Silvia Chiesa‘s CD dedicated to Nino Rota‘s Cello concerts No. 1 & 2 deserves to be presented to our readers because it represents a precious sound document of little-known masterpieces by a composer certainly better known for his film-related production. It is also interesting to note that this CD inaugurated, in 2011, an ambitious record path that the famous cellist dedicated to the repertoire for cello and orchestra of the Italian twentieth century, contributing decisively to the revitalization of this rich musical heritage. It was followed by two other important recordings, with music by Alfredo Casella, Ottorino Respighi, Ildebrando Pizzetti, and then by Riccardo Malipiero (first world recording), Gian Francesco Malipiero and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (first Italian recording) always with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra and always for the Sony Classical label.
Cellist Silvia Chiesa is one of the most prominent Italian performers on the international scene, with a dense agenda of concerts and recordings. During an intense career, she has developed a personal stylistic code and a refined passion for interpretation, that marked originality in the repertoire choices.
Azio Corghi and Matteo D’Amico dedicated to her solo compositions with orchestra, and she was chosen by composers such as Gil Shohat, Nicola Campogrande, Aldo Clementi, Michele Dall’Ongaro, Peter Maxwell Davies, Giovanni Sollima, Gianluca Cascioli and Ivan Fedele for first performances of their works.
As a soloist, she performed with groups such as the RAI National Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Orchestra of Tuscany, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Soloists of St. Petersburg, the Rouen Orchestra, the Staatsorchester Kassel and the Symphony of Krakow. She has collaborated with directors such as Luciano Acocella, Francesco Angelico, Marco Angius, Paolo Arrivabeni, Gürer Aykal, Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Giampaolo Bisanti, Roland Böer, Massimiliano Caldi, Tito Ceccherini, Daniele Gatti, Cristian Orosanu, Corrado Rovaris, Daniele Rustioni, Howard Shelley and Brian Wright. She has also recorded live concerts for radio and television broadcasters such as RAI Radio3, RAI Sat, France Musique, and France3.
With the pianist Maurizio Baglini, she has more than two hundred and fifty concerts worldwide, with a vast repertoire for the duo, and has recorded for Decca the Sonatas of Schubert, Brahms, and Rachmaninov.
Silvia Chiesa is a resident artist of the Amiata Piano Festival and a teacher at the “Monteverdi” Conservatory of Cremona.
He plays a Giovanni Grancino cello from 1697.
The RAI National Symphony Orchestra is an Italian symphony orchestra linked to the RAI, born in 1993 from the combination of the previous four RAI symphony orchestras, which were based in Turin, Rome, Naples, and Milan.
Corrado Rovaris has been the Music Director of Opera Philadelphia since 2004 and regularly collaborates with the major Italian and foreign musical institutions.
Nino Rota was an Italian composer born in Milan on December 3, 1911, and died in Rome on April 10, 1979. Born into a family of musicians, he approached music from an early age, stimulated by his mother. a pianist, entering the Milan Conservatory at 11 years old. Here he was a pupil of G. Orefice (composition), G. Bas, Pizzetti, and then Casella, in Rome, where he graduated from the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia. So he was a pupil of Scaliero, J.B. Beck, and Reiner (conducting). He then began to teach, first at the Liceo Musicale of Taranto, and then at Liceo of Bari, of which he was also Director. He was a pupil of Pizzetti and Casella, influenced by Malipiero’s music. He was a profound connoisseur of the compositions of the 1900s. He met and frequented Stravinsky, but his compositions followed a unique and personal direction. Without any relationship with the aesthetic of the century, almost paradoxically in its “non-relevance”, it directed its inventive ease towards an almost nineteenth-century compositional style, devoted to melody and tonal fidelity with symmetrical, harmonious, and immediately enjoyable forms. These characteristics also characterized him in the composition of films, sacred, and chamber music.
On this CD, Nino Rota’s two concerts for cello and orchestra offer a very significant essay on his compositional language: a language that does not disdain virtuosity at all but directs it towards a poem of neoclassical memory, even if devoted to real modernity. The solo cello faces a challenging score from a technical point of view, where however the technique gives substance to emotional antitheses, to bring them back to paradigms of aesthetic docility and tonal coherence.
The interpretation is excellent: the soloist Silvia Chiesa and the director Romaris certainly show the courage to choose the original program and the interpretative maturity necessary to face it. The CD is very enjoyable to listen to, and at the same time intense in its surprising peculiarity.
The CD is also nice: as always Sony Classical offers important covers (a beautiful photo of the Silvia Chiesa on the cover) and valuable indications for more conscious listening.
– NINO ROTA, Concerto Nr. 1: Allegro – Larghetto – Allegro
– NINO ROTA, Concerto Nr. 2: Allegro moderato – Tema con variazioni. Andantino cantabile con grazia – Finale. Allegro vivo
Performers: Silvia Chiesa, cello – Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI – dir. Corrado Rovaris
Label: Sony Classical
Released: June 23, 2011
On May 3, 1704, the violinist and composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Von Biber died in Salzburg. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his Battalia a 10 in D major.
On April 30, 1855, the composer Henry Rowley Bishop died in London. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his String Quartet in C minor.
On April 27, 1776, the conductor and composer Hyacinthe Jadin was born in Versailles. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his String Trio, Op.2, n.3.
A few months ago, a new youtube channel dedicated to the cello was born. It’s called “Cello Kids”, and is the result of a project by two cellists, Valérie Aimard and Antonina Zharava, and a pianist, Cédric Lorel. Let’s get to know Valérie and Antonina.
When did you first see and hear a cello? And when did you decide you wanted to play that instrument?
Valérie I can’t really remember when I first heard a cello as I attended concerts very early. When I was 6, my brother who is a pianist invited the german cellist Julius Berger to come to our house in the summer for a week. They played together a large repertoire. I remember very well Prokofiev Sonata with the pizzicato, Brahms F Major with the pizzicato too (!), Arpeggione and especially Prokofiev «March for children». Julius Berger is a fantastic human being who left a profound impression on me. The following September, I said: «Well, I’d like to start the cello» and that’s how all started! We are still in touch today after all those years. He has invited me to give masterclasses in Augsburg where he teaches. We’ll play a concert together in June 2020 in Füssen (Bavaria) in the memory of our parents. I decided «I’ll be a musician» when I was 14. I kept it secret at that time because I was also playing tennis at a very good level. I thought people would tell «if you want to be a musician you have to stop tennis!» and I wanted to do both! But I never considered not being a cellist, it was clear for me.
Antonina My mother is a cellist so I think the first time I actually heard this instrument was before I was even born! I remember myself at the age of 10 listening for the first time to the Schumann Cello Concerto and knowing exactly what was coming next, I think it was in my DNA! At the age of 4, after months and months of asking I got a little cello at home, I think I considered it as a toy and my mum secretly hoped that I will soon forget about it. She even tried to make me play the violin! After a few lessons, I told that the violin has a very high pitch and definitely too high for me! So I switched to the piano, my first cello lesson didn’t happen till I was 7, I needed to struggle for my choice!
Where and with whom you completed your musical studies?
Valérie I was originally from Lyon where I was lucky enough to have Patrick Gabard as a teacher from 10 to 15. So important years where he helped me to build a very healthy technic on the cello and (most important thing!) taught me how to practice. Then I studied at the Paris Conservatory with Philippe Muller and Michel Strauss, who followed me for almost ten years. He was the one to tell me about playing with freedom, to speak about rubato and to give me the confidence I didn’t have at that time. After many masterclasses with David Geringas, Lluis Claret, Janos Starker, I met Bernard Greenhouse in Berne in 1992, who became my mentor. The first thing he told me was: «Express yourself and be creative». He changed my musical life.
Antonina From 7 to 17, I studied in Minsk, Belarus. I had a great teacher: Irina Stepanova. Her approach to the cello technique and position was very Starker-like, the priority was a strong and healthy playing. Then was Paris and Philippe Muller – I learned a lot about style, baroque and contemporary music. Working on Lutoslawski Cello Concerto with him was amazing! After my Master’s Degree in Paris, I met several great teachers: Emmanuelle Bertrand, Frans Helmerson, Eckart Runge, Ralph Kirshbaum, all very passionate about teaching. And the best part of it: you never stop learning! I got my Master’s Degree at 21, so all master-classes and festivals that I’ve managed to attend since were really helpful. For me, traveling around the world with my cello, meeting incredible young musicians as well as renowned artists and making music with them is the best part of being a musician! Ravinia Festival, Heifetz Institute in United-States, Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Rome Chamber Music Festival: all are great memories.
Did you like the way your first teacher introduced you to the cello?
Valérie I started the cello in private with a very old lady, a very affectionate «grandma». She was very «Vieille France», totally devoted to the cello and her students. My bow hold for a while was more like 19th-century drawings! I still have the notebooks of her lessons. Her teaching principles were very close to what we would call today «kinesthesia». I was not practicing much but I loved the cello!
Antonina When I think of introducing the cello to the child, I think always about William Pleeth and how he describes this moment in his book «The Cello». A little magic at this moment can make you dream about the cello for years, I guess I was lucky enough! I remember my teacher explaining some technical points with incredible kindness and smartness: for example, I was in trouble trying to vibrate and she said: «Just think about petting your dog!» From that second I got it!
Was there a moment during your formative years when you thought about abandoning the study of the cello and dedicating yourself to something different?
Valérie No, really never. I always loved the cello, I don’t really know why. I’ve always loved to practice, to learn new pieces, to play chamber music, to rehearse, to meet great masters, to attend concerts and now to teach. It is such a privilege to devote your life to what you like most. At some point in my life, I had the feeling I could do just one thing: play the cello. I needed to start something new and meet other people than musicians. I started mime, pantomime. I have worked on mime for the last 15 years. I play shows, one-woman shows (!) as a mime, also cello and mime, and cello speech and mime. It has been a great opening in my artistic life. If you ask me «why mime?» …it would be the subject of another interview!
Antonina I love painting, it was my first passion before the cello. My father is an artist and I’ve always been quite jealous of the fact that as an artist when you expose your painting you can be sure your work is presented in the best possible way, while as a musician you never know! But after my first cello competition in Prague at the age of 11 I got really committed and serious about the music and I’ve never doubted since! I think I learned to love the risky part of the job!
What was the moment of your musical activity that you remember with most satisfaction?
Valérie It was the 3 wonderful summers I spent at the Marlboro Festival (US -Vermont). When I was 14, I read an article in a music magazine about this Festival created by Rudolf Serkin and Adolf Busch in the 50ties. These legendary musicians playing with younger ones, day and night during all summer in little white houses lost in the woods made me dream! I thought «Surely it is unreachable but that must be SO wonderful». Finally, years later, I was invited there. I spend 3 summers playing with the greatest American chamber musicians: Felix Galimir, Isidore Cohen, Samuel Rhodes, David Soyer, etc and with so many marvelous musicians of all kinds from which I learned so much. I worked on hundreds of pieces, sight-read another hundred, played with so many different musicians. I learned about people, about myself, about rehearsing, listening, performing, looking deep into the scores and enjoying yourself in life. Marlboro was a major influence on my musical evolution.
Antonina Seeing my students discovering themselves into the music makes me really happy. Have a talk with your teen student about his way to understand a Bach Prelude is something very special! Playing on stage and sharing with the audience is also a very important part of my life – my last concert at the Philharmonia of Belarus with the National Orchestra was a great feeling for me! I haven’t played in Belarus for more than ten years and I’ve got really moved when after the encore all 800 people were standing and applauding in front of me, I never experienced such a moment before!
Do you think it is better for children to start studying by learning to use their right or left hand?
Valérie For me it is important to introduce both hands from the first lessons. I start with the left hand placing the 4 fingers with pizzicato, exercises to hold and feel the bow outside strings and open strings after a few weeks. Very important is to develop right away a little of rhythm, a little of singing, reading notes, memorizing, understanding and writing fingerings, learning how to practice alone. So the pupil has a stimulation on many aspects of the instrument. It is easier for him to be able to practice at home working on many different «little» things.
Antonina Russian school is very strict about hand separation for beginners. Karl Davidov’s cello method is full of open strings! However, I think it’s less frustrating to start quite fast with all four fingers on the fingerboard using pizzicato and prepare the bow on the open strings. The exercises without the instrument are very important, especially for younger children.
Do children, according to your experience, learn more by looking at where they place their left-hand fingers or listening to the sound they are creating?
Valérie As many things in teaching, and in life, it is a combination, you must find the right balance. An excess of something and you lose the rest. Personally I use stickers to place the left hand at the beginning. I know it is a great debate! It gives security, and help for the hand with the eyes but, of course, you must be very careful about how you use it. Developing the ear and listening is the main goal of each lesson.
Antonina The most important is to connect the gesture to the ear at the very first stage of learning. First of all, children need to learn how to listen and don’t forget it later! Stickers could be very helpful at the beginning, especially if the kid has no piano at home or any other way to check his intonation. Personally, I recommend my more advanced students even to practice in the dark, with their sleeping mask on and so! It’s very funny and you discover a lot about your playing! By the way, playing from memory helps.
Is it helpful for children to sing while they play?
Valérie Of course, it is a necessity to develop singing early and not to be shy about it. It is not easy to develop it after many years if the pupil has never sung. It is a very important part of growing as a musician to develop the «inner ear», the «inner singing», what we hear inside, our idea of sound, of music, what we want to express. I would say that is what separates mechanical playing from musical playing.
Antonina Singing is the basis of my pedagogical approach: if you can sing a melody, you can play it! Even for more advanced students, I always say to «speak» or sing out the little notes to get the articulation perfectly clear at the fast passages. I know one French teacher who asks his students to sing the Mozart Sonata for cello and bassoon while accompanying themselves on the cello – so, as you see the sky is the limit!
When and why did you decide to create CELLO KIDS? Was it your idea or was it born from a collaboration with other musicians?
Valérie We know exactly when the idea appeared. It was the 1st of October 2018! We were with Antonina in a Parisian café speaking about cello, teaching, as we do very often. Suddenly we had this idea together: «…if we create a YouTube channel for the cello teaching repertoire?!». It was so clear, it was a piece of evidence that we will do it. We have known each other for many years with Antonina Zharava and Cédric Lorel, our fantastic pianist. We teach at the same school Conservatoire Maurice Ravel in Paris, where Cédric accompanies our cello classes. We have played in concert as a group 2 cellos and piano and the three of us have this deep implication in teaching. It was a piece of evidence to do that together.
Antonina I was thinking for a while that something was missing on the Web, some kind of tool to help budding cellists at home, to get the discovering of a new piece more motivating and clear. Nowadays more and more kids are on YouTube, so the idea of the Channel with our «best of» of pedagogical repertoire seemed to be right. Last November, Cello Kids received the «Prize of musical Education – Category Innovation» by Music Editors of France! In the current context where after Italy, France is stopped by the quarantine many colleagues thank us for this remote teaching tool and I use it constantly with my class.
Do you all work together in designing videos or does each one have specific tasks? (choice of compositions to perform, screenplay, direction…)
Valérie and Antonina We spoke a lot as a group to define the whole project. To know exactly what we wanted and especially what we didn’t want! So everything has been discussed together. We tried to consider every single detail with the greatest care and managed all by ourselves from beginning to end: very careful selection of the pieces, searched for a good quality of image, of sound, how to dress, how to place the accessories, how to edit the videos. While we were sharing the cello parts, our magical pianist Cédric Lorel managed to record all the pieces with piano: more than 100 works! Antonina has a complementary approach to the repertoire with some rare works to discover. In the beginning, Valerie was more the initiator of all the humoristic staging and poetical details. In the process, everyone got involved in it and gave imaginative ideas. It was a lot of fun to do! After the recording, Antonina took care of all the videos: making photos, editing, uploading, and managing the channel, and the Facebook page, which means hours and hours of work. The final touch is always controlled together. There is a «Cello Kids spirit»!
What are the problems and what are the satisfactions of the work you are carrying out?
Valérie and Antonina We were so motivated and able to concentrate on it, that Cello Kids came to life very quickly on 1st October 2019. We did tremendous work recording about 150 pieces and launching the whole thing one year after the idea appeared. Normally it should have taken 4-5 years to do that. It is a great feeling of accomplishment for us! Another satisfaction is that Cello Kids shows an enthusiastic and joyful way to approach teaching. Though our recording sessions were very intense, we enjoyed so much playing all these charming pieces and also imagining all the funny staging! It shows how music can be played with the greatest seriousness but with joy and fantasy. Cello Kids is very well received by our colleagues, who give us a very positive and supportive response. It is truly a new idea! 100.000 views in 6 months: it shows there is a real need for it! We have a ton of ideas and more than 50 videos are still to come on the channel! The main problem…? it took all our time during the past year!
What are the dreams for CELLO KIDS in the coming years?
Valérie and Antonina We would love to become a reference in the small world of cello teaching. We dream that teachers, students, amateur cellists, and beginners, when they want to listen to a piece, say «Let’s go on Cello Kids!» Thanks to YouTube, our videos can be seen all over the world. It would be wonderful if the cello community which is quite active on the web could help us to spread the news. That’s what we need most! 1.000.000 views on the channel seems to be a goal to achieve!
And certainly, the goal will soon be achieved! Thank you for your availability and congratulations on making your beautiful dream a reality.
On March 13, 1856, the composer Allen Macbeth was born in Greenock. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of the piano and cello version of his Forget Me Not, Op.22.
On February 28, 1877, the pianist and composer Sergei Bortkiewicz was born in Kharkiv. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of the first of his 3 Morceaux, Op.25.
Désiré Feldbusch, better known as Eric Feldbusch (the name he chose when he started his career as a cellist), was born in Grivegnée (an outskirt of Liège in Belgium), on March 2, 1922, and died in Wavre on August 30, 2007. He was not only a famous cellist but also a good composer and conductor.
After a first formation as a cellist with a family friend, he entered (aged of 12 years) the Conservatoire Royal de Liège where, in 1939, he obtained his “Diplôme Supérieur”. In the war’s years, he was a member of the Orchestra of the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, in Brussels, the place where Queen Elisabeth gathered, and protected, the best musicians of her kingdom. In the fifties, he went to Paris, where he studied with the well-known cellist Maurice Maréchal. In 1963 he became a teacher and then Director of the Conservatoire de Mons. Later, from 1974 to 1987, he became the Director of the French section of the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles.
Fin dall’inizio, anche come allievo, fu considerato uno dei migliori violoncellisti belgi. Si esibì in Francia, Italia, Germania, Svizzera, Austria, Lussemburgo, Gran Bretagna, Paesi Bassi, Spagna, Repubblica Ceca, Congo, Egitto, Israele e negli Stati Uniti.
Since the beginning, even as a pupil, he was considered one of the best Belgian cellists. He performed in France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic, Congo, Egypt, Israel, and the United States. He was fond of chamber music and so, in 1949, he was one of the founders of the Quatuor Municipal de la Ville de Liège, together with the violinists Henri and Emmanuel Koch and Louis Poulet (viola). In 1964, he founded the Trio Reine Elisabeth de Belgique (together with the violinist Carlo Van Neste and the pianist Naum Sluszny). From 1960 to 1964, he also was the cello solo of the Orchestre Philarmonique de Liège.
Since 1964, Eric Feldbusch performed as conductor. The musicians who had him as conductor remembered his sober and precise gesture: he did not like the spectacular effects. He performed in the most important cities of Belgium, and with many orchestras: the Orchestre Symphonique and the Orchestre de Chambre RTB/BRT, the Orchestre Symphonique de Liège, the Orchestre National de Metz, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Israel Sinfonietta in Israel, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in the United States.
As a composer, he produced more than one hundred and fifty musical pieces, of every kind and for every musical staff. Among his compositions, there are a lot of pieces featuring a cello, alone or with other musical instruments.
For example Mosaïque, op.24 n.1 , Prélude, op. 83 (cello and piano), Petite Suite, op.1, n.13 (cello solo), Cadence et Allegro, op. 13 (cello et piano), Sonatine, op.78 (for 2 cellos), Trio for cello, flute and violon, op.31.1, Concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre, op.80 n.1, Adagio à la mémoire de Hubert Rogister, op.23, n.2 (for 8 cellos and string orchestra), Pastels, op.89 (for cello and guitar), …
In recognition of his merits, Feldbusch has been honored by several prestigious awards, among others: the Médaille de la résistance armée (1940-1945), the Decoration of Grand Officier de l’Ordre de la Couronne et de l’Ordre Léopold II, the Prix de Virtuosité du Gouvernement Belge unanimously and with the congratulations of the Jury (1939), the Prix Pablo Casals (1947), the Prix d’Honneur du public au premier Concours International de Violoncelle de Prague (1952), the Prix Fuga “pour sa contribution à la promotion de la musique belge” (1984), the Prix SABAM de la Musique Sérieuse (1997).
During his career, Eric Feldbusch owned two cellos. His first one was a George Heynberg of 1932 (Belgian stringed instrument maker). The second one was a Gagliano (built in 1820). But the best cello he played in his life was certainly the Stradivari “Servais”, when he had the opportunity to play it during a recital in Washington, at the Belgian Embassy, where he played his own Mosaïque, op.24 n.1 and Morceau de Concert, op.14 by Servais. At that occasion, Eric Feldbusch said about Servais: “C’est grâce à lui que cet instrument a obtenu ses lettres de noblesses et que l’École qu’il a créée à Bruxelles d’abord, à Moscou et Paris ensuite, a marqué de son empreinte toutes les générations de virtuoses qui ont suivi”.
His cello Gagliano, owned by the Foundation Eric Feldbusch, is currently lent to the cellist Olsi Leka, cello solo of the Orchestre National de Belgique and teacher at the conservatoria of Brussels and Antwerpen.
In 2010, Jean-Paul Feldbusch, Eric Feldbusch’s son, established a Foundation dedicated to his father. So, on December 15, 2010, the Foundation privée Eric Feldbusch was born. Jean-Paul Feldbusch (Founder/Chairman), Brigitte Feldbusch-Adriaensens, Francis Navaux, Bruno Dunkel, and Frans Declerck belong to the Foundation’s Board. Olsi Leak is the musical advisor.
The mission of the Foundation consists of providing information about Eric Feldbusch, by promoting and protecting the work inherited from him. If a cellist wants to play one of Feldbusch’s cello compositions (or another different piece), he may contact the Foundation and will receive all the information he needs. Many scores may be found on the website of the Foundation.
The Foundation’s work, however, is not concentrated only on Eric Feldbusch but has the broader objective of promoting the Belgian composers and the young Belgian and European cellists. Every year, during the International Cello Competition Edmon Baert (organized by the Musical Academy of the municipality Woluwé-Saint-Pierre in Brussels), the Eric Feldbusch Foundation Prize awards the best interpretation of the two imposed pieces for cello written by Eric Feldbusch. It also supports young cello students, by lending cellos and bows and sustains concerts and other events linked to musical art, especially of Belgian composers.
The Foundation keeps a rich collection of scores, documents, photos, disks, CDs, and other materials having a direct or indirect link with Eric Feldbusch. And hopefully, the collection will become richer day by day.
TO KNOW MORE
Eric Feldbusch foundation
On October 31, 1830, the composer Robert Radecke was born in Dittmannsdorf. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his Symphony in F major, Op.50.
On October 30, 1847, the composer Hermann Ludwig Eichborn was born in Wroclaw. MyCello remembers him by proposing a music video and the score of his Horn Sonata, Op.7 (cello version).
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