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... willingness on the part of the Russians to listen to another style of interpretation, to be moved not only by the virtuosic, the dramatic, the technically brilliant, but also by the slightest nuances, by a phrase spinning out of a long phrase in a Brahms slow movement, by the fleeting swiftness of Mozart in a rondo, the impressionism of Szymanowski, the elegance, gaiety, and quicksilver brilliance of the Rondo capriccioso of Saint-Saens.
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Whenever I studied a work, I would first look at the score to see it in its totality. With Zakin's help at the piano, I would play it through, to acquaint myself with its structure; then play it again, to hear its melodic line. Once I had a clear conception of the work, I would begin to study it technically. When necessary, I would work ten to twelve hours at a stretch, until I felt saturated with the composition.
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Advice from Dr Leo Mayer on his injured wrist: Play for 10 mins. An hour later, play again for 10 minutes, and an hour later you'll also play for ten minutes. Do that five, six times. Tomorrow, the same thing, but you'll play for 15 mins. The next day, for 20 mins. And then you'll have the rehearsal and the concert.
After he played the entire concerto succesfully: No pain. I flexed my wrist, and it was as though nothing had happened to it. It seemed to have forced itself back into shape because I needed it. That's one of the things the body (or the brain?) can do sometimes, in moments of great need.
"I didn't start worrying about my hands, and I didn't stop playing tennis. Artistic control of one's medium whould never be achieved at the cost of draining the joy of life."
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The goals of anybody who thinks about what he's doing change constantly. The more you learn, the more you recognise the absolute inability of any one person to achieve omniscience and perfection with regard to his art. The most you can hope to do is learn what the possibilities are, and then employ your own proficiencies to achieve at least some of those possibilities. And you come to realise that you can never really plumb the entire truth of ideas in music. Tha in essence is the power of music - the fact that the art form is larger, deeper, and far more varied than any single person can divine in his own lifetime - and realising it should give pause to any artist who starts to consider himself all-knowing. We are simply steps in a continuing age-old tradition. When we do something that enhances that tradition, that makes it richer, purer, clearer - then we have done what we were put here for.
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I chose Bach because there is in his music a pervasive sense of balance, a continuity of deep belief. Whatever he wrote, whether it was a religious choral work or a composition that was purely instrumental, one felt it was permeated with his faith, his devotion to God. For me, his music was always a catharsis; I play it sometimes quietly to myself when I am in a dark frame of mind.
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It is astonishing to what degree performing artists are clasped to the bosoms of people everywhere. And if you don't exploit that generosity wrongly, it becomes a tremendous personal, private wealth. I'm grateful to be a musician. Sometimes, when I'm onstage, I feel this wonderful sense of joy at being able to play. I feel blessed. It's extraordinary to have spent a lifetime making people nejoy themselves, and gaining a collective warmth and friendship that has lasted over decades. To be wanted and useful is the ultimate fulfillment for any artist. That's the greatest satisfation an artist can have.
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The only thread that seems to run through all these artistic accomplishments - and similarly, in other arts - is the imaginativeness of that mind, the ability to see below the surface, to see with clarity what is only dimly perceived by others, and to accomplish with seeming ease what is apparently impossible for the less talented.
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At each of the music conservatories I visited in Beijing, I heard players with an extraordinary level of talent. They could all play the notes with astonishing dexterity, but they didn't understand the music. They wanted to play the fast, flashy, loud, difficult compositions, display their technical virtuosity. They hadn't had sufficient time or instruction in basic musical values that were part of the old European tradition, and they also thought that technical excellence was a necessary part of good music- making, but that it wasn't everything; I talked to them about emphasising the mind, about playing each note with the ear and the heart.
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I remember once telling a group of students that their instruments were there for the music, and not the other way around. Every time you took up your instrument, you were making a statement, the player's statement: a statement of faith, a statement that this was the way you wanted the music to speak through your instrument.
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"Let me play the fiddle as well as I can. What is equally important to me is to live like a human being. If I can show people that a musician needn't be a crackpot, that he is fundamentally no different from the next fellow, that music is not a luxury but as natural as reading or arithmetic - if I can do that then I've really done something."
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"If you ever have any question in your own mind about how a phrase should go, put down the instrument and sing it. Then listen again to how you sang it and where you took a breath, and try to do the same thing with the violin and bow. Eight times out of ten we sing the phrase naturally and properly, and that is what you should try to do with your instrument."
I would urge them not to listen to violin records. I'd say " Listen to a quartet, but with the score. Know the score before you listen, and read the score while you’re listening. Listen to the Budapest String Quartet play the Beethoven quartets – you’ll hear the score being written right in front of your ears. If you want to hear what beauty can be, listen to a great voice singing German lieder. Or listen to a first-rate performance of a Mozart opera. Hear how voices are used, how they change with each word. Notes are our words. And we have to use them in the same way that most people use words when they speak, and as individually as most people, who will sound differently while saying the same thing.”
First of all, learn to look at yourself and say honestly, “I’m not trying to impress the listener; what I really want is for the listener to hear how beautiful is the music the composer wrote. I want the listener to feel how much I love this music. I want to convince the listener that his music is very important to us, necessary for us, as human beings.”
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On music and imagination
Your teacher… was quite right in telling you to use your imagination when you are playing music. Whether it should be a literal story or simply an idea of form or content makes no difference really, because, as you study more and more, and read about it and learn to analyse it, you will find it less necessary to have pictures of an event in your mind; rather the music will speak to you in its own language and you will begin to have a dialogue between your understanding of the music and what the composer has written. Whatever you use to excite your imagination in playing or listening is worthwhile, because inevitably it will lead you in the direction of music which is indeed a way of speaking. It does not speak in words, it speaks in images which each of us creates in his own way and it is the only way to get into the inside of the music to find out how many ways there are of speaking the same phrase.
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Some critics were saying that I might then have been at the very peak of my career had I not devoted so much time and energy to talent scouting and other causes. But they left me unmoved. Perhaps if I had stuck only to the fiddle, only to practicing with the fingers, I might have been playing a little better, I might have accomplished a little more musically- but to what purpose? I hadn’t lacked for public success. So I missed a few notes sometimes. Was that really a big deal? I had the joy of being surrounded by young people who had become world figures and by others who were coming up. I had a whole world of family, and in that sense I was one of the richest men in the world.
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