 WALTMANSEARLY AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC |
|||||||
|
|
home | links | contact | ||||
|
musicians composers interviews masterclasses competitions festivals writings cd's cdarchive |
|||||||
 |
|||||||
|
|
JAN MICHIELS AND PROMETHEUS ENSEMBLE - LEOS JANACEK On this cd we can listen to Janacek’s compositions performed by Prometheus Ensemble, a Flemish based ensemble, consisting of 15 top soloists plus the famous pianist Jan Michiels. Listen to the wonderful French horn, oboe and other instruments, and we know this is a musical performance characterised by youthfulness, freshness and much inspiration. Let us have an (e-mail) interview with Jan Michiels, professor piano at Royal Conservatory Brussels (BE). Jan Michiels and Prometheus Ensemble play Janacek. Jan, please tell us in a few words about your relationship with the Prometheus Ensemble? I’m the principal pianist in Prometheus since the founding in 1993. Since then I’ve developed very intense relationships with different members in this group as a chambermusician. On the cd we can listen to works for piano solo from “Po Zarostlem Chodnicku” / (On an Overgrown Path). Also we can listen to compositions for ensembles. Is there in a way a connection between this piano music and the chosen works for ensemble? The works for ensemble on this cd are all written in this last fruitful period of Janacek’s life. The ‘eternal youth’ in Concertino, Mladi and Capriccio is obvious. The piano was as an instrument so to say a medium for a very personal diary – it is in this way we have to understand ‘On an Overgrown Path’ : the old composer looking back to his (often difficult) life-path. His life was not always a ‘fairy tale’, like ‘Pohadka’… Only at the end of his life we can hear a kind of ‘katharsis’. The works for piano solo are part of 15 miniatures in 2 books. Can the miniatures be heard as a character portrait of Janacek, concerning the mode of expression, the soul of a romantic and melancholy Czech master? In a way are all instrumental compositions little counterparts to his main medium : the opera. His great power was drama in music – as much as in Dvorak, whom he admired enormously. His works for piano solo are indeed very personal and melancholic – ideal followers of the miniatures of Dvorak. As Rudolf Firkusny once said : he caressed and attacked the piano keys with the same burning intensity… Janacek was inspired a.o. by folk music. Are there particular harmonic characteristics in the miniatures and in the works for ensemble, and what about metrum/rhythm? Of course specific idioms of folk music (fourth-intervals, irregular rhythms, flexible metrum) are omnipresent in Janaceks language. But the greatest richness of Janacek lies in his very personal treatment of all this material : he listened first and thought afterwards… In this way we can read his ‘Harmonielehre’, which is very non-academical. Famous colleagues had the same sensitvity – but in a different style : Bartók, Debussy and later on Messiaen. The instrumentation in Capriccio for wind ensemble and piano (left hand only) is unusual or let us say original. Are there more indications in Janacek’ s oeuvre we can call him an original composer? Janacek thought of a ‘miltary chapel’ when composing Capriccio – his combination of instruments is indeed often very unexpected (also in Concertino !). His voice in the 20th century is absolutely unique – it’s only a pity we don’t hear his works so often (precisely because he often chooses unexpected paths …) The Missa Glagolitica for instance is an too unknown masterpiece ! Janacek’s melody of speech, rhythm and pitch of the language. The wind sextet Mladi begins with a melody of speech. Can you explain how this exactly works? And, could this small melody (Mladi, Zlate, Maldi) be called the theme in a composition with much “varietas”? Here we are entering Janaceks composer-kitchen… He had many sketchbooks in which he wrote different sounds he heard in nature, in the street, in shops, in his family, on travel… What happened afterwards with these small motives is the secret of the genius. We can only be moved by the extraordinary directness of his expression – he knew how to appeal to the deepest corners of human existence. Once I heard Italian conductor Rinaldo Alessandrini saying that only Italian singers can sing in Italian language, because only they can feel the (gradations) nuances in the Italian language. Also, I have heard Flemish conductor Jan Caeyers saying words like this. What is your opinion in this matter: West European musicians perform Czech music? Singing and playing is not the same thing in this regard. The singing instrument of a Czech singer is of course more natural than an American one (but listen once to Renee Fleming singing Rusalka… : there are exceptions !). For a pianist : keys and strings are the same for everybody… Music is more than pure language : there lies the enormous power of Janaceks music – his speech-melodies are keys to a universe in which words don’t count anymore… Jan, thank you very much for the interview! Scores for piano can be seen: International Music Score Library Project www.imslp.org. © 2008 Interview Heerlen - Meldert by Frans Waltmans
|
|
|||||
