Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Italian pronunciation: [arˈtuːro beneˈdɛtti mikeˈlandʒeli]) (5 January 1920 – 12 June 1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Biography Born in Brescia, Italy, he began music lessons at the age of three, initially with the violin, but quickly switched to the piano. At ten he entered the Milan Conservatory. In 1938, at the age of eighteen, he began his international career by entering the Ysa e International Festival in Brussels, Belgium, where he was placed seventh. (A brief account of this competition, at which Emil Gilels took first prize, is given by Arthur Rubinstein, who was one of the judges. According to Rubinstein, Michelangeli gave "an unsatisfactory performance, but already showed his impeccable technique.") A year later he earned first prize in the Geneva International Competition, where he was acclaimed as "a new Liszt" by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel, which was presided over by Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The music critic Harold C. Schonberg wrote of Michelangeli: His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired...The puzzling part about Michelangeli is that in many pieces of the romantic repertoire he seems unsure of himself emotionally, and his otherwise direct playing is then laden with expressive devices that disturb the musical flow. On the other hand, the Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache always saw in Michelangeli a colleague, and not merely another competent pianist: “Michelangeli makes colors; he is a conductor." The teacher and commentator David Dubal argued that he was best in the earlier works of Beethoven and seemed insecure in Chopin, but that he was "demonic" in such works as the Bach-Busoni Chaconne and the Brahms Paganini Variations. His repertoire was strikingly small for a concert pianist of such stature for he gradually reduced it to concentrate on specific works. Owing to this obsessive perfectionism, relatively few recordings were officially released during Michelangeli's lifetime, but these are augmented by numerous unauthorized recordings of live performances. Discographical highlights include the (authorized) live performances in London of Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit, Chopin's Mazurkas and Sonata No. 2, Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9 and Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26 as well as various recordings of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Totentanz, and the piano concertos of Robert Schumann, and Edvard Grieg. In addition, his playing of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and Gaspard de la nuit set standards for those works. His reading of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 is comparable to that of Rachmaninoff himself. His Debussy series for DG is something of a benchmark, even if it is sometimes accused of being a little unatmospheric ("swimming in cool water," in Dubal's words). He is also credited with the rediscovery of some works of Catalan composer Federico Mompou. As a composer, Michelangeli arranged 19 Italian Folksongs a cappella for the SAT men's chorus from Trent (Italy). A recording of these pieces can be found on the DIVOX music label. As a teacher, his pupils included such world-class artists as Martha Argerich, Ivan Moravec, and Maurizio Pollini. On September 20, 1943 Michelangeli married Giuliana Guidetti, whom he had met in Brescia, and who had later been a pupil of his. She was a valued counselor and secretary to her husband. She lived quietly, sharing time together at their villa in Bornato, near Brescia, or in Bolzano or Arezzo, and almost never appeared in public together with her husband, so that hardly anybody knew that he was married. From 1970 on, his secretary Marie-José Gros-Dubois, twenty years younger than he, was faithfully near his side. Michelangeli reputedly did not enjoy giving concerts. His wife, Giuliana, was his agent. She organized concerts and dates for him, and also presided over his financial affairs. In an interview, she remembered that her husband could not believe that his concerts were worth so much money. After a concert, she reported that he gloomily said: "You see, so much applause, so much public. Then, in half an hour, you feel alone more than before."[citation needed] Michelangeli was a connoisseur of the mechanics of the piano and he insisted that his concert instruments be in perfect condition. Whenever possible he took his own Bösendorfer piano with him on tour. His last concert (all Debussy) took place on 7 May 1993 in Hamburg, Germany. After an extended illness he died in Lugano, Switzerland. He is buried in nearby Pura.[2] ****** Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was born during the night of 5 to 6 January 1920 in Brescia, Italy. He began his musical training at the age of four at the "Istituto Musicale Venturi" under the direction of Paolo Chimeri. He subsequently went on to continue his musical education in Milan, where he studied piano and composition under Giovanni Anfossi as well as violin with Renzo Francesconi. He obtained his soloist's diploma at the age of fourteen, and immediately launched his concert career. His extraordinary talent was recognized immediately and was first honoured in 1939 when Michelangeli won the first prize of the prestigious Geneva International Competition, whose jury was headed by Ignaz Paderewski. His importance as a towering figure among 20th-century pianists was stamped (coined...) by Cortot's saying: "Here is a new Liszt". The famous words also helped confirm his reputation abroad. He played in England in 1946, and was invited to the U.S. in 1948. In 1949, he was requested to take part in the festivities honouring (commemorating) the 100th anniversary of Chopin's death in Warsaw. In addition, Michelangeli also dedicated himself with great enthusiasm to his teaching activities. His reputation quickly spread throughout the musical world and soon led to his appointment at the Bologna Conservatory and, later, to the Conservatories of Venice and Bolzano as well. In addition, he also gave master classes in Arezzo; Siena, Turin and Lugano. After a health-related pause in his career, he returned to the concert podium in 1964; when he travelled to Russia. The following year he toured Japan, then concertized in the U.S., lsrael and, once again, in Germany. He founded the International Piano Festival in Brescia and Bergamo in 1964, and remained its artistic director for about three years. After setting in a town close to Lugano, in Switzerland, Michelangeli became increasingly absorbed with his search for the greatest possible depth of interpretation, the result of which can be seen in several grandiose concert performances - as concerts with orchestra and in solo recitals - which the maestro gave throughout Europe (in particular, the Vatican concerts of 1977 and 1987, as well as the Bregenz and London concert series). After overcoming an illness which broke out during a concert in Bordeaux in 1988, he returned to his international concert career with renewed energy in 1989. Its dazzling climaxes were reached in two Mozart CDs and in the exceptional Bremen concerts of 1989 and 1990, the Munich concerts conducted by Celibidache, the extensive Japan tour of 1992 and, finally, in the Hamburg concerto of 7 May 1993, which was Michelangeli's last public appearance. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli died in Lugano on 12th June 1995 and was buried in Pura. **** Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was born at Orzinuovi, a small town near Brescia, Italy, on January 5, 1920. His father, Giuseppe Benedetti Michelangeli, formerly a lawyer, used to play piano, and gave his son Arturo his first music lessons when the child was but three years old. His mother taught him to read and write. His love for his father was as deep as discrete. During a period when he was ill, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, together with other fellow students at the Musical Institute in Brescia, used to travel to a distant restaurant by bicycle where they entertained the clientele in order to make some money and help Benedetti Michelangeli's father. When his parents found out that, his father scolded him angrily, repeating that those were not things to do, and that Arturo had to think only about studying. He was around 14. In Brescia, at the Musical Institute, he also met his future wife, Giuliana Guidetti. Musical studies Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli began to receive regular music lessons at the age of four, at the Musical Institute ``Venturi'' in Brescia, with Paolo Chimeri. At the age of five, he took part in the annual concert together with other pupils from the school. He wore a short skirt, the way children used to do by that time. When he appeared on the stage, he stood up motionless in front of the piano stool for a few seconds, then, without saying a word, he went back behind the scenes. Everybody thought he was afraid, and they pushed him back on the stage. But young Arturo retired a second, then a third more time, without speaking, until someone eventually understood that he just needed some help to raise up on the stool, still too high for him. Then, he began to play quietly, perfectly at his own ease. By that date, a local newspaper reported that Little Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (first course, M.o Chimeri) excited the most lively astonishment in the audience for a faultless performance of two studies (op. 409) by Czerny. To the readiness to catch the musical sense of what he played, he joined technical sureness and the ability to communicate his feelings through the sounds. The review seemed foretell Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's whole artistic career. The episode of the stool already revealed single mindedness of his behaviour, a trait which in later years was put down to "a superiority complex." Actually, Benedetti Michelangeli never allowed himself a smile to his applauding audience during his performances: he politely bowed, but his countenance remained cool and unyielding. Applause goes to Beethoven, to Chopin, to Debussy, not to me. I hate when applause is addressed to the pianist, he explained once. Later he continued studying piano and composition in Milan at the Conservatoire, under the supervision of Giovanni Maria Anfossi, one of the most outstanding pianists of the first half of the century, and violin, with Renzo Francesconi. He received his diploma in Milan in 1934, at the age of 14, and immediately began his career as an artist. A life as an artist When Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was to begin his career as an artist, Europe was slowly sinking into the abyss of the Second World War, and an ever decreasing attention was addressed to music. In 1937 he presented himself to the Italian radio broadcasting agency of that time (EIAR, today's RAI) for audition, but he wasn't engaged. Queen Mother Elisabeth and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli remained close friends and often exchanged letters thereafter. The Queen of Italy Maria José, who belonged to the Belgian Royal Family, personally intervened in order to save Benedetti Michelangeli from military service and from the War. However, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli never wanted to leave Italy during that period, despite crossing the Swiss borders so many times to give concerts. The year after, 1939, Adolf Hitler prepared to invade Poland, and the third Bruxelles Competition did not take place. Neutral Switzerland, however, decided to hold a new International Musical Competition in Geneva. Men and women competed separately, as the pseudo-sportive fashion of that time prescribed, and during each round the artists were separated from the jury's sight by a thick black curtain. They played anonymously, and they were marked by a number only. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli played with number seven. On that occasion, on July 8, 1939, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli played Liszt's Concerto No. 1. Alfred Cortot, who was in the jury, exclaimed, A new Liszt is born!, and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was proclaimed the winner of the contest. Cortot gave him a photograph of himself, inscribed with the following dedication: To Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, with all my devote admiration. On that date the legend was born. The newspapers reported enthusiastic comments, and immediately an important Italian gramophone company, La Voce del Padrone, invited him to record for it. Perhaps it was possible that Cortot's comments were over sensational, and other critics were more moderate in their acclaim. A lady, a colleague and competitor of Benedetti Michelangeli's, was reported to say that Cortot's judgement had been probably excessive, since Liszt had been a composer, besides a virtuoso, after all. However, other reviewers, such as Piero Rattalino, agree with Cortot's sensational statement, on the basis of the recording of that Concerto performance, recently found by the Swiss Radio in its archives. First in Europe (Barcelona, 1940; Berlin, 1946), then in the United States (1948), and finally in Asia, Benedetti Michelangeli was acclaimed by a wide variety of audiences, and praised by the sternest critics. His activity in the recording studio continued also with the German Telefunken. In 1949, he was chosen as the official pianist for the events organized in Poland and several other countries in order to celebrate the centenary of Chopin's death. In 1957, the Iron Curtain notwithstanding, he was in Prague. On April 28, 1960, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli gave Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 Op. 73 Emperor, in the Vatican City, at the presence of H.H. Pope John XXIII. His particular bond with the Church of Rome and his admiration towards that Pope, moreover a native of his own land, was later testified by two further concerts in the Vatican, some of which even took place during his voluntary exile from Italy. In the same year (1960) he awarded the G.B. Viotti Golden Prize in Vercelli, Italy. In 1962 he accepted to record a series of eight concerts in Turin for RAI, the Italian broadcasting corporation. Although in black and white, although Benedetti Michelangeli gave strict instructions not to frame him directly and other such restrictions, nowadays these recordings form an invaluable documentary source of his art and his technique. Apart from his usual reserve in allowing the TV cameras to spy the artist's intimate labour from close up, he used to repeat that he did not care about the image, and that the sound only really mattered to him. His unfathomable countenance was once defined the face of silence (Bruno Barilli). However, as it usually happens, they were probably never addressed with the attention they would deserve. In 1964, during his first concert in the Soviet Union, at Moscow Conservatoire, the public was double than the seats allowed. The reviewers, usually quite severe, reported that the listeners were in a frenzy, and commented about the extraordinary range of his talent, the perfection of his taste and the extraordinary richness in his sound. In 1965, his first tour in Japan excited enthusiasm in the oriental audience. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli had an artisan's concept of his job of pianist. To play, he used to say, means labour. It means to feel a great ache in the arms and in the shoulders. He practiced up to eight, ten hours per day, in quest for an equilibrium between the long for the sound effects that the instrument cannot yield and the sensitiveness that allows one to steal the maximum from it nonetheless, as he used to say to his disciples. He used to work on a piece until it was technically perfect, then he began to think about its interpretation. He stopped practicing just a couple of days before the last rehearsal, not to go on the stage with his hands and his mind tainted by the mechanics of exercise. As the years passed by, his extreme sensibility of touch transformed into an absolute equilibrium of the pianistic colours. Together with few other exceptional pianists, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli stretched the pianistic technique to extreme limits, and it is inconceivable that one could do more both in precision, elegance, and powerfulness. He did not love his life as a concert artist, however. His wife, Giuliana Guidetti, was his agent. She organized concerts and dates for him, and also presided over his financial affairs. In a recent interview, she remembered that her husband could not believe that his concerts were worth so much money. After a concert, she reported that he gloomily said: You see, so much applause, so much public. Then, in half an hour, you feel alone more than before. His Last Years In 1968, after the record firm BDM, where Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was a partner, went bankrupt, the Italian authorities sequestrated two of his pianos. He never forgave Italy for such an outrage. Even if he never changed his official place of residence as Bolzano, he left Italy in a voluntary exile, and established his residence first in Zürich, and later in the Canton Ticino, Switzerland, since 1970. In the last years, since August 1979, he occupied a small villa at Pura, near Ponte Tresa. His house was acoustically isolated: nobody could even listen to him from outside. Was that another tribute to his maniacal long for privacy and solitude? (On the contrary, Glenn Gould was a fine neighbour. He even used to organize small amateur concerts with his neighbours in Canada.) He made only a few official entrances back into Italy, allowing a concert in April 1977 in the Vatican City, in the Sala della Benedizione, which is in fact abroad with respect to Italy, and again in the Vatican City, in June 1987, in the Sala Nervi, upon invitation of Pope Paul VI, for a memorable performance for the benefit of the Order of Malta, another concert in 1980, in Brescia, his birthplace, in memory of his countryman Pope John XXXIII, and again in the Vatican, in 1987. He arrived to publish an advertisement in the London Times in 1993, at his own expenses, to cancel four announced concerts, since the organizers had allowed some eighty Italian people to buy tickets. His last public concert was in London, in 1990 He died in Lugano, Switzerland, seven years later, on June 12, 1995, from a chronic illness. According to his will, neither the cause nor the exact hour of his death were to be made known. He is buried in the small cemetery of Pura, near Lugano, under no tombstone. Throughout his life this inimitable and unclassifiable pianist of genius remained faithful to his very high conception of Music. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who cultivated perfectionism pushed to the extreme, will most certainly be remembered as the incarnation of intellectual honesty Sergiu Celibidache (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈserd͡ʒju t͡ʃelibiˈdake]; 28 June 1912 – 14 August 1996) was a Romanian conductor. Biography Celibidache was born in Roman, Romania, and began his studies in music with the piano, after which he studied music, philosophy and mathematics in Bucharest, Romania and then in Paris. One of the most important influences in his life was his introduction to Martin Steinke, who, being knowledgeable about Buddhism, heavily affected Celibidache's outlook for the rest of his life. CareerSergiu Celibidache studied in Berlin and, from 1945 to 1952, he was principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He later worked with radio orchestras in Stockholm, Stuttgart and Paris. He also worked in Britain in the late 1940s and 1950s, due partly to the promotional efforts of the pianist Eileen Joyce and her partner, an artists' agent. Joyce said that Celibidache was the greatest conductor she had ever worked with - "he was the only one who got inside my soul". In 1970 he was awarded Denmark's Sonning Award. From 1979 until his death he was music director of the Munich Philharmonic. He regularly taught at Mainz University in Germany and in 1984 taught at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Teaching was a major focus throughout his life and his courses were frequently open to all without fee. Among his notable students are Françoys Bernier, Jordi Mora, Peter Perret, and Markand Thakar. Celibidache's approach to music-making is often described in terms of what he did not do instead of what he did. For example, much has been made of Celibidache's "refusal" to make recordings even though almost all of his concert activity actually was recorded with many released posthumously by major labels such as EMI and Deutsche Grammophon with consent of his family. Nevertheless, Celibidache did pay little attention to making these recordings, which he viewed merely as by-products of his orchestral concerts. Celibidache's focus was instead on creating, during each concert, the optimal conditions for what he called a "transcendent experience". Aspects of Zen Buddhism, such as ichi-go ichi-e, were strongly influential on him. He believed that musical experiences were extremely unlikely to ensue when listening to recorded music, so he eschewed them. As a result, some of his concerts did provide audiences with exceptional and sometimes life-altering experiences, including, for example, a 1984 concert in Carnegie Hall by the Orchestra of the Curtis Institute that New York Times critic John Rockwell touted as the best of his twenty-five years of concert-going. Celibidache was well known for his demands for extensive rehearsal time with orchestras.An oft-mentioned feature of many of his concerts, captured in the live recordings of them, is a slower tempo than what is considered the norm, while, in fast passages, his tempos often exceeded expectations. In Celibidache's own view, however, criticism of a recording's tempo is irrelevant, as it is not (and cannot be) a critique of the performance but rather of a transcription of it, without the ambience of the moment – for him, a key factor in any musical performance. As Celibidache explained, the acoustic space in which one hears a concert directly affects the likelihood of the emergence of his sought-after transcendent experience. The acoustic space within which one hears a recording of one of his performances, on the other hand, has no impact on the performance, as it is impossible for the acoustic features of that space to provide feedback to the musicians that might impel them to, for example, play slower or faster. That his recorded performances differ so widely from the majority of other recordings has led them to be seen by some as collectors' items rather than mainstream releases, 'one-offs' rather than reference recordingsThe reality is that the recordings and their relationship to other recordings are the arena within which his artistic importance is now judged, while the contributions he made in the concert hall fade along with the memories of those who were there. Notable releases have been his Munich performances of Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, Robert Schumann, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gabriel Fauré and a series of live performances with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. One controversial incident during his tenure with the Munich Philharmonic was a protracted legal battle to oust principal trombonist Abbie Conant that lasted 12 years, with Conant ultimately prevailing. Judge Angela Mack ruled that the City of Munich through the orchestra had broken the law concerning the equal treatment of employees. Ms. Conant alleged sexism in an internet article published by her husband, William Osbourne. Her audition and controversy is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink. Sergiu Celibidache died in La Neuville-sur-Essonne, arrondissement Pithiviers near Paris on 14 August 1996, at age 84. ******Eliahu Inbal (born 16 February 1936, Jerusalem) is an Israeli conductor.
Eliahu Inbal
Inbal studied violin at the Israeli Academy of Music and took composition lessons with Paul Ben-Haim. Upon hearing him there, Leonard Bernstein endorsed a scholarship for Inbal to study conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris, and he also took courses with Sergiu Celibidache and Franco Ferrara in Hilversum, Netherlands. At Novara, he won first prize at the 1963 Guido Cantelli conducting competition at the age of 26. Since after that, Eliahu Inbal has enjoyed a career of international renown, conducting leading orchestras around the world. [1]
Inbal made most of his early appearances in Italy, but a successful British debut in 1965 with the London Philharmonic led to a number of other engagements with British orchestras. He subsequently worked with a number of orchestras throughout Europe and in America, and eventually took joint British citizenship.
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Gustav Mahler Symphony no. 1, second movement, excerpt from a 1995 recording with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony
From 1974 to 1990, he was the principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt. With them, he was the first to record the original versions of several of Anton Bruckner's symphonies, for which he won the Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplatten-Kritik. He also has recorded two complete cycles each of the symphonies of Gustav Mahler and Dmitri Shostakovich. From 1984 to 1989, he was chief conductor at La Fenice in Venice. From 2003 to 2011, he conducted a series of the complete symphonies of Bruckner at the Rheingau Musik Festival with the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, concluding with the unfinished Ninth Symphony.[1] He was appointed music director of La Fenice in January, 2007.
From 2009 to 2012, Inbal served as the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.[2] Inbal also served as the principal conductor of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2014, and currently is the Conductor Laureate of the orchestra.
Currently, Inbal is the chief conductor of the Taipei Symphony Orchestra since August 2019, with a contract of three years.
Inbal has conducted a wide variety of works. He is best known for his interpretations of late-Romantic works, but is also noted as an opera conductor, and has given the premieres of a number of modern works.*****
Eliahu Inbal - the new chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic
02/22/2008
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Eliahu Inbal - the new chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic
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Eliahu Inbal, photo: CTK
The Czech Philharmonic has a new conductor. As of 2009, the orchestra which was first conducted by Antonín Dvořák over a century ago will hand the baton over to the Israeli conductor Eliahu Inbal. The orchestra’s general director, Václav Riedlbauch, explains his selection criteria:
“To be the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic is a very special thing. It isn’t for everyone. I can quickly explain to you our criteria: first of all someone with top artistic qualities is required. Secondly, and very important for us is international renown, this means the name of this conductor has to be known around the world. Mr Inbal is really able to fill both of these criteria, and the main condition in all discussion is the free calendar of the conductor. You may have dreams about who you want, but reality is reality. Many artists, their calendars are completely filled up four or five years in advance.”
Can you tell me a bit about the repertoire you have discussed with Mr Inbal?
“What is very important with Mr Inbal is that he is very well educated when it comes to not only Czech but European culture. And this is very necessary for getting a feel of Czech music. You know, we are a national orchestra, and our main role is to present, both at home and abroad, Czech music - not just classical things by Smetana and Dvořák and others, but new music also. And he is very open to that.”
But now to the man himself. When Eliahu Inbal takes over the Czech Philharmonic in 2009, he will still also be head of the Metropolitan Orchestra in Tokyo. I asked him what he thought the commute between Japanese and Czech culture would be like:
“These are really two very different cultures, not just two different time zones. When I conduct a Japanese orchestra it is always a shock for me, the first rehearsal, because I see one-hundred people silent, as if in a graveyard, and for me, because I am not Japanese, I don’t know what the hidden expressions are on their faces. To me, it looks like they have no expression on their faces, and this is kind of respect, I suppose, that they have for me.
“Little by little, as we work together, they warm and open up a little and there is some humour and some noise which is good, it’s a sign of life. So it’s really another culture, but the work is very satisfying. These orchestras are very serious, very professional, and very musical as well. So the main difference is that when I come back from Japan I am destroyed because of the jetlag. And for a lot of days I just function on half of the energy that I have.”
But what about Prague, is this going to be a known culture for you? Or is this a little bit of a step into the unknown for you as well?
“Well, the language, the fact that I don’t speak the language is of course an obstacle. It is difficult to make contact with every musician personally. But otherwise, we are here surrounded by Middle European culture, or mitteleuropaische Kultur. And in that sense, I feel myself at home, because I have conducted in Budapest, in Germany – all over Germany – and this is the same kind of mentality and atmosphere.”
When you were talking before, you talked about the link between a country’s language and its music. So from hearing Czech, how do you think the Czech Philharmonic will play? And do you think it will be easy for them to interpret say French or Italian pieces?
“Every orchestra gives the conductor certain advantages in some repertories, and some repertories where he will have to work to obtain the specific colour of a different country. In French music I will ask for more subtle colours, for a more elegant way of phrasing. In the biggest part of really important symphonic music, from Russia to Germany, they will be at home. In Prague you are at home with Brahms, you are at home with Mozart – you know Mozart was very often in Prague. And the only thing you could say is maybe with French and Spanish music where you have to bring a special colour. But, they are musicians, they get it.”
Eliahu Inbal, photo: CTK
But back to the Czech language – how would you say it sounds and the way this is reflected in the Czech Philharmonic orchestra?
“I think there is a kind of robustness and a kind of honesty to it, which is tied to the earth. A kind of primitivism, in the good sense, of real connection to the earth, to the culture, to the folklore, to the body. This is extremely important for this kind of music that we talked about, this mitteleuropaische music. If you take Brahms for example, he had so much Hungarian and tzigane music influencing his compositions. Beethoven also. So, this is important for the whole body of Russian music, Shostakovich, Stravinsky and so forth. So, they are okay from the very beginning for the biggest part of the repertory.”
What plans do you have for the Czech Philharmonic, and is there any one thing you are particularly excited about?
“As I said, I will place some stress on Czech music, because people expect us when we go abroad to play Dvorak, Smetana, Suk, Martinů, Janáček, and we will do that, without any doubt. But we will absolutely present what I call the ‘great repertory’ – from Mozart, Beethoven to Mahler and Brückner and Strauss and so on. We will do that, and I’m very excited about the project of conducting and recording all of Mahler’s symphonies in 2010-2011. Because for me this is always a big occasion. Mahler is the greatest symphonist of all time. What Beethoven was for the 18th-19th century, Mahler was for the 19th-20th century.”
This is one of the Czech philharmonic’s previous recordings of Mahler – his eighth symphony in E flat major being performed in 1982. Prague awaits Mr Inbal’s arrival, and the realization of his plans.. ebay5361