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| Monica Huggett - Portland March 29 2015 |
When it comes to violinists, virtuosity is not entirely
the result of mechanical finger velocity and sheer technique, as it is with
pianists. The violin is an instrument which has almost human whims—it is
attuned to the mood of the player in a sympathetic rapport: a minute
discomfort, the tiniest inner imbalance, a whiff of sentiment elicits an
immediate resonance . . . probably because the violin, pressed against the
chest, can percieve our heart’s beat. But this happens only with artists who
truly have a heart that beats, who have a soul. The more sober, the more
heartless a violinist is, the more uniform will be his performance, and he can
count on the obedience of his fiddle, any time, any place. But this
much-vaunted assurance is only the result of a spiritual limitation, and some
of the greatest masters were often dependent on influences from within and
without.
Thoughts on the Violin and on Violinists
Heinrich Heine (1843)
I began this blog in January 2006. Since then I have
written 3404 blogs. Some of them are pretty good and some are perfunctory or
simply written to fill in the week.
One of the reasons for the blog block could be that I am
in the throws of taking portraits of women who specialize in the playing of
instruments that were in use in the 17th and 18th
century. I could have saved myself some unneeded worries if I had approached
this project (which has taken me to Portland, Seattle, Victoria and locally to
places like Ladner) with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera. Somehow I thought that
these women deserved my best and my best could only be delivered in b+w film
exposed with my medium format Mamiya RB-67 Pro-SD. With that camera in my hand
(but on a tripod as it is very heavy) I feel the same certitude of success as
King Arthur must have had while wielding Sword Excalibur.
I have at this point photographed 23 women who play
instruments not all currently seen is a conventional symphony orchestra. I have
had to process rolls of 120 film (ten exposures) in my darkroom which has been
truly dark for some time but not of late! Knowing I could not return to
re-shoot any of these women I had to make sure those 10 exposures (that was my
self-imposed limit, one roll per musician) were processed correctly and that I
did not precipitate the many possible mishaps that might have resulted in the
ruination of my efforts.
Happily I can report that the 23 women (so far) are all
perfectly exposed.
Here is a preview (I must not let the cat out of the bag)
of one of the women. She is violinist Monica Huggett who is a solo/virtuoso
violinist of note around the world who happens to be the Artistic Director of
the Portland Baroque Orchestra.
She and her beloved and most artistically efficient
orchestra will be in Vancouver on Friday, May 1 at the Chan and will perform
Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons which are part of his Opus 8, entitled Il
cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione. I will write a preview, at length, about this Early Music Vancouver concert in a
later blog in a couple of days.
For now I want to explain something about the colour
version of my portraits of Monica Huggett. Those who have commissioned me for
this project will select the final images. But not this one in colour! There
are four other exposures, and in one of them Huggett closed her eyes. There is
one where she shows a fine smile. But I like the no-nonsense look of this one.
I own an extended collection of Huggett’s works (all
baroque) and I have seen her live a few times. When not playing she could be
one of your British aunts or the cat lady around the corner. She is a serious
gardener and has one by the sea (and mostly difficult chalky soil, I would
guess) in England but lives in Portland.
When she plays she is transformed into another person.
She plays with fuerza (I like that Spanish word) and a passion second to none.
She can be delicate in quiet passages but note her formidable forearms. With
them she executes music (in both senses of that verb) with no comparison in
anybody else that I have ever been lucky to listen to.
And she does not forget to smile and thus display the fun
she is having.
Many years ago Saturday Night Magazine hired me to
photograph violin prodigy Corey Cerovsek when he was 14. They wanted me to
convey in my photograph that somehow Cerovsek had talent that came from some
connection with the devil. Such a connection was also attributed to Niccolò Paganini.
I was able to convey the diabolical connection with lighting and a raised
eyebrow but I felt happier with my image of the young boy (and a young boy he
was) wearing my striped T-shirt and a bike behind him.
There is no possible way that anybody who has met Monica
Huggett could ever think of such ungodly links as an explanation for her virtuosic
talent.
I have a far simpler explanation courtesy of my Spanish
grandmother who once saw Manolete in a bullfight. She said he was a fenómeno.
There is no rational explanation for that kind of talent while the assertion
that its rarity is a given. I have met one person who was a fenómeno. That was
and is Canadian dancer Evelyn Hart.