A group of leading classical musicians tell MICHAEL DERVANtheir personal favourites, offer advice and reveal some tricks of the trade
CAROL McGONNELL
Irish clarinettist
Who do you regard as the greatest living clarinettist?
I guess I’d have to say my former teacher, Charles Neidich. What he’s capable of doing on the instrument goes beyond anything I’ve heard anyone else do. His perspective on standard repertoire, his understanding of a piece in relation to the rest of a composer’s output, and his grasp of harmony are really outstanding.
The greatest performance you ever heard on clarinet?
There’s a busker at Union Square station in New York, on the N and R line, who plays saxophone and clarinet. What he does on clarinet is so fascinating, I’ll get off at the stop just to see if he’s there. It’s utterly unique. I have no idea how he achieves the sounds that he makes. And David Krakauer doing Klezmer at the now defunct East Village Tonic Club on Sunday mornings.
The best advice you were ever given about the clarinet or clarinet playing?
One of the things I always remember is Brian O’Rourke, former principal clarinettist of the NSO and my teacher at the time, telling me years ago not to be too concerned about what other clarinettists are doing, to put my head down, do my own thing, and not to worry about it.
If you could change one thing about the clarinet?
A lot of people are playing on plastic reeds now, it’s kind of taking over. Even the Vienna Philharmonic is using them. I can’t get used to them at all. I can’t get the flexibility I need for extended performing techniques. So a stable reed that could be relied on through all different kinds of humidity changes, and, since this is a wish, one that lasted forever.
The best-kept secret in the world of the clarinet?
That you can pass off a bass clarinet for a violin on airlines that allow string instruments but have a ban on carrying wind instruments in the cabin.
LAWRENCE POWER
English viola-player
Greatest living player?
Very difficult question. There are so many colleagues I admire, though most of my greatest heroes are dead. Tabea Zimmermann, Pinchas Zukerman, Sigiswald Kuijken are my living favourites.
Greatest performance?
The greatest performances are DVDs of performances from the past. And it wouldn’t be a viola performance. David Oistrakh is probably the biggest inspiration in terms of great string playing.
Best advice?
That the biggest thing, in terms of playing with people, is just listening. You really have to use your ears. If you listen properly you can do anything on an instrument.
If you could change one thing?
If I had a time machine, I would go back and make sure certain composers wrote for the viola.
Best-kept secret?
I’m unusual, in that I actually started on viola. Most viola players start on the violin. And the biggest secret is that every viola sounds different. Because, unlike the violin and cello, the viola is not at all standardised in terms of size. Every viola is a different size, every one sounds different. I could go into a shop and play four violas and none of them would sound like any other. There is no standard. There is no preconception of a viola sound.
KATE HEARNE
Irish recorder player and cellist
Greatest living player?
The greatest living recorder player is still Dan Laurin, who was here [in Bantry] last year. He has this ability on stage to be very spontaneous. He’s technically proficient and musically great. He actually makes the instrument sound beautiful – I don’t like listening to a lot of recorder music, but I could listen to him all day. And at the moment I’m a great fan of French cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras – I love his solo Bach recordings.
Greatest performance?
I heard recorder player Clas Pehrsson with lutenist Jakob Lindberg when I was about six. It was an inspiration, the first time I had heard someone really play the recorder. Last year, when Truls Mørk made a return after being ill – he suffered from an infection which caused partial paralysis – he played the Dvorak concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic. The audience was on its feet before he finished the last note.
Best advice?
Preparation is key.
Change one thing?
The cello is a big instrument to get around. So I’d like to have six fingers, changing me rather than the instrument. The recorder’s perfect.
Best-kept secret?
That the recorder is the best instrument in the world.
ANJA LECHNER
German cellist
Greatest living player?
Truls Mørk, because he has a very human way of playing the cello. I really love his sound, and I met him also playing chamber music. He’s not thinking in terms of making a career, he’s just making music. And that is very rare.
Greatest performance?
I don’t go to that many cello concerts now. When I was very young, and went to one of the early concerts by Mstislav Rostropovich playing the Beethoven cello sonatas with Sviatoslav Richter. This was a completely different way of playing the cello to anything I had ever heard before. It was just incredible.
Best advice?
Relax and breathe.
Change one thing?
Give it an extra string. A lower one. And for Bach’s Sixth Suite, a higher one, too.
Best-kept secret?
You think there’s a secret? I don’t think so. You have to find your own tone. That’s true of every instrument. If you want to make music, it doesn’t matter if you play the cello or the harpsichord. You shouldn’t think too much about your instrument, you should think about the music.
CHRISTOFFER SUNDQVIST
Finnish clarinettist
Greatest living player?
It’s impossible to answer that question. There are so many fine musicians and clarinet players. I was inspired by players like Martin Fröst or Kari Kriikku.
Greatest performance?
It’s difficult to say, maybe Kari Kriikku performing the Clarinet Concerto by Magnus Lindberg. Martin Fröst plays Mozart very well. Or Sabine Meyer playing Weber. There are many, many good ones.
Best advice?
Probably that you should listen to musicians, not clarinet teachers. It doesn’t actually matter how you play the clarinet as long as you can tell something with the music you are playing.
Change one thing?
Maybe not the instrument, but I would love to jump back in history and make the invention of the clarinet 100 or 200 years earlier, so that we would then have music by Bach and other great composers from that epoch.
Best-kept secret?
I cannot tell you that!
