A new profession -- in classical music?

Well, you know that many new and prosperous professions nowadays didn't exist like 10 years ago, such as social media manager (or consultant) or anything to do with mobile phones and apps. That's how I feel now in Indonesia as a (classical music) composer. My European colleagues who are reading this might feel strange .... but yeah, classical music, in spite of its term, is something new to us Indonesians, starting from the second half of the last century. We do have pioneers of classical music composers, such as Amir Pasaribu (who died a few years ago with 92 years of age, after around 30 or more years of his last years not composing anything) or, still very much around us, the 80-year-young Trisutji Kamal. But now that the classical music scene is so robust in Indonesia, I am working with so many young (and not so young too) musicians who are playing my music, either as part of their educational purposes or with the intention of performing it professionally. ............................................................................................................................................. Before this, classical musicians are faced with music by dead composers only. You have all the materials provided, besides the music sheet. Now with the existence of youtube, you can even have all the historical recordings, you name it, Glenn Gould, Artur Rubinstein even going back to the recording of the composers themselves such as Rachmaninov or Prokofiev playing their own music (which sometimes are not so brilliant as other pianists performing their music. Even Rachmaninov admitted that about Vladimir Horowitz, as you know). So, you pick a Bach French Suite and you can listen to a few hundred different recordings, most of them artistically of high quality. You choose the best according to you, or the one you feel closest too, and there you get a clear concept of the music. You might not be able to imitate it (who could imitate Gould?), but you work on that piece of music with the sound of your favorite recording in your head, but mostly not your own idea. So, you are already conditioned to a specific interpretation of the music, not the music itself. ............................................................................................................................................. With newly written music, you are demanded to have a clear idea YOURSELF of the musical concept and its character. It's perhaps (a bit) easier if you are a singer, since you have the words to start with, although sometimes a poem could be so complex that it's the music that helps you feel the atmosphere between the words. But if it's a piece of instrumental music, well, it does need your musical sensitivity to grasp its idea. ............................................................................................................................................. This is why a new piece of music is very important in music competitions. It's much easier to perform a piece of music that has a "history" ---and like any history, it has so many different versions--- but it is through an interpretation of a really new piece of music that we can really see the artistic abilities of a musician. Nowadays we don't need more musicians who can read notes so well and play it with the nimblest of fingers; it is already expected from any musician. We need musicians who understand what lies between those notes, even though (s)he has never heard that music before. ............................................................................................................................................. So, for you who are performing my piano pieces in the next Ananda Sukarlan Award competition, you might have acquired my newest CD, A Virtuosic Christmas. I play some of the works that you could choose among the obligatory works to play there. But remember, I am counting on YOU to play it better. You've gotta be able to see other points of views, other ideas, other musical concept of it. I played it as an INTERPRETER, not as a composer anymore, as any pianist-composer could tell you when they are performing their own works. I have heard my music performed differently than I had in mind before, and many times. And some of them, I must say, are excellent. There are fresh approaches in some pieces on Henoch Kristianto's recordings of some of my Rapsodia Nusantara, and some performances of Edith Widayani were also more than artistically very admirable. And I must say that until now, nobody (I include myself here) matches the brilliance of Anthony Hartono's performance of Rapsodia Nusantara no. 10. I am just sooo much looking forward to hearing a mindblowing performance of some of my works in the next competition next July.

Virto .. virtuo.. what? (Thoughts on development of pianistic techniques)

The last few days have been grueling for me, practising my Rapsodias, some of them I've never played before. No no, not because I feel "examined" by the young pianists who are coming to my concert next Sunday who, most of them, have played or studied at least one Rapsodia of mine. They should not expect the composer to be the best interpreter of his own works, especially if we talk about the virtuosity (oh, oh, what an excuse eh, some of you might be thinking right now). We composers usually are too lazy to practice our own pieces, I personally feel much more responsibility in playing other people's work, not because they aren't mine, but because I always admire them more than my works. And I don't think this is due to the fact that the neighbour's grass is greener (except if your neighbour put lots of sh*t to fertilize it!), but because I always learn a lot from those works of Haydn, Rachmaninov, Busoni etc. They inspire me. The only thing I learned from studying my own pieces is what NOT to do in my next pieces :( .............................................................................................................................................. I have heard incredible performances by young(er) people on my Rapsodia, or other works of mine. And I haven't got used to Henoch Kristianto's new CD of my works, it is, for me, still admirable. Indeed, their virtuosity is stunning. But is that so unusual these days? Perhaps not. ............................................................................................................................................ The overall level of technical proficiency in instrumental playing, especially on the piano, has increased steadily over time. Many pianists and piano teachers friends of mine have noted the phenomenon, which is not unlike what happens in sports. Records keep being broken, barriers are renewed all the time. Something similar has long been occurring with pianists. And in the last decade or so the growth of technical proficiency has seemed exponential. ............................................................................................................................................ What long-term effect this trend will have on the field is not clear. Unlike in Asia, especially Indonesia where audience is growing, classical music in Europe is facing its challenges, including declining appreciation among the general (especially young) public, and not all segments of the audience are noticing the breakthrough in technical accomplishment that is apparent to insiders: pianists, concert presenters and piano freaks. Because so many pianists are so good, many concertgoers have simply come to expect that any soloist playing the Liszt or Tchaikovsky Concerto will be a phenomenal technician. A new level of technical excellence is expected of emerging pianists. I see it not just on the concert circuit but also at conservatories and colleges. In recent years, at my masterclasses or recital programs at some conservatories that I visited as guest teachers, I have repeatedly been struck by the sheer level of instrumental expertise that seems a given. Certainly a phenomenon is taking place. I remember back in 1990s when the movie “Shine,” about the mentally ill pianist David Helfgott, raised curiosity about Rachmaninov’s 3rd Piano Concerto, a Juilliard professor Jerome Lowenthal was asked by reporters whether this piece was as formidably difficult as the movie had suggested. He had two answers: “One was that this piece truly is terribly hard. Two was that all my 16-year-old students were playing it.” ............................................................................................................................................ What role do composers play in all this? A lot, I think. Along the history, composers always push at the boundaries: Someone creates a work of extraordinary difficulty that seems unplayable and then, simply because it exists, people rise to the occasion, and we find that it was indeed possible. But of course, it has to be the composers themselves first who had to prove it, unfortunately : at least Liszt and Busoni did. But has it always been like that? Nope, don't think so. Rachmaninov said about Vladimir Horowitz's playing of his 3rd concerto: "This is the way I always dreamed my concerto should be played, but I never expected to hear it that way on Earth" (I quote it from freerepublic.com, but apparently this statement appears in other pages too). Britten's excellent piano concerto, too, relied on Svjatoslav Richter for its formidable interpretation (by the way, do you know that the incredible recording that we know now was taken during a live performance?). It didn't take off that brilliantly when Britten himself premiered it. .............................................................................................................................................. I think a reason that pianists are getting technically stronger is that as in sports, young pianists are just learning to practice the craft better, becoming better conditioned and getting better results due to the toughness of competitions, and that pianists are rising to the challenges of new music that push boundaries. If we see it in historical context, the first several decades of the 20th century are considered a golden era by many piano buffs, a time when artistic imagination and musical richness were valued more than technical perfection. There were certainly pianists during that period who had exquisite, impressive technique, like Busoni and Rachmaninov. And white-hot virtuosos like the young Vladimir Horowitz wowed the public, but the audience tolerated a lot of playing that would be considered sloppy today. Listen to 1920s and ’30s recordings of the pianist Alfred Cortot, immensely respected in his day. He would probably not be admitted to any European conservatory now. Despite the refinement and élan in his playing, his recording of Chopin’s 24 études from the early 1930s is, by today’s standards, littered with clinkers. These days playing the Chopin études with comfort is practically a basic requirement for passing the first round of any competition. ............................................................................................................................................ There is a danger in pursuing perfection. After Van Cliburn won the 1958 Tchaikovsky Competition and became a household name, every young pianist saw competitions as the route to fame and success. A new generation worked tirelessly to achieve technical flawlessness. Critics found that many of these young pianists had “competition chops” but not much else to offer. During every era of the piano there were players who were superb artists with more on their minds than dazzling virtuosity. You might divide pianists into two basic groups: those who have the technique to play anything and those who have all the technique they need, thank you, to play the music that is meaningful to them.And now, since only in China itself there are more than 1 million young pianists who can play ALL the right notes, a new breed of pianists are searching something new. A new expressivity, a new kind of artistry, and a new kind of REPERTOIRE. The fact that they are all active right now suggests that a new level of conquering the piano is taking place. You could argue that younger performers are expanding the boundaries of technique in other instruments as well. But singers are the exception to this trend. One obvious reason is that while the instruments themselves have not changed that much in the last century, every voice is unique to a person and a body. Though there are certain time-tested principles, each singer must come to terms with his or her own voice.But let me tell you my opinions about singers later, after I finish my concert this Sunday. Right now, I have to struggle with those crazy jumping chords, strange arpeggios, weird running notes all modulating to places where no man have gone before. And unfortunately, all those problems are all created by me. As John Lennon put it, you might say I am a dreamer. But I'm not the only one.

Break a leg! (on Friday the 13th)

Yup, that's what one usually say to a performing artist about to go on stage. In Spanish it's even worse, they say "mucha mierda!" which means "loads of shit!". If it were told to a politician who's about to give his campaign talk it would be more appropriate. I don't know the origins of those sayings (am pretty sure lots of google entries can explain it to you), but in any case those well-wishes phrases stem from the superstition that giving good wishes is considered bad luck. And yes, we artists ARE highly superstitious due to our insecurity towards the high level of unpredictability of our end products.

But I did get my bad luck a few days ago, and it wasn't on stage. It was an act as simple as going down the livingroom steps at my house, just those 2 steps that I've known for 13 years that I lived here. Maybe that's the bad luck key: I fell on Friday the 13th, after 13 years living here. And it wasn't as bad as breaking a leg, I just broke a bone in my left foot (if I had fallen at 13.00 p.m it might be worse). The most outer bone, that most vulnerable one. After I fell down, I didn't go immediately to the hospital but tried to live a "normal" life for a few days instead, until yesterday my wife insisted that we go visit the hospital since the pain didn't go away. And so we went, and they X-rayed my feet. And my fate for the next month is sealed: I will need 2 walking sticks to help me walk.

Needless to say, I will have lots of time this week, since I mainly lie down in bed with my laptop. Even today, I've read all those mailing lists which I normally don't read, checked all messages on facebook ... and tweeted of course. But I also have talked to my managers and we have decided that my next public appearances will not be cancelled. I have only a broken foot, which is so light compared to a broken heart or broken spirit! Even only 1 day has passed, I could already understand how life is for disabled people, and I'm sure it will inspire me for something. As you might know, I have written music for disabled people, and now by experiencing first hand how it is, I am more keen to do it. As I would be too lazy to bend one of my legs to live and feel how life is with 1 leg if I hadn't got this accident, so I feel lucky to have experienced this. So, next week I will still teach at Rotterdam as a guest professor and even keep my small concert & talk there on Tuesday evening for the students (mostly piano and composition), and the week after I will go to Jakarta where I will perform Tschaikovsky's Piano Concerto and that famous variation of Rachmaninov's Paganini Rhapsody with a new arrangement: accompanied by an ensemble of angklung! The concert will take place on May 5th at Teater Jakarta (TIM). This will be a very special experience for me. Other guest stars will be one of the winners of the National Vocal Competition "Tembang Puitik Ananda Sukarlan" Adi "Didut" Nugroho (yup, he's the tenor who asked for wealth to the shaman in my opera "Mendadak Kaya") and famous Indonesian pop singer Kikan Namara. Hopefully things will go well, since it's more difficult to travel with one leg. Wish me luck, friends, but this time I dunno how, since I have fulfilled your good wish by breaking a leg. Literally.

You talkin' to me??

These are some questions & answers that I found scattered around in my emails with journalists, students who are doing research about my music (and me), etc. Thought they would be useful to you.

1. I know that you don't perform much now. but is there any advice for performance anxiety?
An unfortunate answer : NO. Even if one is so so prepared, it happens still ! And different kind of symptoms could happen to different kinds of people : I have the same one as Benjamin Britten's (he was famous for his rituals!) : stomach problems before going on stage.

2. Are there any advices for those who want to make career in performing and composing music?
Well, unfortunately I can't think of any other way but to join & win the competitions, although competitions are so so inartistic . But for me, it was the way. Afterwards I started to re-educate myself musically (meaning , playing for artistic reasons, and not to please the jury. Not even the audience; I do it for the music, which is sometimes too honest to please anyone ) .

3. What is "good music", according to you?
Simple. Good music is that which is always better than its performance(s). While not so good ones depend so much on their performers. I'll put it simpler: imagine Beethoven's Sonatas, or Bach's Well Tempered Klavier or Gustav Mahler's Symphonies. I believe that noone, NOBODY, until now can reach the height of their real quality. And I am a big fan of Glenn Gould's Bach performances and Leonard Bernstein's repeated renderings of Mahler! And there is even a better evidence for this : Rachmaninov as a pianist of his own works repeatedly did performances of the same pieces in different interpretations throughout the years. He, I consider, was the greatest pianist of the history (well I never heard recordings of Liszt!), but he was a step under his greatness as a composer.
That automatically explains my music : I am desperately counting on good performers to make my music better than it is!!

4. From which composers do you learn the most?
From almost everyone, even though it means I learned what I should NOT do in composition. That's why I am interested in "bad" (according to me) composers too (mostly contemporary ones). You can even learn from the hour long Mahler symphony to apply it in a very short piece, or from a complex orchestration of Britten for writing a, say, trio or quartet. Anyway, I do admit that there are "fixed" composers, such as Bach, Britten, Mahler and Stravinsky to turn to every time I got compositional problems (and even blocks, which happen not seldomly.

5. Could you share any visions / plans in the future?
Have you read about Mozart wanting only to write operas and nothing else? Well, I am like that. If I can, I would only write operas and more operas. But it poses a lot of problems, mostly economic ones. And it's so complicated to produce! And I feel that through operas we can express our preoccupations about things like human rights etc . Do you know Stravinsky's saying "Music is unable to express anything " ? Noooo way ! It is so powerful to express, but what is expressed cannot be done in words. Not even in an opera; it is the music, not the words, that reaches directly to the heart of the listener. And it hurts, sometimes.

To boldly CHANGE that we can believe in

Now that's very fine, Mr. President, what you said about change. Most people are so conservative that they are afraid of any changes. In fact, one gets older in order to get settled down, and "well-established" instead of "seeking change, new life and new civilations". If one is comfortable with something, why change it, right? But what about this thing that happens to me now ? I am feeling a kind of change ... in my music. And it's not me who wanted this change. Now, that's ok, considering that I've been in and out writing music for the last 20 years, and I did have some changes in my musical language in the past. I do envy Rachmaninov who had been so consistent throughout his life. Even all his 4 piano concerti ends in the same manner: pam papapam !! (as if there are no other ways to end a piece of music). Oh yeah, I just finished my Rapsodia Nusantara no.4 a few days ago, and I was making sure that the ending is different from the 1st, 2nd and 3rd he he ..

Now back to change .. the thing is that I think I like my music more and more. I still am a Britten and Stravinsky wannabe, but hey, I write music because I want to listen to it and nobody has written it, that's why I write it down, right ? And then I know that many people also likes my music, and although I keep on telling this bulls**t to myself that "artists write not for people, but to express what they believe", I do feel flattered every time I realize that my music can "move" someone. Together with this change in my musical language, I also realized that I like new kinds of music which I wasn't really fond of previously. Two "H" composers have been my favorite lately : Hindemith and Hans Werner Henze. In the latter case, I even know him personally, and still wasn't a big fan of his music. Until recently, for the last few weeks.

So, what kind of change is happening ? First of all, with my 4th Rapsodia, I did something, an experiment if you like to call it so, which I never did before. I wrote about my method of composing in this blog about last month. At last it has 10 variations, but I couldn't avoid feeling rather jittery when I finished writing the variations, having 10 pieces of puzzle to construct. Even some silly questions popped up, such as "Why should the bare & naked theme appear in the beginning?" I still don't know if my "4th" would work as a solid construction, but that's the risk if one wants to "change". A work of art is never finished, said Paul Valery, and this phrase could serve as a big consolation in times like this ..

Another change is the harmony in my music : it's getting darker, and even thicker. Now usually when one gets older, his music tends to be simpler, more transparent. Just listen to all those guys : Beethoven, Liszt, oh well, most of them. And the bad news is ... I think you won't like it, folks. It's less "accessible", and shall we say, more "difficult listening" (in need for a better opposite of "easy listening").
Oh well, enough for now. Let me just go and boldly change. To seek out new music and new ideas .. Make it so, Number One! Energize !!