Conductor Carlos Kalmar
A Dialog with Bruce Duffie
It’s typically instructive to look again at what folks stated and see how a lot continues to be related. These interviews that I’m presenting present simply how alert and prescient my friends had been on the time we met. It’s also fascinating to see how proper most of them had been when talking in regards to the future. This dialog is a living proof, for conductor Carlos Kalmar seems forward from the vantage level of 1999 and tells about issues which have now come to go.
We met in the summertime of 1999, throughout his first engagement with the Grant Park Pageant. His profession was blossoming in Europe and elsewhere, and this was a fortuitous starting that has proved profitable for all involved. The next 12 months he was named Principal Conductor. He has come a good distance in a couple of brief summer season seasons, and he has broadened his personal sights with a number of substantial American works.
Once we sat down to start, Kalmar was effervescent with pleasure. His speech was speedy and infused with a couple of non-English phrases, and his grammar was typically chaotic, reflecting his real pleasure at making an attempt to speak myriad concepts directly . . . . .
Carlos Kalmar: Once I work, I at all times begin to communicate many languages on the identical time.
Bruce Duffie: Is a type of languages music?
CK: Hopefully, as a result of for me, definitely, music is a language. I’ve been making music since I used to be seven, and I have no idea how you can translate the language.
BD: Is music one thing that have to be translated, or is it one thing that’s common?
CK: For me it’s common, however I don’t know if for all folks within the viewers, or all people who find themselves listening to music it’s as common as it’s for me, as a result of definitely I’m accustomed to music; I’ve been making music for over thirty years already. We’ve got to face the truth that these days, within the occasions by which we live, we see many issues however we don’t hear them. We don’t hear so rigorously, and our ears will not be accustomed to listen to rigorously. I’m at all times conscious that perhaps some issues will not be so clear within the music, however generally throughout concert events or throughout rehearsals you get the fervour, and also you get the sense of music there, after which it’s fascinating.
BD: You’re a conductor. Are you actually a translator, or are you merely a presenter of the concepts? I do know it’s a advantageous line that I’m asking.
CK: The phrase “translator” I’d use primarily for the musicians with whom I’m working, as a result of definitely I take into consideration the side that not all of the orchestras with whom you’re employed your entire life are accustomed to the fashion and to the language of a sure music. There isn’t a query that Tchaikowsky is one language, Bizet is one other, and Mozart is a 3rd language. All is music language, however it’s completely different. Simply to provide an instance, German orchestras are accustomed to Romantic German repertoire — the massive ones definitely are. They’re additionally accustomed to Mozart, however for some German orchestras, it’s somewhat troublesome to play French music, so I’ve to translate somewhat. For the viewers, I believe my work as conductor is the work of presenter, however I have to admit that I don’t just like the phrase.
BD: What phrase do you want to put upon your self, if any?
CK: I wouldn’t say a phrase, as a result of for an viewers, I wish to inform all people that my job is — in Latin we are saying I’m primus inter pares, I’m one amongst musicians. As a conductor I’m definitely the main man, however I’m solely certainly one of them. I don’t like the thought of the conductor being God himself speaking about music, and the remainder of musicians are simply there and that’s the instrument.
BD: So it’s very a lot a collaborative effort?
CK: Sure!
BD: The place does the composer match into this? Is he head collaborator?
CK: No, no, the composer is extra. The composer is totally extra, as a result of definitely it’s a must to invent the music when you interpret. However being trustworthy, I don’t assume that the work of a conductor is so artistic. I believe the work of a composer is artistic, however we’re recreating one thing which was already created some years in the past, perhaps some centuries in the past. I believe the work of the conductor has to not be overrated. I at all times say for the viewers, “Don’t overrate the work of a conductor;” for the musicians within the orchestra, “Don’t underrate it.”
BD: [Laughs] So that you’re going to play each side of the fence!
CK: Oh sure, as a result of I have to admit that I’ve the expertise. In some way the orchestras right here in America with whom I’ve been working react somewhat in another way from the German and the Austrian orchestras.
BD: How so?
CK: The Individuals are by no means underrating a conductor’s work as a result of they’re very respectful, which some German orchestras will not be, actually. I’m eager about the joke — what’s the distinction between an American orchestra, and sure European orchestras? American orchestras, after they see a brand new conductor, they are saying, “We need to play like he tells us to play it.” Different orchestras, perhaps in Europe — and I can’t point out any names — say, “We’ve got to play the work the way in which he tells us, however we wish to play it as at all times.”
BD: [Laughs] In order that they don’t need you to vary something that they’ve discovered fifty, 100, 100 and fifty years in the past?
CK: Sure, however let’s face the truth that that is solely a joke simply to provide an instance; let’s not take it too critically. There isn’t a query that the interpretation, the way in which we’re doing Mozart, is totally completely different than it was finished fifty years in the past. For my part, you may’t do it that very same manner.
BD: Ought to we attempt to do Mozart the way in which Mozart did it, or ought to we attempt to do Mozart the way in which we anticipate it?
CK: To be trustworthy, I at all times say, “I don’t have his cellphone quantity and I attempted actually onerous to get it.” [Both laugh] However there isn’t any solution to get his cellphone quantity, so he can’t inform me, actually! Each conductor, each musician must be like a physician in a sure manner regarding Mozart, regarding Bach as effectively. If a physician will get his doctorate in medication thirty years in the past, he has to learn rigorously what’s new, what’s happening till now so he’s nonetheless fashionable. For instance, there are some interpretations of music of Bach, of Mozart and another composers finished by Furtwängler or Klemperer that are superb! They’re overwhelming, however… [pauses]
BD: However they’d be unacceptable at the moment?
CK: Unacceptable at the moment! It’s no query. As we speak, with the work of conductors like John Eliot Gardiner or Nicholas McGegan, amongst others, definitely the fashion has modified so much. We don’t play Mozart and Bach in a Romantic manner. And I at all times imagine that when I’m seventy years previous, the younger musicians are going to say, “Oh this previous man, he actually isn’t any extra in a position to conduct Mozart.” In that point, in thirty years, perhaps we’re at a totally completely different level within the interpretation of sure music.
BD: So manner again within the twentieth century we had sure concepts, and perhaps within the subsequent century they’ll have completely different concepts. Is it as much as you to maintain up?
CK: Definitely is as much as me, and I’ve to watch out with what I do. I’ve to learn in regards to the composers and I’ve to take heed to different interpretations and at all times give it some thought.
BD: Would you need to contact the shade of Mozart or the shade of Bach and ask them how we should always do their music?
CK: Personally I wouldn’t try this, as a result of definitely all these composers by no means needed to assume so critically in regards to the interpretation of their music as we’ve to! They had been genius, and all of us are simply musicians. So it isn’t useful if I ask Mozart himself, “What did you do?” as a result of perhaps he’s even not in a position to clarify what he does.
BD: He simply did it?
CK: He simply did it.
BD: Do you simply do it?
CK: I believe at all times that the very best factor to be a superb musician is to mix the mental facet with the language of the center. The perfect musicians for me, for my understanding, play with lots of coronary heart whereas onstage; however whereas we’re working, whereas we’re rehearsing, they use lots of mind.
BD: Is all of your work finished at rehearsal, or do you allow one thing for the spark of the night?
CK: In my private case, as musicians inform me, I depart one thing. However I don’t depart it as a result of I need to; it simply occurs.
