Alisa Weilerstein performs Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra alongside a programme of Mozart and Tchaikovsky at Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 19 May, 7.30pm.

Catch up with the group as they answer questions about life inside and outside the music world.

You’ve been working together as an ensemble for quite a while now, what has been the highlight of your career so far?

Andrew: It was probably our first ever performance at Wigmore Hall. Our reception brought me very close to blubbing!

Amos: We’re lucky enough to have had lots of highlights! Our Wigmore Hall début is definitely up there, but doing a masterclass and recital at the Juilliard School in NYC was great too (with a great meal after which also sticks in the memory…)

Two composers have commissioned works for the concert (Andrew Hamilton and Dan Jenkins). What challenges/rewards has each new commission presented you with?

Amos: Andrew’s piece looks simple on paper, but that’s highly deceptive! It’s completely original and full of emotion, and the challenge lies in achieving accuracy and pathos at the same time. 

Niall: It’s always fun deconstructing a new piece. Usually new pieces look fantastically difficult and prove to be slightly easier than expected. The Hamilton was the opposite! It looked very simple at first sight and in fact proved to be quite difficult.

Dave: Without giving the game away, the Jenkins has a specific set of challenges centred around being extrovert, which has a different appeal to different members of the group. As in each new commission case we have had over the years, there is an inner satisfaction that we are able to help contribute to what is a relatively meagre repertory.

If you could commission a piece for Onyx from any one great composer of the past, who would it be?

Andrew: Beethoven! If we could have anything like the late string quartets, brass quintet as a medium would be so much more mainstream!

Niall: Well it’s a difficult because how can one imagine how Brahms or Beethoven would have written for that line up? I’d like to try a quintet by Haydn though – very difficult tuba parts I should think!

Great answers! Do you think anything is lost or gained from arranging these classic works from the repertory for brass ensemble?

David: The purists will say a lot has been lost but I would encourage them to wake up and smell the coffee! All the great composers, Bach especially, were happy to rearrange their music. If it means it appears in the public domain more often then it has to be in everyone’s interests.

For this project you are teaming up with the baritone Mark Stone. How would you describe Mark’s voice in one word?

David: I’d say Velvety…

Niall: Treacle?

Amos: Hmm. Bovril! (warm, smooth and meaty!)

So if you could do karaoke with Mark Stone, what would you sing?

Amos: It would be ignominious, but probably Burt Bacharach’s “Close to you”…

David: I’d have to go for “How Deep is Your Love” – the Bee Gees version.

That sounds like a great future collaboration! So do you guys have any strange pre/post-performance rituals that you go through?

David: We strip our clothes off and dance around a fire chanting to the Greek Gods of music. No that is a lie. We just relax and chat usually, taking the Mick out of ourselves and each other.

I was worried for a moment there, but it sounds fun! So when the concerts end and you get time off, what hobbies do you have outside of music?

Andrew: I enjoy cycling and Real Ale (not any old beer and certainly not mass produced lager!)

David: Well, trying to raise two children and see as much of my family as possible, combined with tuba playing, does not leave much time for other stuff. But when there is more time, I hope to go to the theatre a bit more. I love it.

What is your greatest fear?

Andrew: Leaving the bell section or mouthpiece of my horn at home…

Amos: My greatest fear is that I will never be able to persuade John Adams to write us a piece!

Niall: Probably watching an entire episode of Coronation Street!

Where do you see yourselves as an ensemble in 10 years time?

Amos: World domination! 

David: Yes, and hopefully just chugging away at what we do best. Digging out new repertoire and performing it in a non gimmicky, but informative way

Ok my final question. What is your favourite ever piece of music?

Amos: Aaargh. I’m going to have to say ‘Daphnis and Chlöe’.

Niall: I don’t have one, and if I did it would change every week. But I know you’re simply dying for an answer so I’m going to say ‘Rite of Spring’!

For more information about Onyx, have a look at their website www.onyxbrass.co.uk, and catch a glimpse of their work below in a clip from their recent tour to Ireland.

Steve Reich said of David’s work: “ ‘Morning’. Integration of voice with string quartet beautifully done – Very honest stuff”.

We catch up with David ahead of the concert.

What are you particularly looking forward to about your forthcoming concert at Southbank Centre?
It’s been a few years since I had something played here, it will be good to return as I love the atmosphere – it’s very relaxed and ‘human’. As a composer I suppose I should say I’m looking forward to the performance itself. However, it can be rather stressful to be honest, being stuck in the stalls while others play, as it’s out of one’s hands, so I’m looking forward to it being over and getting back to work on my new piece – I much prefer composing to having concerts, although I’m extremely pleased to be having them of course!

Is there a piece of music you would pick out as one of the ‘best’ works ever written?
Well there are the obvious ones by the big three composers, discussed a great deal by others I expect, so I’ll avoid those and say Sibelius’ 5th Symphony – What to say about it though? – too much, it speaks for itself really, but in brief: such unbelievably perfect structure plus its powerful and somehow inevitable geometry across time – music that tells you something/everything about spacetime that cannot be even slightly approached by using language – also his 7th Symphony of course, plus a great number of John Dowland’s lute songs, clearly in the same class as Schubert’s, but a lot closer to home for me; Lutoslawski’s 4th symphony also – transcendent!

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?
Time travel obviously – facing forward of course! I would like to have a chat for a few hours with someone from 15,000-20,000 years in the future (I’d have to bring an army of linguists and philologists with me of course – he/she/it would have to bring historians too so we could understand each other). It would need to be someone who is very well-informed on the then-current scientific, artistic and ethical developments. I would risk blowing a mind-fuse for this.

If you could programme your ideal Southbank Centre show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?
I’d get Bach to come and improvise on the organ! If he was busy that day I’d ask Dowland to come and play the lute.

What is the most played piece of music on your mp3 player or in your CD collection?
I only really listen to vinyl these days and I have no mp3 player as I can’t listen to music that much as it distracts from composing, so I never bought one. So, most-played? Glenn Gould’s record of Byrd and Gibbons, (I’ve actually got two copies of this so when the first wears down I have a spare) followed by Beecham’s Sibelius’ 7th (only one copy of this unfortunately – hence its 2nd place).

Do you have any strange rituals you carry out before or after you perform?
I’ve not performed for many years so not as such. However, before a performance of my stuff I tend to worry a lot and drink a couple of beers to be quite honest.

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Conductor Claudio Abbado and pianist Maurizio Pollini were the big name winners on a night that celebrated revelatory live music making. Pianist Mitsuko Uchida was presented with the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, the society’s (and one of classical music’s) highest honours. Wins for composer Jonathan Harvey and cellist Oliver Coates made it a strong night for contemporary classical music.

“Still in his twenties, cellist Oliver Coates receives the award for diverse and virtuosic performances with ensembles including Aurora Orchestra, London Contemporary Orchestra and London Sinfonietta. Meanwhile, the playing and eclectic programming of his Harmonic Series has drawn a new classical audience to the Southbank Centre, where he is artist-in-residence.”

 Find out more about Oliver Coates’s residency at Southbank Centre

On Tuesday 15 May, 7.30pm at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall you can hear him perform a recital of music by Haydn, Brahms & Chopin, alongside an entertaining work by the acclaimed Austrian composer Thomas Larcher.

Here he reveals a little more of what makes him tick….

What do you fear the most and why?
Inability to do what is important to me.

Which mobile number do you call the most?
My girlfriend Rachel.

What ­or where­ is perfection?
In a cold place.

Who is your favourite hero from fiction (book/comic/film/opera) ­ and why?
To name two: Captain Bluebear (hero from a wonderfully witty children´s book by German author Walter Moers) and Papageno for his good-hearted direct link to nature and his instincts, not really caring much about the wisdom of the world. In films I like melancholic anti-heros, like in Cinema Paradiso for example.

What’s your favourite ritual?
Putting my daughter Isabelle to bed and reading her a bedtime story.

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?
Playing the violin, being a good tennis player and being able to ski.

Tell us about a special memory you have of Southbank Centre?
Playing Brahms 1st piano concerto with the Philharmonia during the time when I first met my girlfriend who was the principal viola then.

If you could programme your ideal Southbank Centre show, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?
The re-united string quartet of Haydn and Dittersdorf (Violins), Mozart (Viola) and Vanhal (Cello).

What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Sounds easy and cliché, but can cause major turbulence and is still the most important lesson: Listen to your heart.

What is the most played piece of music on your MP3 player or in your CD collection?
To be honest, and I know this is embarrassing, but what can you do ?  Probably some pop song from my childhood, possibly by Billy Joel or Supertramp, as that kind of music is mostly on when I go for a run.

Nicholas Collon joins the ensemble on Saturday 12 May, 7.30pm at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, for a programme of  George Benjamin and Ligeti, as part of Jubilation: the music of George Benjamin.

Here’s a selection of his answers from the chat…

Q: Fantastic to see Nick working with the London Sinfonietta again! I’d be interested to know whether the preparations he makes for conducting contemporary music are different to those for ‘standard ‘ repertoire?

A: I broadly treat my preparation of all scores and all music the same. Be it Beethoven or a totally new piece, I try to imagine I’m looking at it for the first time, even if it’s a piece everyone knows. Of course, some contemporary music takes a lot of working out; a piece like George Benjamin’s Antara is very complicated, and there are some things that the score can’t even tell you, such as what sounds the keyboards will produce. Equally, I’ve just spent all morning learning Ligeti’s Melodien, which starts off as unintelligble (it’s all in handwriting), and slowly becomes lucid.

Q: What made you decide to become a conductor and how did you get into the work?

A:  I have no idea what made me want to be a conductor. I think I have done since I was very little. I remember playing the violin in a youth orchestra aged 10, and I kept on turning round to look at the horns. I’ve just fulfilled my desire to be facing the other way – it’s much more fun!

Q: What excites you about contemporary music?

A: I love the imagination that you have to bring to a score to take it off the page, and the sense of daring and adventure in performance. There’s something thrilling about creating new sounds together with an ensemble, and I find the detail that is necessary in preparing a contemporary score and then realising that, rewarding.

Q: I’m new to the music of George Benjamin and coming to the London Sinfonietta concert in May. Do you have a favourite Benjamin work you’d recommend I listen to before the concert?

A: Hope you enjoy the concert! I’m a viola player, so I’m going to say Viola, Viola. It’s really wonderful. All his music is so imaginative. He said to me the other day that a composer’s job is to write the most beautiful music imaginable.

Q: And finally, what other plans have you got coming up?

A: I’m going to Munich next week for a nice but unusual programme with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, then back for the London Sinfonietta concert, and then I’m working with BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for some Strauss and the UK premiere of Philip Glass’ Sixth Symphony. So a busy few weeks. And a lot of time spent learning Ligeti and Benjamin! See you on the 12th May!

In an increasingly hectic musical world, in which young musicians need to promote themselves as well as practise and perform, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (BBT) has for nearly a decade offered a supportive shoulder to young international talent. The Trust, which celebrates its tenth birthday with a major series in the International Chamber Music Season in May 2013, is not merely a source of funds for the recipients of its awards. BBT also offers a wide network of support for its ever growing family of musicians.

The outstanding young Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili is a prime example of the wide-ranging benefits of a relationship with the Trust. ‘When you’re at the beginning of a career, you need some support; sometimes you don’t even have time to think about what is actually needed to [develop] yourself,’ says the 2010 award winner. For Buniatishvili, some of this support came in the form of wise words of advice from Dame Mitsuko Uchida, a BBT trustee. ‘She told me it is important not to play too much, to know how many concerts you are playing and for what reason. She’s afraid that we young people are doing too much and we don’t have time to think, actually, what we want to develop in our professional life.’ Similar encouragement throughout her time with BBT, says Buniatishvili, was ‘really very human, and very warm’.

Another source of interaction for BBT award winners is the opportunity to play chamber music together. As a soloist, Buniatishvili has referred affectionately to the piano as a ‘symbol of musical solitude’, and so it seems fitting that she follows the Beethoven string trio with two solo pieces by Chopin. She chose Ballade No.4 because she knew Uchida had heard, and liked, her performance of it, while Uchida herself suggested the Scherzo No.3.

But while for her the piano’s soul is solitary, Buniatishvili also enjoys the ‘festive, joyful character’ of playing chamber music. She has not performed previously with her collaborators this evening, but is ‘really excited’ to have had three days of rehearsals in Italy ahead of the concert, arranged by BBT. ‘Usually we wouldn’t have this kind of luxury, to have this much time to rehearse,’ she observes. ‘It’s nice to have time to rehearse and relax at the same time.’

The work the quartet has been rehearsing is of course Brahms’ first piano quartet, and Buniatishvili is particularly looking forward to the boisterous, triumphant “Hungarian-style” finale. ‘Everything related with the Hungarian style is a huge pleasure to play,’ she says with reference to her recent recording of Liszt’s piano music. ‘For me, this style, the Hungarian blood, it just works.’ Recounting an earlier performance of the Brahms, she remembers that in the finale she ‘just had no limits any more, and this energetic challenge that we had between musicians towards the end of the piece was something that makes life more exciting.’

Tim Woodall© 2012

Khatia Buniatishvili is joined by Viviane Hagner, Lawrence Power and Christian Poltéra for a concert introduced by Mitsuko Uchida on Friday 4 May, 7pm at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

How are you preparing for your forthcoming performance at Southbank Centre, and what are you particularly looking forward to about it?
I am particularly looking forward to working with the young vibrant Corinthian Chamber Orchestra. They are so responsive and always eager to play to the highest standard. The programme couples my favourite composers – Berlioz and Elgar, with one of the finest pianists in Masa I have worked with. Who could ask for more? I have conducted the First Symphony quite a few times but I always have a fresh look at the score; I particularly listen to Elgar’s own performance and that of my teacher Sir Adrian Boult.

Is there a piece of music you would pick out as one of the ‘best’ works ever written?
I would rate Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis as one of the best works ever written. I have yet to conduct it, though it’s a satisfying work for an even older man to plumb the depths of.

Is there a work that is for you, emotionally, especially important?
Emotionally I am deeply emotionally attached to Elgar: his foibles, his moods, his difficulties, and his inferiority complex. I could not do without his Oratorio, the Apostles. At the end the Heavens open and the power and majesty of the music are for me spiritually overwhelming.

Who has been the most artistically influential person you’ve encountered?
There have been many significant influences on my life, including my wonderful English teacher at school, Peter Hewett, playing and singing for Benjamin Britten, knowing and working for Michael Tippett, and studying with Boult. The most artistically influential individual however has to be Sir Colin Davis. He has been a sheer inspiration all my life, from my father playing for him in the Ipswich Orchestra in 1953 to my first Prom in ‘66, and later working for him and absorbing his musical wisdom.

Which artist (living or dead) would you love to have dinner with?
I would love to have had dinner with Berlioz, though Haydn would be more fun, as would Peter Ustinov!

If you could programme your ideal Southbank Centre concert, which artists (living or dead) would you bring together?
My ideal programme would undoubtedly be Bruckner’s 8th Symphony conducted by Karl Bohm with the Vienna Phiharmonic!

What is the most played piece of music on your mp3 player or in your CD collection?
With such a vast collection it’s hard to select individual works. Probably it would be Backaus and Bohm’s performance of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto. None of my own performances, that’s for sure! I do very frequently listen to Wagner’s operas too.

Do you have any strange rituals you carry out before or after you perform?
I do pray before a concert for some spiritual guidance for the performance. It is very easy to get wrapped in your own ego and so I need to quietly remind myself that I am the lucky servant of the composer. A conductor is there to help the players and to ensure that the audience not only enjoy but get something out of the music. After a concert when I get home I always list the concert, band and date in the front of my score – it’s a wonderful record. In big letters will be the pride and pleasure and honour of working with this fine, brilliantly organised and devoted group of talented musicians. It’s all in C major for me – they’ll have all the notes!

What other talent or skill would you like to possess?
Oh, I would love to be able to swim!

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Listen to the Quintet on ABC Radio in Sydney, broadcast on Monday 16 April 2012.

‘It is rare to find a musician who, on his debut recording, is already confirming his stature as one of best ones in his field… Haddad’s complete mastery of the instrument—with a poetic personal musical language and natural sense of openness— organically placing it into new genres such as chamber jazz, flamenco and contemporary music…’ Eyal Hareuveni, All About Jazz.com

On this brilliantly realised debut… Attab Haddad gives a masterclass in the instrument’s possibilities..’ Neil Spencer, The Guardian