By Patricia Maunder
In 1981, when Jeanne Lamon was invited to direct Toronto's fledgling baroque ensemble, Tafelmusik, the New York native had little idea she would still be in charge 34 years later. Nor did she anticipate leading what Gramophone magazine describes as "one of the world's top baroque orchestras" on a second Australian tour.
"It's hard to imagine now that I didn't have a clearer idea of what the possibilities were," says Lamon, who returns this month with Tafelmusik's House of Dreams program. "I think it's a function of being in your 20s that you don't think that way ... I just thought, 'Oh, this seems like a great idea ... These are good musicians and we could make something of this.'"
Tafelmusik's House of Dreams marries music and painting.Credit: Picasa
More than 80 albums later, and with concerts in hundreds of cities across 30 countries, Lamon's decision to lead Tafelmusik "worked out much better than I ever would have dreamed," she says.
Speaking at the orchestra's Toronto base, a heritage church whose main performance space is named in her honour, Lamon communicates in a thoughtful but deeply engaged manner, similar to the way she plays violin.
Baroque ensemble Tafelmusik.Credit: Keith Saunders Photography
The time is fast approaching when she and her instrument will no longer grace the Tafelmusik stage. Lamon stepped down as music director last year, switching to the part-time role of chief artistic adviser until a new director is appointed. She now performs with the ensemble intermittently, but is fully committed to her final Australian tour.
"We had such a good time that we just couldn't wait to come back," says Lamon, referring to Tafelmusik's 2012 tour of the Helpmann Award-winning Galileo Project. This mix of music, drama and astronomical photography was the first of what have become signature multidisciplinary programs.
The second, also created by Tafelmusik's double-bass player, Alison Mackay, is House of Dreams, which marries music and painting.
Lamon's violin is, like all the instruments played in the baroque orchestra, of the period. It was made by Venetian Santo Seraphin in about 1730. It is, she points out, from the same time and place as the composer Vivaldi and the artist Canaletto, who painted scenes of Venice during its glory years.
This confluence of music and art, history and culture, is the essence of House of Dreams, which enables audiences to virtually visit five European homes filled with art and music during the Baroque period.
"While you're listening to Vivaldi, you're looking at this gorgeous painting by Canaletto ... showing you a scene of Venice as it looked to Vivaldi," says Lamon. "He lived right there, he worked right there ... so the painting means more and the music means more."
Her eyes are bright, as if she has been transported to La Serenissima in the 18th century, with the chance of bumping into Vivaldi. He is the baroque composer she would most like to meet: "I love his music, and I keep changing my mind as to whether it's all very gentle and frilly, or whether it's actually very muscular. Maybe if I got to meet him I could put more character into the music."
In House of Dreams, works by composers such as Handel and Bach are performed, from memory, by Tafelmusik, while paintings that hung in those five significant homes, by the likes of Vermeer and Watteau, are projected in high definition.
A narrator heightens this drama of sight and sound, as does the orchestra's choreographed movement: freed from sheet music and stands, the musicians can move about the stage and among the audience – or even play in darkness for dramatic effect.
"This is a new concert experience," especially for those who have not seen The Galileo Project, says Lamon. "It's a concert and it's theatre and it's going to the museum."
It is increasingly common for classical concerts to pair live music with projections and other interactive elements. Lamon acknowledges that others also present programs with such elements but believes that Tafelmusik was "first off the mark".
"People are, I think, a little bit tired of the staid approach to performing where it's all very formal and the guy gets up there and conducts and nobody looks at you," she says. "People want something that they feel they're more involved in, or that's more multimedia."
As she eases her way out of Tafelmusik's big chair, is Lamon is looking forward to experiencing House of Dreams as an audience member? "These memorised programs, it takes a long time to learn them ... so I might have to play that one 'til I die," she says, chuckling.
Tafelmusik's House of Dreams is at the Melbourne Recital Centre tonight and on Tuesday at 7pm and at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney on Monday at 7pm and March 1 at 2pm.