A highly regarded cellist since the age of 16, Natalie Clein doesn't play up to the role of 'classical babe', though she does try to operate on the fine line between 'dumbing down and appealing only to the rarefied few', she tells ARMINTA WALLACE
‘THE CELLO IS a lot of people’s favourite instrument,” says Natalie Clein. Its lower register is earthy, its middle register approximates very closely the range of the human voice, and although there’s an ethereal quality to its higher range, it is, she suggests, an inherently “less showy-offy instrument” than its smaller relative, the violin.
Something of the same combination can be found in Clein herself. One of the most highly regarded rising stars on the UK musical scene, she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year award when she was 16. A decade of triumphs followed, topped by a Classical Brit for the most promising young performer of 2005. Yet she is softly spoken, self-deprecating and serene, with a mane of dark hair, a streak of gently subversive humour and absolutely none of the sort of high-maintenance “classical babe” gloss which her advance publicity might lead one to expect.
Equally unexpectedly, though she lives in London, she has an Irish connection. “My grandparents were both born in Dublin,” she says. “My great-grandparents were emigrés from Lithuania who landed at Cork and then came to Dublin. I didn’t meet my grandfather, but my grandmother I met – and she had an Irish accent.”
More to the point, her family is extremely musical; mother a professional violinist, father a keen amateur player, sister Louisa a successful actor who played to National Youth Orchestra level and could have turned musical pro if she had wanted to.
“My dad came home with a cello when I was about six or seven years old,” says Clein. “Before that I had sort of scraped away at the violin for a bit, but not really found it particularly interesting. I think I wanted to tell my mum how to do it, and she wanted to tell me how to do it, so there was a bit of a fight going on.
“The cello was something completely of my own, which was great. I remember my first cello lesson – and I remember my teacher. She was a beautiful lady with long brown hair, and I remember idolising her in a way. I think that’s important at that age, that you’re inspired by an older figure.”
THESE DAYS CLEINworks regularly with all the big names on the chamber scene – Martha Argerich, Ian Bostridge, Imogen Cooper and Stephen Isserlis, among others – and has collaborated on a number of occasions with the Belcea, Jerusalem and Takács quartets. At the KBC Festival of Music in Great Irish Houses, she will team up with Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang for an unusual and attractive programme.
“Usually I work either solo or with a piano,” she says. “So it’s very nice to have a whole new sound-world. The guitar and the cello actually blend beautifully together.” The programme has works by Albeniz, De Falla, Piazzolla and Vivaldi. What Clein is really excited about, however, is her world premiere of Thomas Larcher’s new cello sonata. She has been working with the Royal College of Music to commission new works for solo cello and, with obvious delight, declares that she has accumulated a wonderfully mixed bag of new music.
“I’m very interested in works by modern composers from all different walks of life,” she says. “I’m eclectic in what I find interesting.” Following heavy ticket demand, the festival has added a second Natalie Clein concert, this time with accordionist Dermot Dunne.
On the more unconventional front, she recently premiered a piece by Fyfe Dangerfield of Mercury Prize-nominated indie band The Guillemots. Another new work in her collection, by Shiva Feshareki, was written for solo cello and DJ turntables.
Larcher’s cello sonata is a more conventional 12-minute piece, but one which, Clein says, she can’t wait to share with the world. “I’ve played little bits of it, but not the whole piece. He’s a fantastic composer. He’s a real craftsman. He has a great imagination and he’s a good combination, I think, between satisfying the more intellectual crowd and at the same time being something that’s effective from its first hearing. It’s not something which puts an audience off, which is always important.
“Good music should increase in depth and enjoyment the more you hear it, but I do think you’ve got to be able to get a lot out of it from its first hearing. It’s a very difficult line to walk between dumbing down and appealing only to the rarefied few.
“I can really only speak for myself about this. I don’t have a theory, or rules about it. I just know what I react to. What my instinct tells me is real music.”
Clein’s instinct seems to have helped her stay on the right side of that dumbing-down line which classical musicians are being forced to cross more and more, often with results which satisfy no one. Has it been difficult to maintain her own musical values in a coiffured-superstar world?
“I have to say that it gets easier the older I get,” she says. “I’m 32 now and I’m starting to find that I’m not the youngest babe on the block any more. So I feel: ‘Okay, now I’m able to put a bit of that aside, and be myself, and follow what interests me’. And hopefully I’ve built up enough support that people trust me and will come along with me.
“It’s a slow process. The whole coiffured thing is a sign of the times. It’s a fact that you have to really compete in certain ways. And people can do all kinds of things with photographs. But ultimately the exciting thing is the live concert. You come to the live concert, and that’s where it starts. Do you get something from it, or not? That’s what it’s all about, still. And I have a feeling, actually, that it’s going more and more in that direction.
“I feel positive about the future of our profession. I feel positive about what people really want from a concert.”
WHAT THEY WANTfrom Clein, it seems, is her sound, which has been praised for its warmth of tone and smoothness of phrasing. How does she feel when critics try to put words on what is essentially wordless? "I appreciate it, actually," she says. "I appreciate that people react to my sound, because sound is something that has been extremely important to me since day one, really, playing cello. Sound was almost interesting to me before music was, funnily enough. It's very important that you find your own voice. That's something I find very interesting – and it changes from day to day."
Much of her particular sound, she insists, comes from her cello, a Guadagnini which dates from 1777. “It’s owned by 20 people. All the others are shareholders – I’m the only one who plays the instrument. That’s how it works, because it’s impossible to own the whole thing. But they are great investments, so it make sense for everyone.”
She “met” her cello in Vienna while she was studying with Heinrich Schiff. “It was at a dealer’s and I just fell in love with it immediately,” she says. “It’s got deep, rich sound, and it’s the right size for me. It’s quite small, but it’s perfect. Like a little Ferrari; nought to 60 in a few seconds. Power and beauty as well – everything you need for playing in a big hall. It’s kind of like a beam of light – the sound is very focused.”
Of course, she adds, beauty is in the eye – and ear – of the beholder. When she’s trudging along with the enormous, uncannily coffin-shaped case on her diminutive back, or trying to strap the instrument into the seat beside her on a plane while listening to quips from bystanders about how she should have taken up the flute instead, it’s a different story.
"If I'm in a good mood I can understand that I look quite funny with this big white thing on my back," she says. "Other times . . ." She laughs. "Actually, my favourite comment of all time came a couple of months ago. I was on the Underground with the cello, and a little boy and his grandma came into the Tube and he said: 'Grandma, that lady's got a reallybig phone'. I thought that was perfect."
Natalie Clein performs at the KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival with Chinese guitarist Xufei Yang at Beaulieu House, Co Louth, on June 12. Her second concert during the festival, with Dermot Dunne (accordionist and member of Lunfardia) is on Thursday, June 11 at Freemasons Hall, 17 Molesworth St, Dublin 2.
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High notes. . . what's on and where
THE KBC Music in Great Irish Houses Festival offers an uncommonly pleasant way to spend a summer evening in some of Ireland’s most beautiful recital spaces; and this year, some of Europe’s most dynamic young quartets will be joined by top-notch soloists in a five-for-the-price-of-four musical bonanza.
At Castletown House in Co Kildare on June 13th, the Belcea Quartet presents an all-Schubert programme which includes the poignant Death and the Maiden quartet and the exuberant String Quintet in D major, with guest cellist Valentin Erben of the Alban Berg quartet. At the National Gallery of Ireland on June 10th, and at Fota House in Cork on June 11th, Philippe Cassard will team up with the French foursome Quatuor Ébène to play quartets by Beethoven and Ravel as well as Dvorak’s piano quintet. And at Kilruddery House in Co Wicklow on June 9th, the Navarra Quartet will play quartets by Haydn and Shostakovich before being joined by John O’Conor for Schumann’s piano quintet.
The cello will be particularly well served at this year’s festival - besides Natalie Clein’s innovative pairings of cello and guitar (Xuefei Yang) and cello and accordion (Dermot Dunne) on June 11th and 12th, the German supercellist Daniel Müller-Schott will make his festival debut at Emo Court, Co Laois, on June 7th. Partnered by the Latvian pianist Robert Kulek, he will play cello sonatas by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn as well as Schubert’s intriguing Arpeggione. Sonata (D821), written for an instrument called the bowed guitar which had disappeared by the time the piece was published posthumously in 1871.
At Kilruddery House in Co Wicklow on June 8th, John Finucane and Hugh Tinney will play clarinet and piano music by Schubert and Brahms before being joined by mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught for a set of songs by Louis Spohr. There will be an opportunity to take a guided tour of the house at 6.30pm before the concert. All recitals begin at 8 pm, with opportunities to “meet the musicians” at 7pm, except for the Emo Court concert on June 7th, which begins at 6pm, with a chance to meet the musicians at 5pm. For details, booking and directions to the venues, see the website, musicgreatirishhouses.com
