Interview, Gil Shaham's Music to Drive Away Loiterers

When we heard about Gil Shaham's new release, entitled "Music to Drive Away Loiterers", it provoked a mixture of amusement and curiosity – we knew we had to find out more about the idea behind it and what on earth he was thinking in giving it such a strange title!

I duly sent an inquisitive email, and Gil supplied his thoughts – in characteristically humorous style.

1. Obviously this album doesn't do what it's supposed to; it's an attractive line-up of pieces that should utterly fail at driving anyone away. But given the title, did you have any difficulty convincing people to get behind an album supposedly of music that listeners would actively avoid?

>When I recently learned that classical music was being use to drive away people I thought this is perfect for me... you know I love classical music and the idea for this album just seemed natural. I think this is the closest I will come to crime fighting! Loitering is a serious problem, it is a gateway activity, it's annoying and I want to help stop it!

2. After a mostly upbeat, sunny selection of pieces, the album takes a more reflective, spiritual turn towards the end, with Remembrances and the two Hasidic-influenced works. Was this change of mood part of the plan from the beginning when you first conceived of an album of this kind?

>The works on this album are really a reflection of me and the repertoire I play, and I think there is a nice arc to this selection in the way I might put a recital programme together... or in this case drive people away as fast as possible! ;)

3. More broadly, how does the use of classical music as a tool to keep people out of spaces – a sort of aural scarecrow – make you feel (and do you think it works)?

>I always like the feeling of being useful... especially at my age ;) My bit to help the Greater Good.

4. This album may be a bit light-hearted, but your main project is decidedly serious, and ambitious too – the 1930s Violin Concertos series, where in the space of just ten years there's an incredibly rich vein of repertoire. Where did the initial idea spring from to make an all-encompassing survey of this period of violin writing?

>This 1930s project, in a way, is an excuse to play music that I love, but I remember back in the year 2000 there were many conversations where people in our field reflected back on the 20th century – and as a violinist I couldn't help noticing, as many others have noticed, a noticeable spike in the genre of violin concertos, a deluge of concertos by composers who today are household names – Britten, Barber, Hindemith, Bartok, Walton even Korngold.

>It is thought-provoking when reflecting on eras directly before this time, when virtually no violin concertos materialised – when great masters like Maurice Ravel were reluctant to write a violin concerto, Ravel famously saying 'Why should I write a violin concerto? Mendelssohn already wrote one'. I began to think of these works as a collection like in a gallery, side by side in my head, and as well as concerts I like to think it works well as a recording project.

5. Having tackled such giants as the Barber and Berg concerti in Volume 1, can you give us any hints on what might be next on the menu – Bloch, Hindemith...?

>Bloch and Hindemith are certainly masterpieces, but I am not sure whether I can say anything officially! But there are some live performances which we are looking at releasing – and, like the Hartmann on Volume 1, there will be studio recordings as well. I know I am recording Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto in a couple of months in the studio, and I have had a lot on fun recently with concerts of Bartok's Second and Korngold's Concerto – I would love to include these.