„...to express in Music, what one feels most deeply“

Richard Eckstein: There are violinists, who are Guarneri - or Stradivari -Types. To which group would you count yourself?

Arabella Steinbacher: I m actually more the Guarneri -Type. Still I am incredibly happy to have the chance to play on the Booth-Stradivarius, which the Nippon Foundation generously loaned to me. This instrument has also a very warm and dark sound, almost like a Guarneri.

You are in the lucky position to have found, outside of your family, an artistic mentor: the 1922 Haifa-born violinist Ivry Gitlis. In the german Music-scene he might not be known as well as in his homeland France, or the USA, Japan or Australia, where one speaks about him in same terms as Isaac Stern and Martha Argerich. What can you learn from „one of the greatest alive legends of the Musicworld“?

Ivry Gitlis is such a fascinating personality that even without playing music together it is so inspiring for me to spend, sometimes, a few days with him. He is an artistic mentor and a father-like friend in one, but also an very inspired and inspiring person. Some years ago I was introduced to him in Paris. I already heard that he is a little bit crazy, full-blooded musician. The first thing he said to me was would like to have a whisky..?.. which broke the ice immediately, even if I just drank a glass of water.

We never would organize a fixed time for a lesson. Although there is the complete focus on the music, everything happens very improvised, or actually almost chaotic.. Once my father was with me in Paris, because I had concerts there. Together we wanted to play the Milhaud Concertos for Ivry, which I was studying at the time for my CD recording. It took a while until we could find the piano, a full-size Steinway, under mountains of musicscores and travelbags.

That sounds really adventurous...

Yes (laughter), and it is very familiar to me, because my apartment doesn't look much better.

Really? You don’t seem like that. Are you not a tidy person?

In everyday-situations not really. For that I am too much a musician. I feel more comfortable, if everything is lying around, then I don’t have to look so long for things. Also in cooking it has to be quick, mostly I cook rice or pasta.

You grew up in a musician family...

My mother came from Japan to Germany to study singing. In the Musikhochschule in Munich my parents met. My father was first Solorepetitor in the Bayerische Staatsoper between 1960 and 1972. There he worked with many legendary singers together, also regularly with Fritz Wunderlich. As I heard from old colleagues he must have been very well regarded.

For me it is a fantastic opportunity, when I have to study new repertoire to play with him. If I give him some music, he can sight-read everything so quickly. I m very lucky to have him.

When did you start playing the violin?

At 3 years old. It was the idea of my mother. She read in the newspaper, that a German violin teacher just came back from Japan, where he has studied the Suzuki-Method. Still there was not really the idea for me to do this as a proffession one day. My parents never drilled me to become a violinist. I was more a hyper-active child and they thought it wouldn’t be bad for me to have, at least, something distracting to do.

How long did it take, until you were able to play in tune?

That I can’t remember, but it probably didn’t take too long, because in the Suzuki-Method the ear is trained extremely well. One learns quickly through listening and playing. The music-reading comes much later. Indeed today, I still learn a piece very quickly if I hear and play it as much as possible. With Helge Thelen, my first teacher, who moved later to Melbourne, I am still regulary in contact. He often tells me very funny stories about my first years on the violin, like it happened just yesterday. I was taught by him 6 years.

What was so special about these early lessons?

Helge Thelen gets along with children incredibly well. One didn’t have to be afraid at all of him. Today I still have to laugh, when I listen to him, because of his funny character. In his lessons he had a bird with a long nose, actually just a tennis ball with painted eyes and a long plastic nose, and I had to hold the Violin end on the birds nose. That was a trick to avoid, that the children don’t let the violin sag and get a bad body position.

When did you realize that you wanted to beome a violinst?

That was not a decision I made on purpose. As long as I can remember, the violin is part of my life. When I came at 9 years, as her youngest student, to Ana Chumachenco at the Musikhochschule in Munich, it became definitely much more serious. The way how she taught was more strict. The musicality was always very important for her. She has this special ability that allows to develop each of her students completely individul to their own personality. For me she was much more than „just“ a teacher. Between the age of 9 and 20 you walk through a whole world of changes and experiences. Sometimes when I came depressed to her lesson, she said: „come, put your violin away, today we just talk.“ Although I finished with my study a few years ago, I still know, that her door is always open.

Was there ever irritations on your way to a becoming a proffessional violinist?

When I was 7 I wanted to learn playing the piano. My parents were, at first, not very happy about it. They probably thought "Oh no, not again another instrument!" But it came about so easily because the beloved Bösendorfer piano of my father was standing at home. In the end I prevailed and I started to practise every day, the piano first and then the violin. This meant I could play pieces, which I usually didn’t play on the violin. In the second entrance examination for full-time music study“ when I was 16, I played Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue. That wasn’t an burden for me, much more a welcome and healthy distraction, which I needed.

But one thing I know for sure: I never wanted to become a singer, although I like the male voice very much. My mother is a soprano, and when she was angry with me as a child, her voice became quite high, like when she sang. That’s probably what scared me off. Still I can say today that it helped me immensly to grow up with all these singers around me. Every instrument is an imitation of the human voice and I believe, as an instrumentalist one can learn most from singers.

Can artistic crises’ be productive or helpful?

I think it is quite healthy if not everything always goes so great. In spite of successful moments one must never loose the ambition to become better. If you think about yourself that you can do already everything, it is said to be the beginning of the end... Still it is not always easy to find a good balance between self-critisism and contentment.

What kind of music do you listen in privat?

All kinds of things, it depends in which mood I am. Sometimes, when I get back home, all stressed from the airport, I like very much to listen to some Jazz like Brubeck, Sinatra or Fitzgerald. That helps me the quickest to relax again.

Did you gain much from music classes while in school in Germering?

I didn’t feel it was very helpful. The teachers would have had the ability to convey much to us, because they were good musicians, but somehow they seemed to have lost their enthusiasm for their job. My class was of course merciless and didn’t show any interest either. Nowdays there are more and more organisations where musicians visit schools, which I feel is greatly important. With the „Rhapsody in School“ program I am involved with, some afternoons I find myself performing and talking to a room full of excited children before my concert in the evening. This connection is vital to our musics understanding.

How did your schoolmates take you/see you?

At the beginning as something exotic, first because I have a japanese mother and also because I played „this instrument“, what no one really understood. But also because of that I was stamped as an outsider. After a while it became better but the first two years were really hard. That time I went through a big developemental phase, from the little grey mouse to that what Ms Chumachenco expected of me. All that didn’t fit together: on one side, with solo appearances with different student orchestras, and on the other side going back to school.

I couldn’t even stand in front of the class to say something or to do a speech. I became completely blocked. As soon as I was holding the violin in my hands I suddenly felt secure and I knew this is my territory. This ability always protected me. To stand without my instrument in front of people is still difficult for me. When I have to announce something in a concert I feel much more nervous than before I play. (laughter)

Are you nervous before your concerts?

Well, I admit it openly: „yes“. With the strain before concerts I try to stay in control through meditation and going into myself. Also one should never forget to breathe in the right way. The worst is to wait. As soon as I put my first Step on stage, I loose the nervousness. When I start to play and when I am in the music I mostly close my eyes so as to not be distracted by anything. There I concentrate completely on the music. Mostly one is only afraid of external things which have nothing to do with music, for example if there is anyone sitting in the concert who doesn’t like me or maybe a music critic...

Are there pieces you have a great respect?

Yes of course. For instance, the Violin concerto by Alban Berg, which he had not only written as a requiem for Manon Gropius-Mahler, but which became, in the end, his own requiem. Is is as though he anticipated his own early death. This piece moves me every time so much that I have to recover afterwards. Also with Shostakovitch’s music, which I love particularly, the feeling is similar. Generally I feel very close to the music of the 20th century, because it reflects the cruelity of our time so vividly.

From where do you get inspirations for your interpretations?

I love to listen to old recordings such as those from Kreisler, Milstein, Grumiaux.. The „old school“ is so incredibly inspiring for me, even if one doesn’t always play this way anymore.

Can you describe your artistic outlook at the moment...

Honestly I never was a „crazy practicer“ who closes himself in a room for hours on end. I think as a musician, it is extremely important to take time for other experiences in life. Thus we tell our life through our music. And what could we say, if we don’t live?

For me a concert is not a circus act, where everything is just built on superficial impressions. More importantly, it is a incredible opportunity for real expression and communication with an audience. The main point in music is to express what one feels most deeply. This will be transmited to the public, in that I m completely convinced.

Interview: Richard Eckstein