Alban's Blog

Category: Cello

On Tour with János

February 19, 2010

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

February 19, 2010

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

February 13, 2010

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

February 6, 2010

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 […]

Musical Projects

February 6, 2010

Concerts in Spain promise a very late night, because first of all they start officially at 20h30 or even 22h45, often not too punctual. After the performance members of audience and orchestra appear to be less shy than elsewhere to talk to the sweaty cellist (in this specific case Prokofiev’s gigantic Cellosymphony on the program, body fluids in abundance…) about more or less everything between stolen cellos and pulpo for at least another half hour, before one finally moves either with the entourage of the Maestro (as yesterday with lovely Jesus Lopez-Cobos) or some orchestra members into one of the Spanish coastal town’s delicious restaurants.

Cellist on Pilgrimage

January 30, 2010

After spending some cold and wet days in Calgary, where I first played half a solo recital for the sponsors (oh, I was so jetlagged that I got lost twice in my 5th Bachsuite – well, isn’t it a nice excuse, the jetlag, although I tend to get lost in that piece with the tuned down A String more or less each time I have to play it :)) and then the following days for the first time in some while the Dvorak with the excellent Calgary Philharmonic under James Judd, I was supposed to have almost an entire day at home for repacking and family purposes – unfortunately (or finally again!) we are experiencing an amazing winter in Berlin, really cold, tons of snow but with the minor side effect of cancelled flights and long delays at various airports.

If you have nothing to say…

January 16, 2010

… don’t say anything. This very wise saying I kept in mind for the last few weeks, not writing a single sentence in this little blog here – batteries and head empty, time for retreat and recharging the run-down, abused system. One of my tricks how to deal with the stress of performing and travelling, the tristesse of being alone and without family, is simple: I ignore it, I pretend it doesn’t exist, I ask from myself to be superhuman – but at the end of the day, I am not, and I felt it very strongly after my last performance in Frankfurt on December 19 with two Boccherini Concertos (radio orchestra and Markus Stenz were my partners – don’t remember how it went at all, everything blanked out). I was ready for a good rest, and luckily enough I didn’t have to look at my cello for three weeks altogether, just enjoying the Christmas days in the circle of my rather large family (4 sibblings with tons of kids on their own) and my little one at home. Even New Year’s celebration was very calm but beautiful, with a very good friend coming over with his family, cooking together, drinking, talking, playing games – and suddenly it was midnight and for once we all went to bed early.

With good reason: we had a plane to catch the next morning at 10 am. No, not the first concert of the year, God no, but something much better: skiing in France, in one of the biggest ski resorts of the world with 420km of pistes. Soooo much fun, great weather (or at least most of it), pretty cold, but incredible skiing with more pistes than I could ever have dreamt of. My son János and me went for it all day long, hardly ever repeating a piste twice going down like little devils, which wasn’t too dangerous because the strangely enough there weren’t too many people around. What better thing to do for getting your energy back?! 7 hours a day in the open, fresh mountain air, sleeping 10 hours every night, cooking, reading, playing cards while not skiing – and the most amazing part I hadn’t even realized before is that time passes very slowly, which meant these 9 days of holidays felt like a month.

No, I didn’t break anything, didn’t fall or hurt myself in anyway, skiing with passion but caution, and now I am back on track, sitting right now in yet another airport lounge (at London Heathrow) after having played yesterday the first concert of the new decade, the Walton with the BBC Wales in Cardiff, my debut in that city, not with that orchestra though with whom I have played already many times, though never in their home town. David Atherton was conducting, and with all this snow having fallen onto Central Europe I was happy my arrogant travel plans allowed me to arrive in time for the first rehearsal on Thursday early afternoon; […]

Teaching and Performing

December 8, 2009

My father is one of the most dedicated teachers I have ever come across. Since more or less 50 years he has tought the violin, starting at the tender age of 17, and now, after retiring from playing in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for 43 years, he will still have his students at the UdK in Berlin as well as his work with the German Youth Orchestra to make a smooth transition into full retirement (as if this would ever happen…). His dedication and enthusiasm for teaching has made a very big impression on me with a very funny affect: I love to teach, and I grab any possibility of a masterclass to teach – nevertheless because of my father’s dedication I refuse to take a teaching position. I would not be able to fulfill it with the same responsability and care he has shown and which I am convinced is necessary; students seek and need a lot of attention and help, and with me travelling extensively and trying to be as dedicated a father as I can be, I know some of the three things (family, playing, teaching) if not all three would suffer.

This said it might explain why I agreed to accept to teach two masterclasses and play two concerts in two rather different cities within 34 hours this passed weekend: on Saturday I tought four (highly gifted) cellists from the New World Symphony from 11am-2pm in Miami Beach, played  the same evening the second concert of our Haydn D Major, flew Sunday very early (after a delightful late-night party with the young players of this highly inspiring orchestra – their Brahms IV had great passion and emotion in a way of a youth orchestra, but with the perfection of a professional group) to Montreal, rehearsed with Cecile Licad and played an afternoon recital, attended the reception afterwards and then tought 4 students of Matt Haimowitz from 7-9pm.

To be honest I feel rather inadequate at teaching; I know that I can analyze technical problems very well, and because of the excellent teachers I had (especially Markus Nyikos in Berlin) I can also explain and solve them. But as soon as it comes to music I feel much less able to help the players. Different reasons: first of all I don’t really like any kind of pretentious talk about music – using metaphors and images which sound good in theory and might make the teacher look good don’t really help the student much, at least in my experience. Well, let me rephrase it: I have heard numerous times empty musical comments from teachers, conductors and musicians in my life that I have become a bit allergic against meaningless images. But there are some who are masters in using them, and I have greatest respect when somebody manages to put a musical thought into words in a way, that a gifted student (or orchestra musician) can actually change the way he or her plays a certain phrase.

Carlos […]

Elgar in Rhode Island with the substitute bow

November 22, 2009

Larry Rachleff, the conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic, told the audience in the post-concert talk that I did these two concerts in Providence as a “run-out” from Berlin which is actually nicely put – it almost feels like that, and I love it. My manager once asked me if she should connect the dates in the US so that I don’t have to fly for single engagements across the Atlantic, and I declined that offer because it would mean that I have at least three free days in between, and in these three days I could be home, practising the piano with my son… 🙂

Breaking Bows and Strings in London

October 26, 2009

“What a passionate performance! You must be a very passionate man?” was the question (in French, oh mon Dieu…) in a radio interview during intermission in Brussels ten days ago. My answer wasn’t flattering to myself, but what do you expect me to say? “No, I am not passionate at all, rather very boring.” Well, this is what I answer when I am being asked questions like that, especially since I felt pretty empty and thus boring after the Walton performance. I had to think of this interview because today I did something seemingly very passionate: first my bow broke in the middle of the first movement of Brahms’ F-Major Sonata during my rehearsal with Steven Osborne two hours prior to our lunchtime concert at the Wigmore Hall in London, and then, within 2 minutes of our live-broadcast concert my D String broke. Passion? Or just bad luck??