Uncategorized – Alban Gerhardt

Contemporary Cello Concertos in the standard repertoire?

Alban Gerhardt — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 22:13:26 +0000

Sitting on the train that will bring me to my first performance of the beautiful cello concerto by Unsuk Chin this year in Hamburg I started thinking about contemporary cello concertos and the fact that none has really made it into the standard repertoire (and I am not talking 20 or 30 performances, but hundreds). Commuting back and fourth between Berlin and Hamburg between the rehearsals and now the concert – my oldest son had all his wisdom teeth removed at once, and I didn’t want him to be alone at home with that challenge – it gives me some time to not only read the „Zeit“ and take care of old e-mails but also write a bit after more than a year of abstinence.

Asking cellists, conductors or orchestra managers which concerto they thought has become standard repertoire in recent years, the answer normally is „Dutilleux and Lutoslawski“. Yes, two outstanding concertos, inspired by Rostoprovich – almost half a century ago (ok, 45 years)! In the meantime maybe more cello concertos have been written than in the 250 years prior but I don’t want to believe that none of them was good enough to stick in the repertoire. Impossible, there must be some great ones, but most probably they have been forgotten because the next one was written a couple of weeks later and took attention away as it was the latest one….

I am not suggesting too many concertos are being written, but to get a new piece performed which has already been performed once is very hard. The easiest thing is to get the world premier, everybody wants to write it, play it, schedule it, listen to it, write about it. It’s like the world record in some track and field meeting; the runner is proud because he has done something nobody has achieved before him, the organizer is happy (and pays a fortune) as he can claim that at his event this world record was broken, the press is excited to write about it, and the audience is thrilled because they can brag about having been there.

Yes, premiering a piece is an honor and a privilege but it also comes with a huge responsability as it is not another „world record“ but (at least for the composer) it is like a baby. A performer is not the parent, that is the composer, but a performer should not „just“ be the midwife who professionally helps to give birth to thousands of kids and forgets about them the next day (as meaningful as every single birth is for them), but we should be like a god-parent to the piece, watch over it not just for the birthdays but help it on their way to adulthood, at least until its 18th year and beyond, as the greatest pieces need to be kept in the minds of audiences, orchestras, other performers and the media.

What to do? Well, first step would be instead of premiering a new piece every [...]

Last “Artist-in-Residency” in Portland

Alban Gerhardt — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 12:31:03 +0000

I almost continued the Mahler-blog which would have become a text far too long, stopped myself just in time to give my last appearance in Portland as artist in residence extra space, especially as I had some rather moving experiences… A small week of holidays in Sardinia gave me back enough strength for a 15-day-trip to the US, playing a trio concert with my wife and Justin Brown in Birmingham Alabama, Haydn C Major in Portland and Rococo in San Diego. Most importantly, after a 17-hour-trip from Alabama to Portland, I finished off my artist-in-residency with the Oregon Symphony, and this third year was maybe the most meaningful of them all, as I not only met friends I had made the past trips but I played for a big variety of audiences during my well-filled week. First stop after my very late arrival in Portland was again wine country, Newberg – how could I miss that! In the morning an hourphoto 2 with 300 kids and their parents, playing and talking in the beautiful new cultural center of Chehalem, followed by a delicious wine-tasting with a harvest lunch (Trisaetum Vineyard, amazing wine!!!) which ended with me playing two Bachsuites, one on a completely new cello modeled after the Feuermann Strad, the other one on my own, while the evening saw me play a full recital with the solo sonatas by Kodaly and Ligeti, Bach’s 4th Suite and some Tangos with Erin, a violinist of the Oregon Symphony. Afterwards I stayed with the Hallidays, lovely couple, my new-found friends, who own the smallest commercial vineyard, so food, wine and conversations were inspiring and beautiful, pity I had to work the next day otherwise this evening would have gotten very late…

Jim drove me into Portland the next day for an intense rehearsal with the orchestra cellists on some really catchy arrangements for cello octet: Schubert songs, two numbers from Bizet’s Carmen and some Rossini for a concert the next day. Afterwards I got to play for a dance class of a different format: the dancers were men and women of all ages who suffer from Parkinson disease, and after I played the Prelude of the C major Bachsuite a doctor gave a very insightful speech about how dance and music affects the human brain and how this can slow down this horrible disease. photoThe dancers were all sitting in their chairs and moving in a choreography which was shown to them by their instructor behind me very expressively. Watching these wonderful people moving to Bach’s music while I was playing gave me a different perspective on the music – the first suite which I played at the end I have never interpreted like this, rather subdued and introvert, with much more soul (no, not more vibrato, just depth) than I normally would have applied for it. The most moving moment came when a young cellist and the in-laws of the doctor, all of them with very strong hearing disabilities, asked me [...]

Parent time (Elternzeit)

Alban Gerhardt — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 12:55:24 +0000

For four weeks I have not touched the cello, and I didn‘t miss it at all. I don‘t remember the last time I had such a long time off, but I most certainly enjoyed myself, spending lots of quality time with the little baby, went skiing with my big boy for a week, back home doing the household, cooking and keeping work off my wife who had fought so hard since giving birth that she deserved to not having to worry for anything in the house. Why didn‘t I write in the past six months especially as I had kept the autumn rather free for me experiencing this time the first few months of my sons life which I missed with my first son? When he was born I lived with his mother in New York and concertized mainly in Europe and I really only remember very few things about his first months. This time around it is completely different although I have been away more than I would have liked to.

Quite challenging was indeed the preparation of the Fitzenhagen recording about which I wrote in my last blog entry end of August but at least I was home. After back to back concerts in Maulbronn with Bernd Glemser and the following day in Templin (near Berlin) with my wife (only two months after giving birth she was in fantastic shape and played rather beautifully!) I had a rather busy September, going to Australia and New Zealand for almost two weeks (playing the Schumannconcerto in Perth, a recital with conductor Asher Fisch and with baroque specialist Bernard Labadie Haydn C major Concerto in Auckland), opened the season for the Boston Symphony with the Brahms Double Concerto conducted by Christoph von Dohnányi and did another Bach-Trainstation-Tour, this time visiting Munich, Augsburg, Nürnberg, Dresden, Leipzig and ending up in Berlin. I hardly managed to stay away for so long, missing my family more than ever, just thinking about the autumn being very easy helped me through the weeks of absence. Thanks to Skype I could see the progress in the little boy who is now crawling all over the place with his barely 7 months.

October had me play except the Bachsuites in train stations Brittens substantial Cellosymphony in Berlin with the Konzerthausorchester and in Amsterdam Dutilleux‘ gorgeous „Tout un monde lointain“ with the Netherland Radio Orchestra under Markus Stenz. It is always again a thrill performing in the Concertgebouw, I must admit: walking down the stairs to the podium is frightening and exciting at the same time, and these Amsterdam audiences do know how to listen. For the first time I wasn‘t really nervous anymore playing in Berlin, somehow I stopped caring what my father would be thinking of my performance which helped my nerves. Yes, I do love to play for people, but I have stopped thinking about wether they like me or not since a long time, only exception with my father. There I got nervous because I [...]