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A rockstar violinist - and a lot of push-ups · The Front

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  Speaker 1: Thirty push ups, and the whole shipbanks thirty push ups.
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  Speaker 1: We have to do thirty pushups.
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  Speaker 2: From the Australian. This is the weekend edition of the Front.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Claire Harvey. We get to do the craziest things
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  Speaker 2: in journalism, fly around in helicopters, meet incredible people. It
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  Speaker 2: makes up for all the times we get doors slammed
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  Speaker 2: in our faces, which, if I'm being honest, is all
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  Speaker 2: part of the adventure too. Today our chief Culture Correspondent,
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  Speaker 2: Tim Douglas is here to tell us all about one
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  Speaker 2: of those great adventures. Tim Douglas is the Australian's chief
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  Speaker 2: Culture correspondent, and of course that means he's a night now.
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  Speaker 2: He has to go to premieres and all sorts of
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  Speaker 2: dazzling events late at night.
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  Speaker 3: Tim, You're not the kind of guy I.
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  Speaker 2: Would expect to be getting up at three o'clock on
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  Speaker 2: a Friday morning for any kind of cultural event.
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  Speaker 3: What was going on last Friday?
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  Speaker 1: It's a tough job sometimes, Claire. Look, I got the
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  Speaker 1: three in the morning to get an into the city.
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  Speaker 1: I live down the South Coast and I came into
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  Speaker 1: the city to the Opera House to meet Australian Chamber
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  Speaker 1: orchestras artistic director and maestro Richard Tognetti, and we met
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  Speaker 1: at stage door because we were there to climb the
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  Speaker 1: sales of the Sydney Opera House.
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  Speaker 2: I'm dying to know about the climb, but first I've
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  Speaker 2: got to say, this must be the luckiest uber driver
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  Speaker 2: in Australia. This must have been a hell of an
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  Speaker 2: uber bill.
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  Speaker 1: All of an uber bill. Don't tell the managing editor,
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  Speaker 1: he'll find out soon enough. So Richard Tongnedti, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is our most celebrated classical musician, internationally lauded superstar violinist.
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  Speaker 1: He is the artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
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  Speaker 1: He has made a name for himself as someone who
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  Speaker 1: has had one of the longest arts tenor ships in
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  Speaker 1: the world. He has been for thirty five years the
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  Speaker 1: boss of that orchestra and started at very humble beginnings
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  Speaker 1: as a boyfriend Wollongong who played his first gig at
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  Speaker 1: the Opera House at the age of eleven. So the
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  Speaker 1: plan was, let's get Richard up on top of the
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  Speaker 1: sales playing his seventeen forty three Gwinery violin worth fifteen
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  Speaker 1: million dollars at dawn as the sun rises. We shoot
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  Speaker 1: it with a drone. We shoot it with a videographer.
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  Speaker 1: I asked him some pretty tough questions and we have
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  Speaker 1: a great time up there. Obviously, we weren't allowed to
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  Speaker 1: take that violin. It's a very special instrument, not only
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  Speaker 1: to Richard but to the world, and it's one of
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  Speaker 1: the world's rarest and most important violins. We took to
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  Speaker 1: the top of the sales what Richard called a cheapie,
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  Speaker 1: which was still being strung in the border of the
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  Speaker 1: opera house when we had our safety briefing on our
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  Speaker 1: way up. In fact, we had to do a ninety
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  Speaker 1: minute stress test the week before at an opera house
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  Speaker 1: nominated physio in the city, which was actually more intense
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  Speaker 1: than it probably sound, certainly more intense than the climb
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  Speaker 1: was itself.
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  Speaker 2: And so the stress test, just pausing was to make
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  Speaker 2: sure you weren't going to have a heart attack up there,
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  Speaker 2: I suspect.
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  Speaker 3: So yes.
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  Speaker 1: We had to squeeze ourselves through various obstacles and do
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  Speaker 1: a jump test and a two minute squat test, and
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  Speaker 1: thirty push ups, and the whole she banks thirty push ups.
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  Speaker 1: We had to do thirty that I do it on
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  Speaker 1: your knees, Well, you could do it on your knees.
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  Speaker 1: I mean we got through it, and I mean Richard
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  Speaker 1: of course is well known for his surfing, so he
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  Speaker 1: has no problem with these sort of things. He's turned
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  Speaker 1: sixty in August. But of course he's super fit, super energetic.
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  Speaker 1: I was happy he said yes, because he's the perfect
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  Speaker 1: candidate for that big operation.
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  Speaker 2: The Opera House is, of course, our most famous cultural
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  Speaker 2: institution in terms of buildings. I presume you got to
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  Speaker 2: see all sorts of cool back corridors and stairwells that
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  Speaker 2: the general public doesn't usually get to see.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. The walk itself is well, it's not
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  Speaker 1: a walk so much as it is a crawl. At points.
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  Speaker 1: You enter through these clandeston doors somewhere in the Opera
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  Speaker 1: House and literally kind of pull ourselves into this dark cavern.
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  Speaker 1: And as we crawled in there, Richard said, once more
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  Speaker 1: onto the death cave. You know. He dragged himself into
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  Speaker 1: this hole and disappeared, and we passed the violin through
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  Speaker 1: and followed him up. It's quite a serious climb, especially
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  Speaker 1: when we get to the A one sale, which is
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  Speaker 1: the highest one sixty seven meters above sea level, the
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  Speaker 1: equivalent of twenty two stories, and you go through all
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  Speaker 1: these tight little crawl spaces and then there's probably thirty
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  Speaker 1: odd meters of ladders straight up that you pull yourself up,
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  Speaker 1: and you arrive at a concrete ceiling in this sort
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  Speaker 1: of tombed area, and Dean, the operations manager, hauls open
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  Speaker 1: the hatch and air and light streams into this area
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  Speaker 1: and it's like a freshly discovered Egyptian You know, these
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  Speaker 1: scrawls appear on the walls of the Opera House of
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  Speaker 1: those who come before, the people that built this thing,
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  Speaker 1: you know, was here. Dazza and Shazza had a special
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  Speaker 1: moment up there, according to the walls, you know, these
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  Speaker 1: phallic hieroglyphs.
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  Speaker 3: You sent me a photo of that.
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  Speaker 2: What is it with Australians They have to draw a
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  Speaker 2: penis on any sort of flat surface.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's really interesting, Claire, because it's the
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  Speaker 1: apotheosis of cultural endeavor in this country, the opera House
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  Speaker 1: to play there, to be there, and yet it was
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  Speaker 1: built by working class Australians, and so I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a really special part of that building that what we
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  Speaker 1: see is this great, beautiful symbol of the arts, and
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  Speaker 1: yet inside we see who built it and what care
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  Speaker 1: and what love those people had for it too.
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  Speaker 3: Did you feel a sense of vertigo or that you
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  Speaker 3: were up very high?
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  Speaker 1: That's funny. I didn't feel it until I saw the
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  Speaker 1: drone footage, which is just incredible because we look like
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  Speaker 1: ants on top of these huge shells overlooking the harbor.
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  Speaker 1: At the time, I mean to be honest, You're there
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  Speaker 1: with Richard and he's got this violin and he's playing
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  Speaker 1: this bark partita note perfect.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: The really interesting thing too, was that as Richard played
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  Speaker 1: these notes, these are runners in lurid budget smugglers were
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  Speaker 1: going around the base of the opera house and one
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  Speaker 1: of them seemed to hear what was happening and kind
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  Speaker 1: of looked up and clocked Richard standing at the apex
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  Speaker 1: of this sale. And you know, Richard continued to play it.
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  Speaker 1: And Richard said, at the time, there's no possible way
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  Speaker 1: they can hear. It is a southeaster blowing and just
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  Speaker 1: the physics of it. Surely they couldn't hear him playing
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  Speaker 1: from there. But we spoke to people afterwards and they
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  Speaker 1: could hear, and they were listening, and so I thought
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  Speaker 1: that was a really interesting moment that, you know, Richard's
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  Speaker 1: had a forty nine year personal relationship with that building
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  Speaker 1: as one of the most democratic, working class rooted musicians
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  Speaker 1: in this country. I thought it was just a lovely
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  Speaker 1: thing for him to be playing for the people, which
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  Speaker 1: is what he loves to do.
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  Speaker 3: It is amazing.
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  Speaker 2: I mean that building is full of hidden joys and miracles.
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  Speaker 2: And if one of them is that the child surfaces
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  Speaker 2: reflect music downwards from on top of the sales, I mean.
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  Speaker 3: How magical.
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  Speaker 1: Quite magical.
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  Speaker 3: Coming up.
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  Speaker 2: Why the Australian Chamber Orchestra is so important and so different?
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  Speaker 2: For this episode of the Front, our friends at the
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  Speaker 2: Australian Chamber Orchestra gave us permission to play you some
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  Speaker 2: of their music. This is Richard Tonietti and the ACO
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  Speaker 2: forming Beethoven's Violin Concerto third Movement in a just released
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  Speaker 2: track from the forthcoming album Brahms and Beethoven. The Australian
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  Speaker 2: Chamber Orchestra is a fine arts institution that crosses.
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  Speaker 3: Over to popular culture.
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  Speaker 2: Wichard Tonietti and the ACO have won seven ARIA Awards.
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  Speaker 1: It was founded in nineteen seventy five by John Painter Cellist,
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  Speaker 1: very well regarded musician at the time, and was created
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  Speaker 1: against the backdrop of the Whitlam government and that great
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  Speaker 1: push in the early seventies to focus on arts. You know,
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  Speaker 1: of course blue Poles coming to existence. John Belle at
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  Speaker 1: Nimrod Theater started making new and interesting artistic works. It
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  Speaker 1: was so much happening in the cultural scene. Television had
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  Speaker 1: begun to really make inroads into the Australian culture sector,
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  Speaker 1: into Australian homes and into our lives, and so this
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  Speaker 1: was an opportunity to build a different kind of orchestra
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  Speaker 1: to the you know, the huge symphonic, philharmonic sort of
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  Speaker 1: orchestras that most countries had. Its first concert happened on
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  Speaker 1: November twenty one, nineteen seventy five, and there was a
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  Speaker 1: heading on a review in the Sydney Morning Herald the
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  Speaker 1: following day that said welcome to whatever it is, which
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  Speaker 1: basically said we don't know what this is, and so
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  Speaker 1: it had a kind of a nervous and cautious gestation
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  Speaker 1: in this country. Richard Tonnetti at the time was ten
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  Speaker 1: years old. A year later he would perform his first
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  Speaker 1: show at the Sydney Opera House at an a Stedford playing
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  Speaker 1: a Corelli number that he says in our Piece on
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  Speaker 1: the Weekend was probably not very good. Five years after that,
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  Speaker 1: as a six year old, he made his first casual
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  Speaker 1: appearance with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. An amazing sort of
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  Speaker 1: ascendency for a young man. He has spent a career
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  Speaker 1: engaging and collaborating with rock stars and dance companies and
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  Speaker 1: comedians and very diverse areas of the cultural scene, and
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  Speaker 1: I think that's what makes it so interesting. In the
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  Speaker 1: last few years they've really ventured into big budget filmmaking,
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  Speaker 1: The Mountain and the Reef. Jennifer Peden directed films One
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  Speaker 1: of the Mountain narrated by Willem Dafoe, a company with
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  Speaker 1: chamber music, and it's that radical notion that's at the
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  Speaker 1: heart of what Tanietti and this amazing orchestra does.
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  Speaker 2: He taught Russell Crowe to play the violin for one
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  Speaker 2: of my favorite films. This is a bit cheesy, but
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  Speaker 2: I do love it.
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  Speaker 3: It's Master and Commander.
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  Speaker 2: The Far Side of the World, directed by Peter Weier,
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  Speaker 2: an adaptation of the famous books by Patrick O'Brien and
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  Speaker 2: Russell Crowe plays the swashbuckling naval commander who plays the
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  Speaker 2: violin with his friend. It's a beautiful moment. Toniette's clearly
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  Speaker 2: an evangelist for the violin. He's obviously a gifted teacher.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you know who knew Russell grow could play.
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  Speaker 2: He's also managed to make sure that the aco is
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  Speaker 2: not reliant on government funding, hasn't He He's very conscious
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  Speaker 2: of the need for it to sell tickets. That's right.
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  Speaker 1: I mean I would say he would like more funding,
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  Speaker 1: and he would like more political investment in what they
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  Speaker 1: do and more acknowledgment. But yeah, you're right. I mean
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  Speaker 1: only nine percent of their overall operating budget comes from
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  Speaker 1: government funding. This is a company that raises ten to
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  Speaker 1: eleven million dollars in ticket sales every year. The rest
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  Speaker 1: is from sponsorship and philanthropic endeavor, which is a pretty
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  Speaker 1: remarkable number for a pretty small in the scheme of
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  Speaker 1: things cultural organization.
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  Speaker 2: Now, I don't want you to give away any secrets,
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  Speaker 2: but if I climbed the opera house this week, would
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  Speaker 2: I find the initials TD or it scrawled on a
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  Speaker 2: wall somewhere?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I would say I would never be so sacrilegious
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  Speaker 1: as to put my poultry initials inside one of the
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  Speaker 1: great cultural landmarks of the world. Richard, from what I saw,
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  Speaker 1: didn't go there either, but there was a great line
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  Speaker 1: on you spoke about Master and Commander, and of course
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  Speaker 1: Tonetti wrote the score for that film, among many others.
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  Speaker 1: But just before we exited the hatch, there was a
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  Speaker 1: note from a Felicity and she was invoking a Leonard
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  Speaker 1: Cohen quote from one of his poems that says, if
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  Speaker 1: you don't become the ocean, you'll be seasick every day.
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  Speaker 1: And he's spoken a little bit about how music and
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  Speaker 1: the ocean a similar musical phrasing say is similar to
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  Speaker 1: the swell of the ocean. So he's very conscious. I
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  Speaker 1: think of I'm not sounding like too much of a
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  Speaker 1: tox when it comes to his inspirations, but certainly the
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  Speaker 1: ocean is a really important part of his life.
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  Speaker 2: Tim Douglas is The Australian's chief culture correspondent. Culture in
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: the Weekend Australian is the home of all the best
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: journalism about the arts and entertainment.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Pick up the paper at.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Your local shop for the touchy feely joy of a
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: purely analog experience, or check out all our experts anytime
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: at the Australian dot com dot au slash culture. This
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  Speaker 2: episode of the Front was produced and presented by me
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  Speaker 2: Claire Harvey and edited by Tiffany Dimack. Thanks for joining
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: us on the Front this week. Our team also includes
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Kristin Amiot, Lea Semagloo, Josh Burton, Stephanie Kombs and Jasper Leek,
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  Speaker 2: who wrote and performed are theme music.