by Norman Perryman |
Introduction
by Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) |
In
the early sixties Norman Perryman spent many hours at the Menuhin
Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland sketching great musicians such as
cellist Paul Tortelier, pianist Wilhelm Kempff, the legendary sitar-player
Ravi Shankar, and of course Yehudi Menuhin himself and his pianist
sisters Hephzibah and Yaltah Menuhin. Later, the list came to include
the youthful violinist Nigel Kennedy, pianist Melvyn Tan and cellist
Colin Carr, then all students at the Menuhin School. In 1975 he
painted the great French cellist Pierre Fournier.
When
the splendid new Symphony Hall was built in 1991 in Birmingham,
England, Perryman was commissioned by the Director (Andrew Jowett)
to create a collection of large watercolours (unframed 32x22 inches
or 84x56cm) of the great personalities booked to perform there.
In ten years this unique collection grew to over twenty-five paintings
and now includes Thomas Allen (baritone). Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano).
Cecilia Bartoli (mezzo soprano), Alfred Brendel (piano). José
Carreras (tenor). Riccardo Chailly (conductor), Sarah Chang (violin).
Kyung-Wha Chung (violin), Carlo Maria Giulini (conductor), Valery
Gergiev (conductor, Evelyn Glennie (percussion), Bernard Haitink
(conductor), Kiri Te Kanawa (soprano), Alexander Lazarev (conductor),
Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Lorin Maazel (conductor), Kurt Masur (conductor),
Yehudi Menuhin (violin), Jessye Norman (soprano), Sakari Oramo (conductor),
Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Itzhak Perlman (violin), Simon Rattle
(conductor), Mstislav Rostropovich (cellist), Klaus Tennstedt (conductor),
Paul Tortelier (cello) and Pinchas Zuckerman (violin).
Other action portraits include four well-known conductors: Yakov Kreizberg, the late Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Slatkin and Plácido Domingo conducting Carmen at the Washington Opera.
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Alfred
Brendel |
Julia Fischer |
Bernard
Haitink |
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Valery Gergiev |
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Sakari Oramo |
Plácido Domingo conducts Carmen
Watercolor 100 x 100cm
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In
May 2002, I stood in the pit of the Washington Opera watching,
sketching and listening as Plácido Domingo coaxed a
production of Carmen into shape. He was singing all the parts
as he conducted, energetic, benevolent, a man with a clear
vision of the colorful and emotional opera he has performed
so many times.
My
large (three foot square) watercolor places the spectator
at the center of the action, on an undulating diagonal from
bottom left to top right. We are at the heart of a creative
process, very close to this sympathetic Maestro. Plácido's
warm expression radiates understanding and encouragement.
We follow his sensitive hands as they mold the sound, taking
our gaze right up on to the stage, for a glimpse of the mysterious
lighting and shadows of this performance of Carmen.
With the
red plush of the opera house at his back, he is standing in
a sea of movement : the dynamic bowing of
the strings and the splatters of paint, which might be seen
as notes, or could be a hint of the bloody drama about to
take place on stage. The variety of reds, browns and ochers
evoke for us the energy, earthy passion and tragedy of this
intensely Spanish opera. |
As always in my work, the music itself was the essential source of inspiration. I lived Carmen day and night for the month or so that it took to put this painting together and, as you look at the painting, I hope that you too will feel swept away by that wonderful music. |
| Perryman
writes:
'In this series, my aim is to combine my experience in portraiture
with my passion for music, to create paintings which are not
merely celebrity portraits, but which make you feel you can
hear the music. The background colours and forms, the abstract
calligraphic rhythms in the paint and the gestures of movement
and performance in these works, are therefore all just as
important as the portrait.
Music, movement and watercolour have something in common.
The floating transparent qualities of watercolour can suggest
the transient, elusive nature of music and the illusion of
movement, with a range of expression from the most delicate
tones to tremendous energy and power (cf. the paintings of
the conductors Valery Gergiev or Georg Solti). The inspired
spontaneity with which one paints a good watercolour is very
much like the way you perform music, with all the inherent
risks. My essential source of inspiration in each of these
pictures is the music, but other influences are Zen watercolour
painting and some of the great American watercolourists.
The great performers portrayed were very happy with my paintings
of them in action. Yehudi Menuhin, who knew my work very well
and owned several paintings, once said at the opening of one
of my exhibitions: 'Perryman is a musician, who makes music
with his paintbrush'. That summarises what I'm about pretty
well. It was Maestro Kurt Masur who suggested that I take
this work on tour. Jessye Norman sat for an hour, signing
prints of her painting for admirers, and word has it that
Kiri Te Kanawa had a dress made like the one I invented for
her painting.
I've
somehow developed an ability to empathise intensely with all
of my subjects and to identify with their musical interpretations.
I would like to thank each of the great musicians who have,
sometimes unwittingly, inspired and moved me to paint from
the heart and to give form to these wonderful musical experiences.' |
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