Blogging the Festival - Part II

The hardest part of blogging the Festival is finding time to do it! I have a few minutes now so will try to get caught up on some the notes I've taken over the past few days.

First a bit more on Menahem Pressler, who is a marvel and inspiration on so many levels. 85 years young and sharp as a tack, he's able to keep up with and often outperform his students technically. He doesn't even wear glasses. Sitting in on his last master class I overheard some more precious quotes.

After a 14-year-old prodigy displays dazzling pyrotechnics on a Ravel piece, Pressler has this to say: "There were a few good things, but most of it was wrong. When he writes piano, you play forte. When he writes pianissimo, you play mezzo forte. You play it at a tempo which means you're spending money which you don't have." He sums up by saying "If you have the fingers to play this, and the brains, you
should also have the responsibility."

Another young boy plays for him and he responds: "This piece needs 50 more pounds. So you've got to eat a lot!"

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On to the great German clarinetist Karl Leister's master class. Leister's bio reads like a who's who of the classical world. He's played under the baton of Herbert von Karajan, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Neville Marriner, Aaron Copland, and many more. When I mention I'm a jazz musician, he shares a story about his friendship with legendary jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. He once offered Benny tickets to his concert and Benny insisted on paying for them -- he found a cheque waiting for him at his hotel. He did not want to accept money from his friend, so he never cashed the cheque, and still has it to this day. I joke with him that this would be worth a lot on eBay, but he will never part with it.

He describes one variation his student plays as a long "discussion" between the piano and clarinet, and at the end, "you shake hands". The importance of visualization and storytelling in the music is something that all the teachers -- Pressler, Parker, Tsutsumi, Seiler, Laplante -- have stressed: Don't just read the notes.

"The clarinet must always *sing*, not play", Leister intones.

"This is done in a bakery, not on stage", he says as a clarinetist swirls his bell on a long note.

"You polished the floor" (he drags his feet), he says regarding another phrase.

"You don't listen", he chides a young student, "I see it in your eyes."

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Juno Award winner Andre Laplante is a Canadian national treasure, and one of the world's top piano virtuosos. When I entered his master class he was working with a student on a Schumann piece. The following are some of his comments:

He stresses the fluidity of body movement in playing, telling his student to "make the phrase dance".

"Horowitz looks a bit like a turtle when he plays. It's kind of freaky, but it works."

"If there ever was a Sturm und Drang composer in Germany, my God, that is Schumann."

"When we take a new step, we are often afraid we're going to fall. Don't be afraid. Take the step. You won't fall. You're so ready."

"This is the best crazy music in the world. But you have to bring enormous contrast. You're trying to control too much. You have to be free as the wind."

"It's good sometimes to practice playing without emoting -- just play the logic of the piece."

"Tell us the story that *you* hear."

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I've already drawn one parallel between music and yoga by comparing the musician masters to yoga teachers making small adjustments that make all the difference to their students' practices. Lately I've been thinking about another parallel: At the end of a yoga retreat, I feel uplifted, revitalized, and like all the molecules in my body are vibrating with energy. After a month of the Toronto Summer Music Festival, I feel much the same way. To sum up, I'll end here with one last Pressler quote: "When you hear a great artist perform, you feel fulfilled -- you come out a better person. You feel sanctified, elevated -- a better person."

Toronto Summer Music Festival master classes

My new favourite element of Toronto Summer Music is the master classes. (Although Cecelia says I said that last year!) These, to me, are the heartbeat of the Festival. Here youth meets experience, the future meets the present, the up-and-coming meets the established. The inspiration felt by the students in these classes is palpable, and it's infectious.

Yesterday my first stop was Mayumi Seiler's class. We have great masters coming to the Festival from all over the world. Maybe because they've come from far away they seem more glamorous, but we should not forget that we have among us one of the very best in Mayumi Seiler. I defy anyone to attend one of her master classes and not laugh. There is so much humour in her teaching style, all lovingly served up to her students, and anyone else lucky enough to be around. At one point, describing a sound on the violin she said "if you play that way it sounds too much like an Indian restaurant". Another time when reminding a student to keep her fingers in place on the neck, she said "your fingers look like they're on a hot oven". To bring life into the piece Seiler suggests images to the student: She describes one section as "cossacks dancing", and for the next she says "the old ladies are shaking".

After Seiler's class ends I move down the hall to Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, whom I just heard one of the cello students refer to as "the best in the world". The small classroom is packed with cello students (half the space is taken up by their bulky fiberglass cases). Some of the violinists from Seiler's class decide to join me as well. Oh, and there's fellow TSM board member Diana Wiley (She's probably blogging
too!)

Tsutsumi tells one student to keep her eyes half closed through a passage. "Most important is the colour of the sound. Not how you look." He assures her though that she looks fine, and he's right. "Play it like you've had too much vodka!" he says for one phrase. Next up, a student plays two movements from Bach's C minor suite. After the applause, Tsutsumi asks if she has any questions or anything she wants to work on. She asks a couple of technical questions but more importantly she asks a very broad question: How should I play Bach? She feels it romantically but is not sure that's the right approach. Tsutsumi responds: Most important thing is the music should be "alive"!

On to Pressler, whose reputation precedes him. First he has a reputation for stamina. No breaks. I notice the students, and the auditors, having to step out for multiple "bio breaks", but he just keeps going and going, like the Energizer bunny. I also hear he is brutally honest with his students -- no sugar coating here. Spoke
with one of the promising young piano prodigies who had played for him the day before and I asked what Pressler's comments had been. "Oh, he ripped me to shreds. But I need that".

Here are a few Pressler quotes:

"You are like a soccer player on a breakaway about to score a goal, and then he stops running and starts walking. Don't you want to win?"

"The F is like the cherry on top of an ice cream soda"

"You are pressing a button and going on cruise control. I want to hear the accelerator"

"Trills are like the salt and pepper you put on your food"

"This sounds too much like a woodpecker"

"You're playing like somebody who reads a joke, and can't laugh"

Finally, as one of the students has finished his time on stage and is walking back to his seat, Pressler calls after him and asks his age. When he hears that the boy is only 14, he responds: "I would say that's nice. I would say that's very nice. I would say that's extremely nice!"