MSO | Emanuel Ax about Beethoven, virtuosity, longevity...Tennis and Football!

Genres and styles : Classical

Additional Information

Eight-time Grammy winner Emanuel Ax is back in Montreal with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. This time he will be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3, considered the most technically difficult piano concerto with orchestra by Beethoven. Also, it is perceived as a real transition from classical aesthetics to Romanticism. Alain Brunet spoke to Emanuel Ax and learned he is a real Montreal lover, super respectful of Quebec culture, and also a football and tennis fan! Since his debut, Emanuel Axe has played in MTL, so he has worked with many of its great maestros; now he is coupled with Rafael Payare with MSO. And of course, his comments on the Concerto No. 3 and the way he approaches Beethoven are quite nourishing.

TICKETS & INFOS FOR CONCERTS – MAISON SYMPHONIQUE, JANUARY 15 & 17

PAN M 360 : So, I’m very pleased to talk with you regarding this Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3. What is your approach to this specific concerto, what is your historical relationship with it and where are you now.

Emanuel Ax : It’s a beautiful concerto. Well, I’ve been playing it for about 40 years now.

My viewpoint on it has changed, but only in small ways. It’s a very dramatic piece, and that one hears immediately. So, nothing will change in that sense.

PAN M 360 : But some details changed over the years. Can you just give us some cues? The way your interpretation did have a sort of evolution through the decades.

Emanuel Ax : I don’t know that it’s a matter of time. One of the ways that the interpretation changes is with the conductors and the orchestras that you play with. So, I recorded this piece, I think, in the ’90s with André Previn and the Royal Philharmonic. And I then re-recorded it about 25 or 30 years later with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. And I’ve played it with almost every orchestra that I’ve played with in my life.

I just did it with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin about two and a half months ago. And I’ve done it before with Yannick, a very dramatic, energetic and inspiring conductor.

PAN M 360 : So, the relationship between you and the conductor is crucial for the delivery itself.

Emanuel Ax : Absolutely, of course. It’s a whole different experience, especially in pieces like Beethoven’s Piano Concertos or Mozart’s Piano Concertos. You really are part of the total performance and not separate from the orchestra and the conductor.

PAN M 360: So, therefore, the way you approach the piece will change every week. Is it more important, this relationship between you, the conductor and the orchestra, than your own way of evolving through this piece?

Emanuel Ax: I would say both, because in the ideal world, what you bring to the piece will also be absorbed by the conductor and the orchestra. So, when we have a rehearsal, we listen to each other and we come up with, I hope, a unified interpretation, which requires a kind of good listening collaboration on both sides.

PAN M 360 : So, this time in MTL you will be coupled with Rafael Payare and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

Emanuel Ax : Yes. I played with Rafael, actually, only a month ago, I did some Mozart with him in Japan, with the NHK Symphony in Tokyo.Also, I played with him for his debut with the New York Philharmonic a couple of years ago. So, we know each other quite well now.

PAN M 360 : Can you just give us some hints about the way you approach this third concerto of Beethoven with him? And now there will be a new relationship with him and the Montreal Symphony?

Emanuel Ax : I haven’t done the Beethoven Third Concerto with him yet. But I’m sure that he will make it very, very dramatic in the first movement. And he’ll be lots of fun in the last movement.

PAN M 360 : What is your Payare’s perception as a human being?

Emanuel Ax : He’s a very sensitive and warm-hearted person. I feel that very much from him. And that, of course, makes it, you know, so much of the relationship has to do with personal feelings. You know, he has a big heart. His heart is as big as his hair! And of course, he’s an excellent musician. So, the combination of the two, I always look forward to seeing him and to being with him. And so, I think, I hope we’ll have a wonderful time as usual.

PAN M 360 : Music is always a fantastic meeting point for artists from different cultures. You have a Galician/Ukrainain/Polish/Jewish background and Rafael has an Afro-Descendant and Metis Venezuelan background, and you share Beethoven! Nowadays, we need so much of those peaceful and enlightening experiences provided by music.

Emanuel Ax : Yeah, music for me is, well, first of all, it’s kind of my religion because I’m not religious. But especially in our crazy world now, for me, I’m very lucky to be able to focus on something that I love and on something that I believe is a good thing. You know, I find it very hard these days to watch the news. I watch sports on television.

PAN M 360 : Really?! So, what sport are you watching?

Emanuel Ax : Well, my wife and I are big tennis fans. So, we follow that, but also American football. I know the NFL, but also the CFL, because I came to Winnipeg when I was 10 years old. So I knew the Blue Bombers , and I also followed the Montreal Alouettes. So, you know, we know a little bit about that, like the CFL’s bigger field. But you have a longer field than we do.

PAN M 360 : So cool! Well, you know, I think the level is still lower than the NFL.

Emanuel Ax : But some great players performed in the CFL!

PAN M 360 : Of course! Warren Moon played for Edmonton Eskimos before playing at Houston, Joe Theisman played with Toronto’s Argonauts before Washington Redskins, Doug Flutie had a great career at Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto before being successful at Buffalo, San Diego and New England. Anyways, we’re both football fans !

Emanuel Ax: Yes!

PAN M 360 : Back to Beethoven, this No 3 concerto is very different from the two firsts. The two firsts were very close, some say closer to Mozart aesthetics

Emanuel Ax : I think each one of the five is a very different and individual kind of piece. You know, one thing about Beethoven that’s remarkable is that almost all of his music, everything is very individual. And it’s difficult to talk about, you know, the sonatas are like this or the concertos are like this. There are always experiments. There are always special things about each piece. And the third Concerto, of course, is the most virtuosic until that time, first of all.

Probably the most dramatic, compared, in a way, compared no 1 and no 2, it’s more, one could say, just more romantic in feeling. Not Romantic period, but more about, a little bit more about the individual sometimes exploding from the orchestra. And, of course, the second movement is unbelievably inward, again, very romantic in feeling, I find.

So it’s different from the romantic period. You know, there’s a romantic period, of course, when we talk about Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, and so forth. But there’s also a romantic feeling, for example, the second movement of the fifth concerto.

And I find the second movement of this concerto. And, of course, the last movement is just an incredible study in brilliance with more difficulty than I think anybody ever thought of before. He was his first, he was most famous at the beginning as a great pianist, not a great composer. That came later.

PAN M 360 : Yeah he was a great pianist and a great improviser too.

Emanuel Ax : Exactly. So all the cadenzas for the concertos, of course, are unbelievably inspired and brilliant. And probably a kind of improvisation that he then put together a little bit, you know. It’s just, it’s mind-blowing, actually.

PAN M 360 : Yes, it is. He was such a revolutionary guy at this time.

Emanuel Ax : Yes. He changed all the things behind him. So it’s always a thrill to practice and to play any of these pieces. I think, of course, I will never be tired of it. But I think also the public is never tired of it. No. The public loves Beethoven as often as it’s there.

PAN M 360 : How do you describe your rapport with Beethoven among all hia pieces you’ve been performing?

Emanuel Ax : I don’t think there’s a hierarchy. But I think no musician can make music without somehow connecting to Beethoven. Some people hated him. Some people worshipped him. But after Beethoven, everybody took him into account. You know, there’s no… Ravel hated Beethoven, but he knew Beethoven. So, you know, there’s always a reaction to him. But most of the people love him.

PAN M 360 : On the other hand, some clearly prefer him to Mozart…

Emanuel Ax : Yes, but Mozart is, in some ways, less controversial. However, I think Mozart was one of the greatest geniuses of all time because everything came so freely and so easily. He worked hard, but his capacity was just limitless. And I think we can maybe understand Beethoven a little bit better even though he was such a genius, because he really did change things and work on things. And, you know, you can see in the sketches and in the autographs, he changed this or he changed that. And this was better after. With Mozart, it was all in the brain because when he put it on paper, he didn’t change anything.

PAN M 360 : Yeah, this reminds me the difference between Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. When I interviewed Cohen a long time ago, he told me that once he met Dylan and told him that he was working on a new song for weeks and Dylan answered that he spent a couple of hours. Anyways, only the result counts …And to every pianist, in some ways, Beethoven is central to their life.

Emanuel Ax : Sure.

PAN M 360 : So it’s a new coming in Montreal where you performed many times. I understand that you have a very warm relationship with Quebec and Montreal.

Emanuel Ax : Well, I think it’s one of the most wonderful cities in the world! I love the language, but I have to admit, my French is more oriented to speaking French from France. A lot of the Quebec accent it’s difficult for me. Well, it’s a different sound and so, sometimes, I just find it difficult to understand. It was a sort of… That’s not the fault of the Quebec people. That’s my fault. Anyway, I love the food in Montreal. I love everything about it.

And of course, I love the orchestras. I’ve been coming to the orchestras for almost 40 years now. With all the maestros. With maestros Charles Dutoit, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Kent Nagano or Rafael Payare. I still remember my first time with MSO with the late (guest) conductor Emil Tchakarov!

PAN M 360 : A long time ago!

Emanuel Ax : Of course, now I’m probably on a third generation of the orchestra since my beginnings in Montreal. Yeah, well, you know, piano and longevity are brothers, you know. I hope so. Well, you know… I’m 76 now. And that’s pretty old.

PAN M 360 : But we also know that pianists can last long! You are one of the brilliant examples!

Emanuel Ax : Thank you . And I hope people will forgive me for all the wrong notes that I play now as an old man (haha). So I hope it will be fun, nice for people.