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STRINGS INTERVIEW
Maxim Vengerov
on Competitions and Violin Playing
by WAH KEUNG CHAN
18
LSM Tell us about your competition
experience.
MV: I did two competitions in my life: one in
Poland, when I was ten and the Carl Flesch
Competition, when I was fifteen. I was lucky
to win both competitions. For the first, I did
not feel stress; it was just another concert for
me and I think at the age of ten, children are
still not conscious of the competitions. They
just like to enjoy themselves and do their best.
For the Carl Flesch, I enjoyed the competition
but I didn’t enjoy competing – although I won,
it didn’t feel right for me at that moment because
I didn’t take much from the experience,
or maybe because I didn’t speak English then.
Our idea for the Montreal competition is that
all participants have to take something with
them. It’s either a great memory of meeting
people or one of attending concerts. It’s more
of a festival feel, so now the competitions have
a different meaning.
In my mind, music doesn’t fit into the competitive
mode because – how one is going to
judge me, if I’m not as fast as... There’s always
somebody who can play faster, but is that the
ultimate goal? Or if I’m going to play one
wrong note, how will the jury react? And if
somebody played absolutely everything in
tune, will they win? And will my musical quality
be counted? My idea would be to create a
jury that judges objectively as much as possible.
What we rely on, of course, is the competence
of the jury, with the idea that everyone
has their own taste. And that’s what is so good
about having many members on a jury.
LSM
AVRIL/MAI 2013 APRIL/MAY
What should the jury look for?
When I played the caprices, everyone applauded.
I think it was rather perfect technically.
I spoke to the jury members years later
and Ida Haendel [who was on the jury] told
me that when I played the Bach chaconnes, it
was clear from the musicality who was going
to win the competition.
It is a fine balance between musicality and
technical ability because the technique is only
a means to express interpretation. We look for
individuality and then we have to look beyond
what we are going to hear today. We want to
see all the prizewinners musically active after
twenty years.
The technical level in the world has grown
enormously over the last 15-20 years. So now,
to find somebody playing perfectly is much
easier than 20-30 years ago, but finding a
great personality is difficult. Ideally, it’s somebody
who can express not only themselves
through the music of Bach and Mozart, but
who tries to deliver the message of the composer,
to make a perfect link between the composer
and the audience. This is very rare. If
you find that, I’m sure most of the jury members
can forgive one or two missed notes or
passages. Music is not like sports or the
Olympics, it’s an art. Even imperfection can
become perfection.
LSM You told me about individuality but
at the same time, you talked about being
faithful to the composer. So how do you
juggle the two?
Heifetz was Heifetz even when he was playing
Bach and Mozart. He used the same vibrato,
the same means of expression, but he was
brilliant. There are other types of musicians,
like Isaac Stern; he was different in Beethoven
and in Mozart. He used different colours, different
means of expression with the violin and
bow, and so these are the two different,
contrasting individualities. Still, it takes a very
strong personality to deliver the composer’s
message; until we hear the music come alive,
it stays only in the score. Music was written to
be recreated every time. Even if I try as much
as I can to play Mozart in the way I think that
Mozart wanted, it would still be me playing.
For each concert, I have to prepare my body
for the performance and I stay open to what
might come and let myself be surprised by the
music. Yesterday, I played Brahms’s Violin
Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic. During
the performance, the orchestra suggested
many things to me, different colours, that we
had a marvelous chamber music session. It
was one of the inspiring moments of my life
when I discovered something else in the music
of Brahms, even after playing it maybe 100-
200 times. Every day is a discovery for me, so
I try to prepare myself as much as I possibly
can and then you have to let go.
Another point to answer your question is
the sound. The sound involves the sound of
your finger and the weight of the finger. The
sound of musicians, violinists, or pianists, or
cellists is like fingerprints. When we hear
recordings, we recognize Heifetz, Isaac Stern,
and Yehudi Menuhin. Nowadays I wish we
could hear more and more personalities that
would come with their own sound. Not only
interpretation.
In our global world, it’s wonderful to be able
to listen to millions of recordings, yet it almost
leaves us deprived of our own words in music.
What we’re going to look forward in this and
any competition is to compare the voices, the
colours of the instruments, and how they
sound, because, for me, the colour of the violin
and the sound of the instrument represent
the soul of the musician.
A full version of this interview will appear
at www.scena.org.
LSM
Maxim Vengerov headlines the Montreal International
Musical Competition (May 7 to 17, 2012). Masterclass,
May 12; Violinist in Concert Prestige, May 13; Conductor
of the Finals, May 14-15. www.concoursmontreal.ca.