Music Business – Alban Gerhardt

Fitzenhagen and the Rococo Variations

Alban Gerhardt — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 07:50:06 +0000

Wilhelm Fitzenhagen was a young German cellist and composer who had taken lessons with the famous professor Friedrich Grützmacher in Dresden, and after performing at a Beethoven festival in Weimar, Franz Liszt offered him the job of principal cellist there. Simultanously Nikolai Rubinstein had tried to lure the talented Fitzenhagen to Moscow to become the cello professor at the conservatory there and in what I’d consider a very brave move, Fitzenhagen accepted the Russian offer over staying in Germany. In Moscow he became good friends with Peter I.Tchaikovsky and convinced him to write a piece for cello, the Rococo Variations. Fitzenhagen never performed them in their original version but arranged them differently, maybe to the dislike of Tchaikovsky, but for me he did such a good job in “improving” Tchaikovsky that I jumped onto the possibility to record some of Fitzenhagen’s own music when Stefan Lang from Deutschlandradio suggested it a couple of years ago. My label Hyperion loved the idea which is the reason why instead of taking the month of August completely off I had to prepare for one of the hardest recording sessions in my life with the Deutsche Sinfonieorchester under Stefan Blunier.

Recording venue was the Jesus-Christus church in Berlin-Dahlem where among others Karajan had recorded the Ring. Since my parents lived close nearby my mother had gone to these sessions in the early 70ies with me to listen from the outside, awaiting my father who was playing in the orchestra. Quite an emotional feeling for me to record in a venue charged with so much early childhood memory. Considering what legendary recordings had been made there, one might compare the “Jesus-Christus-Kirche” to Abbey Road Studios, except that only classical music has been recorded there (at JCK).

After two very nice chambermusic concerts with the Skride sisters, another Dvorak concerto with Stuttgart Phil and Marcus Bosch in Heidenheim, I had roughly four weeks to learn Fitzenhagen’s concerti Nos. 1 and 2 as well as his Ballade. Fourth piece on the disc would be the Rococo Variations in the version everybody plays, the one by Fitzenhagen. Two days before the sessions started I managed to play through the entire program in a little houseconcert in front of some friends although I had already realized that my strings were rather high these days. 3-5 mm are the normal distance between A-string and fingerboard in the higher register, but mine were at about 7 mm. I had the choice to have the bridge cut down but chose not to as I didn’t want to change the way the cello sounded. Unfortunately the weather became even more humid right before the sessions started and I barely made it through the first day of recording. The orchestra played absolutely sensational, focussing incredibly well on their first service after their summer holidays, playing this unkown music as if it was newly discovered Beethoven, and Stefan Blunier inspired them with his Swiss charme to play as emotional as in a concert.

We got [...]

Self-Discipline and Death

Alban Gerhardt — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 01:12:11 +0000

I had promised myself to start writing more often again but couldn’t keep my own promise. Also I wanted to loose weight and learn Bulgarian which I haven’t managed. Self-discipline, the highest virtue for me because I have so little of it, and the happier I am the more difficult it seems to “stick to the plan”. What to do? Be unhappy and self-disciplined? Not raise the bar up too high? Or just take little steps and do one thing at the time? Yes, this is what I am doing right now; instead of practicing for next week’s duo-concerts with my fiancÃ©e in Cologne and Hamburg I start writing this blog entry in my hotel room in the city of Portland!

Six performances of Prokofiev’s Cellosymphony within four weeks, last month in Stuttgart two with Thomas Dausgaard and the Radio Orchestra there, and four here in Portland with my good friend Carlos Kalmar and his excellent “band”. Few years ago I had recorded that piece, and getting a chance to play it several times in a row is rather exciting – the more I play it the more I love it, a clear sign of a good piece. Already the performances in Stuttgart were fulfilling, I felt I had played better than on the recording, more passionate, more emotional, and technically not too bad either, except the fact that I broke another A-string as I did during the Shostakovich few weeks before that at the cellofestival in Kronberg. Each time it was with radio broadcast, and each time I felt that I didn’t want to bore the audience by me disappearing to change the string, so I took the principal cellist’s instrument and continued. For the Shostakovich I had only 2 more minutes to go, so it made great sense to do so, even though the cello wasn’t any good, but for the Prokofiev I hated myself for having done the same as the mishap took place during the second movement, and I still had about 20 minutes to play quite many notes…

I survived and audiences seem to like when these things happen – besides that I don’t mind making a point that at the end of the day the instrument doesn’t matter so much, that you can get something out of every cello. A good cello is helpful, it inspires you to do better, but at the same time a bad cello can challenge you to work harder which is not a bad side-effect. As I had mentioned in my previous blog which I wrote on my way from Manchester to Kronberg, I had great respect playing there and more so teaching in front of a very knowledgeable crowd, and while the playing was alright, my teaching was really sub-par. Funny, when I get nervous it doesn’t affect my playing much except that the vibrato is getting a bit faster, but for teaching it really has a negative affect. Why? Because I have far more experience performing under [...]

Musical Projects auf deutsch

Alban Gerhardt — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:07:08 +0000

Musical Projects

Nach Konzerten in Spanien kommt man meistens eher spÃ¤t ins Bett. ZunÃ¤chst fangen musikalische Veranstaltungen offiziell erst um 20h30 oder sogar 22h30 an, und zwar bestimmt nicht pÃ¼nktlich, dann sind die ZuhÃ¶rer und Orchestermitglieder weniger scheu, nach dem Konzert noch mit dem vÃ¶llig durchgeschwitzten Cellisten (in diesem Falle stand Â Prokofiev’s Monster-Cellosinfonie auf dem Programm, also FlÃ¼ssigkeiten im Ãœberfluss….) Ã¼ber alle mÃ¶glichen und unmÃ¶glichen Dinge zu sprechen, und schlussendlich gibt es insbesondere in StÃ¤dten am Meer (in meinem Falle La Coruna) groÃŸartige Restaurants, in denen dann zu spÃ¤tester Stunde (ab Mitternacht) noch meeresfrÃ¼chtelnde Festmahle mit frÃ¶hlich sprudelnder Weinquelle unmÃ¶glich vermieden werden kÃ¶nnen, da man die groÃŸzÃ¼gigen Gastgeber nicht vor den Kopf stossen mÃ¶chte; nur nebenbei sei erwÃ¤hnt, dass es gerade diese spÃ¤tabendlichen kulinarischen AktivitÃ¤ten sind, die mich bei Konzertangeboten aus Spanien ohne zu ZÃ¶gern immer zusagen lassen 🙂 Hinzu kommt, dass die QualitÃ¤t der Orchester in den letzten Jahren derart gewachsen ist, dass diese sich auch vor verwÃ¶hnten deutschen Ohren Ã¼berhaupt nicht verstecken mÃ¼ssen, ganz im Gegenteil. Selten ertÃ¶nte die beliebte “Peter-und-der-Wolf”-Blech-Stelle im letzten Satz derart klangschÃ¶n und prÃ¤zise wie gestern in La Coruna. Um 2h20 Uhr fiel ich todmÃ¼de nach einem langen Tag (vormittags hatte ich noch im 80km entfernten Santiago de Compostela eine fÃ¼nfstÃ¼ndige Masterclass gegeben) ins Bett, nur um drei Stunden spÃ¤ter schon wieder aufstehen zu dÃ¼rfen, fÃ¼r den Flieger, der mich in HerrgottsfrÃ¼he zurÃ¼ck in die Heimat fliegen sollte – was tut man nicht alles, um mit dem einzigen Sohn noch am Nachmittag ins Kino gehen zu kÃ¶nnen.

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. Â Ich wÃ¼rde am liebsten das Wort “Projekt” zum Unwort im Zusammenhang mit Musik erklÃ¤ren. An dem Wort per se ist ja nichts auszusetzen, allein was sich dahinter verbirgt ist oft derart vordergrÃ¼ndiges Interessantmachen ansonsten oft vÃ¶llig 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’ auÃŸerordentlichem musikalischen Genie er es zu tun hat.

FÃ¼r mich ist dies ein weiterer Beweis dafÃ¼r, wie sehr die klassische-Musik-Szene versucht, sich sehr zu ihrem Nachteil an der Pop-Szene zu orientieren, wo ja die Verpackung weit mehr zÃ¤hlt als irgendeine musikalische Aussage, was aber dort wenigstens offen zugestanden wird, wÃ¤hrend bei “uns” dem ahnungslosen Publikum ein tieferer Sinn vorgeheuchelt wird, wo eigentlich nur gÃ¤hnende Leere klafft. Â 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 VerkÃ¼mmerung der subtileren HÃ¶r- und RezeptionsfÃ¤higkeit. Wie man dem entgegen arbeiten kann? Projekte mit musikalischem Inhalt? Gute Idee, ich werde mal Ã¼ber so ein Projekt nach [...]

Musical Projects

Alban Gerhardt — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:05:39 +0000

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 abundanceâ€¦) 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.

Seafood and wine in abundance after midnight can’t be denied, since it would be taken as an insult to the host, besides the fact that I eagerly accept every single Spanish engagement because of the food afterwards. In addition to it the quality of the orchestras in Spain has risen so high that even ears spoilt by Berlin Philharmonic are smiling after concerts – rarely have I heard the “Peter-and-the-Wolf”-choral towards the end of the last movement as well played as last night in La Coruna. At 2h20 I made it into my bed, only to get up three hours later for my early morning flight back home – what doesn’t a father sacrifice to go to the movies with his son in the afternoon.

During the three-hour stop-over in Madrid I found quickly the time to answer a questionaire of the Orchestre Suisse Romande via E-mail. Question No.11 ranks among my all-time favorite: one musical project. Oh, I really don’t like that term, I am so sorry, but far too often do uninteresting musicians, who haven’t managed to say much with their music-making, hide behind so-called “musical projects”. In many cases a rather unsubtile story is trying to suggest some deeper meaning of the interpretation, so that even a deaf person could understand the musical genius at work, while there is actually just a big void under the pretty surface, an emptiness which can make the greatest piece of music sound dull.

For me another proof how the classic music scene is taking the pop scene as a role model, where the packaging counts much more than any musical message, but at least they are open about it. The people behind it truly believe the’ll save classical music (from what? Annihilation?) and I can’t deny the general audience’s tendency to go for the superficial storytelling and the bigger events (small recital series are seriously suffering), but the question remains if classical music will be saved by it or maybe rather forgotten in the process? Rising cd-sales happening together with the reduced ability to really listen to any musical content. What to do? Projects with musical content? Good idea – I’ll start thinking about it, and when I find something, I’ll get back to you 🙂

Teaching and Performing

Alban Gerhardt — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:47:48 +0000

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 happenâ€¦). 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, playedÂ 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 [...]

Breaking Bows and Strings in London

Alban Gerhardt — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:23:12 +0000

“What a passionate performance! You must be a very passionate man?” was the question (in French, oh mon Dieuâ€¦) 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??Nine years ago I had bought this gorgeous bow made by Nikolaus Kittel, the Russian “Tourte” as he has also been labeled, which broke three months afterwards. I couldn’t believe it and actually broke into tears because this bow was the first “thing” I really loved. I felt (and still do feel it) that he is the perfect alongation of my arm, and that all the music and sounds I want to create go directly from my arm through the bow into the string. Hans-Carl Schmidt in Dresden fixed it back then and it held up for 3 years, then broke again. My violinmaker in Berlin did the next few jobs, because every other year it would give in into the stress of being played every day for many hours in, yes, let’s call it a passionate way.

Unfortunately in the past two months it has broken three times, and I must admit that this is getting even by my standards a bit too much. Last month I saw my luthier Ingeborg Behnke fix it with superglue, so when my Kittel broke again two weeks ago in Kansas City, I bought myself some and glued it myself. Obviously not as well as she did, because this morning it happened again. Immediately I put the superglue with which I am travelling these days (top of the check-list, even before passport!) on and continued the rehearsal on my unloved substitute bow.

I actually went on stage for the first time in my life with two bows, because I didn’t want to play a for me important concert without my favorite bow, and since the Kittel seemed to hold up under pressure I dared to play on it. You won’t believe what I felt when it wasn’t the bow which broke but a string. But what can one do, these things happen once in a while although it is preferrably if it doesn’t happen during live radio broadcast concert 🙂

I ran quickly up to the greenroom where my cellocase was parked only to find it locked. Dashing back and crossing the stage to get to [...]

ECHO Gala

Alban Gerhardt — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:17:01 +0000

I just finished a far too long day; at 2:30 am I returned to my hotel in Brussels after exchanging the Meeuwissen cello with my Goffriller, packed my suitcase, slept 4 hours and took an early train at 7:18 am back to Berlin. After my flight into Brussels was even cancelled last week and I missed half of my first and only rehearsal for the Walton Concerto, I was happy to take the train back home, even though I wasn’t all that lucky – some problems with the powerline delayed us for an hour. In Berlin I had half hour to shower, switch to a more formal look and drive with my little car to Dresden where that evening the popular ECHO-awards for various recordings were handed out at a gala event in the famous Semper-Opera.

Unfortunately I missed the first half with Placido Domingo and some other interesting performers, thanks to the German train system! Highlight of the second half was a beautiful performance of the first of “Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen” with Christian Gerhaher, Fabio Luisi and the Staatskapelle Dresden with its unique sound, low point a meaningless cross-over number with flute and cuban musicians. A couple of month ago I was informed that for the third time I had been awarded this popular award; first time had been in the category of new performer for my debut with Brahms Sonatas, some years later for the Rubinstein Concerto (maybe best concerto?), and this time as best chambermusic for the Reger Suites which Markus Becker and me which we had started recording 3 years ago but didn’t get released until last year.

I really didn’t want to go since I am not a great fan of big gala events and I was actually just looking forward to a nice Sunday afternoon with my little family at home. But Markus Becker and the lovely people from the distributor Codaex manipulated me in very smart ways, not commanding me, but luring me into believing that I could have a wonderful time at the after-party, meeting interesting people, making contacts while hearing some nice music. Also they did convince me that I should come just to value the fact that a rather unpopular cd like our Reger received this incredible honour, and after all the hard work we had put into this album I overcame all my insecurities and at the end of the day did enjoy myself more than I expected. Thanks for the convincing, and thanks for the award, dear jury (we didn’t get to say it on stage because we were too hungry and wanted to get it over with…) 🙂

Definitely interesting to see how these TV shows are being pre-recorded; no room for error nor spontaneity, people reading their texts off teleprompters and still making mistakes while the audience believes they are participating in one of the great musical events of the year.Being part of an event has become so very important to audiences that they [...]

Correction

Alban Gerhardt — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:28:23 +0000

Dear readers,

I would like to apologize for having completely misunderstood and misrepresented the following facts: my manager had informed me that the Cleveland Orchestra changed the program for June 2010 and that they weren’t going to need me anymore to perform the Concerto by Matthias Pintscher. I assumed by having recently read articles about how the financial crisis affects US orchestras that this must have something to do with budget cuts of the Cleveland orchestra. This is completely wrong, and neither has the Cleveland orchestra laid off anybody. I apologize sincerely for having written this in my last blog without having gotten my facts straight beforehand (no need to look at the blog, I deleted the wrong part). The reason for the program change is that the focus of the program is now the 10th Anniversary of the Cleveland Orchestra’s young composersâ€™ initiative and will feature ONLY works commissioned as part of this initiative. I also owe apologies to my manager whom I quoted also wrongly; she had never told me that this cancellation had anything to do with budget cuts of the Cleveland Orchestra – we had talked about financial problems of smaller US orchestras because of the crisis and that artists, especially soloists might have to be content with lesser fees or might not even get invited so easily anymore, and in my little brain I had put two and two together (added up as five in my calculation though…) and came up with the wrong assumption.

I am very sorry!

Best wishes,

Alban

Time flies, and some cellist is getting lazier and lazier

Alban Gerhardt — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:56:42 +0000

Actually I wanted to write at least a little bit of something after last week’s Brahms Double in Berlin with the RSB, again Marek Janowski and lovely Arabella Steinbacher, especially since it is always very meaning- and also stressfull and special for me to play in my hometown, in “my” hall, the Berliner Philharmonie in which I have heard so many unbelievable concerts, seen the greatest players and conductors, in short: where I received my musical training, at least partly.Thinking of the musicians I have had a chance to hear in there, just to name a few of the real good, dead ones: Vladimir Horowitz, Claudio Arrau (he even kissed me on my forehead :)), Emil Gilels, Pierre Fournier, Paul Tortelier, obviously Mstislav Rostropovich, conductors like H.v.Karajan, Jochum, Giulini and so many others – sooo lucky having grown up in this amazing city with wonderful orchestras performing more or less 10 concerts each week.

I never dreamt of becoming one of the people standing on this stage, and until today it feels unreal and I remember me as the little white-blond boy, sitting behind the orchestra in the choir seats, being drawn into the world of orchestra music. This must be also the reason why I get most nervous performing there. So many memories, so much respect for a simple hall. For me it is just more than another hall, it’s more like a cathedral – music is my religion, and the Philharmonie is my church 🙂

Anyway, I really enjoyed the Brahms; the orchestra played their hearts out, Arabella did beautifully in her second performance of this piece and I just tried not to let the others down – playing in front of prominent people as my own wife and son, and yes, Christoph Eschenbach was there as well as the German actor-couple Andrea Sawatzki and Christian Berkel whom I met once at a party and we became friends since (he is starring in the “Valkyrie” movie which is coming out in December). The difficulty of the Brahms Double is the fact that the cello and the violin have to feel like one instrument (Brahms called it a “Riesengeige”, a giant violin), which means we have to listen very much to each other while at the same time having to play out as much as possible because the balance is not easy with a rather thick and heavy orchestra part.

Somehow Arabella and me found a good balance, at least this is what people tried to make us believe, and yes, we on stage have no idea if we managed, because the sound of especially the old Italian string instruments tends to carry differently. We never know if and how well we match, we entirely depend on outside comments, which at times can be frustrating. Sometimes I would love to step into the hall and hear how we actually sound out there, like a painter stepping away from his painting and seeing it from far. No, recordings don’t do [...]

Being or at least acting important

Alban Gerhardt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 10:22:52 +0000

Gosh, I need a break – recording one program, performing a full recital with another one with no time in between, wears the most resilient musician down. Last night Markus Becker and me played the opening of the Reger-Festival in Weiden (near Nuremberg), and if somebody would have listened to our rehearsals, he or she wouldn’t have believed that we were attempting to play that repertoire in concert the same day. We had good excuses for not being ready though; both of us just came out of tough recording projects, him doing Reger-Bach arrangements for Hyperion, I did the two very difficult Prokofiev Concertos. But at the end of the day, the audience in Weiden didn’t know about this and deserved a good concert.With the last amounts of concentration left, after working hard all day (again I must have played the cello for at least 8 hours including the concert) we pulled off the miracle and played actually really well. I was especially nervous because it was the first time since about 17 years that I was playing a recital with the music in front of me. I had spoilt myself by always knowing the sonatas I was performing by heart, which gave me another authority and view over the piece, at least this is the feeling I have while playing. But for yesterday’s concert there was no chance to re-memorize the Sonatas by Strauss and Reger in half a day, even though I knew them a year ago. The 5th Bachsuite I had to play by memory since the music is all packed in some moving boxes, but the rest of the concert I had to endure looking at the music once in a while. I survived and the concert is history 🙂

Markus and me had some very interesting conversations at breakfast/lunch/dinner and I wanted to write it down for me to make some sense of it (or maybe some comments of you helping me understand): We are considered nice people, very easy-going, no attitude, no diva-esque behaviour, if somebody asks as a question via phone/mail/text message we tend to respond immediately, we talk to other people as equals, we just don’t feel that we are more special than others. We are only aware how lucky we are to have such a wonderful profession which lets us live well by playing music – and eternally grateful. Obviously we had to sacrifice a lot for being able to do what we do throughout our entire life and we might have worked hard in order to be so “lucky”, but this is a different story. Fact is we don’t take ourselves very important, and we were wondering if sometimes it would be useful to at least pretend to be more important.

We know of musicians who behave the opposite way and who are highly succesful like that; they are incredibly hard to be reached, they pretend to be incredibly busy (even though in our musician’s life there is so much [...]