I like I was smoking for smoking 60 cigarettes a day for a while oh disgusting yeah disgusting but but I stopped that and if I don’t get rid of that energy then if I do then I I I I feel really really good and Jeff from Ireland says have you run any marathons recently
I ran actually yesterday I did 30 kilometers here in Melbourne because that was the dress rehearsal if you call it that for the Stockholm Marathon which is my 11th marathon on the 1 of June Christian I would like to do this but I would disappear from the camera this is really no it’s just it’s it’s just a brain damage that’s all it is um and and someone’s just asked where’s
W I think he’s a tuber player said uh how do you manage to maintain all your musical talents and your work and and being so fit how do you balance it do you not sleep yes I sleep I do sleep and I sleep very well actually that’s that’s a good thing about being being active also being active with your body running and doing yoga and thing and
I do a lot of yoga that that once you sleep you sleep so so good and deep yeah maybe I’ll try taking up Marathon running we had a discussion here on the Hangouts the other day whether it was necessary to do sport if you’re a brass player and I think it totally is it is but uh but you seem to be the sort of guy that takes things really to extremes yeah
I was always I was born like that yeah really yeah yes I have I it’s it’s the one problem that I have I I I don’t put I have don’t have a stop button so I go I was in Venezuela conducting the Simon Boulevard and you know what that is I mean that’s energy if something and the people they took me out on an island in the morning uh these guy these from
B players and the the many people from the orchestra and we started at 10:00 and they they took up a big bottle of whiskey and a lot of cigarettes so we spent the day there drinking whiskey by the Sea sorry I thought they were all kids in that Orchestra well it’s there there is there is no wait there there is a grown-up
Orchestra there I know it was a British hum the the people in the in the Youth Orchestra they go up to a a senior Orchestra the next that when they when they get around 25 or something and they get a full salary then and and it’s amazing what an orchestra what an orchestra but on the way on the way back to on the plane
I passed out like this and U that’s a real perk of your job I must say I was watching your video diaries and you were um playing you on Copa gabana Beach and then the next one I watched you were in the Arctic fabulous to see the world like that that must have been the ab actually one of the highlights of being doing your job is getting around so much although it can be a lonely a lonely life sometimes yes it is it’s it’s it can be really terrible because when you are tired and in in a bad mood and you feel lonely and everything
But it can also if you are if you get the flow and and get in a good mood and and have a good physics and and do it then it’s it’s unbelievable and uh and also I I have so much fun now doing these video diaries because it’s like a hobby you go around with a camera everywhere and you you document it for the rest of the life so when
I’m do you make them I’m 80 and Look Back 40 years I can see what I do do you make them yourself I make them absolutely from beginning to end myself amazing I had a son my son used to do them he’s said my son is a film producer and he used to do them and I paid him quite well for them but then suddenly one day he said you know
Daddy this is this is really crap work you know I I can’t I I can’t fit in the time for it anymore so I felt B what is this and then he taught me how to do it and and I do it myself now but it’s lots of fun if any of you don’t know um uh Christian’s video diaries go on to
YouTube maybe one of you can put a link to them on on the chat right now because um I discovered them last night and they are so much fun and for all you trombone um Geeks out there there’s always a trombone tip right at the end really really fantastic idea um but usually I I was waiting for one in your bathing suit or something you were sitting outside uh
I thought you were going to jump into that Lake Yeah well yeah okay I’ll find something fun next time also so you are um the fact that you put that out there it’s really amazing you’ve got um you make yourself accessible which I think is wonderful because this is what we’re trying to do with the Hangouts I feel it’s a very important part of classical music these days and
I was wondering how you felt about that yeah I do I do it’s because classical music is in a big crisis and I can understand really why because i’ I saw it really from the beginning I had an instrument which no one I mean normal audiences they they don’t feel a difference between a trombone or a violin but in this little tiny classical world it’s it’s miles between a violin and a trombone so so they would if
I wouldn’t have been so cons sort of consistent in my hard work and also because the audience were always they loved trombone they loved it and the the critics were always very positive but the actual institutions uh orchestras in in institutions were so I mean they are starting to get it now once when when we hear that all these orchestras are being closed or
B going bankrupt but it’s 20 years too late I think you really think so you think so we better be very very fast to to bring it back I think so um this is your also I read in an interview that you did about your intention of commissioning these works you know you would much rather play a a program works by zanakis and bario than than um you know just stick with the classical repertoire you it’s sort of like almost forcing the people to to look at this all this new stuff out there yeah
I mean it’s it’s very strange with music uh well we call it classical music and that’s probably why but but when it comes to art for instance there are exhibitions and there’s lots of people going to it but but in the I think it happened in the 60s or the 70s there was a was a big gap between the institutions and the composers thanks to the
Avant card maybe and then sort of modern music is is put as a car parking piece or something like that or motorbike and of course the audience sorry motorbike exactly but uh yeah so so uh well there’s many there’s many different as aspects of this so you can see it you cannot just see it in black and white but for sure to your initial question
I think we we have to uh make sure or we are not put in a corner where the people who are doing acoustic I call it acoustical music yeah well I think that that the online uh World these days gives us that platform to be able I mean you know about our digital Concert Hall we live stream our concerts um it’s amazing but that’s stilling classical music you know that the people these days need some sort of visual teasers to make them even want to tune in you know and what you’re doing with yeah but
Ian there’s a lot of I say from the berin that from your there’s also some contemporary Works quite a lot of contemporary Works Simon Rattle has put in a lot of contemporary work repertoire into your yeah isn’t that true or yes it no it’s totally true at the beginning people were a little bit like you know what do we have to really come and and and hear this stuff and um
I mean some of the pieces weren’t so great some of the pieces were amazing but that’s what modern art is the same you know you stand in front of a modern painting and think God this is great other people stand in front of and think load of rubbish but you know and if you look at vangog for instance his uh his uh uncle was the most most influential art person in the world and he was not he sold one painting in his life so so we don’t really know we have to get them in there and we have different different uh opinions about it but
Also we have to bring that music in to to bring the audience in that’s interested in our modern music is is a very uni very personal thing have you ever commissioned a piece no names and thought and got it and then thought oh no what am I going to do with this yes it’s a tricky one you just have to defend it to the end it’s like being a lawyer defending a murder love it love it love have to go to the can you say you have some favorites some favorite absolutely favorites there they
I can name them immediately srom motobike can share to srom donkey hot berio solo takim mitsu uh kenak is and there that’s five of them but they’re they’re they’re 15 20 really really great pieces there’s no one else doing what you do on the trombone there was no there’s no no one else um who made a career of just being a trombone solist did your agent or did you went to find an agent did people think you were totally crazy at the beginning absolutely yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah so you just have you just it was like hitting the wall on time after time and
Then you had it was very good for myself because I became creative and found ways to open that door and suddenly it opened and it just broke broke out completely when I was 30 before between 20 and 30 already at 20 I did my first CD which which with flly to the Bumblebee and everything and it was of course everyone in the world had heard it but it took 10 years even with that
CD out um we had hawen on we had hawen I saw it I saw it and uh he told me about your um your little I mean you can see this on YouTube now your night at the Opera the two of you but for me it if you have you can go on to YouTube you can watch hawen hardenberg and
Christian Lindberg very cute in their in their in their suits and hawen had hair like this and you can see them playing at the Royal Academy of Art wasn’t it in London yeah already then you two were really trying to do something for classical music because you were getting a young audience in there and and you were you were playing the most outrageously difficult stuff you two crazy yeah yeah we did we we uh
I don’t know why we [Laughter] money well now I can say money but but at that time I say was it was like really you you earn nothing in the beginning I mean and and that video for instance I think we got oh my god there was a DVD we made was it 50 bucks each or something the most outrageously difficult stuff honestly but you two is it is it something about the
Swedish the Swedish uh water or beer or something that that creates these amazingly crazy creative brass players H now I think actually to be honest it’s it’s a similar thing as the Venezuela system because in Sweden we had something called Kona mus schan which of course doesn’t exist anymore so mus it was called everybody together okay and that meant that every person in school could borrow an instrument and they get free from their normal normal lessons to go to to a private music teacher so there was so many from that generation in the 60s that didn’t know anything about music
Don’t did couldn’t afford an instrument the parents couldn’t afford anything and they could just say I want to play Trombone and then they go and put it in there fantastic yeah it was it was fantastic that must have been what was and that was what happened to you you decided because you started late okay no [Music] not no
I started when I was 17 so thank you anyway for the story no I started in that I started there but I I asked my parents if I could could get free from it because I didn’t like it I like playing basketball better yeah well boys will anyway I learned I learned a little to read music so that was something at least yeah
Christian I’ve got to go to our online audience now um because I could talk we never we never have we met in we met briefly in Berlin like no we didn’t some I know at some point we met somewhere I think it was here in the canteen after a concert you were with the other trombones or you done something here at the chamber but we’ve never met to talk so
I could talk to you for hours but our wonderful online audience have asking have been asking questions so can I shoot a few at you because um because there really um there’s there’s just something I’ve got to read to you from Adam Hannah who’s a real real horn hangout um fan he’s he’s always on the chat even though he’s a trumbone player and he just wrote you a message which
I think is very lovely says dear Christian when I was 12 years old I was given one of your CDs and I’ve been hooked ever since then you are the reason I decided to pursu decided to pursue the trombone The Hangout is a real privilege for me because you were a celebrity in my eyes thank you that’s nice thank you
Adam for that that’s really warms my heart and umya vasi sorry if I pronounce that wrong says how long do you practice how long I practice uh nowadays I panic practice I do it because I have a week of conducting without the trombone and then I I practice two days in a row from morning to evening but normally when
I when I was building up my career I had one year in London where I practiced between six and eight hours a day effective time that’s what that’s and I always I did this I heard this from hokan actually hokan got that from me because it’s a scientifically proved that 24 minutes is the limit that you can keep yourself concentrated so
I always practice in 24hour sections 24hour section minute you crazy sweds completely that I wouldn’t put it past you in hawen to practice 24 hours I must say no but but normally I mean for four hours I did then and now it it’s between one and two okay well that’s still pretty inspiring especially with all your other stuff because when
I wrote to you yesterday saying uh hey Christie I want to do a hangout you were memorizing Chik four yeah can you memorize while you practice you know some people can read a newspaper while they PR you memorize scores while you practice no no I was I was in bed with with earphones lying there and well well
I’m sorry but thank you there worse things to do in life than than than than uh memorizing jaos for I mean these Symphonies are my God amazing yeah be nice to the horns yeah yeah yeah it’s it’sa tapani you know Biga yes I hope I hope he’ll cook for you oh he does yes very good very good so we’ve got a hello from
Budapest Tom vilmos for you from Texas Destin Chapman says you’re my inspiration for practicing all through high school thanks for making G great music while remembering classical music can be cool I also think that’s important if the kids the kids think it’s cool then they want to do it more so um and and then Anthony in Kansas
City oh hang on I’m I’m I’m doing silly things with my computer say conducting composing performing staying Physically Active what leisurely things do you have time for you don’t do you oh yeah uh actually the I’m working very concentrated but now on the from the 9th of June I have three months off and then I’m going to paddle
Cano at my little Peninsula and then I’m going to read a lot of books I’m going to play basketball I have a little basketball court there I’m going to do uh what else cooking I like cooking can you really do that can you really switch off can you switch off your phone your computer your your brain I
I can’t not very well I’m trying to learn yeah I’m trying to learn I yeah yeah I I will be completely don’t know what to do for the two three two two three first weeks but hopefully then I think I think I usually can get down after a month or so they’re down into something else or do you put the trombone away
I haven’t decided okay I haven’t decided yet I mean I I love it I I the physical thing of of just doing the warm-up is is very actually it’s it’s attractive it’s like like hugging someone in a way well it’s very familiar I found sometimes even if I’m having a terrible day or life is terrible or my heart’s been broken or whatever to get my horn and do my warmup it’s something very familiar and it’s something my body knows and it’s something
I feel comfortable with even if the rest of me is feeling terrible absolutely true absolutely true that’s that’s it’s it’s a it’s a comfort thing for me yeah baby yeah well for me anyway Christian wz has asked how can we save classical music and and how do we need to get newer audiences now this is a conversation that needs two hours but do you have a couple of your your ideas apart from the the new commissions and everything what what is your your philosophy on that
My Philosophy is that we should be proud over the music that we play so it’s like if you think of a painting there’s a frame the content the actual painting don’t do anything to it like you do uh Celio Symphony stands on their own jakovsky will all great music will always stand on their own but why I mean
I had a big discussion with a brain uh researcher who who doesn’t know anything about classical music and he said why do you have this stupid outfit and I said well it’s I thought it was beautiful I said it’s great but but it’s it just it’s just a barrier barrier from to the audience so I took a decision in 2000 actually it was the the 20 75th anniversary of
BBC Symphony and I took a decision to go on in black leather trousers and black shirt and before I went on the people in the orchestra in the BBC Symphony they were looking at me what are you doing what are you doing you’re doing something bad to us you’re doing something terrible to us you can’t go on stage like that and
I felt my God I should never have done that and I come on stage and before I even played the audience were like what is this it’s one of us and then I stole totally stole the show from from uh uh yoshabel who came out and he was why didn’t you tell me about your dressing he said
H so so that’s one tiny thing we can do tiny thing because yeah sorry no no I Josh would have worn Le houses which was all I was if you told him I’m sure he would have yeah and and that’s that’s one small detail that that gives people who there’s a lot of people out there who would love to hear symphonies in
Symphony halls and to explain to them what it is also they talk about for instance 10.1 in sound system an orchestra in in Berlin in this philony it’s 110 dot one it’s like an amazing and to hear just to hear a bassoon a bassoon what is a bassoon no one knows what it is it’s something we created over 2,000 years from from blowing on on two grass pieces of grass and then building it into a piece that with wood and and that that uh takes ages to build it’s like wine
I mean people start to understand what wine is and they we have to tell them what is classical music what is the sound of an OBO what is the actual all these beautiful things that is in in a symphony orchestra but we don’t we say well we are artists we are here here and you you better understand what we do otherwise you can go to another place that’s that’s that’s what we can do
I totally agree with you and this is this is why I’m doing what I’m doing and um sometimes beautiful sometimes get a lot of criticism for it by classical musics who say musicians who say we don’t need this but I think we do absolutely well it depends if you want to what if you want to have fun in life or if you want to be a
I don’t know no no no they can think whatever they like they can but I I feel that the time is about right now these days for getting back to classical music because we’ve got a lot of curiosity there people are tired of all this noise that’s been on been around for a long time um people are more interested in finding out about this beauty um
Richard in Melbourne um who is also a Great Horn hangout fan and is very happy that we’re doing tonight’s uh today’s hangout at a Melbourne friendly time because usually he has to stay up till the middle of the night he asked do you think that younger people of today have different attitudes to the young people of 20 years ago in respect to classical music do you think do you think they’re more open or do you think they’re less forced to listen to it or what do you think about that
I think they may more open absolutely more open uh I think it’s easy it it’s an easy catch uh but you have to you have to learn to speak language of the language of young people yeah because otherwise you you can do very stupid things I mean I have for children and and uh being from Sweden also and and two daughters and and if
I wouldn’t have listened to them you know about gender what do you call this equal equal male female you know this this simple things like that they think completely differently and they are much smarter than us so we have to listen to them smarter everyone on our um we have a couple of a couple of um uh technical questions um hang on where did it go it went something about about
Arnold someone ask you about Arnold J do you use the Arnold Jacobs um oh yeah gered Brady said what is your are you using Arnold Jacob toys for training the lungs are the Americans like to ask like that a lot they about the spirometer the tribal or stuff have you used those sort of things sorry to jump around a little bit but no that’s fine
I have used them but I don’t use them I since I since I came across I had about 15 different teachers when it came to breathing and every teacher said different things uh and I came to the conclusion when I started to study yoga that I just forget about EV all what everyone says if you can if you can learn to stand in position number one in yoga you just have to breathe in and out that’s all you have to do because the position is extremely important and that your body is is in harmony then you can you can you can have full lungs you
Can have empty lungs you can do whatever you like yeah so I don’t use those tools at or low breathing high or low high well not high I mean wherever wherever the air comes you just if you have that position the lungs are completely free so wherever the the the the air uh is it it places itself naturally it’s it’s very much simpler
I just have to relearn I did this when I was around 35 for between 35 and 40 I was studying with 20 to 30 I was going through all these all the Chicago methods all the Los Angeles everything London you name it and trying everything but when I was 35 I really earned this through yoga so um you obviously don’t have to do any breathing exercises because you do that in your yoga but um
Chan has asked what is your usual practice routine in that Panic practice that you do do what what um we don’t have to go into programs but I mean I guess it’s all the basics I have yeah I have a certain warmup that I do every day takes 20 minutes have you and I do I’ve done the same
I created that when I was 23 and I kept it and it’s it’s on it’s actually on one of those uh anyone who wants to see it it’s on one of those video clips fantastic I see it which it must have been quite at the beginning from bone tip number one it’s called number one okay I didn’t
I didn’t get so then that’s uh that’s my routine and when I do when I do Panic practice it’s basically 24 minutes and 6 minutes break 24 minutes 6 minutes break and then just I’m going to do that today I’m going to practice for 24 minutes and I’m going to do a Christian Lindberg day of practice today um fantastic someone’s just asked if you’re the richest trombone player in the world but
I don’t think you need to answer that I hope you are but uh funny question um um and Adam has written Adam Hannah our friend from Texas written in your musical life what’s been your greatest Challenge and what have you done to overcome it oh okay but there are many many challenges but one that I immediately think about is kakis
TR uh kakis wrote a piece for me he I play I recorded Kieran and there was a high F and there was a high G flat in there fortisimo and I recorded it and I sent it this piece to him and asked if he would write a coner to and he came back to me he would love to and then every the whole damn whole piece was placed up on on f and g
Shar g flat in fortissimos opens on a fortisimo and it was absolutely impossible to play so I created a a warmup a one-h hour warm-up which is goes under the name it was actually Abby conand in Munich that that named it warm up from hell and it includes a lot of kuso things and uh and I don’t do it anymore but
I did it for every morning for like one and a half year before I like a workout rather than a warmup yeah yeah it was something nice has just happened a friend of yours in Sweden who’s waiting at the be bewal hall waiting for a student hawan Borman ah H the winner of my competition yeah Fant competition what’s that what’s your competition
Christian Li International Tron competition there’s been one and there’s been two two of them two versions first Was Won by Fredick belly second Was Won by hokan burkman and the third will be inria 205 so so hawan won this yeah he won it he’s an incredible player he’s watching right now isn’t it amazing the Internet is just so amazing it’s just fantastic it’s just absolutely brilliant um and there was a conducting question for you down here hang on
I have to scroll because um there’s so many coming in and you you get you can read this when when I when we’re done ah John Turman has asked you for a conducting question which is good how do you approach music by Scandinavian composers particularly neelon and seus because you’re conducting seus this week aren’t you yeah um
I guess do you need to approach it or do you feel it in your blood you have to get it into your blood you have to you get it into your blood by by knowing learning to know the person if you don’t know who celus is you cannot get close to the music so you have to get under the skin of celus as a personality and then also in this second
Symphony it’s it’s very there a lot of of Clues there from it was a time of of his when he he just had lost uh his child one-year-old child who died and he went to Italy with his family just to just to for for soothing himself uh and uh and so this Symphony has both this Italian very beautiful it’s so so wonderful and also the real really a funeral
March Z and if you don’t know that you cannot approach the music you have to go under learn it has to get into your body and for me I’m starting to realize because I always memorized when I was playing concheros and I’m starting now I was too afraid of of conducting from memory in the beginning because it’s quite dangerous if things go wrong if people come in at wrong place but
I I’m starting to do every by memory and it’s it helps did you did you learn conducting or did you learn from watching your conductors I I took a well I took a decision in 97 worked with Northern Symphonia and they came to me and said you should conduct and I mean every single musician has a sort of th thing about conducting it and it’s
I always felt that was that that’s not for me at all but they they they sort of they asked me five times and I said okay I’ll make I make a an experiment with it so I studied for three years I took lessons with Le seeram with with with uh Gilbert Varga he was fantastic with Tom B
Tommy Anderson with nami yvi helped me also and and uh James the priest so I took lessons with all those for those three years and I did my first event which was really B I was a bad conductor there really terrible but I got a very good review because I was famous and then I I took two more two more uh engagements and both those orchestras offered me
Chief conductor so that’s that’s how I started yeah could you do you have any I mean it’s like someone ask you your favorite composer which is a totally stupid question but is there a certain repertoire you feel comfortable in um do you feel more more comfortable when you’re playing and conducting or when you haven’t got the trombone in your hand it’s easier when
I don’t have when I don’t have the trombone and I feel very comfortable with funnily enough jakovsky is something I’m doing I’m recording all the Symphonies now with my Orchestra Arctic philarmonic and Dak defa Bernstein this is I mean I have what seven eight composers that I I try to focus in on uh but I mean basically
I mean I you can as a conductor there’s so many wishes from the orchestra so so you have to be ready to do I mean I love doing Mozart I do beatoven Symphonies and and I do all these but but you have a I have a certain repertoire that I feel I can contribute with something when you do be for me to do beo when when so many others have done it very very good it’s it’s
I love what you do I love the way you put a program together like here at the University of Melbourne you’re doing one of your own pieces um the nine thing for oh here we go I’ve got to try and speak Australian at this time Wong no W no no we tried to teach you it’s okay way
Wes of Wong gong Wong gong sorry guys sorry you got I’ll be there soon so I’ll practice it with Tim Wong gong and and you’ve got that you’ve got seus 2 and you’ve got what else do you have you got that’s a wonderful program but this is exactly what we should be doing in classical music is giving giving a totally mixed bag and saying here it is you can like it or not but have a look yeah
I think it’s it works it really works there’s some there was some conducting back to starting that which we should be thankful to esaa started it to to mix and also Simon does it of course and lots of I think it’s very important do you talk to the audience and explain a little bit or do you bow yeah you do yes
I do that some sometimes when the venue the venues in themselves think about music in that way that you shouldn’t music should speak for itself and then I don’t speak but in General I like to I like to talk I like to say to open doors because I know there are some people there who already knows knows a lot and there are programs that they can read but
I know that at least 30% of the audience you can open some doors by saying a couple of words fantastic fantastic no you’re totally inspirational um the chat is going quite excited the movie because zultan kiss has just joined us from Vienna good morning thank you for getting up so early to watch us so yeah he’s a great player he is an amazing player he’s got
Australian Roots too so I’m we’re going to get him on a horn hangout before too long yeah I mean I I’ve never I went to a concert and I said my God is it possible to play Trombone like that yeah is is that technique is amazing yeah what he has well it’s Fry’s joining us but you have a rehearsal in a few minutes that’s right yeah in about uh yeah 15 minutes 15 minutes oh
I can stay a little bit longer you can stay a little bit longer that’s great that that’s absolutely great what are your plans from now what are you doing after Melbourne after M I’m going to sallard to spitzbergen up North with arctic philonic Orchestra we are doing jakovsky 4 and and a world premiere of my own piece and
Veri oera Aras with some some Norwegian singers and we’re doing a promotion video up there also and then straight from from there I go down to Japan to the beat of an eight and to busy boy my goodness yeah your air miles must be really uh impressive yeah I I think so they’re they’re in Japan will you be coob
Coe ah nice nice nice I read I read this in your on your website I think in the in the in the just before midnight but I it didn’t stay in my brain so it’s good that you’re telling everyone where you’re going to go it’s a great country for for classical music Japan it’s fantastic what they did specifically in the 90s yeah now their economy is not so good but
I go I’ve been there every year since 1990 I have a fantastic manager called uh G roara and he is like all the Japanese agencies they are very truthful and dedicated and and uh fantastic yes we’re going to be there July they love brass they they love the brass players are the most loyal fans in the world
I think it’s incredible what when we go there the lines of autograph Hunters when when you come out of a concert amazing amazing and the whole concert Halls are the best in the world they they have 150 they have 150 places like mik far yeah there’s a there’s a a concert hall question for you it goes fits quite well from
James Perry what do you think about the tradition in classical music in regard to when it’s appropriate to clap or to crap as they say in oh sorry sorry do you think this enhances the barrier between the audience and the musicians it’s a good question I always do this I mean we we have some habits I mean if you if you break the habits is of course difficult because some people don’t like it but if someone claps and and feel embarrassed in a concert
I always go around and I say this that you did absolutely right because in in hien’s time they applaud between movements all the time and if they didn’t appla enough then heyen actually there evidence that heyen went home and rewrote the the movement movement so yeah we we could break a little bit of those barriers I think
Christian I think what you’re doing for classical music is really incredible you’re breaking an amazing amount of barriers I think more than practically everyone I know it’s I don’t know what your energy is incredible you’re inspiring you’re enthusiastic you’re fun to talk to I hope we have time to have a beer sometime in person not just online yeah um one last question a girly question you mentioned it already your your concert dress you have these shiny shirts you know with high collar um very impressive but you always wear those to conduct in are they are specific uh are they very comfortable are they a special
Fabric um do you have your own designer I designed them myself no yes and I have a tailor in Taiwan in Taipei who who makes them and they’re extremely extremely comfortable it’s it’s unbelievably comfortable I I cannot wear anything else than these shirts there anything you can’t do I cannot find my way out of a hotel I go if
I if I go out of a hotel room I don’t know if it’s left or right to the lifts that I cannot do I find I find it hard to find my room usually because we’re in a different Hotel every day and some and then you think okay was it 520 or was it h I know it’s very difficult question of the day tell me about your medallion because we always see your medallion and every photo and
I want to know about it can you show it into the camera really close up so hold it quite still yeah what what is it it’s beautiful it is uh something actually I got a a present from my my friend sunstrom a while ago it was a a sun watch that I had around my neck and I
I lost it and I felt I needed I really got addicted to having something there and I was in Guan aato in Mexico where they have have this the best silver in the world I think Silver Mines and they this is the AI Sun God so I bought that there and I went went for like three or four five days in a row to pick the the right thing around the world so then and then
I I I wear it all the time yeah I know you can see it always well I hope it brings you a lot of luck in Melbourne and have a wonderful time thank you so much for joining us I mean I’ll send you the chat you can see everyone’s on there so if you have any more messages for
Christian write them in now because I’ll be sending him all the chat thank you guys for joining us online Christian have a wonderful rehearsal thanks to Tim who’s there somewhere where is he Tim here there he is um Tim for this up it’s the first hangout that I don’t think I’ve made him get up either really in the morning or stay up very late at night so uh so
I you had to get up early in the morning I sorry for that leing in this time so I was the one get it was great to see thank you so much thank you all and I look forward to that beer in person absolutely yes
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
