At times during hectic and freezing Chicago winters, I often find myself threatening to turn off my electronic devices, pack my bags, and take myself and my cello to the south of France (sometimes I say Provence, but sometimes I also say Tuscany, to be fair), where my secret wish is to play and practice, unknown and unbothered, in perfect peace and quiet far away from my usual life. Interestingly, this fantasy of musical cloistering in the south of France is hardly unique to me. And now, for talented music students the world over, it is about to become much more accessible, thanks to the newborn Zodiac Music Academy and Festival.

The Zodiac Music Academy and Festival will be kicking off its inaugural season this summer from July 2-15 in Valdebore, France. Located near Nice and drawing upon resources throughout the French Riviera, the festival will invite students and young professionals to take part in a two-week session that will include private lessons, chamber music coachings, masterclasses, and performance opportunities.

The festival was founded by the eponymous Zodiac Trio, comprised of the Festival’s Artistic Director clarinetist Krilment Krylovskiy, violinist Vanessa Mollard, and pianist Riko Higuma. The ensemble was founded at the Manhattan School of Music in 2006 and has gained considerable praise and attention throughout the international community. The trio’s study in Paris at the Paris Conservatory laid the foundation for what has become the Zodiac Music Academy and Festival. Says Krylovskiy, “We had the opportunity to perform in the south of France, and I found the setting so perfectly fitting to artistic growth and creativity.”

While the Zodiac Trio found their French environment to be creatively rewarding, Krylovskiy found that in France, in general, “not many options were available to American students.” When he found himself in a position to broker a solution to this scarcity, he created the festival: “It was this combination of my love for this legendary region and the desire to offer the opportunity for students to explore it in a setting of an intense musical academy that sparked the launching of the Zodiac Music Academy & Festival.”

The festival features an international faculty that includes not only members of the trio but members of the Pittsburgh and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, among others. The festival is aimed largely at pre-professional musicians, and it combines a focus on chamber music with attention to relevant professional and developmental staples; private lessons and chamber music coachings are accompanied by collaborative performances with faculty and seminars on topics ranging from practice technique to musical entrepreneurship to orchestral auditions–a practical and well-considered nod to the reality of life outside the idyllic summer retreat of the festival. Of the coming summer, Krylovskiy says, “We are absolutely thrilled about our inaugural season. The season will feature at least six performances, five invited guest masterclass artists, and nightly chamber music sight reading soirees joining both faculty and students.”

The festival is still accepting applications through May 1, and Krylovskiy is already looking toward the festival’s future. The festival has hopes of operating soon as a tuition-free summer academy, offering its unique blend of musical training, fellowship, and artistic inspiration to students at the highest level.

http://www.zodiacfestival.com/

The post A Musicians’ Retreat… appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Last week, New York Philharmonic Principal Cellist Carter Brey gave the first of his two planned recitals of the complete Bach cello suites. The recitals are part of the New York Philharmonic’s month-long “Bach Variations” festival, which has largely focused on Bach’s orchestral works, showcasing the varied results that can be achieved on modern instruments in a modern orchestra by four conductors who have a varying approach to the incorporation of Baroque performance practice. Mr. Brey’s recitals form a welcome change of pace in the festival, showcasing his own personal investigation of his relationship with Baroque playing. Mr. Brey performed on Wednesday for a sold-out audience to laudatory reviews that recognized his personal relationship to the massive undertaking: the New York Times called his performance a “labor of love,” noting that Mr. Brey delivered “thoughtful, beautifully shaped, alert to contrapuntal lines and overall structure.” Above all, Mr. Brey has been very clear from the outset of this project that he has a close personal relationship with the music he will perform again tonight.

Bach is, for many performers, the most personal of all music in the repertoire. For solo string players especially, unaccompanied literature is sparse and rarely affords the artist an opportunity to immerse himself in a complete universe in the way that Bach does. String players so often work in collaboration with others, and the work of learning Bach’s music alone invites–and often demands–the development of a personal and unique relationship with not only the notes and the structure of the music, but the aesthetic and the flow. The genius of Bach’s music has inspired centuries of study, and scholars have been able to reconstruct the Baroque performance practice with astonishing detail–so much detail, in fact, that a student of Bach’s music can often feel that he or she is duty-bound to present the music as more of a living artifact than an organically performed piece of music. This depth of study is somewhat at odds with the sheer musical impulse that Bach arouses in the performer: the urge to bring forth the music in the most natural way possible, since it often seems that Bach’s incredible suites are in and of themselves a force of nature.

The tension between these two forces–the Baroque performance practice and the modern musical instinct–creates a musical approach that is completely different for every performer. Each player presents a different proportion of Baroque to modern in his concept, and Mr. Brey’s own performance has showcased his exploration of the Baroque beautifully. For those who could not attend the recitals, some understanding of Mr. Brey’s blend of modern and Baroque elements can be seen in the very approach to building the cellos that he performs his Bach cycle on.

As we reported last week, Mr. Brey chose to perform his Bach cycle on two cellos made by luthier Jim McKean. As McKean writes on his website, “Carter’s concept of the music had evolved considerably over the years, and he wanted to ground his interpretation in Baroque performance practice,” and it was only fitting that he turn to his old friend to help him find the right instrument. Rather than seeking out a Baroque cello to perform on, Mr. Brey instead asked that his contemporary cello be adapted into a Baroque-style instrument. Having made the first step into Baroque territory by practicing with a Baroque bow, Mr. Brey wanted to see if it was possible to modify the set-up on his McKean cello to create the Baroque sound and response that he was looking for. Brey and McKean consulted with William Monical, the “dean of Baroque instruments,” to determine what needed to be done. It could easily be done, they determined, with a different bridge, tailpiece, and an endbutton instead of a pin, and maybe a different sound post.

Less straightforward was Mr. Brey’s next idea: he wanted to play the Sixth Suite on a five-string cello, the instrument that it was written for. Five-string cellos are hardly commonplace today, despite the popularity of performing the Sixth Suite. The last of the cycle, it is the longest, most ornate, and is in many ways the most demanding, in large part because it calls for the cellist to play in much higher positions than the other suites do. The five-string cello eliminates this technical difficulty, allowing passages that would be performed in modern practice on a modern cello in thumb positions to be executed in neck positions. McKean had never even seen a five-string cello in a museum collection, much less in real life, and Brey would need time to get his fingers on a five-string to learn the appropriate fingerings. Says McKean, “Adding a new string disrupts a lifetime of ingrained shifts and bow crossings. It would be like relearning to ride a bicycle, but with your hands crossed.”

The project was no less daunting for the luthier. McKean adds, “In some ways it was an odd project; the literature for the 5-string cello begins and ends with one single piece of music: the Sixth Suite. I had just agreed to spend a month making a cello for thirty-two minutes of music. But so what? It was thirty-two minutes of the most glorious music ever composed – and this was a chance to hear it as Bach wrote it.” The process of making the 5-string was an arduous one, and one that presented a host of challenges. As McKean tells it,

It was well after Labor Day before I could begin work on the 5-string. As I was making it, Carter was refining his approach and style, and working with Bill on different strings and adjustments. But I was growing increasingly skeptical that the cello was going to work – the response was too slow, the sound lacking that focus and resonance when it’s properly centered. It confirmed my initial reservations about the cello: that the gut strings were just too short to maintain proper tension….The turning point was when Carter decided to drop the pitch to 415; this reduced the tension even further. The strings were perilously close to the point where even the pitch itself becomes uncertain – it will waver as the bow hits and then pulls the string. As much as he would never say it, it was clear to me that the cello was just not working the way he wanted it to. It was built for a soloist playing the modern literature: sostenuto, with full pressure for the full length of the bow. The Baroque style of bowing is completely different. Carter calls it gestural. It’s almost like plucking, in a way; a firm attack, but then the bow pulls away, letting the string ring (he demonstrates this in an interview on the Strings website). A cello designed for that can be adapted for a more contemporary style, but there’s a limit to how far a cello designed for the Romantic literature can be retrofitted. You can kind of get there, but it will never be exactly right.

The solution turned out to be a fitting metaphor for the entire process of learning Bach as a modern player, a serendipitous solution brokered by blending the most compatible attributes from both eras. McKean ended up using his son’s cello–an instrument he had made with a different sound and playing aesthetic in mind. Whereas Mr. Brey plays the instrument of a principal cellist and modern soloist–made for big playing and huge sound–McKean made his son’s cello as a vehicle for chamber music, not playing to the back of big halls: while he enjoyed playing, his son was not on a conservatory track. The model he used was rounder, with a fuller arch and a deeper channel: “the f-holes cut to make the top more flexible, the ribs shallower for an easy and quick response – it would work perfectly with a Baroque setup.”

And it did. The hybrid cello met with Brey’s approval, and when he played it for McKean to display the fruits of their collaboration, the reason for the five-string labor of love became apparent:

When he reached the part that gives cellists nightmares – the endless shift up the fingerboard – he instead just used the new top string. It was completely different from anything I had heard before. It sounded so natural; it danced. It was as though the missing channel on a stereo had finally been hooked up and I could finally hear the music in its entirety….Making the cello had turned out to be as much fun as I had ever had – designing it, making the composite fingerboard, shaping the wider neck; most especially, cutting the rosette. But hearing the Sixth Suite as it was meant to be – that was a gift. Making instruments in some ways is just a matter of making things right; and this was the way it was supposed to be.

To see more on the collaboration of Carter Brey and Jim McKean, visit McKean’s website. Also check out the two videos below of Brey in which he discusses the history of the score of the Suites, as well as the evolution of his concept from the traditional Romantic performance to one that incorporates historically informed performance practices.

The post Bach to the Future: Bringing Baroque Music to Life appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

This week one of Ovation Press’ own editors will mark a significant item off of his list of professional “to-do” list as a cellist by performing the entirety of the Bach Cello Suites as a complete set. Carter Brey, Principal Cellist of the New York Philharmonic is scheduled to give two concerts: Wednesday March 27 and next week on the 1st of April.

Both of these concerts have been sold out all month, with a constantly growing waiting list of names. This is not surprising at all considering Mr. Brey’s highly-acclaimed status. He has held the post of NY Phil’s Principal Cellist since his appointment in 1996. He made his debut as a soloist with the orchestra in May of 1997 with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under Music Director Kurt Masur.

Since then he has cemented an awe-aspiring performance record that includes the Elgar Cello Concerto (with André Previn conducting), William Schuman’s A Song of Orpheus (with Christian Thielemann conducting), Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote (with former Music Director Zubin Mehta conducting), and the Brahms Double Concerto (with Christoph Eschenbach conducting and Glenn Dicterow as Concertmaster).

With all of this repertoire under his belt, this will be the first time that Carter Brey performs the complete set of Bach Cello Suites. Ticket sales don’t lie: it’s obvious that audiences are very interested to see him perform these staples of the cello literature.

However, just as exciting as the way in which Mr. Brey will grace the ears of listeners on Wednesday is the instrumental setup he will have with him. He will be performing the cycle using two cellos outfitted in the style of Baroque instruments. Mr. Brey has also been performing on a cello with a Baroque setup during NY Phil’s orchestral program “The Bach Variations: A Philharmonic Festival,” which started at the beginning of March and runs through April 6. The premier of Brey with the complete Cello Suites is part of this series.

The two Baroque-style cellos that Carter Brey is using were made by luthier James McKean, who has been a major force in the legendary craft for over three decades. McKean learned from some of the greatest sources of education in the world of violinmaking, including Vahakn Nigogosian whose shop was a destination for some of the world’s finest musicians.

The Nigogosian shop afforded him (McKean) the opportunity to study and work on some of the rarest and most celebrated antique instruments. Equally important, though, was being able to learn the fine points of sound and set up from Nigo, one of the world’s acknowledged experts in realizing the full potential of instruments, antique or contemporary.

James McKean wrote to us earlier in the month about Carter Brey and the cellos that he would be performing the Bach solo Cello Suites with:

He (Carter Brey) will be playing on two of my cellos — for the first five, a classical four-string, set up in Baroque disposition. For the 6th, though, he’ll be playing on a five-string cello that I made for him so that he could perform it as originally written. For me, as a maker, in order to get a clear mental image of the cellos before beginning construction, I asked him to talk about the suites and his interpretation.

In the two videos below Mr. Brey reviews the history of the score of the Suites, as well as the evolution of his concept from the traditional Romantic performance to one that incorporates historically informed performance practices. The videos include demonstrations of specific passages that employ the cello in a “Baroque disposition,” with a matching bow.

Also, check out this video below which shows a live performance of Bach Cello Suite No. 5: Prelude by Carter Brey.

We’ve been extremely fortunate to have Mr. Brey as a contributor to our scores at Ovation Press. Stay tuned for another follow-up piece next week when one of our contributors will go into more detail about the McKean-Brey story, the instruments that Mr. Brey is performing on, and the topic of period performance.

In the meantime, you can learn more about Carter Brey and his scores at Ovation Press by visiting his editor profile.

The post Brey and McKean Bring Baroque Bach to Audiences appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

You don’t have to drive all the way to San Francisco or even Santa Rosa to hear live classical music.

Starting this Wednesday, Aqus will host the American Philharmonic of Sonoma County, a concert that will become a regular feature of the already impressive lineup of musical events at the community cafe.

Don’t worry. The entire 70-member plus orchestra will not be in attendance. Instead, four musicians will assemble a horn quartet and play an eclectic mix of music for Petaluma audiences starting at 7pm. Admission is free.

If this sounds at all familiar to you, it’s because we’ve looked at something very similar before.

Classical Revolution, which if you remember held their first conference here in Chicago earlier in the year, is an organization dedicated to spreading the reach of classical music outside the concert hall through alternative venues such as (*cue fanfare*) cafes and bars.

This phenomenon of classical music moving into settings typically the domain of pop, country, hip hop, and rock isn’t confined to the singular movement that is Classical Revolution. Other groups such as Opera on Tap are doing the same thing, and the story above about Aqus Cafe shows that we aren’t alone in yearning for classical music that goes beyond the traditional stage.

And recently, that revolution has been growing overseas!

A26 WMM 12/8 classical revolution FV 7′ 25″

(07:45)

 

 

The Classical Revolution that started six years ago in San Francisco is now reverberating in Paris. Once a month a group of American musicians perform classical music in a Paris café.

“You don’t usually hear classical music in bars. You’ll hear pop music or rock music,” says Kyle Collins. But these days, he’s trying to change that. An American musician living in France, he is the co-founder of Classical Revolution Paris, which brings together groups of musicians to play chamber music in bars and cafés.

“People can experience music that they might not have heard of or might not have had an opportunity to hear,” he says.

At a recent concert, musicians stood on a raised platform at the back of a cafe in Paris’ Belleville neighbourhood in front of a black board announcing the weekly DJ set.

And while a flute duo played Bach and a violin-viola duo played Mozart, people stood at the bar drinking a beer, or sat at the café tables, some paying attention to the music,others chatting with their friends.

“You know in real time what the audience feels, and how they’re engaged,” says Sarah Niblack, the other American behind the project.

“In this setting, there is no fourth wall. You have to communicate directly with the people who are sitting right in front of you and with you. And sometimes they’re going to talk. So as a musician the challenge is to really grab the audience’s attention.”

But what was even more impactful about Aqus Cafe was that the impetus for the classical music initiative in Sonoma County came not from the philharmonic, but from the cafe owner.

“The idea is to raise consciousness about classical music in Sonoma County,” says Aqus co-owner John Crowley, a big fan of philharmonic music. “Petaluma doesn’t have a venue for classical music so I wanted to bring that in.”

Moreover, Aqus Cafe is built upon many of the same principles of those who seek to spread the word of classical music to the masses. Just check out the mission statement from the cafe’s website:

If we are isolated, how do we connect?
If we are not connected, how do we trust?
If we do not trust, how do we open our hearts?
And if we do not open our hearts to each other,
how will our spirits thrive?

Aqus Café has been created to foster community; it is a watering hole, a gathering place, a conversation room, a wonderful example of a 3rd space. Here, our main purpose in creating social capital is to provide a space for people to meet, connect and get to know each other.

We do this because we believe that to fix the fabric of society we have to first start by meeting, connecting and getting to know and understand each other.

This  is a fantastic example of a social entrepreneur with a passion for classical music, a passion that resonates strongly with musicians across the globe. We’ll be looking at this new series with great interest!

Update from the BBC Proms

With the Olympics having come to a close over the weekend, this article on the Proms (to which the Olympics was aptly dubbed as its more popular “mistress”) was nicely-timed.

Read the full article: “Music Festival Excites in Shadow of the Olympics”

Also from the Proms:

• A Celebration of Ivor Novello
• BBC Proms Welcomes the Brazilian Orchestra for the First Time (VIDEO INCLUDED)
• The Apostle
• Contemporary Lineup: Hodges, Bickley, Daniel, Britten Sinfonia, Rundell
• BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Fischer

The post Cafe Classical’s Rising Popularity (Monday’s Bow August 13) appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

The Oregon Bach Festival is a festival with several focuses, chief among which is (surprise!) the music of J.S. Bach. Although it seems possible to have an all-Bach festival powered solely by the music of the massively prolific genius, the OBT has over time adopted a more inclusive and varied program, focusing on choral-orchestral works (often commissions or premieres) and, notably, on education. The educational outreach component of the festival is perhaps one of its most important facets, as the best way to pass down the love of music is to do it while the audience is young!

The three week festival features not only one children’s event but three: one per week. The July 1st opening gala featured a festival of children’s performing groups, and this weekend’s closing children’s event will be the well-loved “Peter and the Wolf.” This past week’s children’s event is a classic OBT’, a kid’s show called “Buzz and Crow.” The OBT describes their  “Buzz and Crow” show as “a show for the young and young at heart…a wordless act of theatre revealing a unique friendship between two archetypal characters and their music.”

The show’s two archetypal characters are played not by hired actors but by festival musicians. This year’s duo was trumpeter Guy Few and bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson. The show relies entirely on music and physical comedy to keep children engaged–Crow (Mackie Jackson) is the blue-haired mentor to the curious but musically uninitiated Buzz (Few). The annual show was a hit this year; the venue was completely sold out, and, according to Eugene’s Register-Guard, kept the audience in stitches. Children, who may have expected to have been shushed throughout the performance, were encouraged to be themselves, both during the show and afterward during a Q&A session.

The post-show Q&A spotlighted the youngest generation’s curiosity about music and instruments (one child’s favorite part was when Buzz banged on the piano; another audience member wanted to know about the specially commissioned corno da caccia Few had with him). It seems that the Oregon Bach Festival has hit upon a perfect summertime recipe: a variety of music for the adults laced with kid-friendly events to appeal to a whole new generation of classical music lovers. Families at “Buzz and Crow” would seem to agree. Said concert-going dad Brian Kelly, ““We love the festival because we can expose them to a lot of different types of music in a short time.”

The post Daily Bow: Oregon Bach Festival Has Something for Everyone appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Verbier Festival Launches Summer Music Camp for Young Musicians

The Verbier Festival is known around the world as one of the most interesting summer festivals around. Each year, an elite group of young musicians is selected to participate in a three-week long program in Vevey, Switzerland. The program includes masterclasses, chamber music, and joint performances with internationally renown artists. In the past, this intensive musical experience was reserved only for college-aged musicians and young professionals. Next year, however, Verbier is adding a new division to its program. In celebration of it’s 20th anniversary, a summer music camp will be held for the first time from July 7-19, 2013. Check out Verbier’s teaser trailer below!

The new camp is designed for highly qualified musicians between the ages of 15-17. Accepting up to 60 applicants from around the world, students will undergo intense private instruction with former festival artists, play chamber music, and form an orchestra. The conductor Daniel Harding, who works with the Swedish Radio Symphony and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, will serve as the camp’s music director.

This is a valuable and exciting new direction for the Verbier Festival. The creation of this new camp demonstrates a desire for the festival to grow and also reaffirms its dedication to educational goals. I can only imagine how excited a 15 year-old musician would be to fly to Switzerland and work with other exceptionally talented instrumentalists from around the world. Although the camp doesn’t overlap with the academy and many of Verbier’s more high-profile concerts, there is still a lot of potential for this program to grow into something really valuable. I can hardly wait to see what kind of talent Verbier can assemble a year from now! Applications will be posted online staring on October 1st, and the submission deadline is January 7th, 2013. More information regarding the new program will be released throughout the summer, so keep checking Verbier’s website for more information!

The post Daily Bow: Verbier Announces New Summer Music Camp appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Taneycomo Festival Orchestra Tries to Break from Traditional Festival Approach

With spring weather finally setting in and the year beginning to wrap up at some schools, many musicians are looking forward to this year’s various summer festivals. Many of these events provide forums for musicians to collaborate and produce music together, some calling for high profile concerts in elaborate halls constructed just for the festival. Major festivals attract A-list soloists who present masterclasses and give recitals that come with a hefty ticket price.

Unfortunately, not everyone finds a classical music festival enticing. The prospect of donning formal attire in sweltering heat and paying high prices for admission can be a turn off for some who are unfamiliar with the genre. A new festival in Branson, Missouri, however, wants “break the 19^th century traditional that attending a symphony concert is a formal and elitist event by providing an accessible and casual concert series while continuing to preserve these great works of art.” This is the mission of the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra, an organization founded by college music students to give free public concerts in the Ozark Mountains.

The festival’s founder and artistic director, Larkin Sanders, is a 25-year-old master’s student in clarinet performance at Michigan State University. Sanders said the inspiration for the festival was a waning interest in classical music across the country, and a desire to reinvigorate public interest at the local level:

Classical music is suffering all over the country,” Sanders said. “Nobody wants to dress up in a suit and go listen to music anymore. … I think festival orchestras are what’s going to keep classical music alive.

The festival’s first season, featuring both chamber music and orchestral concerts, will run from June 17-30. Applicants will receive lodging through the generosity of host families and will receive travel grants in some cases.

This is a great example of the innovation and entrepreneurship that’s necessary to keep classical music relevant in today’s culture. Rather than merely accept that classic music be reserved for concert halls and those who can afford high ticket prices, Sanders the other students who are serving as the backbone of the Taneycomo Festival are trying to create a new standard. This kind of concert, at the local level and fueled by residents as well as students, can create a feeling of community, in addition to brining in tourism from surrounding areas. The Taneycomo Festival is still accepting application for musicians, and is already looking forward to next year. We wish them the best of luck in their visionary efforts!

The post Daily Bow: Taneycomo Festival Tries to Break with Tradition appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

From Dr. Lars Hoefs on 03/11/2012 at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival, Los Angeles

Besides teaching one of the nation’s most respected cello classes at the New England Conservatory for decades, Laurence Lesser studied with Gregor Piatigorsky and was in fact his teaching assistant at the University of Southern California. His class Sunday afternoon began with a performance of the second movement of Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19, by Laura Gaynon, student of Jennifer Culp at the San Francisco Conservatory, with the fantastic Robert Thies at the piano. Lesser brought her attention to the many accents in the cello part that fall just before the downbeat, recounting his lessons with Piatigorsky and the great man’s explanations of “Armenian accents,” that is, how Armenians speaking Russian in the early 20th century put the accent on the wrong syllable. Lesser even indulged in a hilarious Piatigorsky impression – I get the feeling he’s had a lot of practice on it. Lesser encouraged Gaynon to pizz almost “ponticello” for the opening pizzicato, to achieve the dark, malicious quality in the music. He drew a wonderful parallel to the hammering anvils in Wagner’s opera Das Rheingold. Continuing with the slow movement, Lesser repeated a famous if perhaps contestable story of an exchange between violinist Nathan Milstein and Rachmaninoff, in which Milstein asked him to write a violin sonata, and Rachmaninoff replied, I don’t need to, I have the cello! Lesser worked with Gaynon on rubato, explaining that the term literally means “stolen,” inciting her to ignore the piano part, to not even try and play together. As his ideal model for this movement, Lesser recommended that everyone listen to a live Carnegie Hall recording with Rostropovich and Horowitz, pointing to Horowitz’s abandon, the right and left hands never even playing together. Former Lesser student Julie Jung had posted the recording on facebook only a few hours later, here it is on youtube:

Next we heard the slow movement of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto performed by Lavena Johnson, student of Amit Peled at the Peabody Conservatory. Lesser talked about how this movement is a reaction to the first movement, which is like a machine without rest, or as in the words of Schnittke, “no touch of humanity.” Johnson was having trouble conveying the character of the slow movement, which Lesser explained as weary, ready to cry, so he used a trick that Piatigorsky always used with his students – to play without touching the bow to the string. He actually had her play a few bars this way, without making sound, obviously, in order for her to imagine the sound and character. When she returned to producing sound, everyone in the hall noticed the improvement. Indeed Terry King’s new book “Gregor Piatigorsky: The Life and Career of the Virtuoso Cellist” tells how a 6-year-old Piatigorsky used two sticks to play the cello of his imagination after hearing the instrument for the first time. Lesser told a story of how a young Andre Previn was preparing to perform Mozart with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra. Previn went to meet the Maestro in his hotel room where Szell asked the pianist to perform for him, on his coffee table. At some point Szell remarked, “I don’t like the way you phrased that,” to which Previn retorted, “I’m not used to the touch of your coffee table.” Gaynon had performed the violent outbursts that occur in the slow movement of the Shostakovich at a faster tempo, as many cellists do. Lesser extended to her the counsel he’d received from Natalia Gutman, suggesting that by holding the same tempo without speeding up, the outbursts are in fact much more powerful. She took the advice, and it bore powerful fruit. Lesser also advised that when you find something you do well technically, you can use it to cure other problems. This he illustrated with her bow stroke from the beginning of the movement, which she did well in the upper half of the bow but not in the lower, admonishing her to imitate the success in the lower half as well. And as the hall was filled with cellists, Lesser couldn’t help but repeat another Piatigorskyism: “Never play for the cellists in the audience – they always have another idea.”

Last was Danish cellist Carl-Oscar Osterlind, student of Ralph Kirshbaum at the University of Southern California, performing the first movement of Beethoven’s A Major Sonata. Lesser posed three questions: What is the role of vibrato for string instruments in Beethoven? What is development? and What does it mean to start a piece alone? Osterlind’s performance had relied on a consistent vibrato on every note, so Lesser’s first question led him to consider playing with less vibrato, or no vibrato in certain parts, which made instant sense with the piano part. In asking what is development, Lesser guided us through the remarkable development section of this movement. He explained that the development section of a classical sonata is like starting out lost (most obvious in key), using every bit of information (motivic material) to find your way back home, which is the recapitulation. The metaphor was poignantly illustrated as Lesser talked us through the entire development section, showing how Beethoven is a great dramatist taking us on a journey then delivering us home. He also showed how one of its themes seems to quote an aria from Bach’s St John Passion, an aria with a considerable obbligato solo for the viola da gamba, perhaps too good to be coincidence? In his last question, asking what it means to start this piece cello all alone, Lesser encouraged Osterlind to approach the work as though the ink were still wet on the page, as if he was the first to perform this new work. Lesser talked about how the work takes a while to reveal itself, the opening unaccompanied cello posing a riddle, like the mythical sphinx. The piano then poses the riddle in bar 13, and after the cello’s brief cadenza in bar 24, the movement finally is revealed. And with the authority of Zeus, Lesser said that Beethoven can be beautiful, but never pretty. Looking at a portrait on my wall of the great composer, I wholeheartedly agree – or was Lesser talking about Beethoven’s music?

Special thanks to Dr. Lars Hoefs, who was recently appointed Professor of Cello and Music History at Sao Paulo State University at Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Learn more about him at www.LarsHoefs.com

The post It’s okay to steal, playing silently, and the Riddle of the Sphinx – Piatigorsky Masterclass with Laurence Lesser appeared first on String Visions | from Ovation Press.

Like a flock of migrating turtles, the 22 guest artists from 12 countries and their 45 masterclass students from 16 countries, all with cellos on their backs, journeyed south from the Colburn School downtown Los Angeles to the University of Southern California for Day 4 of this unprecedented, unforgettable, unmissable smorgasbord of classes and concerts, innovation and tradition, eccentricity and humility, all neatly sandwiched under the magnanimous umbrella of LA’s great adopted cello personality, Gregor Piatigorsky.

The morning class at USC’s Newman Hall was taught by Nathaniel Rosen, Tchaikovsky Competition gold medalist and former student of Piatigorsky. The students were accompanied by pianist Ayke Agus, author of “Heifetz, As I Knew Him.” The performers were Nick Bollinger, student of Andrew Shulman at USC, playing Debussy’s Sonata; Allan Steele, student of Ronald Leonard at Colburn, in the last movement of Beethoven’s A Major Sonata; and Han Bin Yoon, a student of Ralph Kirshbaum at USC, playing the first movement of Haydn C Major. Rosen’s class could best be described as, well, nutty. He was a total clown, and the look on young Bollinger’s face, for the duration, was one of complete incomprehension. But there was much to glean from Rosen’s oddball antics. The class was delayed from starting a good 10 minutes, during which Rosen improvised a hybrid standup/cello pedagogy routine. He talked about tuning, recommending we ask two questions when tuning the cello: 1. Would it be better if it were higher? 2. Would it be better if it were lower? It got a good laugh from Thomas Demenga sitting behind me. Working on the Debussy with Bollinger, Rosen repeated what Piatigorsky said of the Debussy – that you have to be two people: one who stays up all night drinking absinthe, writing poetry and moaning, and one who wants to put every dot and 8th-note in the correct place. Rosen stressed how this Sonata was really music of the future, that there was nothing like it before Debussy. In the 2nd movement, where it is marked “ironique,” Rosen confessed that he doesn’t know how to play the character with his instrument, so he does it with his face, by sneering. He encouraged Bollinger to make things as vivid as possible, and pointed to a place in the 2nd movement which should sound like a French drug addict, and from the arm motions, I gather he meant someone injecting heroine? Rosen also showed how Piatigorsky, when repeated the high flautando F-E-D-C# bit, played it as false harmonics the second time. Working on the Beethoven with Steele, Rosen was impressed with a fingering he had never thought of, so he gave Steele a quarter, something Piatigorsky always did with his students.

After lunch we all returned to Newman Hall for a masterclass with Miklos Perenyi, with Robert Thies at the piano. What a remarkable class. Perenyi barely spoke – he told no stories, dropped no names, espoused no philosophies. What he did do was give a lesson in genuine music-making. While the talented students played well, Perenyi quickly demonstrated what they lacked: faithfully observing the details in the score, holding strict tempos, constructing clear and unbroken phrases. The first participant was the Argentinean Marcelo Montes, a student of Troels Svane at the Musikhochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin, performing Dutilleux’s unaccompanied 3 Strophes sur le nom de Sacher. Montes impressed with his fearlessness and virtuosity, but Perenyi’s playing soon exposed the lack of accuracy in Montes’ performance. With his gentle smiling face, Perenyi politely insisted on playing exactly as written, showing how through observing the details and tempo, the music takes form. Montes often played so quietly that the notes were inaudible – Perenyi wanted to hear every note, demonstrating, then gently saying, “It’s so nice.” The same thing happened with Dorran Alibaud, student of Jean-Guihen Queyras at the Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg. Alibaud was all over the place, and Perenyi simply insisted on playing in tempo and doing all the details that the composer wrote, and not more. Next was the last movement of Kodaly’s Solo Sonata played by Matthew Allen, a student of Melissa Kraut at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Allen played with technical mastery, so Perenyi worked on musical concerns in this work by his compatriot. Seeing him teach this movement was a revelation. Transporting us to a Sunday afternoon of folk dancing in rural Hungary, Perenyi made the folk influence come to life, dancing along in his own subtle, reverent, humble, and immensely charming way. The last student to perform was Sayaka Selina, student of Thomas Demenga at the Hochschule fur Musik in Basel, playing the first movement of the Schumann Concerto. Selina played beautifully, but Perenyi demonstrated again how playing exactly what the composer writes, and indeed understanding the intent and expression, results in an elegant, noble, elevated interpretation. I was struck by the realization, while Perenyi demonstrated, that this is Schumann! I have heard the Concerto so many times, but never like this, which seemed to come straight from the deep wellspring of Schumann’s creative genius.

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A surprised Jean-Guihen Queyras walked onto the stage of Zipper Hall at the Colburn School downtown Los Angeles this morning to the strains of “Happy Birthday,” as young cellists from around the globe serenaded him with their voices. If it were my birthday, there is nothing I’d rather be doing than observing a class by this remarkable French cellist. I sat next to Ron Leonard, who in his characteristically unrepeatable macho language sang the praises of Queyras’ performance of the Cassado Suite from the night before; indeed everyone in the audience was under the spell of this dashing, unlimited artist of the cello.

The first student to perform was Antonina Zharava from Belarus, a student in the class of Philippe Muller at the Paris Conservatoire. Zharava performed Debussy’s Sonata in D Minor with the excellent Robert Thies at the piano, Thies well-known and beloved by Southern California audiences. Queyras listened from the audience and halted the performance before the 3rd movement. Equally charming, witty, and debonair with his words as with his cello and bow, Queyras revealed keys to an interpretation of this work which is so often merely played without a deep understanding or clarity of purpose, as well as working on core principle technical/physical problems of cello playing. In other words, everything you could want from a masterclass. Drawing on his expertise in baroque and classical repertoire, Queyras revealed how the cello’s opening phrase in this Sonata relies on principle notes which are either appoggiaturas or their subsequent resolutions. For example, he demonstrated how the E at the beginning of bar 5 is an appoggiatura resolving to D, and occurring again at the middle of the bar an octave lower. In demonstrating on his cello, he leaned on the E, bringing it out of the texture and leaving the other 32nd-notes as filigree.

Queyras explained that music is a physical phenomenon through which our ideas are made incarnate. He recognized Zharava’s physical limitations on the cello, working with her to get deeper in the sound. Perhaps sensing her nerves, he revealed how, when he gets nervous for a performance, he can rely on the clear choices he made in preparing the work. Moving on to the second movement of the Debussy, Queyras stressed the importance of pulse, quoting his teacher Tim Eddy’s phrase, the “inevitability of rhythm.” He requested that Zharava remain strictly in tempo in this movement, and at the tempo Debussy wrote, where he wrote it, as Debussy also wrote in plenty of places where the tempo varies. Most fascinating was Queyras’ singing, conducting, and general body language, which so clearly illustrated the phrasing of this movement – never before have I been so convinced by an interpretation of this Sonata. Lucky for us in the audience, he also played a few excerpts on his cello, extraordinary stuff.

The second young artist to perform was Michael Kaufman, a student of Ralph Kirshbaum’s at USC. Kaufman performed the first movement of Kodaly’s Sonata for Solo Cello, Op. 8. Queyras continued many of the topics he had begun with Zharava, such as rhythm and pulse, characterizing the opening of the Kodaly as a Sarabande rhythm, and stressing the importance of feeling the pulse before beginning the piece. He showed more appoggiaturas (he even confessed, “I love appoggiaturas”), and suggested approaching the second theme as a duet, turning it into chamber music by playing the bottom part with Kaufman on the top. Queyras focused on the bow arm, investigating quality and variety of sound. He explained his concept of sound quality as represented by a seed at the center, with an aura around it. The seed is the most focused, concentrated, pure sound, whereas the further you travel from that center, the more you retreat into the vagaries of the aura. This was applied to the fast notes at the beginning of the Kodaly, and eventually resulted in Queyras revealing his unique teaching method called the “morning sofa exercise.” It simply involves dropping the bow at the frog on the string with an enormous release, the way we fall into the sofa after a long hard day. He recommends doing it 40 times every morning – I have to admit, the first thing I did when I got home tonight was to try a few for myself. He also talked about how we have the option to use the whole right arm or to limit the action more to the fingers, which he showed works well for faster, articulate passages as in the beginning of the Kodaly.

The final participant this morning was Benjamin Lash, a student of Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School, performing the 1st movement of Dvorak’s Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104. Queyras interrupted at the dramatic recapitulation (which begins with the second theme in this work, not the first), asking Lash to take more risks, to get to the core of the music and transmit to us the basic force behind the work. Queyras asked Lash to play as though it were a matter of life and death, and joked about the 2012 prophecy. It was remarkable to see how Lash responded so quickly and eagerly to what Queyras requested. Queyras also revealed that freedom in sound is achieved when you know what the pulse is, something he illustrated to perfection with every excerpt he played, and especially in his performance of the Haydn C Major Concerto two nights before, particularly in the lyrical parts of the finale, when he seemed to hover in glorious flight above an unchanging pulse in the accompaniment.

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