The man who dares to rethink Mozart
David Greilsammer, the virtuoso Israeli pianist and conductor, has a radical new approach to classical music. He talks to Jessica Duchen.
Every so often, along comes a recording that stays alive in your mind long after you have heard it. One that arrived recently was a CD of Mozart’s piano concertos, played and conducted by the young Israeli pianist David Greilsammer, with an orchestra mysteriously named Ensemble Suedama. The strength of purpose of Greilsammer’s interpretations made the disc stand out as something out of the ordinary.
And Greilsammer himself is an artist out of the ordinary. At only 32, he has several highly acclaimed recordings to his name — he has just been appointed music director and conductor of the Geneva Chamber orchestra, and next season will see his debuts with the san Francisco symphony orchestra and the Salzburg Mozarteum orchestra, among others. First, though, London audiences can hear him in recital at Wigmore Hall next week. His first appearance there last year was hailed by one critic as “among the most authoritative British debuts in years”.
A soft-spoken Israeli with a hybrid accent — he livedin New york for nine years and is now based in Paris — Greilsammer admits, if slightly sheepishly, that he felt destined to become a musician because his mother had decided this for him before he was born. (…)
Greilsammer’s acclaimed CDs of Mozart concertos came about through a determination to follow a path of his own, rather than one dictated by the occasionally creaky workings of the music industry. The name of ensemble Suedama, of course, is “Amadeus” backwards — he formed the orchestra himself.
“I have some problems with the ways things are sometimes done in the classical world,” Greilsammer says. “I wanted to do a first project my own way - something new and fresh. so I decided to surround myself with a completely new orchestra, made up of enthusiastic young soloists who had the same affinities and trains of thought that I had. We made two discs of Mozart concertos — they are all well-known works that have been recorded by all the great masters, but we wanted to approach them as if it were the first time. I’m a little obsessed with not being influenced by the past.
“The problem with classical music is that essentially it’s an art form that’s completely focused on the past,” he continues. “We play mostly pieces by dead composers, and we worship their scores. We spend our days looking at music that was written up to 400 years ago and that’s where we take our inspiration and life-force as classical musicians. This is where the problem begins — in an art that’s so preoccupied with the past, it’s very difficult to make it live today.” (…)
More explorations will follow — in the autumn Greilsammer will be back in London for a concert at King’s Place of sonatas by scarlatti and, on “prepared piano”, John Cage. That will mark the launch of his next CD; a world premiere recordings of works for piano and orchestra by Alexander Tansman and Nadia Boulanger, plus the more familiar Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.
His exclusive contract with the French record label Naïve has made Paris his ideal home (“though I don’t expect living in Paris will last forever,” he adds, rather ruefully), and he spends much time in Geneva with his orchestra there. He is enjoying his activities as
conductor, but the piano, he says, will always remain his first love. Destiny? Perhaps it really is.
If you want to know more about his childhood or his latest Wigmore Hall concert, please refer to the Jewish Chronicle of 28th May 2010 for the full article.
David Greilsammer, the virtuoso Israeli pianist and conductor, has a radical new approach to classical music. He talks to Jessica Duchen.
Every so often, along comes a recording that stays alive in your mind long after you have heard it. One that arrived recently was a CD of Mozart’s piano concertos, played and conducted by the young Israeli pianist David Greilsammer, with an orchestra mysteriously named Ensemble Suedama. The strength of purpose of Greilsammer’s interpretations made the disc stand out as something out of the ordinary.
And Greilsammer himself is an artist out of the ordinary. At only 32, he has several highly acclaimed recordings to his name — he has just been appointed music director and conductor of the Geneva Chamber orchestra, and next season will see his debuts with the san Francisco symphony orchestra and the Salzburg Mozarteum orchestra, among others. First, though, London audiences can hear him in recital at Wigmore Hall next week. His first appearance there last year was hailed by one critic as “among the most authoritative British debuts in years”.
A soft-spoken Israeli with a hybrid accent — he livedin New york for nine years and is now based in Paris — Greilsammer admits, if slightly sheepishly, that he felt destined to become a musician because his mother had decided this for him before he was born. (…)
Greilsammer’s acclaimed CDs of Mozart concertos came about through a determination to follow a path of his own, rather than one dictated by the occasionally creaky workings of the music industry. The name of ensemble Suedama, of course, is “Amadeus” backwards — he formed the orchestra himself.
“I have some problems with the ways things are sometimes done in the classical world,” Greilsammer says. “I wanted to do a first project my own way - something new and fresh. so I decided to surround myself with a completely new orchestra, made up of enthusiastic young soloists who had the same affinities and trains of thought that I had. We made two discs of Mozart concertos — they are all well-known works that have been recorded by all the great masters, but we wanted to approach them as if it were the first time. I’m a little obsessed with not being influenced by the past.
“The problem with classical music is that essentially it’s an art form that’s completely focused on the past,” he continues. “We play mostly pieces by dead composers, and we worship their scores. We spend our days looking at music that was written up to 400 years ago and that’s where we take our inspiration and life-force as classical musicians. This is where the problem begins — in an art that’s so preoccupied with the past, it’s very difficult to make it live today.” (…)
More explorations will follow — in the autumn Greilsammer will be back in London for a concert at King’s Place of sonatas by scarlatti and, on “prepared piano”, John Cage. That will mark the launch of his next CD; a world premiere recordings of works for piano and orchestra by Alexander Tansman and Nadia Boulanger, plus the more familiar Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.
His exclusive contract with the French record label Naïve has made Paris his ideal home (“though I don’t expect living in Paris will last forever,” he adds, rather ruefully), and he spends much time in Geneva with his orchestra there. He is enjoying his activities as
conductor, but the piano, he says, will always remain his first love. Destiny? Perhaps it really is.
If you want to know more about his childhood or his latest Wigmore Hall concert, please refer to the Jewish Chronicle of 28th May 2010 for the full article.
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