Alban's Blog

Trains in Italy and Casals Encores

The only time I took a train in Italy I missed it because it was so punctual. Me with my German arrogance and prejudice that Italian trains must be even worse than at home just had walked too slowly to the track, and right in front of my eyes the train had disappeared. This was about five years ago. Today, when I wanted to take a train to Verona to visit a friend on my free day between the three concerts with the Verdi Orchestra in Milan, I left extra early, arrived at the train station “Cadorno” (the only one I knew) 15 minutes (!) prior to the departure only to find out that the train was leaving from the main station, 5 subway stops away. For once I was in time somewhere, and promptly I get punished.

Ashes over Europe

With Kurt Masur at the Theatre Champs-Elysee

With Kurt Masur at the Theatre Champs-Elysee

What an amazing sensation: because of some vulcano eruption many thousand kilometers away the entire air traffic has come to a halt – mother nature shows us her power again and we have to realize how tiny we are and how much we depend on flying; especially the travelling musician who has gotten used to dashing back and fourth between continents suddenly has to change plans, cancel concerts and maybe even take an unplanned holiday. Did I get affected? Yes, just a little bit 🙂

Sardinia – Heaven on Earth

Father and son in Sardinia

Father and son in Sardinia

If you have ever wondered what to do in a free week – go to Sardinia! After a “quickie” in Geneva (arrival Thursday evening, rehearsal and concert on Friday, back home on Saturday morning), playing the Schumann Concerto with Marek Janowski and the Orchestre Suisse Romande (by the way, probably the best Schumann I have played so far, it felt so free and spontaneous that even Maestro, who normally doesn’t give compliments, seemed happy with my interpretation afterwards :)) I had Sunday to repack before leaving from Berlin to Olbia on Monday. Easter holidays for my son and two weeks no concerts for me looked like an invitation to book some special father-son-holiday.

Prokofiev and Masterclass in Houston

Exhausted and flattened by a somewhat more tiring than usual Prokofiev-Sinfonia-Concertante I am sitting in my dressing room while Hannu Lintu is conducting the second half, Sibelius Symphony No.2 with the Houston Symphony. Oh yes, I would have loved to play this great piece, even asked for sitting in the section for the second half, but then suddenly I felt such fatigue after my performance that I am glad that it didn’t work out (they didn’t have an extra part for me). In Strasbourg I played this symphony after a Dvorak Concerto, but the Prokofiev requires even more energy.

Kommt die musische Erziehung in unseren Schulen zu kurz?

This is an article I spoke for the radio station RBB in Berlin last year, and since I am trying to get politically more involved in improving music education in Germany I am posting this article, in German though, sorry…

Bei dieser Frage handelt es sich offensichtlich rein rhetorisch gemeint, denn dass der Musikunterricht in der Regel zu den unwichtigsten Fächern gehört, deshalb im Zweifelsfalle als erstes vom Stundenplan verschwindet und dies in einigen Bundesländern zu 80% sogar bereits getan hat, wissen wir alle. Die eigentliche Frage, und es beschämt mich als Bürger dieser Kulturnation Deutschland, dass wir sie stellen müssen, sollte sein: Ist uns eine musische Erziehung überhaupt wichtig und wozu brauchen wir sie? Geht es uns nur um das Konzertpublikum von morgen oder gibt es tiefer gehende gesellschaftliche Gründe, den Samen der Musik früh genug zu säen? Nein, nicht um später mehr Profimusiker zu ernten (von denen gibt es genug), sondern damit hier nicht eine Generation heranwächst, die sich nur noch über Playstation und Computerspiele auszudrücken weiß.

On Tour with János

When I announced end of January that during the next month I would be home for only four days, my son János started shedding some tears; he loves his Mom, but he can’t talk to her about soccer, can’t practise the piano with her and besides this, she is a woman anyway 🙂 It made me feel very guilty – this was exactly the reason I didn’t want to become a soloist when I was young, because I wanted to be there for my children. Well, I have managed only one so far, but at least this one has a rather strong bond with his father, growing the older he gets (the bond). And then I had an idea: For almost a week I was going to go on a little mini-tour with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie – same piece five times, only two rehearsals, and all the cities in the same region, which meant not much travelling involved.

Quickly I checked the hotels in the region and “stuff to do” and found out that in winter there isn’t much to do – except the so-called “Spaßbäder”, fun-pools, with water-slides and various other attractions. Funny enough the period of this tour fell exactly during his winter holidays. I admit, going skiing is more fun than going on tour with your father, but it’s better than sitting at home. He was rather excited about the idea, and thus I booked interesting hotels near but not right at the concert locations. The best one we had yesterday, near Paderborn, where the first concert took place: a hotel connected with one of these Event-swimmingpools which was also a therme (hot water from deep inside the earth with tons of minerals) where we went right after the last rehearsal in Herford, home of the orchestra, for a nice swim before the concert.

Also yesterday, with a concert in Minden about 60 miles north, we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves in the water for three hours: timing ourselves going down the slides as fast as possible, playing handball in the water, swimming for half hour in the big pool (ayayay, soooo out of shape…), relaxing in the whirlpools or getting massages under a big water-cascade – I felt like new-born and dead tired. Is that the perfect preparation for the difficult Lalo-concerto, you might ask? Oh yes, it is definitely better than sitting at the computer, the telephone or behind the cello and getting unhappy – spending quality and fun time with one’s most loved person is so fulfilling that I am sure it translates into the music-making.

And as long as I get half hour of sleep one or two hours before the concert I am as fresh and awake as ever, and this I can do even while an eleven-year-old is playing Fifa10 (a soccer game) on his playstation which I wisely allowed to be taken with us. You may not really be interested in the exact timings, I could imagine, but […]

On Tour with János

When I announced end of January that during the next month I would be home for only four days, my son János started shedding some tears; he loves his Mom, but he can’t talk to her about soccer, can’t practise the piano with her and besides this, she is a woman anyway 🙂 It made me feel very guilty – this was exactly the reason I didn’t want to become a soloist when I was young, because I wanted to be there for my children. Well, I have managed only one so far, but at least this one has a rather strong bond with his father, growing the older he gets (the bond). And then I had an idea: For almost a week I was going to go on a little mini-tour with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie – same piece five times, only two rehearsals, and all the cities in the same region, which meant not much travelling involved.

Quickly I checked the hotels in the region and “stuff to do” and found out that in winter there isn’t much to do – except the so-called “Spaßbäder”, fun-pools, with water-slides and various other attractions. Funny enough the period of this tour fell exactly during his winter holidays. I admit, going skiing is more fun than going on tour with your father, but it’s better than sitting at home. He was rather excited about the idea, and thus I booked interesting hotels near but not right at the concert locations. The best one we had yesterday, near Paderborn, where the first concert took place: a hotel connected with one of these Event-swimmingpools which was also a therme (hot water from deep inside the earth with tons of minerals) where we went right after the last rehearsal in Herford, home of the orchestra, for a nice swim before the concert.

Also yesterday, with a concert in Minden about 60 miles north, we had plenty of time to enjoy ourselves in the water for three hours: timing ourselves going down the slides as fast as possible, playing handball in the water, swimming for half hour in the big pool (ayayay, soooo out of shape…), relaxing in the whirlpools or getting massages under a big water-cascade – I felt like new-born and dead tired. Is that the perfect preparation for the difficult Lalo-concerto, you might ask? Oh yes, it is definitely better than sitting at the computer, the telephone or behind the cello and getting unhappy – spending quality and fun time with one’s most loved person is so fulfilling that I am sure it translates into the music-making.

And as long as I get half hour of sleep one or two hours before the concert I am as fresh and awake as ever, and this I can do even while an eleven-year-old is playing Fifa10 (a soccer game) on his playstation which I wisely allowed to be taken with us. You may not really be interested in the exact timings, I could imagine, but […]

Composer and Conductor

Are composers the best performers of their own works? “Children’s Corner” played by Debussy himself – is that the way he wanted it played (it sounds a bit drunk and crazy to tell yout he truth)? Prokofiev or Shostakovich playing their own piano concerti – the ideal performances everybody should imitate? How about Rachmaninov, truly one of the greatest pianists ever, maybe more pianist than composer? Or the famous conducting-composers like Stravinsky, Mahler (are there any recordings of this genius?) or Bernstein – how free can they be with their own works?

Somebody once told me that Rachmaninov was “too embarrassed” to give justice to his own works. Mh, to me his recordings sound noble, distinguished and very beautiful, not over the top and extremely tasteful apart from an amazing technical perfection – if I was still a pianist I wouldn’t mind playing his music like this God himself, but obviously there are many other ways to look at one score. But should we take the interpretation of the composer into account, just because at some point he wrote the piece?

This afternoon I played the “Reflections on Narcissus” by Matthias Pintscher at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the composer himself. Yes, Matthias Pintscher, young German composer, is making a name as a conductor, and after today’s concert I am quite convinced that he will go far. A bit more than two years ago we had our first collaboration on that rather magnificent and difficult concerto, and his development is outstanding. Already in November 2007 (with the Hamburg Philharmonic) he charmed the orchestra and knew what he was doing, but I wasn’t fully convinced of him as a conductor. Excellent musician, but the mechanics weren’t all there. Last May we performed together in Melbourne, already much better, and today – well, I am still impressed, sitting in my plane back home to Berlin.

It was a huge program, starting with Alborada by Ravel followed by his concerto, after intermission “Rituelle” by Boulez, and after another little break “Iberia” by Debussy. Matthias looked highly comfortable and convincing, and the result in the hall (I listened to the last two thirds) was indeed excellent, the audience listened in breathless silence. But back to my old question: how about his own piece? In our first collaboration he didn’t really seem so sure of what he wanted, reacted a bit surprised about my wish to actually follow the (I think excellent) metronome markings he had put into the score.

It is one of the most amazing tasks to put the music you (the composer) hear in your head on sheets of paper, to extract  something unspeakable in some more or less secretiv codes of little black spots onto five parallel lines. To play it would be the easy part – you would think. Yes, it is the easier part, but in my humble opinion and modest experience I dare say that composers are in no advantage over other […]

Musical Projects auf deutsch

Musical Projects

Nach Konzerten in Spanien kommt man meistens eher spät ins Bett. Zunächst fangen musikalische Veranstaltungen offiziell erst um 20h30 oder sogar 22h30 an, und zwar bestimmt nicht pünktlich, dann sind die Zuhörer und Orchestermitglieder weniger scheu, nach dem Konzert noch mit dem völlig durchgeschwitzten Cellisten (in diesem Falle stand  Prokofiev’s Monster-Cellosinfonie auf dem Programm, also Flüssigkeiten im Ãœberfluss….) über alle möglichen und unmöglichen Dinge zu sprechen, und schlussendlich gibt es insbesondere in Städten am Meer (in meinem Falle La Coruna) großartige Restaurants, in denen dann zu spätester Stunde (ab Mitternacht) noch meeresfrüchtelnde Festmahle mit fröhlich sprudelnder Weinquelle unmöglich vermieden werden können, da man die großzügigen Gastgeber nicht vor den Kopf stossen möchte; nur nebenbei sei erwähnt, dass es gerade diese spätabendlichen kulinarischen Aktivitäten sind, die mich bei Konzertangeboten aus Spanien ohne zu Zögern immer zusagen lassen 🙂 Hinzu kommt, dass die Qualität der Orchester in den letzten Jahren derart gewachsen ist, dass diese sich auch vor verwöhnten deutschen Ohren überhaupt nicht verstecken müssen, ganz im Gegenteil. Selten ertönte die beliebte “Peter-und-der-Wolf”-Blech-Stelle im letzten Satz derart klangschön und präzise wie gestern in La Coruna. Um 2h20 Uhr fiel ich todmüde nach einem langen Tag (vormittags hatte ich noch im 80km entfernten Santiago de Compostela eine fünfstündige Masterclass gegeben) ins Bett, nur um drei Stunden später schon wieder aufstehen zu dürfen, für den Flieger, der mich in Herrgottsfrühe zurück in die Heimat fliegen sollte – was tut man nicht alles, um mit dem einzigen Sohn noch am Nachmittag ins Kino gehen zu können.

Auf dem Zwischenstop in Madrid fand ich noch schnell die Zeit, einen Fragenkatalog des Orchestre Suisse Romande aus Genf via E-Mail zu beantworten. Frage Nr.11 hatte es mir besonders angetan: One musical project.  Ich würde am liebsten das Wort “Projekt” zum Unwort im Zusammenhang mit Musik erklären. An dem Wort per se ist ja nichts auszusetzen, allein was sich dahinter verbirgt ist oft derart vordergründiges Interessantmachen ansonsten oft völlig uninteressanter Musiker, die es nicht schaffen, in der Musik etwas auszusagen, es nun aber mit Hilfe einer meist ziemlich unsubtilen Geschichte wett zu machen versuchen, so dass auch ein Tauber versteht, mit welch’ außerordentlichem musikalischen Genie er es zu tun hat.

Für mich ist dies ein weiterer Beweis dafür, wie sehr die klassische-Musik-Szene versucht, sich sehr zu ihrem Nachteil an der Pop-Szene zu orientieren, wo ja die Verpackung weit mehr zählt als irgendeine musikalische Aussage, was aber dort wenigstens offen zugestanden wird, während bei “uns” dem ahnungslosen Publikum ein tieferer Sinn vorgeheuchelt wird, wo eigentlich nur gähnende Leere klafft.  Di selbst ernannten “Macher” glauben damit die klassische Musik zu retten, und eine Projekt- und somit in gewisser Weise auch Eventgeilheit des allgemeinen Klassikpublikums kann man bei bestem Willen nicht verleugnen. Frage bleibt nur, ob die Musik dadurch gerettet wird oder eher auf der Strecke bleibt. Steigende CD-Verkaufszahlen gehen einher mit einer schleichende Verkümmerung der subtileren Hör- und Rezeptionsfähigkeit. Wie man dem entgegen arbeiten kann? Projekte mit musikalischem Inhalt? Gute Idee, ich werde mal über so ein Projekt nach […]