{"id":5625,"date":"2019-10-15T21:11:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T21:11:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/?p=5625"},"modified":"2019-11-15T21:18:07","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T21:18:07","slug":"interview-jeremy-denk-on-bringing-vergil-to-netflix-relaxing-with-goats-collaborating-with-joshua-bell-and-his-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/interview-jeremy-denk-on-bringing-vergil-to-netflix-relaxing-with-goats-collaborating-with-joshua-bell-and-his-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Jeremy Denk on bringing Vergil to Netflix, relaxing with goats, collaborating with Joshua Bell, and his book"},"content":{"rendered":"

From San Francisco Classical Voice<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeremy Denk Has a Lot to Say About Mozart<\/strong>
\nBy Victoria Looseleaf<\/p>\n

Called a \u201cthinking person\u2019s pianist … an artist with a deep soul, thoughtful, probing, alternately sublime and sassy,\u201d by composer\/conductor John Adams,<\/strong> Jeremy Denk is all of those things \u2014 and more. Winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (\u201cgenius grant\u201d) and the Avery Fisher Prize, the North Carolina-born musician who received a doctor of music degree from the Juilliard School, was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

A Manhattan resident, Denk, is a frequent presence at Carnegie Hall, and in recent seasons has also appeared with, among others, the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. In addition, the musician toured with Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms. Last season Denk also reunited with his long-time collaborators, Joshua Bell and Steven Isserlis, for concerts in 11 American cities.<\/p>\n

As for his discography, the 49-year old\u2019s 2012 recording featuring Beethoven\u2019s final piano sonatas and Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti Etudes was named one of the best of the year by The New Yorker <\/em>and The Washington Post<\/em>, while Denk\u2019s 2013 recording of Bach\u2019s Goldberg Variations is a must-have for Bach aficionados. And for those seeking a musical jaunt through seven centuries, Denk recorded c.1300\u2013c.2000, which was released earlier this year by Nonesuch and features selections ranging from Guillaume de Machaut to Stockhausen and Glass.<\/p>\n

Then there is Denk the scribe, with his witty and provocative musings appearing on liner notes for his recordings and in publications such as The New Yorker <\/em>and The New Republic<\/em>. His blog, think denk<\/em>, offered technical analyses and newsy wordplay, while a memoir is also in the works. But music comes first, with the pianist returning to Southern California to perform Mozart\u2019s Piano Concerto No. 19 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra Oct. 26 and 27, led by guest conductor Nicholas McGegan. I caught up with Denk by phone from San Francisco, where he was enjoying some down time with his partner before hitting the road again.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve performed with McGegan before, as well as playing Mozart with him. How would you describe your musical relationship?<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s so knowledgeable about this era of the repertory and he\u2019s like a genial guide to it. If I had to describe it, it\u2019s a pleasant, a little bit witty and an unexpected conversation. At least I hope it\u2019s witty, because sometimes witty can go awry.<\/p>\n

Why do audiences never tire of Mozart?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve given a lot of thought to this question of Mozart and what he has to offer. Obviously, Mozart is often thought of as centrally an opera composer, even though he wrote this amazing symphonic music. But his operas manage to distill something about the human experience that\u2019s special. It\u2019s a revelation, and one of the things he\u2019s able to do in a musical style is coalesce \u2014 combine in a single stretch of music even the most opposing emotions \u2014 from the sublime to the ridiculous, from tragic to comic. He spins on a dime from one to the other.<\/p>\n

He gets that elements of life don\u2019t come at you separately, but emotions come at us at the same time. There\u2019s no easy way to just deal with one emotion. Life also seems contrapuntal in that way. In an opera, he\u2019ll have a peasant character, a nobleman, a schemer \u2014 all these different types \u2014 and he\u2019ll manage to capture their voices and put them all together in an ensemble in this great picture of humanity. I feel that when I\u2019m playing Mozart, which is why it\u2019s compelling and important to me.<\/p>\n

Can you talk a bit about the Concerto No. 19 and do you play your own cadenzas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I grew up with Mozart and you really feel you can dig into this. There\u2019s a changeability that\u2019s tremendous, but not wild [and] a kind of consciousness of all these different things going on at the same time. He has the ability to weave them. This 19th concerto is not played that often, but it has a lot of delights that deserve to be heard, and that\u2019s why I proposed it. It\u2019s full of Mozart being a little off his normal way of working and doing things experimentally.<\/p>\n

Yes, I do play my own cadenzas. It\u2019s fun and important, because there are some cases \u2014 a Beethoven concerto \u2014 where you can\u2019t begin to compete with the ones he wrote. You can\u2019t even imagine coming up with one, and a lot of Mozart\u2019s could be one way or the other, but none have that quality of being indelible. You have the feeling he\u2019s improvising and it could go any which way. You have to listen to the materials and you have to come up with something clever. What do these melodies do, what if you put it in the minor? It\u2019s like getting under the hood of a car.<\/p>\n

[Playing your own cadenzas] is more popular than it used to be, but some people feel they don\u2019t want to trifle with a lot of Mozart\u2019s concertos. Sometimes you have no choice, because he didn\u2019t leave a cadenza. Forgive me for saying this, but sometimes the cadenzas aren\u2019t that good \u2014 and if he were playing it, he\u2019d improvise himself.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve been working as artistic partner with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, including directing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 from the keyboard. What are the challenges in that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve worked with them five or six years now and I know them very well. After all this time, it doesn\u2019t require very much of me. We\u2019ve developed a rapport and I don\u2019t need to wave my arms. I just set a tempo and if there\u2019s something wrong, we rehearse and talk about it. It seems to really work. They\u2019re responsive and know what to expect from me.<\/p>\n

What makes for a good collaboration \u2014 working with Bell and Isserlis, for example?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got the Beethoven Triple Concerto upcoming, and inevitably, one of the best things in a good relationship is a little bit of tension. Not too much, but two different worldviews that can intersect. Often when you\u2019re with an orchestra, an orchestra brings a kind of frame, a sense of a whole and the pianist brings a sense of whimsy, pulling against the orchestra. That can either be good or go off the rails.<\/p>\n

With chamber music it\u2019s a mutual respect, but there are also different things that everybody brings to the table. It\u2019s very hard to know when you\u2019re going to have a great chamber music experience. You need an alchemy with the piece; there\u2019s also everyone\u2019s mood. A lot of things can go into it. There\u2019s a weird knowing when to take over and lead and when to give in to the other people. How to pass off from one thing to the other is also important and that\u2019s dependent on the kind of music it is.<\/p>\n

Some of my favorite things in the musical world, and even in literature have to do with one tradition meeting another. There\u2019s a weird reference when [Ezra] Pound translated Chinese poetry: You have this ultra-European modernist looking at an ancient tradition and there\u2019s this wonderful sense of two tectonic plates grating against each other, creating unexpected sparks and insights. That\u2019s partly what makes a good collaboration for me.<\/p>\n

Even in Mozart himself \u2014 there\u2019s the tradition of his time \u2014 the music he\u2019s used to hearing and the norms of his times. There\u2019s his unique, slightly perverse, wild imagination, and there\u2019s that collaboration where he has to conform to an extent and rebel, so when he\u2019s composing, it\u2019s a collaboration between him and a wider cultural world.<\/p>\n

Would you consider yourself \u2014 or any concertizing musician at your level \u2014 somewhat obsessed, and if so, how do you relax?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m extremely obsessive. I got in trouble this morning when I started practicing Bach and couldn\u2019t stop, so yes, I\u2019m obsessive. Take the Goldberg Variations or Ligeti \u2014 you have to be obsessive or you won\u2019t survive it. That\u2019s the struggle, if the thing you\u2019re obsessed with will destroy you, but a lot of it is knowing how to have a balanced existence. I also practice a lot of hours these days and when you come across a free day, you don\u2019t exactly know what to do with yourself. There are lots of things that normal people do and I wonder, \u2018How do you do that, to relax enough to feel you\u2019re doing it right?\u2019<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve got a place in the Catskills with goats \u2014 and no \u2014 I never tried goat yoga, but I do love hanging out with the goats. They love to be entertained and I love them entertaining me. I also love to cook, I love to hike and go out in nature. Normal people do those things, but it just takes a while for me to adjust because I\u2019m an obsessive musician.<\/p>\n

To learn more about Jeremy Denk’s upcoming memoir and other details, read the full interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From San Francisco Classical Voice Jeremy Denk Has a Lot to Say About Mozart By Victoria Looseleaf Called a \u201cthinking person\u2019s pianist … an artist with a deep soul, thoughtful, probing, alternately sublime and sassy,\u201d by composer\/conductor John Adams, Jeremy Denk is all of those things \u2014 and more. Winner of a MacArthur Fellowship (\u201cgenius … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3910,3659,4196,4109,3610,4195],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5626,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5625\/revisions\/5626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/1966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opus3artists.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}