COURTESY OF HONOLULU SYMPHONY
Sir James Galway and his wife, Lady Jeanne Galway, perform with the Honolulu Symphony tonight and on Sunday.
Galway or
the highway
The knighted Irishman seems more given to talking story than music.
Heralded flutist Sir James Galway is laughing and cackling over his anecdotes of successful auditions and recordings, filled with lots of self-confidence and absolutely no lack of determination.
We've been instructed to use a tape recorder for the interview -- no typing -- and when the musician hears just a few computer keys being tapped, his brogue changes from cheerful to annoyed.
Musical pair
Flutists James Galway and Lady Jeanne Galway with the Honolulu Symphony OrchestraWhere: Blaisdell Concert Hall
When: 8 p.m. today and 4 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $21, $33, $38, $49 and $64
Call: 792-2000
"Are you, uh, typing?" he says, slowly. "It makes it difficult for me to concentrate and you DO want me to concentrate."
Galway's on the phone from Long Island, N.Y., where he's with in-laws while preparing for a weekend concert with the New York Philharmonic.
Known as a matchless interpreter of the classical repertoire and a consummate entertainer whose friendliness and musicianship crosses all musical genres, Galway makes his Hawaii debut with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra tonight and Sunday night at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.
It will be his first concert in Hawaii, a place he's wanted to visit since reading the James Michener book "Hawaii" decades ago.
GALWAY WAS born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where, as a small child, he mastered his first musical instrument, the penny whistle. His serious musical training began with lessons on the violin, but that instrument was quickly abandoned in favor of the flute. When, at age 12, he won the three first prizes (for junior, senior and open classes) at a single flute competition, he made the decision to pursue a musical career. Following a short apprenticeship as a piano tuner, he won a scholarship that enabled him to continue his studies at the Royal College of Music in London.
He later studied at London's Guildhall School, at the Paris Conservatoire and, privately, with the great Marcel Moyse in Vermont.
Galway began his professional career with a series of orchestral positions, the first with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's Wind Band at Stratford-on-Avon. He also played in the orchestras of the Sadler's Wells Opera Company and the Royal Opera House, as well as in the BBC Symphony Orchestra, before being appointed principal flutist of the London Symphony Orchestra.
That led to a similar position with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and then, in 1969, to his appointment as principal flutist of the renowned Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan.
It's the Berlin audition some four decades ago that Galway enjoys retelling. He had arrived right on time, but was told the audition was already finished.
"I said I had traveled a long distance to get there, and someone said I needn't worry because their standards were so high I wasn't going to pass anyway," he says. "Oh yes, the German way of thinking."
The official who refused him his chance was the son of Gustav Stresemann, a diplomat who had served as German Chancellor during the Weimar Republic. Galway, however, insisted on playing.
"I said. 'Proper manners demand that you allow me to play,' and the official said the organization had paid for the trip so they could do anything they wanted to do," he said.
Eventually, Galway wore him down.
"He said the maestro will hear me, so I walked on the platform, and told the guy playing the piano to play the Ibert flute concerto."
Galway had played the piece the day before with the BBC Orchestra.
"Then he asked me if I could play something easier," Galway says, laughing.
The pianist suggested a Mozart concerto, so Galway played the D Major concerto.
"All from memory," Galway says, gloating. "I told them I did all my auditions from memory."
They then asked Galway to play the "William Tell Overture."
"No problem," he said.
Afterwards, they told him to wait outside. When he returned, there were four other finalists. Each flutist was told to play the same piece, but only Galway did it from memory.
"They came to me right away and told me I had the job as the solo flutist of the Berlin Philharmonic and wanted to know when I can start," Galway says.
In true rascal fashion, Galway declined and left the auditorium.
Stesemann continued to woo Galway, who was eventually persuaded to join the orchestra.
In 1975, after 6 years with the Berlin Philharmonic, Galway established a solo career, recording his first four RCA LPs. He also played more than 120 concerts, and appeared as a concerto soloist with London's four major orchestras.
He even performed on several tracks on Howard Shore's Oscar-winning original score for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
THE FLUTE, Galway insists, is "very easy" to play, "except if you want to play it like me.
"I'm a different sort of a pro," he says. "It's easy to get a tune out of the flute. That's why school kids take it up and they can get in a marching band.
"But as soon as you want to get better, that's when the trouble starts."
And "getting better," to Galway, means "forgetting everything else in your life" and play the instrument all day, every day.
"When I lived in Paris, I would start playing at 8 a.m. and go through the whole damn day and never leave my room except to have lunch," he says. "I was learning scales, flute literature, memorizing orchestral bits so I could play from memory."
Galway's father and grandfather both played the flute.
"The flute DNA ran in my family," he says. "I never heard my dad play and my grandfather only once.
"He came to our house because he was dying. One day, he got out the flute and had a bit of blow and that was it."
Galway is able to weave his tales of auditions, performances and recordings (even vacations) into one seamless story. He needs little encouragement to elaborate.
"Ya know what I just did yesterday?" he asks. "I went to a string quartet concert and it was great. They played two great big quartets: Beethoven Opus 18 No. 1 in F Major, then in the second half, the C Sharp Minor quartet, which lasts 40 minutes and is one movement.
"That means the musicians can't tune up, so they have to go where the instrument tells them to go. Afterwards, I went around to see the guys and introduced myself and got my picture taken. It was a great afternoon."
Galway himself owns 15 flutes and travels with three.
"Everyday I pick up a flute to try to improve on something," he says. "The hardest thing is having to go to bed, stopping doing these things I love.
"I thank God every day."
Click for online
calendars and events.
