New Videos: Interviewed by Violinist Giora Schmidt

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I just posted a pair of videos of an interview I did with Violinist Giora Schmidt backstage at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. I have to apologize for not posting with more frequency but I’m writing something right now which will go up soon and I have a big announcement about a foundation I’ve formed called HEARTbeats, which strives to help children in need harness the power of music to better cope with, and recover from, the extreme challenges of poverty and conflict. There will be much to share!

New Videos: Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata

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I have four new videos available of myself and pianist Yuja Wang performing Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19 at the 2008 Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.  Audio and Video Produced and Engineered by Matthew Snyder of Matthew Snyder Recordings. Festival artistic director Marc Neikrug, executive director Steven Ovitsky, and everyone at the festival do a wonderful job and it is always a pleasure to perform here.

It’s time to take a friend to the orchestra!

It’s Take a Friend to the Orchestra month and it was my pleasure to write something which was published this morning as part of the initiative. You can read my article, along with so many other wonderful contributions from an esteemed collection of other contributors, from the past two weeks at Adaptistration.com, which hosts the annual event.

Yom Hashoah

It has been now 15 years since I performed Bruch’s Kol Nidre at the Vatican for a concert commemorating the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust . The memory continues to vibrate my soul and I think of these ten minutes of music in my career and life as a seminal to my personality growth as an artist and man.

With Gilbert Levine conducting, the Philharmonia of London was brought to Rome especially for this event. Levine spent years working in Poland where he met John Paul II and started talking with him about a possible event that would be meaningful for both Christians and Jews with the theme of a memorial for the Jews who died in the war. At that time, the Pope-to-be confessed having had school friends who were taken away and never seen of again, making the time very alive and real in this holy man’s psyche. (more…)

Why Gotterdammerung?

One of the reasons, I believe, that I was interested in the cello from a very young age is the fact that the cello is an ensemble instrument; we play with others. Later, when I wanted to be a professional musician it was because I loved the music so much; it uplifted my spirit, it inspired my imagination, and it was solace to the heart. I have always thought of this first. The fact that I have enjoyed being one of the select, few solo cellists in the last 40 years is certainly a gift. But, that’s a byproduct and not a goal, whether I became “famous” died out in my mind at about age 11.

So when the opportunity comes around to take part in a section, I’m always happy to take advantage. It doesn’t happen as often and under the right circumstances as much as I would like but one recent occasion came around to participate in the LA Opera’s production of the Ring Cycle. I happened to be free and this would offer the chance to play alongside my wife and so many other wonderful colleagues. (more…)

The composer’s intentions

One thing that has always irked me whenever I give Master classes at different conservatories and Universities while on tour. And it is starting to concern me more deeply than before. What is that you ask? It’s a seemingly deliberate disregard for how a composer has marked his music. For example, directions and hints to the would-be performer on how to play the piece, what speed to take, what balance, goodness; even what notes are correct.

What we’re talking about here is a basic level of respect for the text but what seems to be more and more common these days is just guessing at the meaning of metronome markings and foreign words. The result is an increasing number of would-be performers feeling more and more entitled to change what has been left by the original creator and to feel as though their flimsy, novel approaches are legitimate simply because they are novel. (more…)