An Interview with Alina

Virtual Virtuoso
By Gillian Bramley-Moore, Courier Mail

She's ridiculously young for one so talented but there's nothing of the dilettante about Alina Ibragimova, writes Gillian Bramley-Moore

There is nothing tame about Ibragimova's fiery execution in performance.

"My parents are musicians and I think I listened to my mother play the violin before I was even born,'' says Alina Ibragimova on the phone from Sydney. "I always wanted to be a violinist. When I was four, I asked my parents for a green violin and then I burst into tears when they gave me one that was brown. The sound was revolting but I came back to it six months later.''
At 23, Ibragimova is one of the world's most successful violinists, and will be guest director for the Australian Chamber Orchestra next Monday night.

Based in London, she is a regular on the international festival circuit and has played concertos with world-class ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, but she doesn't fit the classical stereotype.

She loves shopping for shoes, would perform in jeans if she could, spends hours communicating with her cellist boyfriend on Skype via the internet, and adores Tom Waits.

She also enjoys Ella Fitzgerald and admires Operator Please, Bjork and The Beatles. As for classical stuff, whatever she is currently performing is usually her favourite piece. She is remarkably down-to-earth for someone heralded worldwide as a fiddling sensation.

To a question about how she knows Richard Tognetti, she snaps: "I don't. I've never met him. My agent was sent a letter requesting that I do this Australian tour, directing the ensemble from the violin, and, because of the ACO's reputation, I said yes.''

Ibragimova's approach to the industry is quirky, but then her teacher, Gordan Nikolitch, is a most unusual coach.

"Sometimes I'd play for him in lessons and sometimes he would ask me to watch a movie, or play darts,'' Ibragimova says.

"When I was panicking about having to play the Beethoven Violin Concerto, I asked for a lesson. He agreed, but said that I should meet him in London's Tate Modern. We looked at a Mark Rothko painting for half an hour and talked about shape and form. It helped.''

Can anyone enjoy classical music?

"I'm naive in thinking that whatever is good will come across well, and then people enjoy it. This was true when I played a tough contemporary program in a casual setting in Shoreditch Town Hall to a non-classical crowd in London. Everyone was standing around a bar and people didn't have to listen, but they did.''

Ibragimova says that working with the ACO as artistic leader will be intimidating at first, but "it will work out fine because I'm also playing my violin (a 1738 Pietro Guarneri of Venice). Leading from the front is different from conducting and I really wouldn't like to do that, although I've had lessons,'' she says. "I'm regarding this tour as if I am playing with an expanded chamber music group. To be a conductor is a different skill altogether and you have to know different things. The program's appealing although it was hard to pin one down because the ACO has performed so much repertoire. I've especially learned Vivaldi's Four Seasons for the occasion.''

If she could have licence to choose an absolute favourite work, it would be a Mendelssohn concerto.

Pressure is something that Ibragimova is familiar with as she studied at the notoriously intense Yehudi Menuhin School, where the hectic schedules stretch from 9am until 10pm.

"Every day I felt so tired,'' she says. "There was so much to fit in: academic studies, solo practice and performing in the lunchtime concerts. Nothing has ever been so difficult as being on stage in front of 60 knowledgeable, brilliant but critical students. But, at the same time, we were like a really close-knit family. Yehudi Menuhin was such a humble person and he took care of everybody. In the very last concert that he conducted, I played the Bach Double Concerto with Nicola Benedetti at the opening ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights at UNESCO in Paris. When he died, I was at school and the place was thronging with reporters, and someone asked for some music. Nicola and I played the second movement from the same Bach concerto and everyone cried.''

There is nothing tame about Ibragimova's fiery execution in performance, where the emotional essence is of far greater importance to her than technicalities and perfect tuning.

She is bold and uncompromising, despite her mischievous, pixie-ish appearance, and she has developed quite a reputation for being the musician you can ask to replace a star performer at a minute's notice.

"My schedule is worked years in advance and so I enjoy these sudden opportunities that crop up to challenge me,'' Ibragimova says. "I replaced the soloist in a performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony in 2006 at short notice. Last year, I stepped in when Max Vengerov was unable to play at the BBC Proms. It's just something I do.''

Richard Tognetti's 20th anniversary with the ACO in 2009 will be celebrated with the involvement of other fascinating guest directors, including the Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and English violinist Anthony Marwood. Tognetti's curatorship of trail-blazing programming and collaboration continues in the film documentary Luminous, featuring the work of photographer Bill Henson and an evening of fun and music with Barry Humphries.

ACO's Vivacious tour with guest director Alina Ibragimova, Monday, QPAC, 8pm.