Richard Tognetti is in philosophical mood.
Sitting in his City Recital Hall dressing room post-performance, violin case and empty coffee cups at his feet, he's crumpled and obviously tired but still eager to talk about the Australian Chamber Orchestra's plans for next year – and explain why we should all value beauty above politics.
Bill Henson and Richard Tognetti in the artist’s stuio.
"I'm a bit over political agenda in the arts," says the ACO artistic director. "It's so easy to lob a political agenda on to something and call it art. You can dress any old ham sandwich up with political agenda and suddenly it's got validity.
"It's been very, very untrendy to use the word 'beauty' but I think it's coming back into fashion because people are a little sick of the post-modern world where everything has to have an agenda."
Concepts of beauty are top of mind for Tognetti, not least because the ACO will next year revisit Luminous, their 2005 collaboration with artist Bill Henson.
Luminous will combine Henson's photographs with the ACO's music and the vocals of Israeli-Australian singer-songwriter Lior.
Henson was famously at the centre of a 2008 censorship row in which Kevin Rudd declared his work "absolutely revolting".
"Bill Henson was beaten up by the sorry excuse for a prime minister," says Tognetti. "We will not forget what he said. [Henson] is one of the greatest technicians, one of the greatest eyes on the planet. And one of the great artists as well.
"I want to look at the concert hall as a 'safe house' for beauty. Good old-fashioned beauty. That's why we've got Bill Henson."
Luminous takes its place among a characteristically eclectic 2019 program from the 43-year-old ensemble.
Work from Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood and Missy Mazzoli will sit alongside that of JS Bach, Mozart, Brahms and Dvorak.
Among visiting soloists will be legendary saxophonist Branford Marsalis.
"But he's not playing jazz," says Tognetti. "He didn't want to play jazz and we're not a jazz orchestra."
Marsalis will present a program that includes a concerto for saxophone by contemporary British composer Sally Beamish.
Finnish Violinist Pekka Kuusisto will return to direct the world premiere of a violin concerto by US composer Nico Muhly.
Tognetti describes Muhly as emerging from that "rich vein of just pre-millennial composers who are equally at home with contemporary popular music, indie music – all different streams of music – as they are with Western European music".
So how far is it possible to push the concept of a chamber orchestra before it begins to fly apart and become something else?
Tognetti insists the core concept of 17 string players playing conventional instruments will always remain at the heart of the ACO's music.
But other than that?
"We've still got a long way to go," he says mischievously.
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