On December 18, 1919, the organist and composer Horatio Parker died in Cedarhurst. MyCello remembers him by proposing a musical video and the score of his Suite for Piano Trio, Op.35.
On December 12, 1928, the cellist, pianist, and composer August Nölck died in Dresden. MyCello remembers him by proposing a musical video of his Bourée, Op.29.
On December 11, 1803, the composer Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André. MyCello remembers him by proposing a musical video and the score of his voice, piano, and cello version of La Captive Orientale by Victor Hugo.
Good morning Silvia Chiesa, thank you for your interest in “MyCello”, and thank you for the interview you gave us.
How did the choice of an instrument like the cello come about? Did anyone in the family play it? Were your parents musicians?
My parents loved classical music very much. My father was self-taught and learned to play several instruments. My two brothers and I immediately “breathed” music and, thanks to our father’s patience, we learned to read music and sing together at home. On Sundays, we met and had real four-voice choirs. I, being the youngest, had the difficult fate of the soprano line! After these first experiences, we were all enrolled in the conservatory, but without any of us expressing a preference for a particular instrument: the cello happened to me. I was 6 years old.
What is your study curriculum: where did you graduate and with whom? Did you then perfect yourself with other cellists?
I studied at the Milan Conservatory for nine years with the principal cello of La Scala, M. Antonio Pocaterra. But before graduating I moved to the class of M. Rocco Filippini who led me to the diploma in 1985. Afterward, I took several courses, but I would like to particularly mention the meeting with M. Antonio Janigro. For me it was a real turning point: I changed my way of thinking instrumentally speaking and I opened up my musical perspectives a lot. I began to understand what it really meant to be a professional musician and from that moment I began to establish fixed points in my musical path.
Can you briefly recall your career as a musician: the initial stages and then the fundamental ones?
The initial stages were the first competitions as the first cello in the orchestra: in those days seeing a young, female first cello was not so usual. Then the first chamber ensembles and, fundamental for me, the call from the Trio Italiano (with Sonig Tkacherian and Giovan Battista Rigon) who needed a new cellist. They were very beautiful years, even if at the beginning I had to work hard: in fact, they had an immense repertoire and I had to learn it all in the first year of collaboration, a real massacre! From then on, many chamber music experiences with internationally renowned musicians and my first solo performances at a national level. Then the meeting with the pianist Maurizio Baglini marked another important career moment: we have been a stable duo for ten years and have almost 250 concerts on five continents to our credit! With him we built many important things and the Amiata Piano Festival, in Tuscany, which is our musical “son”.
Which CDs have you recorded so far? And with which record companies?
I started with ARTS and the Trio Italiano with the complete Schubert, then for Amadeus Schumann and Bach Brandenburghesi. Then the first duo CD with the Concerto: Chopin and Debussy Sonatas but also a beautiful new release by Azio Corghi dedicated to us. And again Amadeus who, as a duo, gives us a total Saint Saens. Then I began my recording challenge on the repertoire for solo cello with orchestra supported by the Sony record company. The first CD contains the two concerts by Rota, the second Casella Pizzetti (world premiere) and Respighi, the third G.F. Malipiero Riccardo Malipiero (world premiere) and Castelnuovo Tedesco (Italian premiere). But I don’t stop with chamber music and special projects for the Decca record company: All Rachmaninov in duo; all Corghi in the solo/chamber music field; Haydn’s Concerto in C major; Schubert’s Quintet.
We come to the twentieth century: a courageous choice, almost against the grain. Do you want to talk about it? The motivations, the difficulties but also the results obtained?
In fact, there are not many musicians interested in this repertoire: I believe that it is considered by many to be of little success and certainly not part of the usual repertoire, therefore tiring to study and program. However, I have a real passion for these authors: I discovered that they left us extraordinary music and that it just needed to be brought to life again. And here is my commitment, planned over eight years which gave birth to eight solo concerts by Italian composers from 1925 to 1974: a real discovery for me and for many experts. A difficult but exciting project in the moments of study and recording. Many people have contacted me for information and many interested artistic directors have invited me for my first performances abroad. Of course, there were difficulties, but when you truly believe in something that goes beyond your own personal success, you overcome any obstacle.
They wrote about her that she is “the lady of Italian sound” and also “an ambassador of Italian music in the world”. Do you recognize yourself in these definitions?
I’m flattered by it. I can only say that I put passion into it, a great curiosity, and the true and profound need to make everyone understand that Italy boasts composers of the highest level, who have been unjustly forgotten. Technically, what characteristics does twentieth-century music have for a cellist? It’s difficult to explain it succinctly. Let’s say that the instrumental music of this period exploits all the expressive potential of the instrument: it takes the registers to extremes and adopts a hyper-virtuosic technique. The cello is often led to play in the highest register as if it were a violin. But it is also on the color that a lot of work needs to be done: in fact, the orchestral part is often intense, not to mention heavy, and therefore forces the instrumentalist to always have well-focused sounds in every musical moment, both softly and loudly. The structure of the concert itself can be large: the Castelnuovo-Tedesco Concert for example lasts almost 33 minutes! But each concert I recorded has different compositional and expressive characteristics. This was the best thing: I had to expand my technical-expressive baggage in order to be credible in every single composition in order to always arrive at an appropriate interpretation.
At the time of these composers, how did the public and critics react to the novelty of these musical proposals? Was melodrama still the only real interest in the musical world at the time?
Yes, melodrama was still very present and the work of these composers was precisely to create new ways of musical expression. I don’t know how successful these concerts were at the time, we only have testimonies for some, but I can say that they were programmed in the most important concert seasons, with the best soloists and conductors of the moment. For example, the Castelnuovo-Tedesco concert was performed in New York with Toscanini on the podium and Piatigorsky solo.
What commitments and projects for the near future…. And for the distant one?
Many concerts, some debuts with foreign orchestras, and some new recording ideas that I cannot reveal (for good luck!). I would like to found a festival but I am still looking for a venue that can inspire me and I would also like to work towards a music school for children with modern criteria. For the distant future: I would like, as a teacher attentive to involving young people in concerts with me, some of them can carry on this work of spreading Italian music even after me. There are still many musical treasures to discover…
Thanks again for your availability. See you soon.
Thanks to you
Walking through the stands of Mondomusica, I stop in front of stand n.79 “Negroni Massimo e Davide”. A violinmaker is carefully examining a violin under the watchful eye of a young violinist. He is explaining to him how to clean the strings of his instrument. He explains with kindness, patience, and passion. I wait for the end of the explanation and introduce myself. I tell him I’m looking for a luthier available to answer some questions about how to take care of a cello. He accepts with pleasure.
Negroni Massimo o Davide?
Massimo. Davide is my son, a luthier himself too.
I heard you were explaining how to clean the violin strings. Is that explanation okay to clean the cello strings too?
Certainly. When someone puts the pitch on the bow hair, there is a risk that the pitch will remain on the strings. Alcohol is very good for cleaning, but it is important to avoid drops of alcohol accidentally falling on the sounding board and damaging the paint. Keeping the cello in a horizontal position, with the strings down, is always the best method for not taking risks: it is difficult for a drop “to fall” upwards …
And to clean the cello? Especially in the summer when your hands are sweating…
A cotton rag is always the best solution. Grandma’s old sheets are fine. Be careful not to listen to Grandma when she gives advice on how to clean your cello. It is true that your cello is made of wood like the table in the living room, but it can not be cleaned with floor wax or oil (olive or walnut … every grandma has her own recipes: all equally unsuitable for the situation). And above all, the cello should be cleaned every day, when you stop playing, especially in summer, to prevent sweat and dust from forming a layer of dirt almost impossible to remove. Obviously, a cleaning, at least yearly, made by the violin maker is always recommendable.
But can sweat cause damage to the paint?
Yes. It is always better to protect the cello by placing a rag on the legs when you are studying during the summer with shorts. It even happens that, in some cases, even clothes colored with poor quality colors (for example some types of jeans) leave traces of their color on the bands or on the bottom of the cello.
And for the care of other parts of the cello? The bridge, the fine tuners, the pegs?
To ensure that the fine tuners always turn easily, you can extract them from their hole, unscrew them completely, and then pass them in the paraffin (or in the wax). For the pegs, it is better to use the semi-lubricating paste. The string notches on the bridge should be lubricated using graphite. It is fine to loosen one string at a time and pass in the string notches on the bridge with a normal pencil. Care must be taken, when changing the strings, not to change the position of the bridge. The bridge can move accidentally even in the event of a collision, especially when the cellist, perhaps a little novice, does not know how to handle his instrument. The correct position of the bridge is very important!
And when do you travel with your cello?
Obviously, we must be careful to avoid collisions. But changes in temperature and humidity can also be dangerous. The temperature too cold puts at risk the strings that can break, while the dry can damage the wood. When you are in a very dry climate, the pegs tend to shrink and do not stay in the peg box. This can result in the sudden loosening of one of the strings, even during a concert. In the case of concerts in dry climates, the dumpit can be used as a precaution: it is a simple and invisible object which, provided the dry is not excessive, helps to keep the instrument’s humidity level under control. The excess of humidity creates much fewer problems: at most, the wood of the pegs swells and the pegs tend to get stuck or to be more difficult to turn. Do not overdo the wet, however. When you play outdoors, in the event of rain, the concert should be stopped immediately and all stringed instruments should be dried as quickly as possible. Of course, violinists and violists are more fortunate than cellists and bassists, because, in case of uncertain weather, they can keep their instrument cases under the chairs and shelter their instruments very quickly.
Thank you very much, master. Thank you for your kindness and for your valuable advice!
“So what was Beethoven’s relationship to the cello? Though not a cellist himself, he spent a portion of his formative musical years as a violinist in the court orchestra of Bonn, where he worked intimately with several formidable string players, most notably the cellist Bernhard Romberg, who was to have a significant impact on the development of the cello”
In 1796, from May to July, Beethoven was in Berlin, engaged in a concert tour. Here he met Jean Louis Duport and his brother Jean Pierre, cellist of the court orchestra, and cello teacher of Frederick William II, King of Prussia. The exceptional technical skill of the two Duport brothers and the court environment where the cello, the King’s favorite instrument, had an undisputed protagonist role certainly influenced Beethoven’s choice to devote himself to the composition of his two Sonatas for cello, op. 5.
Needless to say, the sonatas, performed at court by Beethoven himself and Duport, were dedicated to Frederick William II and the king showed his appreciation by giving Beethoven a gold snuffbox filled with golden Louis. And not just any snuffbox, but “a gift worthy of an ambassador“. A few months later, in February 1797, the two Sonatas were printed by Artaria in Vienna, one of the most prestigious publishing houses of the period.
After such a good start, Beethoven continued to write music for cello and piano throughout his life, demonstrating that he understood well their tonal and expressive possibilities and set up in a very personal and innovative way the roles of the two instruments within the compositional dialogue.
In Beethoven’s Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World, after the preface written by the cellist Steven Isserlis, Moscovitz and Todd offer the reader a complete overview not only of the five Sonatas but of all the compositions for cello composed by Beethoven, inserting them in the historical and cultural context of their period.
The book, published in 2017, is, therefore, the ideal guide for cellists, pianists, musicologists, and chamber music enthusiasts who want to observe from a new point of view a repertoire that they certainly already know well.
Marc D. Moscovitz is the principal cellist of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra. He recorded a CD dedicated to Popper for the VAI label and a CD dedicated to Alfredo Piatti. The Washington Post has judged his first American execution of Zemlinsky’s Sonata for cello as a “passionate performance“. Important his contribution to the Dictionary of Music and Musicians of New Grove. His other work, the biography Alexander Zemlinsky: a Lyric Symphony was published by the publisher Boydell & Brewer in the year 2010.
Laddy Todd is a professor of sciences and arts at Duke University. He is recognized as the most authoritative scholar and biographer of Mendelssohn. His book Mendelssohn: A Life in Music was named, published in 2003, as Best Biography by the Association of American Publishers. Also his work Fanny Hansel: The Other Mendelssohn received the ASCAP Nicholas Slonimsky Award for his extraordinary music value as a biography. His contribution as a pianist was also important: he recorded for JRI Recordings, together with the cellist Nancy Green, the complete cello works by Mendelssohn and Fanny Hensel.
MARC D. MOSKOVITZ – R. LARRY TODD
Beethoven’s Cello: Five Revolutionary Sonatas and Their World
Boydell Pr (October 20, 2017)
pp.272
ISBN-10: 9781783272372
ISBN-13: 978-1783272372
“I want to tell you a story, my story, if I may the story of a cello. Because this is what I am, a cello. May I introduce myself? My surname is Stradivarius. I came to the world in Cremona in 1711, in the workshop of the master Antonio Stradivari, and – what can I do about it? – I was born famous. As for this, I have nothing to do with it. A matter of luck, I immediately had a name and soon a nickname (or a noble title, if you prefer) that I still own, Mara. The world calls me Mara. The Mara. The famous, very famous Mara”.
Mara speaks in the book in the first person and tells his story, using a prestigious language: he is proud of his noble name, the genesis of an existence destined for something extraordinary. But what he tells is real life, with all its value at times dramatic. A life divided between the speculation of financiers, bankers, and collectors who compete for his destiny and the loving use of musicians who embrace him to free his creative soul. His sound. There is no lack, as in every life, of moments of dramatic suffering. In his existence, however, Mara fights to preserve his identity in opposition or symbiosis to that of those who own him. A book that introduces the reader to the mystery of love for art, music, and creativity.
Wolf Wondratschek was born in 1943 in Thuringia. His education ranges from literature to philosophy to sociology. In the sixties, he was the editor of the magazine Text + Kritic. He writes several works, including The girl and the knife thrower (1997) and also The hairdresser of Mozart (2002). Engaged on tours in America, he lectures at American universities. He lives between Munich and Vienna.
WOLF WONDRATSCHEK
Mara (Spanish)
Alianza Editorial Sa; Translation edition (30 Mar. 2006)
pp.244
ISBN-10: 8420647594
ISBN-13: 978-8420647593
Mara (German)
Ullstein eBooks (15 Mar. 2019)
pp.192
Kindle Edition
On May 6, 1892, died in Paris the Ernest Guiraud. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video of his Allegro di Concert and the score of his 2 Romances Sans Paroles.
On May 1, 1904, the composer Antonín Leopold Dvořák died in Paris. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his Cello Concerto played by Lynn Harrell.
Il 27 aprile 1915, muore a Mosca il pianista e compositore Aleksandr Scriabin. MyCello lo ricorda proponendo l’ascolto e lo spartito del suo Étude in C-sharp minor, Op.2, no.1.
A site to quickly and effectively find everything a cellist asks on the web