by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Matt Haimovitz, currently the professor of cello at McGill, has certainly made his mark in his field. On the one hand, he’s highly regarded for his exquisite skills on his instrument—a one-time child prodigy, the Israeli-born cellist has joined Isaac Stern and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall, garnered numerous prestigious awards and attracted the attention of mainstream radio and television.

On the other hand, he’s earned a rep as a maverick. He concluded a decade with the juggernaut classical imprint Deutsche Grammophon by starting his own Oxingale label—how indie rock is that? Other radical gestures include tackling Jimi Hendrix’s version of “Star Spangled Banner” and, most notably, initiating a tour of unconventional venues to attract new listeners to classical music—he’s the first in his field to play the late punk pilgrimage point CBGBs.

His latest release is Goulash!, subtitled A Bartók-Infused Stew—an exploration of Bela Bartók’s efforts informed by Balkan folk styles which kicks off with an engaging cello-quartet take on Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and features avant-turntablism from DJ Olive and the East-meets-West action of folk unit Constantinople.

His latest, dizzying mini-tour—three cities, three times in three weeks—expands on the contents of Goulash!, and also extends his effort to find new ears for classical music and its tangents.

Mirror: You have a history of bringing classical music to new, unfamiliar audiences and venues. To a degree, you’re competing with the likes of those Il Divo guys and Apocalyptica, who are actually my favourite metal band—

Matt Haimovitz: Yeah, they’re fun!

M: But it’s a very superficial approach to classical music. So what you’re talking about, the deep listening—

MH: Well, it’s funny—of the three concerts I’m doing in Montreal, the first is with DJ Olive and Constantinople, and it has a world-music feeling to it, but the one that to me is the most rock ’n’ roll is the second concert, when we’ll be playing Bartók’s second string quartet and Ligeti’s first string quartet. I think if someone who loves heavy metal comes to that concert, they’ll be blown away.

M: How do you mean rock ’n’ roll? The intensity?

MH: Yeah, the visceral intensity. Ligeti’s is extremely rooted in tradition, it’s basically a 20th-century Haydn quartet, but the textures and the raw emotions and the drama of it—it has as much concentrated and visceral energy as anything in the rock ’n’ roll world. The second movement of the Bartók, with its folk rhythms and the driving quality, again, it’s rock ’n’ roll.

Strings that sing

M: Recognizing what a wide range of sounds can be coaxed out of the cello, I wonder if that doesn’t make it an instrument particularly well suited to engaging new listeners.

MH: I think so! What I realized, playing Bach in some of these alternative venues starting in 2000, is that as great as the partitas and sonatas are for violin, the fact that the cello is also a bass instrument—there’s something that works about hearing it all by itself. There’s something about the overtones, the way one can accompany oneself—I can’t think of another instrument quite like that, that also has the range of sounds. I think it’s partly this relationship to the human voice. It’s the closest in range and timbre—

M: Really? I’ve heard others say it’s the saxophone.

MH: Yeah, that’s a good one, the bassoon is close too, but I think the cello, even more so. Even the shape of it, the body of the instrument and the neck—

M: Looks like a sexy lady!

MH: (laughs) It definitely has an anthropomorphic quality. The fact that the voice is also so versatile, that we all have our different articulations and languages—it can emulate all these different sounds, and I think composers caught on to that in the 20th century.

With various guests at McGill’s Schulich School of Music (555 Sherbrooke W.), on Friday, March 17, 24 and 31, 7 p.m., $15 ($10 students/seniors, $40 for all three concerts). For more information, call 398 4547 or go to www.music.mcgill.ca or www.oxingale.com

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