How do you mostly listen to music?
I listen to music a lot when I’m travelling. It’s a great way to use dead time to learn music, rather than staring out the windows – or worse, trawling through Facebook. It also means that when I’m at home I can spend the time with my husband and our dog Jack, rather than having to spend it learning music. I’ve invested in a good pair of noise-reducing headphones, a Spotify premium accountand a stash of CDs for the car.
What was the first record or CD you ever bought?
I didn’t buy it myself but my first ever record was Annie, on vinyl that my brother bought me. I listened to it endlessly until I broke my brother’s record player, so that put an abrupt end to my listening pleasure. Not sure I ever owned up to being the one who broke it!
What was the last piece of music you bought?
I just did an online piece for Sinfini Music, where I did a supermarket sweep in HMV on Oxford Street, so I bought about six CDs that day. I chose ones by artists I love, like Joyce DiDonato, and things I thought I could learn from, like Matthias Goerne singing Schubert. I’m pretty sure his German will be perfect, so I can check my own pronunciation as I listen. I also bought my own CD of Fauré songs as a pressie for me Mammy back in Ireland. I was, however, disappointed that they wouldn’t let me bring my Jack Russell along for the shoot – what with him being the ultimate HMV “his Mistress’ voice” accessory.
What’s your musical guilty pleasure?
Schubert. I just love singing Schubert. There is everything in his music: a refinement and depth of expression that I feel is unique to his style. In songs that are just one page long you can reveal everything there is to know about the beauty and joy that music can bring to you. When he gets it right – which is most of the time – his music is as close to perfection as I can imagine. I’ve got a new Schubert CD coming out next month and I can tell you that a lot of love, practice and thought has gone into it.
If you found yourself with six months free to learn a new instrument, what would you choose?
The tuba. My husband is principal bass trombone at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, so if I got a job there I could sit beside him for the next 25 years and make his life a living hell–I mean, make his life complete. As far as I can tell the tuba doesn’t have to play too many notes so I think I could easily learn it in six months Now I’m going to get hell from the tuba player in the next orchestra I perform with!
Is applauding between movements acceptable?
I don’t have a problem with it. I think people should enjoy a concert. I appreciate that it can be very jarring if the previous movement/song has been very intimate and there’s applause, but I think it’s even more important that people feel that they can enjoy classical music and participate, even if they don’t quite know what the “rules” are. I would rather have one new person experience it and clap in the “wrong” place than not have them there at all. I also think that people shouldn’t feel demonised if they need to cough. Not even if they are coughing and spluttering the whole way through, because at the end of the day we’re all human.
What single thing would improve the format of the classical concert?
Interaction with the artists and the audience to show them that you are just a normal person would enhance both their enjoyment and mine. I know this would be impossible somewhere like the Proms but at a venue like Wigmore Hall this often happens and it enhances my performance tenfold. I like the intimacy. Next year I have five recitals at the Wigmore Hall and I guarantee I’ll have spoken to about 50% of the audience and that will make it a much more intimate enjoyable experience – it’s like performing to your friends.
What’s been your most memorable live music experience as an audience member?
It has to be Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. I first saw it in 2004 at ROH Covent Garden while I was a young artist there and it blew me away. It was a Richard Jones production conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano, and was just utterly absorbing. When everything is right, theatre can be wonderful and consuming. A mouse could have run up my leg and I wouldn’t have noticed. The level of musicianship was second-to-none, with incredibly committed performances from Katarina Dalayman, John Tomlinson and Christine Rice. The orchestra were on fire, and the direction from Richard Jones was the most inspired I’ve ever seen. I’ve wanted to work with him ever since.
We’re giving you a time machine: what period, or moment in musical history, would you travel to and why?
I’d go back to the time of Mozart. Singing with him would have been no doubt a spiritual learning experience, but more than that I would have loved to party with him! He sounds like he was great cráic and I dare say we would have had a great night out on the town … If we didn’t end up in the clink.
Which non-classical musician would you love to work with?
Bono, can you imagine? U2’s music is a cut about most of the drivel out there, with sweeping, expansive melodies that would lend themselves to interaction with a classically trained voice. Also, I’d love to meet Bono. I once sang at an event in Ireland that he was invited to purely because I wanted to meet him, but his flight was delayed so he missed it and I missed meeting him. Gutted.
What do you sing in the shower?
Mostly things I’m learning. When you’re trying to memorise music it’s just rattling around in your brain all the time so without even thinking I’ll start singing it. At the moment it’s all Fauré, Poulenc, Judith Bingham and Schubert.
It’s late, you’ve had a few beers, you’re in a karaoke bar. What do you choose to sing?
Always Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights – I never failed to score with that one at college! Nowadays work is so busy that I’m mostly minding my voice, so couldn’t get away with screaming away in a karaoke bar. I’m glad I enjoyed myself at college and was a bit mad, as now I have to be a bit more sensible.
Schubert: Nacht und Träume is released on 4 December on Delphian Records. Follow Ailish Tynan on twitter at @ailishtynaneire
