Peter Dijkstra
(c) Astrid Ackermann

How well does the symphonist Bruckner write for the voice and especially for the choir?
I think it’s important to emphasize that Bruckner comes from the choral tradition. He was a chorus boy in St. Florian and also trained as an organist there. So he really came from church music and wrote for chorus, chorus and orchestra as well as chorus and organ from an early age. He was also a fanatical counterpoint player, I would say. Read More →

Maxim Rysnaov
(c) Emmer Laszlo

Why Shostakovich and why the Viola Sonata?
The Viola Sonata is the composer’s only work for solo viola. It is very personal, written by Shostakovich in the last days of his life. He dedicated it to Fyodor Druzhinin, the violist of the Moscow-based Beethoven Quartet. He remained in close contact with the members of the ensemble throughout his life, dedicating virtually all of his string quartets to them. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich’s death, and I would like to pay tribute to his life’s work with this recording. Read More →

Sylvain Cambreling
(c) Marco Borggreve

You defend the great symphonic and operatic repertoire as well as contemporary music, both of which appeal to audiences that are still much divided. Do you see a rapprochement between the audiences for Mozart and Gounod and those for Georges Aperghis or Gérard Grisey?
It’s hard to talk about a rapprochement between audiences, but I would say there is a difference. Some audiences are ready to listen to everything, others are not; some are curious, others are not; some only appreciate today’s music, sometimes more out of snobbery than real interest. It’s not impossible to go from baroque to contemporary, since this is more an intellectual than a musical domain. Read More →

Alfred Huber

Alfred Huber, Sie untersuchen mit Studierenden des Studiengangs Medientechnik und Design Bachelor der FH Oberösterreich in Hagenberg die Frage, ob nicht-vokale klassische Musik eine politische Botschaft vermitteln kann. Gleichzeitig schreiben Sie an einer Symphonie zum Thema Widerstand gegen den Faschismus. Damit haben Sie die Frage ja eigentlich schon beantwortet. Oder ist die Sache nicht so einfach?
Die Frage ist zu allererst, was ich grundsätzlich übermitteln will und was ich übermitteln kann. Kunst kann ja keine Fragen beantworten, sondern bestenfalls stellen. Was kann Musik im Wesentlichen aussagen? Wir denken, dass eine explizite Aussage mittels Musik gar nicht möglich ist. Und hier kommt die FH Oberösterreich, an welcher mein Sohn Johannes studiert, ins Spiel. Zur Symphonie entsteht gleichzeitig auch ein Film, sozusagen die Illustration des Inhalts. Read More →

Corinna Scheurle & Klara Hornig
(c) Simon Pauly

Auf Ihrem Album ‘Schwarze Erde’ setzen Sie die ungarische mit der austro-deutschen Liedtradition in Beziehung zueinander. Wie kamen Sie auf diese, auf den ersten Blick eher ungewöhnliche Kombination?
Corinna Scheurle (CS): Ich bin zweisprachig aufgewachsen, meine Mutter ist Ungarin. Ich wurde in Deutschland geboren, bin dann aber in Österreich groß geworden, insofern sind mir alle drei Kulturen und Sprachen vertraut. Als ich anfing, das ungarische Volks- und Kunstliedrepertoire zu erforschen, merkte ich, wie wunderbar und besonders und wie demzufolge zu Unrecht unterrepräsentiert diese Musik ist. Ich möchte gerne meinen Beitrag dazu leisten, dieses Repertoire öfter zu Gehör zu bringen. Read More →

Lana Zorjan

You are just fifteen and already a seasoned musician who can look back on a great career: numerous solo appearances with great orchestras, major prizes… But how did it come that you are a musician?

That will probably sound almost too simple: I come from a family full of musicians. My parents are musicians, my dad is an opera singer, mother is a violinist, she’s a violin teacher. Both granddads are also musicians. Read More →

Bruno Monsaingeon
(cx) Alexis Joly

Bruno Monsaingeon, at the very beginning of Filmer la musique, you legitimize your undertaking by saying that « if words stumble over sounds, images reinforce them. » Does that mean you’re filming as a musician, given that you’re a violinist?
I could never have made my films without my knowledge of the repertoires of the violin, the piano, the cello and the quartet. What’s more, as a filmmaker myself, I necessarily have a relationship with the score. The idea is not to make a documentary about music, but to film it for its own sake. Read More →

Maria Cecilia Muñoz
(c) Eve Grynberg

Ihre neue CD heißt Libertad – Freiheit. Was bedeutet Freiheit für Sie als Musikerin? Und was bedeutet Freiheit für Sie als Individuum?
Das ist eine interessante Frage, denn ich finde es schwierig, eine Grenze zwischen dem Musiker und dem Individuum zu ziehen. Statt von einer Trennung zwischen Musiker und Individuum zu sprechen, können wir von externen Aspekten sprechen, die hauptsächlich mit dem Kontext zusammenhängen, und von internen Aspekten, die mit den Prozessen der persönlichen Bildung und des Wachstums verbunden sind. Read More →

György Vashegyi
(c) Csibi Szilvia

As a conductor, researcher, and leader of major Hungarian cultural institutions, you have a wide range of responsibilities. Which one is closest to you?
At about the age of 15, I decided that music would be my vocation, the most important thing in my life, after my family. I founded the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra in the early 1990s, when I was still a university student, and I also began my teaching career at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and although I have conducted several symphony orchestras over the years and have been asked to conduct several times at the Hungarian State Opera, these ensembles are still of fundamental importance to me. Read More →

Cassie Martin

Since 2018 Cassie Martin has traveled the world, won several awards, and participated in numerous festivals. Her repertoire combines early, contemporary and world music. As a Eurostrings artist in 2020, she took part in Gautier Capuçon’s Un été en France 2022 tour and then represented France in Sergio Assad’s The Woman and the Guitar project.

Your repertoire ranges from Bach to traditional world music: Brazilian, Austrian, Italian and French. Where do you want to go with your next project, be it on stage or on record?
I have a lot of plans. Of course, I’d like to continue introducing the public to the vast, little-known repertoire of the guitar, from the Baroque to the contemporary. One of my current concert programs is entitled La guitare à travers les siècles, in which I take the listener on a journey through time, showing all the facets of this beautiful instrument. Read More →