Geneva Lewis on playing Sibelius's Violin Concerto: 'it feels quite athletic'

Geneva Lewis | Motti Fang-Bentov

“I feel the most spontaneous and alive when I’m working with other people,” says Geneva Lewis. The young New Zealand-born, US-based violinist is not one for hiding herself away, mulling over her own individual interpretations in isolation until they’re immaculate. Instead, she’s clearly a performer who likes to get out there, speak to people, work with people and – most importantly – actively collaborate.

Hardly surprising, then, that she cites chamber music as a particular passion. She’s giving a recital with exceptional Welsh-born pianist Llŷr Williams just days after we speak, and she’s also been relishing the opportunity for some violin-and-accordion collaborations with Glasgow-born Ryan Corbett, a fellow musician selected for BBC Radio 3’s prestigious New Generation Artists programme. “That’s been super fun,” she says. “I’d never had the chance to play with accordion before we started working together.”

High on the agenda among her current collaborations, however, is a new link-up with conductor Joseph Swensen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. It’s with them that Lewis performs Sibelius’s iconic Violin Concerto in Edinburgh and Glasgow in January. It’s one of the repertoire’s most powerful and most passionately adored violin concertos. But, with its musical delights ranging from craggy rawness to ineffable beauty, it’s also a deeply idiosyncratic piece. Lewis knows it well but, true to form, she was pleased to discuss it in depth with Swensen.

“I met up with him over the summer, as we were both in New York, and we wanted to get a head start on things. He’s an unbelievable violinist as well as a conductor, and he’s played the piece hundreds of times himself, so it was cool that we were already able to talk about the dynamics of the collaboration. I think Joseph also likes something that’s very mutual and collaborative, created between both of us and the orchestra.”

The Scottish dates will in fact be Lewis’s inaugural performances of the concerto. “I mean, I already knew the piece quite well when I was young,” she continues, “and I learnt it earlier on in my studies, then revisited it when I was in music college. And I’ve had input from two of my major violin teachers on it – it’s always nice to have their voices in my head, and see how that marries with my own thoughts about the piece.”

It is, Lewis admits, a challenging piece to play – not least in its sheer technical demands. “It feels like quite an athletic concerto,” she says. “There are lots of virtuosic elements, and it’s actually quite a symphonic concerto – it never feels like a solo violin with a backing band. That means that lots of things are very intricate, such as complex rhythms and really sophisticated textures.”

She points, too, to the weighty, demanding solo cadenza that erupts about halfway through the opening movement. “We have a tradition in earlier concertos where the cadenza is basically an improvisation, or at least created by the performer, and an opportunity for them to show off their skills. Sibelius’s cadenza is very much notated, and it’s a crucial part of the piece in the way it develops themes and serves as a transition to later music. It’s much more structurally important than other cadenzas often are, and that adds its own feeling of depth.”

Lewis has clearly considered the concerto deeply, and spent time mulling over how and why it works. Does that mean she’s out to stamp her own individual mark on the piece, or come up with fresh ways of performing it that have never been envisioned before? Not necessarily, she admits. “There are some performers who feel like they have to block other interpretations out so that theirs is really their own. But I’ll definitely seek out certain things, and I’ll listen to a lot of recordings – I won’t shy away from that. I don’t feel particularly nervous about copying anyone. If something that another violinist does is a great idea and illuminates something about the piece, then of course that’s something I’m interested in.”

We’re back to the idea of collaboration again – this time, in connections with Lewis’s illustrious violinist predecessors, as well as her contemporaries. And also, she continues, with her teachers. “If you’re learning the Concerto with a teacher, they’ll be passing down their own interpretation that draws on their own lineage of teachers. But if you’re still being authentic to yourself and your own connections with the piece, then how you play it will still be unique and personal.” It’s refreshing to hear a performer discussing the legacy and impact of other performers’ perspectives, when many might imply they want to wipe the slate clean and perform a piece as if nobody else has ever played it before.

Joseph Swensen | Ugo Ponte

Talking of teachers, Lewis also remembers briefly working with Swensen when she was a student. “I was in high school, and I studied with him very briefly at a summer festival in the States.” Indeed, she’s still at a relatively early stage in her violin career: her two-year tenure in the BBC’s career-launching New Generation Artists scheme ended earlier this year, and she’s still taking coaching at Germany’s revered Kronberg Academy for exceptional, early-career performers. “I’ve been pretty busy, and I’ve also been doing lots of concerts, mostly as a soloist. I’m based in New York now, but I’ve been trying to spend as much time in Europe as I can.”

Indeed, Lewis is in increasingly high demand internationally as a soloist. It’s still relatively early days, but how does she find the itinerant life of a professional violinist? “I just love it!” she smiles. “It’s what I always dreamt of doing when I was young, and to be honest I didn’t think it would happen. But I love the aspect of meeting new people and being able to play music with them.”

Does she have any tips for effective musical collaborations? “I think definitely being open, and also being curious. Some people just prefer to do their own things and have their own vision, but I don’t feel the need to impose in a collaborative situation. Of course, whoever you work with you have to have enough shared values and aesthetics so that you’re not completely at odds with each other. I try to show up very prepared about the music, but sometimes I can hear things differently in the moment and be inspired to change how I think about the music.”

Geneva Lewis performs Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conductor Joseph Swensen at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, 16 January and the City Halls, Glasgow, 17 January, see www.sco.org.uk

The Scotsman is the official media partner of the SCO’s 2024-25 Season. For a 20% discount on tickets, use the code TSMSCO20 when booking – available via venue box offices