In April, world number one pianist, Martha Argerich, will open the InClassica International Music Festival in Malta (one of the major classical music events in Europe) in a duet with the renowned Swiss violinist, Maria Solozobova. Their concert programme will include “Seascapes” by the festival’s resident composer, Alexey Shor, and Prokofiev’s “Second Sonata in D major”, which was originally written for flute and piano but rearranged for the violin with help from David Oistrakh. In this interview, the violinist talks about her amazing duet with legendary Martha Argerich, Alexey Shor’s varied music, unconventional teaching methods and two coinciding anniversaries.
– Maria, together with Martha Argerich, you are set to open the anniversary InClassica International Music Festival in Malta. How do you feel about this?
– Martha and I are delighted to be performing and we are excited by the program schedule. Stylistically, both “Seascapes” by Alexey Shor and Prokofiev’s” Sonata D major” complement Malta and I consider it an honour to perform at the InClassica opening together with my unique musical partner. Incidentally, by coincidence it is a double celebration, as not only is it the tenth anniversary of the Malta InClassica festival but it’s also Martha’s 80th birthday!
– Is it true that you often perform in duet with Martha the Great?
– Yes, quite often, indeed. We met quite by accident, The stars must have been aligned or something. At one time I had a recital with the South German Philharmonic Orchestra in Konstanz and a friend of ours, a lawyer, introduced me to a young pianist backstage. He said that we absolutely needed to get acquainted, as she was a really great performer. That person turned out to be Cristina Marton-Argerich, who is married to Martha’s nephew.
Cristina and I immediately became friends and started playing music together and this eventually led to me meeting Martha. I have the Zurich Classical Highlights concert series, but it’s not easy to meet an artist of Martha’s caliber so I asked Cristina to give me an introduction. At the time, Martha’s festival was still being held in Lugano, so I went there, and after being introduced, we decided to meet and play a couple of pieces together just for pleasure, at home. We met at her place in Geneva. This is how it all began.
– What music did you play during that very first meeting with Martha?
– It was Franck’s “Sonata”. There is a story to go with this meeting: I got stuck in a traffic jam and was two hours late. Martha is a very unusual person: she hardly ever answers the phone, so she waited for me on the street - I mean, she stood there all that time, the small, fragile woman that she is. I was terribly embarrassed, as we hardly knew each other at the time and hadn’t yet become friends.
When we first played the piece together it sounded so natural I could hardly believe it. We performed it perfectly from beginning to end on the first attempt and then she said, “Let’s go to the kitchen for some treats”. I was lost for words and couldn’t help but ask “Could we play it once more?” She turned around and asked: “What for?” I was again speechless but quickly came up with the answer, “Couldn’t we... Just for pleasure?”
Martha is a true joker. She is so effervescent and has this special sparkly look. She looked at me closely and said “All right” and we played it for the second time, in a completely different manner! It was incredible and I really enjoyed it. She feels music so deeply, so colourfully. Words can’t express how good it was. You really had to experience it to understand it.
– I’ve listened a couple of times to Martha Argerich and her other music partner, Renaud Capuçon, performing Franck’s Sonata. I believe it was originally composed as a wedding present for Eugène Ysaÿe.
– Yes, it was and before she played this sonata with Gidon Kremer with whom she performed for many years. Martha began her collaboration with Renaud Capuçon after Kremer. At the time we met she hadn’t been looking for new partners. I just got lucky because she is an incredible person who, despite being almost 80, is capable of playing like a 30 year old.
– Even more than that, she performs with the highest degree of freedom, with truly unprecedented agogics. In fact, to say the word “plays” hardly justifies what she does with the instrument, as it is not so much about playing music but more about expressing her inner self.
– When I perform together with Martha, it’s like driving a Ferrari. We do not need to rehearse: no one notices if we sight-read on stage. She can sense me - all the tempos, all the nuances - and I can feel her too. That’s why we don’t need to gel as a duo. Martha possesses a kind of magic that she is able to transmit to me. It is so exhilarating to recite with such a brilliant performer! She brings out the best in me. Everything flows: all the rubatos, contrasts, and onstage improvisation. If I was asked, “Would you do ten concerts with her for free?” - I would agree, without a moment’s hesitation. Thanks to her, I can now express myself through my music even better than before.
– How do you feel about performing “Seascapes” by Alexey Shor at the opening of the InClassica festival?
– It is going to be interesting because “Seascapes” is such an unusual, “chameleon” piece. It has several versions: for violin and piano, for violin and a chamber orchestra and for violin and a symphony orchestra. Each time it changes its coloring and transforms drastically, thanks to these various versions and instrumentation. It sounds so very different each time: one can perform it in so many ways that the audience would have no idea that it is one and the same piece. This was Alexey’s concept.
Alexey Shor is a very interesting composer. There is so much freshness, positivity and joy in his music. Many of his compositions, “Seascapes” in particular, belong to the modern genre of music. I do not know of any other contemporary composer who could write in this vivid genre with such an individualistic and melodic manner. With the exception of Shchedrin and his “Humoresque” and “Imitating Albeniz”, I can’t think of anyone else. At the same time, Alexey composed entire musical cycles for piano, for violin, and even for orchestras. That’s a real rarity.
His music should be performed in a modern, non-academic style with each musician interpreting it in his own way. In contrast, when it comes to the Concerto by Brahms, for example, everyone plays it in a common style. Here, however, you can change things slightly. For example, you may play Alexey’s pieces more playfully or masterly - either way, it works. In other words, you can make both candy and cake out of it!
– I have exactly the same feeling when I listen to his music. Once I asked Alexey, why is it that one and the same piece performed by various musicians can sound like a completely different piece of music. Could it be that each of them adds some individual cadences? But, as it turned out, my assumption was wrong.
– That’s the secret to Shor’s music. This is what sets him apart from other composers. For instance, nobody can say that I played “Seascapes'' like Haik Kazazyan or Ray Chen, or anyone else for that matter. I will give a 100% individual interpretation of it. When Martha and I play “Seascapes” at the opening of the InClassica festival it will definitely sound to the ear like something completely new.
– Apart from the concerts, I believe that you will give several master classes within the framework of the Malta Classical Music Academy that will take place simultaneously with the festival itself.
– That’s true. I’m very glad that the President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture, Konstantin Ishkhanov, came up with this idea of Malta Classic Music Academy. It is of great benefit to young musicians. Besides that, it has a very interesting format. It is not like other music festivals where musicians arrive, perform and then leave. In this case the young musicians will have the opportunity to take classes parallel to the concerts, which is a wonderful opportunity. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your students transform into true professionals.
– What is the difference between a masterclass and a regular class in a conservatory?
– These classes differ greatly, because the teacher’s goal at a masterclass is to help a young artist improve their performance technique or solve some specific problem in a matter of just three or four days. That is, to breathe new life into his performance, to make it shine, to increase his or her technical musical skills, and so on - depending on the exact needs of the student concerned.
Obviously, I cannot take on a student knowing that we are going to have only five musical lessons or so, and practice with him the same way as I would do with my students in Lausanne, who, I know, will study with me for another five years. It is all very succinct, when it comes to a masterclass. The real art here is to identify and elaborate all the key points into a tight timeframe. To optimize the time available there are no scales, no etudes, and no passages: when applying my own teaching method, I prefer to explain certain techniques through actually playing some exemplary musical pieces.
I teach a certain performance technique that suits the very essence of this or that composition and the composer’s idea behind it. I see no sense in telling students: “look, here the composer had fallen in love, here he was in a joyful mood, so here you need to play more joyfully.” Telling a student “Play joyfully”, or “Play sadly” is telling him nothing. The composer has already pinpointed all these nuances in his music sheets. My credo is about being purely practical, that is, how to solve a problem, how to make sure the musical breathing does not stop and which techniques are to be used to achieve this goal. Many of my students share this approach. I even have one who comes to me from South Africa, from Capetown, every weekend. Somehow she has found sponsors and arrives to have two classes - one on Saturday and one on Sunday.
– I have read memoirs by various violin teachers who made their students pay special attention to scales, learning repertoire and listening to different readings of one and the same piece, and sometimes even singing. That is, they asked their students to sing, because they believed it was a good way of developing musical breathing.
– I totally agree with that and recommend it to my students. Do you know why they do this? It is to develop their sense of musical timing because this is not confined to the bars marked on the sheet music. There is the composer’s musical time: he has placed the bars, marked the rhythm and the tempo - But we are not metronomes and cannot calculate the pause accurately down to nanoseconds, as it would sound contrived - but when you sing, you observe the musical time naturally, as you breathe.
I often wonder what is meant when it is said that a person lacks talent. You can teach a cat to play an instrument, given, of course, that it will listen to the teacher’s advice and have enough eagerness to do it! In our case, everything is based on technique. For example, in contrast to a violinist, a pianist has a more natural sitting position and has plenty of sound-making techniques at his disposal, depending on his own personal methodology. For instance, Glenn Gould played almost from under the piano, but nevertheless, he performed Bach brilliantly and was also fantastically articulate - but if you played the violin like that, it wouldn’t work at all. We have such an unnatural posture and so it all depends on how you were taught.
I’ve heard it said: “Oh, it sounded so amazing! A new Menuhin is born!” but although it is generally believed that Yehudi Menuhin had some kind of extraordinary sound it was all really down to his bow technique.
Menuhin once “overplayed” his hand, but he still sounded great. He had a trick that he had really mastered- his bow speed. It is rather like when you’re sledding downhill and the sled moves faster and faster. When you’re gradually increasing bow speed, the sound becomes more and more voluminous and even if your hand is somewhat clumsy even (if you’ve “overplayed” it and it twitches from time to time), you can still have it all under control by adjusting your bow speed, together with the vibration in your left hand. With that knowledge, all you have to add is taste and style, which can be developed with the help of a good teacher. The end result is an excellent violinist! Again, everything depends on your technique. It is the same story with all bow-instruments, with the exception of cello, as cellists have a more natural posture and their playing technique is somewhat simpler. As for violinists, we have very sophisticated bowing and sound production techniques.
– You’ve mentioned the cello, and it reminded me of Mstislav Rostropovich, who never played the cello during his classes - only the piano. Apparently, he did not want his technique to be copied by his students.
– He had a good reason to do so. One time I performed with Misha Maysky. He is a former student of Rostropovich and had heard many stories about him. Believe it or not, this brilliant cellist once had a broken right wrist and changed his technique to compensate for that. This is why he didn’t want to be copied. If he was a violinist, he would have had more problems with that as a violinist’s tone depends on the bow speed. We pull the bow across the strings from the nose downwards, and then back to the nose, and this path shouldn’t be blocked. If your arm is broken and cannot move from nose to nose, it would obviously cause serious problems but cellists have a different kind of movement. That is why Rostropovich adapted such a playing style. Denis Matsuev also broke his arm once, but that didn’t stop him from performing.
By the way, I developed my system from the brilliant violin teacher, Yevgenia Alekseevna Chugaeva, who is the eldest professor of the Moscow Conservatory and a student of Yankelevich. Of course, I also learned a lot from Zakhar Bron, my professor in Zurich, who made me his assistant for a short time, while I was his student. I also studied with Dora Schwarzberg in Vienna for two years.
– How do you feel about inter-genre violinists, by that, I mean those who are sequencing classics with, for example, Rock?
– Nigel Kennedy is the most ingenious of them. Whatever he plays, especially Bach, he sounds so natural. He has such inherent musical breathing that it literally takes your breath away but if you look more closely at his bow distribution, you will understand how he gets such an amazing tone. Nigel Kennedy is essentially a classical musician and crossovers are no impediment to his performance whatsoever. He plays with sincerity! He is a perfect example for students, whom I tell: “Look how he distributes the bow here, what a tempo!”
Then there’s Vanessa May who studied with Felix Andrievsky in London and was a really good violinist - but the fact is that classical music requires a completely different attitude. When you start performing with sound amplifiers, it is like some organ atrophies inside and there is absolutely no way you could play a concerto by, say, Brahms, after such shows.
– I’m really looking forward to your concert at the InClassica International Music Festival, which year-by-year turns Valletta into a new Mecca for classical music lovers.
– Yes, there really is something phenomenal about this festival. I am deeply grateful to the President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture, Konstantin Ishkhanov, who has contributed greatly to the organization of this event and whom I have already mentioned when speaking of the Academy.
Ours was a chance meeting. I was performing at the Musikverein in Vienna and he came to my concert. Since then, we’ve been collaborating for many years, and I’ve participated in numerous projects initiated by his foundation. He is a truly amazing person and his contribution to art and culture is unparalleled in the modern world! Now, he is bringing together the best musicians from all over the world - both stars and promising young performers. Who would ever have thought such a thing would be possible! Thirty four outstanding soloists, eight orchestras, plus another six orchestras for the Academy - it is truly an incredible achievement! To top it all, he is an incredibly honest and modest person, an organizational genius who has a tremendous love for music.
Only someone with amazing persuasive skills would be able to convince Martha Argerich to change her schedule and agree to come to Malta on the opening day of the festival! We all know that artists of such caliber are not interested in money alone and that some really strong arguments would need to be put forward to get them to agree. Renaud Capuçon could never persuade Martha to play Mendelssohn’s Double Concerto with him, even though she once played it with Kremer brilliantly and even recorded it - but Konstantin and I were lucky. So, see you in Malta! It is a very special place and I can’t wait to be there again!