AMBASSADOR FOR N.Z.

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31628, 14 March 1968, Page 2

AMBASSADOR FOR N.Z.

Russia is “another country to which I will be taking New Zealand” for Miss Tessa Birnie, the New Zealand-born pianist whose international reputation has won her an invitation to tour the Soviet Union from the Ministry of Culture.

Although disconcerted to find that few in her home province (she was bom in Ashburton) know of her progress since her last tour here in 1961, Miss Bimie makes sure there is no mistake about her birth place during her whirlwind world tours.

“No one gives up their roots easily and I always describe myself as a New Zealand-born pianist,” Miss Bimie, who is in Christchurch for the Pan Pacific Arts Festival, said yesterday. She began formal study at the age of 10, but had made up her mind to be a concert pianist some time before. Her mother (“who would have been an opera singer if it had been the thing to do in those days”) thought her acute ear indicated that she would be a violinist. At 14 Miss Birnle had gained her L.R.S.M. diploma and was well known to New Zealanders through radio and concert performances. Now based in Sydney, she is engaged on a “continuous battle against time” to pursue her musical interests, and allows herself only the hope of a holiday in 1971. “Utter Isolation” Complete dedication to music is her way of life, but it is not without sacrifice. “The worst part of a concert pianist’s life is the utter isolation. You are always playing

to audiences who know you, but you don’t know them. I made my friends in my student days, and they are so loyal the friendship remains deep even if I don’t see them often," she said.

The company of congenial people was always enjoyable but life was too precious to be wasted on meaningless party gatherings. One of Miss Birnie's inner circle is her mother, who always travels with her. In the last 18 months she has toured 37 countries, seldom stopping more than two days in each place, and recent

engagements include «ix recitals at the Salzburg Festival. Into this schedule she fits performances with the orchestra she has founded and conducts in Sydney; guiding the Australian Society for Keyboard Music which she also founded; recording; and being her own concert manager. Fatigue must be forgotten, it is only the music that counts. “Play or drop dead” is her philosophy that combats the rigors of travelling—and a determination to progress a little further each day enables her to maintain the research and study which she finds a great joy. Although she has an international reputation as an interpreter of Schubert her “practical repertoire” of hundreds of pieces covers music from 1350 (which involves interpreting foreign language scores) to present-day compositions. Her remarkable memory allows her to master long, complex works which are seldom played, and her concerts often include- unpublished works.

A “pioneering spirit” explains her choice of this arduous course. “I enjoy a challenge and I don’t want to be playing what so many others do,” she said. “But I am no academic—a musician has a special instinct as distinct from a musicologist.”