Volume 25 Issue 6 - March 2020

ART OF SONG
JOSE GUTIÉRREZ
recorded and lived with them for decades. I know them better than
Beethoven.’ I think there’s something in that. Every time I play them I
discover something new. A different stress on one beat, a hidden inner
melody, a tiny inflection in half of a bar…. There is an infinite world
inside them.
Did you have any particular heroes who contributed to your
understanding of Beethoven?
Gould, obviously. Also Teodor Currentzis. [chief conductor of
the SWR Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart and artistic director of the
ensemble musicAeterna and of the musicAeterna Chamber Choir]
He’s the greatest living conductor (don’t even try to argue with me
about that). Sokolov too – he makes the sonatas sound as if you’re
hearing them for the first time.
Talking to the audience and contextualizing the music you’re
about to play, why you chose it and what it means to you, was very
prescient when you began doing it more than a decade ago. Now it’s
part of the zeitgeist. How did it come about?
I don’t think it’s that common sadly. I wish more musicians would
do it. Imagine hearing Zimerman discussing Schubert for a few
minutes before playing D960! I’d die of joy. I would always choose to
introduce a piece for a couple of minutes before playing it and then
turn the lights off and let people disappear with the music, instead
of having the audience reading program notes about sonata form in
Beethoven’s Vienna while I’m playing the bloody thing. There are so
many things in classical music that are considered a blasphemy. So
many unspoken rules. Sometimes you feel like you’re going to church
instead of a recital. This music is so immortal and has sadly been
appropriated by a certain group of people for their enjoyment only.
It’s desperate. Classical music is not high art. It’s not something you
must understand in order to ‘appreciate it’ (whatever that means). It
is simply a connection with a part of ourselves that is too easily lost in
this age of always-on, super-fast distraction.
BESTE
KALENDER
MEZZO
RISING
LYDIA PEROVIĆ
The year 2020 is coming up roses for
mezzo-soprano Beste Kalender, who grew
up in Turkey and moved to Canada at
the age of 22 to pursue two great interests – postgraduate
research in the psychology of musical
cognition, and professional singing. One of those
is now clearly taking over, and the current year
is marked by gigs that she finds particularly
meaningful. “I hope I won’t be just a singer who
sings pretty music and has no other interests,” she
says when we meet in the RCM cafe, deserted for
the long weekend. Our voices are ringing in the
empty space but the security guy on duty doesn’t
seem to mind us being there. “I’d like to be able
to engage with larger issues and causes. And have
my own distinct voice. This year feels like I do.”
The Glenn Gould Foundation presents “In Conversation with
James Rhodes” on Wednesday March 4 at 7:30pm, in the Isabel
Bader Theatre.
The Glenn Gould Foundation presents James Rhodes: “The
Beethoven Revolution” on Thursday March 5 at 8pm, in Koerner Hall.
Paul Ennis is the managing editor of The WholeNote.
12 | March 2020 thewholenote.com