ARTIST PLAYLIST: Matthew Tsalidis – Violinist

To help you learn about some of our musicians, we’re asking some of them to submit their ‘playlist’. Today, we hear from Matthew Tsalidis, one of Steel City Strings’ violinists.

Toss the Feathers (trad.)
The Corrs
Forgiven Not Forgotten

Growing up in the 90’s, I was a huge fan of The Corrs.

‘Toss the Feathers’ is track 9 on the band’s debut album, ‘Forgiven Not Forgotten’.

This upbeat traditional Irish tune was the piece that made me want to play the violin.

I’m still a huge fan of The Corrs, and they’ve remained my favourite band ever since.

If you want good quality pop, their music is ‘irresistible’!

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 by Tchaikovsky
III. Finale, allegro vivacissimo
Boris Belkin, violin
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
New Philharmonia Orchestra

Such a violinist, right?!

This was the first time I heard violin in the context of classical music (with this recording also!).

I used to get $20 pocket money each week and when I went into a CD shop on my own asking where the classical section was, I think the worker behind the counter was a bit taken aback when someone so young was asking.

The shop no longer exists, but it was located across from the Wesley Uniting Church in Wollongong Mall (interestingly, I’ve played many recitals there now – poetic, right?).

This was the first ever classical CD I bought – it was a ‘best of Tchaikovsky’ CD, by the record label Eloquence.

At the time, I hadn’t had a teacher, but when I heard this, I knew I couldn’t learn to do that on my own, and not long thereafter I started getting regular lessons with a teacher locally.

Explosive by Tonci Huljic
as performed by the classical-crossover string quartet BOND from their album ‘Classified’

A guilty pleasure, absolutely!

When I was in high school, I started drifting into other styles of music (outside of classical) including film music and more contemporary things.

BOND were one such group, and I loved this song. It was used as the theme for Australia’s coverage of the 2004 Athens Olympics. I remember it passing on TV lots thinking “wow, my instrument is so versatile!”

I used to get teased at school for liking the band and their music, but I’m so not ashamed to admit that I liked their music, and still do! They play a massive part in bringing the classical genre to the masses, presented in a very accessible way. This is a huge service to classical music, truly.

I’ve had the opportunity to play the piece at many events (with two of my closest friends in Q Strings, who I met whilst playing in Bluescope Steel Youth Orchestra together!) and it always turns heads and goes down well – it’s also so much fun to play!

Theme from Schindler’s List by John Williams
Janine Jansen, violin
Barry Goldsworth, conductor
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

I had started learning this piece when I did my fifth grade AMEB violin exam in high school whilst at Wollongong High (which is a performing arts high school). In my final year of school, I played this piece to an audience of more than 500 people at an annual music night concert.

I’ve called upon mother dearest who recalls this better than me, and here’s what she says:

“The room was just totally quiet. The students, parents, and teachers were all sitting down, and a quietness came over the room when Matthew started playing. You could hear a pin drop. Everyone was attentive, and the performance was excellent. Everybody just clapped with so much enthusiasm. I could hear a few people around me whispering “that was so good” “gosh, he’s so young and played that so beautifully” “it was amazing” – I was tearing up at the beautiful music, and was just so proud.” #ThanxMum

I felt I played well, but that’s as far my thinking went following the performance.

In the days that followed, at school, lots of my peers told me how much they enjoyed the piece and my performance of it and that my focus on stage made it feel like a professional was playing.

That’s when I started tinkering with the idea of pursuing music seriously, and the power music has to hold a room of so many people so strongly.

I’ve since played the Theme from Schindler’s List many times, and I never tire of it.

Zigeunerweisen by Sarasate
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
James Levine, conductor
Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra

I started learning this piece when a student at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I never quite felt ready to tackle it before my studies in Sydney (which, in hindsight, was a sensible decision).

When I was finally brave enough to give it a go, I listened to many versions of the piece, and really fell in love with Mutter’s recording of it. Her glissandos (slides) and overall grit and tone really capture the heart of what the piece is about (which, when translated is titled ‘Gyspy Airs’) – her inflections throughout the work as so idiomatic to what my perceptions of gypsy music is, that this for me is my go-to recording still when working through this piece.

Following several performances of the work, I’ve since been comfortable with how I play the piece and recorded it with David Vance earlier this year – you can check it out on YouTube!

Adagio for Strings, Op. 11 by Samuel Barber
Leonard Bernstein, conductor
New York Philharmonic Orchestra

We played this in Steel City Strings’, and I must confess, I had never seen the piece live nor heard it beginning to end before its programming in Steel City Strings.

I love most how tragic (in the actual sense of the word) this piece is.

It truly is heavyhearted, and as a string player, to convey this, was challenging.

This piece really taught me how to blend in a relatively small section of players. In fact, it’s the ultimate test of playing softly! In understanding the work, following score reading and listening to many versions of this piece, the New York Philharmonic’s is the standard for me.

The way they blend their sound, even in the softest moments of the piece, so seamlessly allows for the pieces’ long lines to soar in the most beautiful way.

Violin Concerto in G minor “summer” from The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi
III. Presto
Janine Jansen, violin
feat. a collective of her family and friends in the ensemble

My last concert engagement before the pandemic was playing the concerti in their entirety at Wollongong Art Gallery earlier this year.

It remains the most rewarding musical experience I’ve had to date, especially as I performed the work with a collective of friends.

What I took away most for this project was score reading, and being, for want of a better word, the director (we did it without a conductor).

There were lots of detailed questions from my peers, some of which I’d never considered – things like “I know it there’s no Bartok pizzicato (this is when the string is plucked so much that it hits the fingerboard, producing a “snap” sort of effect) marked in the score, but what do you think of its effect here …”

I loved having so many viewpoints coming together, which really made it OUR interpretation.

A live audio recording of this performance is available on YouTube also if you’d like to go and check it out!

Romance in F minor, Op. 11 by Dvorak
Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

I’d never heard this piece until it was played live, right in front of me – literally!

Anne-Sophie Mutter had come to perform with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and prior to playing the Dvorak violin concerto, she played the Romance.

I was sitting about 3 or so rows from the front, right in front of her, and just basked in the way she played the solo part with the most sumptuous and velvety sound against the lilting first theme of the strings and woodwinds. The orchestra part features so prominently, especially in the middle section of the work.

It’s a piece that really allows everyone involved to truly shine. Following the concert (and a signed Dvorak CD by Mutter!) I thought “I have to get the music for this piece and learn it!” and have since performed it; last in May of 2019.

Sonata in F major for piano and violin, Op. 24 “spring” by Beethoven
III. Scherzo: Allegro Molto
Vladimir Ashkenazy, piano
Itzhak Perlman, violin

These sonatas are among some of my favourite pieces to play in the entire repertoire. Of the 10 sonatas by Beethoven (for piano and violin) I’ve learnt 5 of them (I’m getting around to doing them all, no doubt!). The “spring” sonata is particularly special to me, as it was the first of the 10 I started learning. It just seemed the most approachable of the set, and I loved its overall sunny character. Chronologically, it’s also the first sonata (in the first movement) where the violin starts the melody! I’ve played this sonata so many times now, and I never get bored of it. My duo partner (the brilliant pianist, Emelia Noack-Wilkinson) and I really loved the third movement, with its cheeky scales and the interplay between both parts. Rehearsals provided many laughs, especially when it came to the tempo of the movement – luckily there’s been no casualties in performance!

The recording by Ashkenazy and Perlman is probably my favourite recording out of any and every classical recording I’ve heard (big call, I know!). Their playing is just so crisp, and the articulation is so adherent to what we know about Beethoven – they totally capture the spirit of this composer, which, for me, is why I’m always very reluctant to loan out my copy to friends (thanks goodness for Spotify!).

Carmen Fantasy by Bizet (arr. F. Drdla)
Vaclav Hudecek, violin
Vladimir Valek, conductor
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

This was a piece I learnt across the initial lockdown of the pandemic. Carmen is, by and large, an orchestral work. However, there exists (to my knowledge) four versions for solo violin and orchestra – these being that of (the most known of the version) by Sarasate’s, as well as those by Waxman and Hubay.

In a similar light to Sarasate’s, this version was also transcribed by a violinist, Czech violinist Frantisek Drdla. The Drdla version is lesser known, but I just love the way the piece moves and is structured. It starts with a fragment of the famous ‘Habanera’ (which reprises later in the piece in all its violinistic glory!) then diving into two virtuosic cadenzas. This is then followed by the first variation, which, for me, even as a listener, creates great anticipation of what’s to come as the piece moves to its dramatic finale!

I prepared this for a recital I was contracted for, however, due to the pandemic, has been postponed.

Danse Russe (feat. Ida Haendel on solo violin) from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky
Andre Previn, conductor
London Symphony Orchestra

This recording I bought from Sydney’s Fish Fine Music just before it closed down. I managed to obtain a brand new box set of the music of all three Tchaikovsky ballets (Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and Nutcracker) at a clearance price – what a snatch!

The Danse Russe is one of the lesser known movements of the ballet, but by far my favourite! Written in a similar fashion to that of the third movement of the violin concerto (by the same composer), Tchaikovsky was revolutionary in his use of the orchestra in his ballet music. One such feature is that, typically, the concertmaster plays the scored violin solos. Though in this recording, which makes it particularly special now, is that the violin solos are by the late, great, Polish violinist, Ida Händel, who was called upon by Previn to play the violin solos of the ballet’s score.

Ida’s old school tone really suits the spirit of the piece, and those tenths in the opening – wow, immaculate execution!

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 by Mendelssohn
I. Allegro molto appassionato
Niki Vasilakis, violin
Sebastian Lang-Lessing, conductor
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

I’d watched Niki co-present a TV show called Classical Destinations, and I remember thinking “finally there’s something good on regular TV to watch!” I was really taken by her playing of the TV’s theme, and found that she’d done a recording with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Sebastian Lang-Lessing of the concertos of Bruch and Mendelssohn together with Ravel’s Tzigane – her recording was my first encounter with each of these pieces.

I was super excited when I read in the local paper that she was coming to Wollongong to give a concert at Wollongong Art Gallery with the pianist Kathryn Selby and cellist Emma-Jane Murphy (they played in a trio called TRIOZ at the time) – I purchased tickets straight away. I wasn’t missing this!

Following the concert at Wollongong Art Gallery, there were CDs of the trio being sold on the night, but not of her CD that she recorded with Lang-Lessing and the TSO.

I put my home brought CD on a wooden atrium frame, along with trio recordings other people had purchased on the night for her to sign.

Going along the signing line, she gasped quietly when she saw her TSO recording and asked whose CD it was, and I said it was mine. We then got talking about all things violin, and I’d told her I was auditioning for Sydney Conservatorium of Music and that I was going to play the first movement of the Mendelssohn concerto. I told her that her recording was a real inspiration to me – a fellow Greek-Australian who plays classical music!

Niki invited me to come to a City Recital Hall in Sydney, as she was giving another trio concert following the Wollongong concert, and offered me two complimentary tickets, and a masterclass at St Andrew’s Cathedral School for me to play her my Mendelssohn concerto leading up to my audition.

Following the masterclass, months later (and lots of useful feedback to implement in my violin practise), I’d done both my audition for Sydney Conservatorium and entered a concerto competition (both in the same week) with the Mendelssohn.

Two verdicts later, my admission into Sydney Conservatorium proved successful, and I’d won first place in the concerto competition.

So yeah, the Mendelssohn violin concerto is a special piece for me.

Violin Concerto in A Minor by J.S. Bach
III. Allegro assai
Richard Tognetti, violin
Australian Chamber Orchestra

I’ve had the ACO’s recording of the Bach violin concertos for a while now, and I never tire of listening to it. Whilst learning the E major concerto (initially, a whole ago), it was always nearby! I’ve just very recently started learning the A minor concerto, in addition to recapping the E major concerto and I’m totally hooked on the recording all over again.

I really love the ACO’s vigour of the third movement of the A minor concerto, and so I’m listening very closely to their articulation whilst reading the score to inform my practise. Hopefully I can perform it sometime soon – watch this space!

STRINGS FROM THE STREETS: Matthew Tsalidis, SCS Violinist. Photo by Saad 📷 krissaad.format.com