The nurturing of new musical talents in Spain has been particularly effective in recent times in the field of early music for instrumentalists as well as singers. Andalucía – and notably its capital city Sevilla – has brought on an impressive range of talents, none more so than the viola da gamba player and director Fahmi Alqhai (whose range of cultural ‘influences’ extends to having lived in Syria and studied additionally in Basel and Lugano).
Co-founder of the ensemble Accademia del Piacere, Alqhai is newly becoming a Glossa artist, his first release being Rediscovering Spain: fantasías, diferencias and glosas, a modern – and seriously informed – take on mostly instrumental music from Spain across the 16th and 17th centuries. Mostly, because the album is also graced by the presence of one of Spain’s leading sopranos of today: Raquel Andueza.
Alqhai combines a rigorous approach to understanding the music from centuries past with an open-minded appreciation of other musical values; performing with flamenco cantautor Arcángel and reinterpreting the Jimi Hendrix’s Purple Haze on the viola da gamba have already appeared in a busy performing schedule which extends far beyond Sevilla – where Alqhai is also the artistic director of the FeMas early music festival – and Spain itself. Just returned from a European tour with Accademia del Piacere, we took the opportunity to talk to this exceptional gamba player, director and musical mind about his first album for Glossa and his approach to performing early music in the 21st century.
Why have you called the album Rediscovering Spain? What needs to be rediscovered about Spanish music of this epoch?
The name of the CD is making reference to our aim of recovering and rediscovering the genuine practice of composers from the 16th and 17th centuries. We are all aware of this question these days and nobody in any doubt about the existence of creating something afresh around previously-existing musical material, be it by way of improvisation, paraphrasing or re-instrumentation. For me, this is the route that any new reading needs to take, at least for the music which we have chosen for this CD. I appreciate that this way of facing up to the repertory is much more complicated for the musician, because here we have to be creative and ensure that the music is made by us completely. This is something which is not very typical in early music, and we have to address any criticisms made as true creators. I also think that there aren’t too many musicians around who are keen on this or who feel comfortable with this responsibility.
Did you employ any particular strategy for selecting both the individual pieces for Rediscovering Spain and their sequence?
My approach in principal was to devise this programme – which I did some six years ago – based on Spanish music or music directly connected with Spanish composers, progressively transforming it through the experience of concerts until it really felt to us that the pieces were becoming our own, and that they were working in concert as I wanted them to. All my music-making has passed through this filter and I believe that it is the most sensible way of securing an authentic group sound and an identity which is not then going to be lost in amongst all those CD racks in the large shops.
I have always thought that albums need to have a real sequence to them – one which effectively glues the listener to their seat from the first second on, unable to get up until the very end of the disc. In a certain way it is like delivering a speech in which all the basic elements for a good exposition need to be present. Consequently, I feel very proud when people say to me that all the CDs that we have recorded conform to this idea. Mission accomplished!
Why have you chosen to record this album in a studio setting (as opposed, for example, to a church)?
In order to be able to respond to this question it is important to begin with the assertion that there are many different forms of music which exist and some of them work well in the studio and others don’t. There is no need whatsoever to go into a studio in order to record music by Morales or Palestrina and I am saying this in the sense that such music demands other kinds of space in order for it to be able to function properly. The repertory that we are recording on this album is full of colours, details, feelings and textures (sometimes the music is very heavily laden with them), and if we don’t record it in the ideal location we may well lose something in the order of 60% of the magic which I believe that this CD possesses.
I know that there are many people who are going to start trembling only to think about this concept – early music plus recording studio – and many times they get into this state because they believe that it is more authentic to record in churches. I say that that is completely false, starting off with the fact that merely the act of recording in itself is a wonderful lie and I believe that one has to have certain notions about this glorious music and be able to use the techniques for one’s own ends. In my opinion the sound of this CD is better than all the others that we have made previously and I feel very proud about that. It has required many days of hard work and sacrifices, but in the end it has borne fruit.
What does the term “historically-informed performance practice” say to you? Does it help you with your capacity to express yourself as a musician today, or does it hinder you?
Interpretation with historical rigour is not a choice, it is an obligation. When you are endeavouring to perform early music on original instruments and in a contextualized manner there is no doubt that there exist some standards which you need to follow and which you have to have secure in the basis of your way of performing. Some people think that this makes the music more rigid, allowing you few possibilities for expression. As a consequence such people distort the little that we know about these types of music in a way which makes little sense to me. In my way of seeing things, the knowledge of the text, of the sources and of the general context open up pathways for the musician without which it would be impossible to perform this music in all its splendour. These standards provide the guidelines which enable the music – be it from one era, one composer or from one region – to sound like something concrete; they characterize the music. Yet, by that I am not wishing to say that they neuter us as creators. I see this situation rather like an enclosed pathway, but one with a margin of movement sufficiently broad for us not to be mere observers, but actual creators instead.
How would you describe the music-making environment in Sevilla today?
Sevilla has been a great centre which has nurtured – and has seen develop – great professional musicians over the years. Without doubt it is the centre for early music in Spain, both for the quality of its musicians as for all the cultural events which are devoted to it. At the moment, owing to the crisis that we are all going through, it cannot be denied that sadly this sense of activity has reduced and there are many musicians who have thought about emigrating and others who have done so, but I hope that that doesn’t cause the city to lose its connection with early music.
Do you feel yourself to be part of a new generation of musicians in Spain and, if so, what strengths do you draw from that?
I cannot deny that I am part of a generation which has known successfully how to absorb and assimilate the expertise and the efforts of its teachers, who had the immense merit of – as some of them have told me themselves – studying whilst having sight of and analyzing photos of the great reference points in music, since on this planet there was no other way of informing oneself and learning. Quite clearly, since then we have had it much easier in the sense that we have had all the possibilities and opportunities ahead of us, but one should not ignore the fact that the nowadays market is a thousand times more complicated than it was in the past.
In your solo performances on the viola da gamba you are as likely to play music influenced by Jimi Hendrix or Joe Satriani as much as the scores of Marin Marais or Gaspar Sanz. In recording a new solo programme recently for Glossa what are you endeavouring to say about the emotional possibilities available from the viola da gamba?
I am only trying to ensure that the viola da gamba does not become a dead instrument: it is not a museum instrument to be used by people dressing themselves up in wigs and such like. The viola is full of possibilities and qualities of richness which can be developed much further than by only playing the music of Bach or Forqueray, and in this sense with this future CD I am going to try and create a portrait of the viola from its origins up to what it can become. In my case this is an obligation for me with the instrument, and I will never be able to feel reassured and fulfilled if I do not truly feel that the instrument I am playing exists well outside the display cabinets.
MARK WIGGINS© 2013 Note 1 Music / Glossa Music photographs taken during the recording sessions of Rediscovering Spain