Friday April 14, 2006
Simon’s music
British pianist Simon Mulligan has already reached many a milestone in his rising career as a classical artiste, and he’s about to add another, JASON CHEAH writes.
AS one of the rising crop of younger artistes in the classical music scene, Simon Mulligan is an extremely versatile artiste, musician, arranger and composer.
Take a look at his current month’s performance schedule and you would have seen him perform a series of classical concerts in Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (last weekend) before hitting Shanghai to perform with his jazz quartet.
Now he’s just added one more accolade to that versatility. After more than 15 classical albums, the 33-year-old London born artiste now has a jazz album as well.
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Simon Mulligan performing with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur last weekend. |
(The album, Playlist, was just released on Mulligan’s own independent label Ludo Music).
“This disc features mostly my own compositions which were written while I was in school. I was a jazz-obsessed teenager then,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s an entirely different field and approach,” Mulligan said when comparing it to his classical output. “I like to keep it varied, both styles help one another.”
But while this adds a new dimension to his public profile, Mulligan still feels most at home with classical, albeit with a touch of the contemporary added to a healthy respect for the music’s more traditional aspects.
On the contemporary side, an example would be the work he performed in concert in Kuala Lumpur – George Gershwin’s famed Piano Concerto in C.
“I first played it when I was 17. But I always like to give a new take on it and give it a more dynamic range.”
Never one for boredom, Mulligan always has projects on his plate, especially when premiering new works.
“I get asked everyday,” he joked. “I don’t like to turn things down. I like to support as many musicians and composers. I’ve been lucky to premiere pieces by Tobias Picker (American), Mark Anthony Turnage (English) and James McMillan (Scottish).
“I love to do my own arrangements of works. I’ve arranged Gershwin’s An American in Paris and I play my own version of Rhapsody in Blue.”
Mulligan’s recordings show the same breadth of variety.
His debut recording was at the age of 19, of Bohuslav Martinu’s Triple Concerto conducted by Yehudi Menuhin. That led to a seven-year collaboration and friendship culminating in what was to be Menuhin’s final concert in Düsseldorf, Germany, in March 1999.
He also signed a multi-album deal with Sony Classical three years ago.
“That was on the premise of doing a mixture of styles. The first disc Piano was an intentionally varied selection of favourite tunes and melodies, beautiful classical music and timeless pop songs.”
(Selections of works he recorded ran from compositions by William Walton and Claude Debussy to Madonna, Eric Clapton and U2.)
“I’m most proud of my recent recordings,” Mulligan continued. These include a premiere recording of music by pianist Alexis Weissenberg.
“That was fun because I’d used my own improvisation in the different jazz styles based on his music.
“He’s a dear friend of mine, my last mentor really, and he gave permission to play around with his music,” said Mulligan.
Mulligan does remain a traditionalist in a few areas.
“I don’t like mucking around with classical music, I don’t like to jazz up Bach or anything. And I’d like to bring back the old days of playing more than one concerto in a programme.”
Given that Mulligan is still young by classical music standards, there’s still a vast amount of music he would love to perform.
“I haven’t done Gershwin’s (rarely performed) second rhapsody, or many of Camille Saint-Saens Concertos, or even Tchaikovsky No.2 – the full “un-hacked” version,” he said with a laugh.
“I have, at home, so much sheet music that I’ve been lucky to acquire mostly from my great aunt, who used to own an antique shop. She used to come round with great dusty piles of music.
“I would play songs from the shows, Chopin Preludes or Cliff Richard or Fats Waller. That’s how I think I got going in jazz and classical at the same time. Within that pile of music are things I haven’t looked at yet – it’s a lifetime’s work.”
His own compositions are just as eclectic.
“I like to write anything from short jingles for CD-ROM programmes to full movie soundtracks.”
Mulligan features on the soundtrack to Kamen’s score for Band of Brothers – the award-winning HBO television series produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
His playing of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata features in the film The Piano Player starring Christopher Lambert and Dennis Hopper.
“Many actors I have worked with I like to coach too. (Award-winning British actor-comedian) Hugh Laurie for instance, he plays the piano very well. I worked with him on a couple of training films a long time ago.”
While Mulligan is most certainly busy with his career, he does find time for other “non-music” activities.
“I got married recently and my wife Megan and I, we like travelling,” he said.
“I’m a big movie fan. I’m obsessed with the IMDB website because my parents were both in the business. I play tennis, used to like kite flying and I love to cook. I love my food, and I like my coffee, although I can’t take instant.”
He gets to enjoy all that but at the end of the day, it still boils down to his music.
“An ideal evening (for me) would be playing a recital of chamber music and then going off to a club or bar and playing in a jazz group.” Mulligan is certainly doing that, as well.
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