‘Sometimes I need to say, No, f..k off’: Richard Tognetti, musician, 57: Q&A

Richard Tognetti on the joys - and challenges - of running the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Vision: Richard Tognetti

You’re performing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons in seven Australian cities this month, but not in a way audiences will recognise. What’s different about the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s version? It’s overplayed as a piece of music. So, we want to re-contextualise it with some of the wonderful music by Joseph Tawadros. When I first started working with him and arranging his music orchestrally, I realised that there were certain sequences and inflections that sounded like Vivaldi. He’s born in Egypt and music is in his DNA. And when you marry his music to Vivaldi it suddenly seems like a really good fit.

When you’re playing, what sense do you get when everything’s clicking and the ensemble is putting in a virtuoso performance? I’d have to say nothing. It’s a real Zen experience. I’m a surfer and when you get a really good wave, you come out and you feel a sense of nothing in that Zen kind of way, and so it is when you’re performing. If you’re emoting too much, you’re really detracting from what’s being transmitted.

You’re the ACO’s Artistic Director, and also its Lead Violin. Can you separate the two roles easily? Well, if you think you can be an artistic director and just be purely head down in the music, then you’re in the wrong job; there’s a lot of fundraising to do. It’s just part of the job. But it can be a distraction, and sometimes I need to gather my ability to say, “No, f..k off”. There are always issues to deal with. It’s not just about running a small, elite sports group called the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

You’ve run the ensemble since 1990, when you were in your mid-20s. Surely that must be some kind of record in Australian music? Yeah, it used to be that I was the youngest artistic director and now I’m probably going to be the oldest. I’m like the Kelly Slater of artistic directors [laughs]. The thing is that we’ve still got challenges and eventually, yes, I’ll be stepping back, but I’ll be stepping back rather than down. We’ve only just moved into our new home at Pier 2/3 in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, and this place was delayed by 20 years. If we’d moved in 20 years ago, it might have been a different story. But now there’s so much to do. It’s not like I get up in the morning and feel tired and old.

When you look back to when you left Wollongong to take up this huge opportunity, what do you think? I still think of it as very humbling. I was very young and when you’re young, you’re kind of more blasé, but you’ve also got more gunpowder. And that’s what the group needed. I had very clear ideas about where I wanted the group to go, but I wasn’t planning on staying. I remember people asking me, “What are you going to be doing in five years?” I would always answer, “Well, I won’t be here”.

What’s life like at home, away from rehearsals, meetings and performances, when you’re with your wife Satu Vänskä, who is also Principal Violin at the ACO? We have a great life together. She also surfs and we’re good at separating out the different components of our lives. It’s rare that we step on each other’s violinist toes. We’ve just worked out a good balance, and she’s strongly independent, which is something I’ve always admired. She runs the ACO Underground, which is really important to her and to me as well.

The ACO’s tour of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, with Joseph Tawadros, runs from March 11-27, visiting Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Wollongong.