00:00:13: Welcome to Soundboard, the Steinway & Sons podcast on artistry and craftsmanship.

00:00:17: I'm your producer-and host Ben Finan director of content at Steinway.

00:00:22: If you enjoy sound board please rate review and subscribe to it wherever you podge your casts.

00:00:28: My guest today is The pianist Alexandre Cantoreau.

00:00:32: He's winner of the two thousand nineteen international Tchaikovsky competition And winner of a twenty four Gilmore Artist

00:00:39: Award.

00:00:47: You come from bit of classical music family parents are both violinists, your father conducts.

00:00:52: So I'm wondering apart from some talent and some genes... ...I wonder what you learned from them early on about this music?

00:01:03: You learn so much!

00:01:04: A lot of it we don't realize for a long time has passed.

00:01:08: And then if you reflect in it and you realise how much they unconsciously brought to but i know the fact that was hearing my dad constantly work his violin I would go to concerts, think i would also pick up a bit on certain musical ideas they had because we talked always about music.

00:01:30: and uh...I remember even just the fact that under violin you do things in an very natural way.

00:01:38: Because so you've got this string and when you go higher it's more challenging.

00:01:42: So there is more tension On the piano.

00:01:44: You're really on this instrument where have to artificially recreate a lot of organic things that are natural invoices in string instruments.

00:01:53: And I think the sounds i would hear and timing between certain notes came from my dad practising, so lots.

00:02:02: also the feeling belonging to an very natural musical family it extends through the feelings of concert is a natural thing.

00:02:16: There's a lot that came from that, of course.

00:02:18: You made an interesting point like the voice and more, Like The Violin.

00:02:48: I wonder if you could speak a little bit to how You actually do that?

00:03:15: With just these things, I think the more you have variations on this little thing.

00:03:24: The better it becomes because the more at your disposal really colors... You create expression by sometimes putting right hand before left-hand a bit and creating different levels of sound And try to adapt each piece.

00:03:40: These pieces that are very much symphonies in disguise Brahms' first sonatas are a bit like that and there it's very clear, you feel they were instruments in mind.

00:03:51: Like Paul Lewis said different registers the horns are very clear because they work with intervals of sixes and thirds.

00:03:59: You get that really when you hear passages built like this.

00:04:03: you know these sounds is meant to be like that.

00:04:07: Otherwise then some pieces.

00:04:10: Maybe it's not an orchestra, maybe more of a ballet and opera.

00:04:13: It is about the structure... ...and how these waves or sounds achieve one high culminating point And you must be quite careful to balance it out.

00:04:24: so we feel the structure A lot trying out experimentation before.

00:04:32: Sometimes if you really believe that piece has certain soul You can even try arrange the text so that you can bring out your musical idea.

00:04:43: There's a lot I try in rehearsals and preparation, then there is the moment on stage where lots of big problems get resolved or instinctively because you understand things you couldn't before when you reflect on it with the piece... I think this balance between these instincts and all the preparation and trials we make

00:05:08: Until you're playing it on stage.

00:05:10: This is all theoretical,

00:05:12: right?

00:05:13: Yeah Yes yeah there's so much about time.

00:05:16: You can't realize although a lot of passages that you worked A lot for not much other reason because on stage they are very Very natural and the opposite is true.

00:05:26: There's a lot Of big traps and big moments That fail on stage Because you treated them too lightly.

00:05:32: And uh...yeah this The amount of adrenaline that you have when your your body reacts to that.

00:05:38: and so you play a certain way, which is very different.

00:05:43: Certain things unlock themselves when an audience comes in.

00:05:46: it's quite magical

00:05:48: And I imagine as professional the more you practice what will be time well spent The more you can channel this adrenaline.

00:06:01: So it becomes helpful

00:06:04: hopefully when good days, yeah exactly.

00:06:08: That's I think one of the struggles at the same time frustrating and it ensures that probably you could do all your life without feeling boredom.

00:06:19: come because You can't really be secure on anything.

00:06:25: at a level where you know that we can produce the same thing and it will hundred percent work or this intention, You'll always manage to bring it down.

00:06:33: On stage there's always surprises in good and bad And then you have two unfortunately of all fortunately deal with them.

00:06:42: Maybe It doesn't change.

00:06:43: I remember This interview With Frank Sinatra.

00:06:45: He said before he sings Every time before he goes on stage, He gets terrified.

00:06:50: And I mean you think of a guy who seems so natural but maybe that stage fright is healthy and Maybe it's always there.

00:06:57: yeah It's uh i know every every personality.

00:07:00: But they say yeah.

00:07:01: Of course So many stories of musicians are terrified even when They're legends.

00:07:05: then When You feel That they have A mastery of the instrument?

00:07:09: Yeah really the way our psychological system is built.

00:07:16: Some have no pressure at all, it's a accumulation of childhood trauma and lots of stuff that could happen on stage in your relationship to people with that you cannot control.

00:07:28: but if you are creative enough or searching curiously I think Like you said, it starts to become a helpful tool and even when if he puts you in the state of more dangerous states.

00:07:48: You get things out this stage that are quite unique make your better musician.

00:07:54: Speaking of bringing new terrifying things to the stage, I know that you're working on a recital program.

00:07:59: Yeah?

00:08:00: I wonder if could take us into process.

00:08:03: how do determine what's in our recital and find through line between perhaps seemingly disparate pieces?

00:08:13: Well for this recital one of my focuses was the mettener piece.

00:08:22: I did a few recitals with the use of the Brahms early sonatas, and wanted to change.

00:08:28: And really went into the Metiner's works... ...and realized how much he was only writing for piano.

00:08:34: He wrote so many sonatas!

00:08:35: Here is one of true last romantics that still keeps very intact in what comes before….

00:08:44: …and pushes it towards the limit of poetry into really interesting structures.

00:08:50: And this first sonata is a big homage to all the music of the past, it's an homage to Bach because there are huge amounts of counterpoint and voices that are very clear.

00:09:01: It's not big chords like Rachmaninoff.

00:09:02: everything detailed and audible, every voice is clear.

00:09:08: This of course a lot of Beethoven's journey to darkness to light.

00:09:13: big focus on the last movement that brings back all the themes in.

00:09:16: that concludes it.

00:09:17: you've got Chopin melodies so I found It was very interestingly built and rich And its'a very obsessive piece.

00:09:26: That why most pieces of this recital deal quite bit much with some form of obsession.

00:09:32: No, I wanted so to play Bach and the variations on.

00:09:37: On the violin claggins organ Zagan is this almost mantra that was used for him as a symbol of Christ dying on the cross.

00:09:48: he uses it in his mass and be minor.

00:09:51: enlist created this overblown piece of labyrinthic where you're doomed into this nightmare.

00:09:58: that repeats itself and list added the brilliant idea at the end too.

00:10:02: resolve this by another call of Barbara, that's really sort of a moment of clarity and it brings huge amount of joy.

00:10:13: And from the last Beethoven sonata I also brought myself in my mind because they functioned very opposite ways.

00:10:22: one is like Bach has a huge journey into this nightmare which was resolved only at the end storm of darkness, but then there's an enormous most of the pieces bathed in light and it feels very much this duality over.

00:10:41: Man falling out of heaven and then climbing back slowly.

00:10:45: with Beethoven you always feel a struggle man that said achieving higher things when he see every obstacle on their way and then those are few pieces to complement them.

00:10:57: I think scramming is one of the composers that also has this obsession like Beethoven in his last pieces of trills, these sort-of mystical chords and very spiritual ideas that come forward.

00:11:13: And so yeah the whole program was constructed around Metner.

00:11:17: I tried to balance them into different styles and genres of composers but try still make it a bit unified.

00:11:26: The Metner & Scriabin are part your continued Russian focus?

00:11:31: I think from now on, i'm going to try and play a bit more metinar definitely in the next recitals.

00:11:36: Scrabin have played very little again.

00:11:39: also it could be one of the interesting composers.

00:11:44: this piece that i am playing here Verlaflam is really just sort-of concentrated version.

00:11:50: what he would do with his sonatas where has much time to unfold ideas.

00:11:55: good gateway into Scrammin's music, especially his last works because you get in such a clear way.

00:12:02: His obsession of these chords and it is just few melodic ideas that are built to huge heights with this burning into flames and these trills repeat themselves so he gets an apocalyptic vision.

00:12:23: Yeah, Scrabbin was a bit more out there than Betner.

00:12:29: But interesting how you see this bridge from Bach to twentieth century in Betner?

00:12:33: I think

00:12:34: it's interesting that all the composers have used what came before and also at the same time they deal with the struggles of humanity.

00:12:50: So you can actually very easily find a lot of similarities between people that are hundreds of years apart.

00:12:58: It's quite beautiful to see how much they can be close in that way.

00:13:02: Alexander, does each of these composers require a different set of priorities when your studying or learning their music?

00:13:11: Or do you use the same approach for each

00:13:17: one?

00:13:17: Of course there are certain bases probably intact, but most of the time it's not even in between the same composers.

00:13:23: But every piece they... Composers have changed so much and they change their musical priorities.

00:13:29: And then you open up a score after a bit of analyzing it playing it on piano or having ideas that comes to mind.

00:13:42: You understand also What is very comfortable for you, naturally?

00:13:47: Or what's instinctive and works.

00:13:49: And where are the things that you're separate from this music... ...and need to get closer or attach yourself really.

00:13:56: That requires quite a bit of time in work.

00:14:01: It's more about trying to resolve questions on score.

00:14:07: There's lots written but not written.

00:14:12: guess by knowing a bit the other works of a composer or building a bit of knowledge, sort-of fake character that you would know when you imagine a composer and slowly then yeah try to get close to it.

00:14:27: And uh... Of course you change also.

00:14:30: so when you come back to your piece You'll probably play in very different way but I think every piece gets same amount not understanding everything and trying to search, and try to resolve some questions.

00:14:44: It's true that not only can composers change their character from piece-to-piece but I think our relationships with those composers changed as well.

00:14:52: right now you're working on Prokofiev III piano concerto.

00:14:56: i wonder how your relationship has changed with him?

00:15:00: As...as you dive into that piece!

00:15:02: Yeah..I've only played before the second Piano Concerto which is a hugely dark extremist work that pushes really the player to the limits.

00:15:14: It's in a way written, you can see this form of extremism.

00:15:19: and this concerto is funny because at the same time it's hugely virtuosic piece.

00:15:23: At other times when we look at the score its very fascinating how moderate.

00:15:29: he writes only little indications.

00:15:32: He doesn't write extreme nuances like on the second.

00:15:36: I was really surprised how much it wasn't in what i imagined.

00:15:40: It's also very difficult to start this piece when you've listened so much, to dissociate yourself from the interpretations of Marta Aguirrech for example who made this piece famous.

00:15:50: there is a bit of period going on that you're starting from scratch and unlearning all that we have heard in your mind balance that he has between, at the same time.

00:16:08: He's an extremely lyrical composer and it is really like the Romeo & Juliet Ballet full of legends or fairy tales so very characteristic pieces.

00:16:21: you have to switch from all these sections where you switch characters quickly.

00:16:27: this also a modernistic industrial way with machine and momentum that never stops.

00:16:35: And so you get a bit of this balance between the modernity, and these traditions in this piece that I love...I was surprised also how much orchestra gives you the heartbeat of the piece during all time.

00:16:46: There are always the basses giving you this beat So that you build blocks with the orchestra.

00:16:54: It's quite surprising.

00:16:55: then on the moment playing it I realized also that for all the good ideas in theory, then there's a lot you have to bring energy-wise.

00:17:05: To still make it convincing and... That i had to learn the hard way by playing it!

00:17:11: It is an old strategy and execution combination we were talking about earlier?

00:17:15: Yeah

00:17:15: exactly yes!

00:17:18: Alessandro You've been playing piano more than say twenty years now.

00:17:22: Was there a significant lesson from a teacher in your life that changed the way you approached music or approach to piano?

00:17:29: I think they were few, but probably well... The first person who actually showed me the powers of interpretation.

00:17:37: Probably.

00:17:38: I was eleven or twelve and at time just liked sight reading pieces And he's called Igor Lesko is a teacher that is in Paris.

00:17:49: He gave me really the first amount of responsibility that you have with a piece, it's on your shoulders to make this piece shine in a special light and you have to make the connection between the piece and audience.

00:18:04: He was the one who put this responsibility into me.

00:18:07: probably then also I still see her from time-to-time.

00:18:11: she is called Rena Chereshevskaya.

00:18:14: She is teacher which balances very well concrete aspects to very easy lessons that she can tell you, have immediate results and at the same time this search would never stop.

00:18:31: She will spend her days looking through scores changing ideas creating these almost mystical symbolic connections between for example a short that's Bach passions.

00:18:46: Every composer would know what every theme would mean symbolically and would reuse them.

00:18:51: so when you see these combinations of notes.

00:18:54: they all mean the same thing, there's this map that unfolds.

00:18:58: she has a very symbolic approach to music but I saw also great power in building these symbols even if it are false.

00:19:10: The belief and the will inside of you, when... When you truly believe that the way this score is written I think it produces quite powerful results in the way we play.

00:19:22: A search that'll never stop!

00:19:24: I hope all can be blessed to have a level of energy and inspiration.

00:19:30: Passé un excellent ce jour en Normandie, j'espère que vous profitez d'un beau soleil.

00:19:52: You've been listening to Soundboard, Steinway & Son's podcast on artistry and craftsmanship.

00:19:58: Our opening and closing music is Philip Glass' Mad Rush on a Steinway Model M played by me,

00:20:03: Ben Finan.

00:20:05: Question for the podcast?

00:20:07: Email me at infoatsteinway.com with this subject heading Soundboard.

00:20:11: Message Me On Facebook At Steinway or Hit Me On The Gram At Stein Way & Sons.

00:20:16: Subscribe To Soundboard On Spotify Apple Music Deezer Or Wherever You Pod Your Casts.

00:20:22: Thank you For Listening.