As part of plans for my first Welsh tour in 2006, I asked a young American composer to write me a new piece. Usually, nothing motivates a composer like multiple scheduled performances, and I was excited to see what he’d come up with. Six weeks before the scheduled premiere, I still hadn’t received the piece – any of it. My emails remained unanswered. The composer just disappeared. What’s worse, I didn’t have a Plan B.
In a panic, I contacted Tŷ Cerdd – the Welsh Music Information Centre in Cardiff. My rationale was: maybe I could find a Welsh piece instead? In fact, maybe that would be even better? After all: a dozen Welsh concert organizers had invited me to perform. Many of the concerts were supported by the Arts Council of Wales, in one way or another. The money comes from tax payers, I reckoned. In a fit of hyperbole, I imagined countless Welsh citizens unwittingly contributing to my concerts. Maybe playing music by a living Welsh composer could be a gesture of reciprocity?
I was in luck. The woman I spoke with on the phone suggested several possibilities, and one of them, John Metcalf’s Endless Song (1999) fit perfectly with the tour repertoire of Brahms, Chopin and Liszt. It was just different enough to be obviously contemporary, but lyrical enough for a wide audience to enjoy on a first hearing. And I was rewarded: after concerts, audience members kept asking me, “What was that last piece?” They wanted to know more about the Welsh composer; it was gratifying. Because of this warm reception, I started to play Endless Song more and more. It became my signature encore during the remainder of the 2007 season. To my astonishment, I ended up playing it over 50 times. I even recorded the piece during a session in Washington DC, and the video from that session has been viewed over 25,000 times on Youtube:
It’s strange to reflect upon the chain of events set off because the first, younger composer didn’t deliver a new piece on time. And the story could have ended there, but it didn’t. On 20 January of this year, I received John Metcalf’s newest piano piece, Chant, which I will premiere at St David’s Concert Hall in Cardiff tomorrow, on 13 October. During the summer I memorized the piece, so I could internalize the subtle details which are such a hallmark of John’s writing.
All of this has been a lesson for me, the biggest lesson John has taught me in the 8 years we’ve been in touch – and it has nothing to do with music: he keeps his promises, and he delivers on time. John was just as reliable a few years ago, when he sent me a new piece commissioned by the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. We exchanged ideas, I visited him in Lampeter, and then he sent me the finished piece, well ahead of schedule.
You might think that reliability wouldn’t be an issue in classical music, where musicians go through such rigorous training. But when it comes to deadlines, some musicians seem to shut down. Maybe it has to do with the fact that composition is a creative pursuit. Some believe that inspiration is unpredictable and can’t be controlled.
I’ve worked with enough composers now to know that there is no link whatsoever between reliability and quality. Certainly, there are plenty of composers who deliver on time, and whose music doesn’t interest me. There are also plenty of composers whose talent I believe in, but who are incapable of keeping a deadline. The trick is to find composers who are both reliable and who write music which is rewarding to play. John Metcalf is one of them, and Wales is lucky to have him.
Ivan Ilić can be seen on tour throughout Wales on the following dates: The Ffwrnes, Llanelli (October 20th); Ucheldre Centre, Holyhead (October 30th); Neuadd Dyfi, Aberdovey (November 1st). See venue websites for more, or visit www.ivancdg.com