Versatile violinist Thomas Gould talks to Christopher Morley about jazz, busking and performing in Birmingham.
Early last month Thomas Gould was busking at a station on the London Underground, the sound of his violin resonating around the subways. Only a few weeks before that, he was leading the Britten Sinfonia in a memorable concert at Birmingham Town Hall, celebrating the beginning of Benjamin Britten’s centenary year.
His stint at the tube station was an attempt to recreate the famous busking experiment where one of the world’s greatest violinists Joshua Bell treating unsuspecting commuters on the Washington Metro system to a virtuoso performance.
On that occasion just seven out of 1,097 people who passed him stopped to listen for more than a minute. He earned $32 and a few cents, not enough to get a ticket to most of Bell’s gigs.
“London’s Evening Standard wanted to repeat the famous Washington Post experiment,” says Thom. “But this time in a London underground station.
“I played classical repertoire for about 45 minutes at Westminster tube station for the tourists and politicians, with no special treatment and no heating. Predictably, a lot of people rushed past on their business, but a pleasing number stopped to listen and a decent sum of money was raised for the Evening Standard’s Dispossessed Fund. I’m not sure that it particularly proved anything about classical music or our listening habits, but it was certainly good fun.”
This enterprise is just one example of Thom’s versatility. Not only is he a renowned classical violinist, leading various orchestras as well as performing as soloist with many others, he is also a member of Limelight, an ensemble which presents live classical music in a rock n’ roll setting. He is also a member of the swing band Man Overboard, performing at jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Pizza Express Jazz Club, and The Vortex.
He finds it difficult to pin himself down to one genre, as he explains.
“I actually had a pretty straight classical training as a violinist – Bach, Beethoven and Brahms – but I got into jazz thanks to an inspirational teacher at school when I was 13, and began playing a lot of jazz, drums and piano, and listening to jazz all the time.
“ It was much later that I began to apply this knowledge to the violin, having always – wrongly – thought that the violin wasn’t a jazz instrument. Now I’m in the luxurious position of being able to get up and jam at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club having just played a recital at Wigmore Hall. But I’m definitely a classical violinist first and foremost.
“I think my classical playing has benefited massively from working with musicians outside classical music. If I wrote a list of great musicians I’ve been lucky enough to work with the list would include Brad Mehldau and Radiohead as well as more expected names like Sir Mark Elder and Sir Colin Davis. I think as long as I continue to be inspired by other genres then I will continue to be a genre-crossing violinist.”
Thomas Gould recently recorded for Decca Classics the concerto Seeing is Believing by Nico Muhly, with the Aurora Orchestra. The unique feature of this work is that it is composed for six-string electric violin (the conventional acoustic violin has only four). He explains how he switches from a “normal” violin to a six-string one, and its implications for the fingering of notes.
“It’s confusing at first... it took me months to stop sounding like a total beginner after I first got my six-string electric violin. It’s actually the bowing that is more of a problem than the fingering – an electric violin responds in a completely different way to pressure than a normal acoustic one, so you have to learn to play with a lighter bow arm. I’m glad I persevered though, because I got to play my electric violin with the LA Phil at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles last October – that was a huge buzz (no pun intended).”
More conventionally, Thom enjoys playing chamber music.
“Whenever possible,” he explains. “I’m playing quartets with my violinist sister Clio Gould and her husband Jonathan Morton, another violinist, at a chamber festival called Plush in Dorset in June. A real family affair. I also play regularly with the two London orchestras that I lead – Aurora and Britten Sinfonia – and my old string quartet from student days, the Artea Quartet, recently had a reunion concert after nearly eight years apart at the Conway Hall in London. “
And Thom has a heartwarming eulogy to Birmingham, where he will be playing on Sunday, performing the Meditation from Masse and Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending with the London Concert Orchestra conducted by Anthony Inglis.
“I always look forward to playing in Birmingham,” he declares. “As well as having fantastic venues in the Symphony and Town Halls, I’ve given many concerts over the years in Sutton Coldfield Town Hall.”
* Thomas Gould performs with the London Concert Orchestra at Symphony Hall on Sunday (3pm). Details on 0121 780 3333.
