Interview with Ingrid Fliter

Your previous releases have all been live recordings. What’s your view on the studio situation? Will you approach it like a concert situation or as an entirely unique medium?
Although I believe the approach to music should always be the same independently of the circumstances, I recognize that there are important differences between a studio recording and a life performance which might influence your interpretation. In a live performance the interpreter has only one chance to offer his or her interpretation of the piece; this can give a special intensity to the performance which I thought was going to be hard to reproduce in a studio. But on the contrary my experience showed me that it’s all related with your mental attitude. When you have a strong will to communicate it doesn’t matter if you have your public two meters away from you or at the other side of the ocean.

A studio recording gives you as well the unique chance of getting nearer to your “ideal” by trying different possibilities of interpretation. And it’s a wonderful way to discover more about yourself and grow musically.  


Before signing with EMI, you had a great DVD and two Live CDs on VAI. How helpful and important have they been in promoting your music until now?
They have been decisive. First of all because they were my very first “official” recordings so I have a deep emotional attachment to them, also because they represent a particular moment in my life. And then because thanks to them, just to put an example, I later knew that the jury of the Gilmore heard me for the first time.


In the interview part of the DVD, you mention how important watching Rubinstein as a child was to you. Can you still remember these first contacts with classical music? Would you say they were the key to forming your love for the music?
Of course, I think a child is like a sponge and everything you experience in that period of your life becomes the roots of what you’ll be in the future. I was very lucky to be born in a family who loves art very much and believes in the importance of music in the life of a person. My father used to play the piano at home beautifully, mostly Chopin. And my mother use to sing to me many opera arias with a great voice while bathing me. My sister is a very musical person and learned to play piano and guitar very well. I was taken to concerts very often and watched movies about the greatest pianists of the century when the first video cassettes appeared. I remember watching Rubinstein playing the Saint Saens Concerto n. 2 and the Grieg when he was 92 years old!, the famous Horowitz in Moscow concert, “From Mao to Mozart” with Isaac Stern. During that period I also watched the “Amadeus” movie more than 20 times in a row!
So music was part of my everyday life. That made my relationship with it very natural and spontaneous.

You also mentioned that as a child, “all your channels are open”. Is that something you try to maintain as an experienced artist as well?
As a child this processes are subconscious and is fascinating to observe how kids learn amounts of new things and information in such natural way. As adults all is a question of choice and willingness to conserve an “opened” attitude to keep your freshness alive.  


When we last mailed, you mentioned that interpreting a piece could get you in touch with previously unknown energies, a sentiment mirrored on the DVD, when you say that interpreting means becoming “part of the composer’s thinking”. Does this really feel like a physical bond with the composer? Do you have the feeling that playing his or her pieces brings you equally close to him as historical essays and biographies?
For me the most natural way of facing a piece of music is to feel it as telling a story. And for this I need to try to start feeling and thinking as the composer did. It doesn’t mean that I know for sure what the composer wanted to express; I can only wish that educational background and a certain intuition will lead me to respect characteristics of style and expression and to be as credible as possible. Besides I always try to choose to play works that I already feel for some reason already attached to.


Another highlight of the past months was your inclusion into the league of BBC Radio 3’s New Generation Artists. How special was that to you?
It’s a wonderful initiative because it gives a unique opportunity to record with some of the greatest BBC Orchestras.


One of the treats of the New Generation Artists deal is an appearance at the Proms. Are you looking forward to that already?
Of course it would be wonderful to take part of such festival!


A release with iTunes is in the making and in our previous interview, you mentioned you could imagine yourself as a web designer (if you hand’t chosen for the piano). Do you feel the internet can play an important role for you both in terms of sales as and as an artist?
I'm a very big fan of the Internet. YouTube is a great discovery, and the possibilities to get music, even classical music, are huge. It makes it easier to get into people houses as part of their everyday life. I do hope that the pieces that will be released for Itunes will arrive to many different kind of listeners as possible.


On a recent internet post, a reviewer mentioned how much he enjoyed you playing an Argentinian Dance in between the classical repertoire at the Wigmore Hall in June. Could you imagine doing this more often in the future? I’m also asking this, because I could well imagine you have a strong bond with this music because of your cultural background.
There is another Argentinean piece which I love very much to play as well, which is the Adios Nonino Tango by A. Piazzola. I do feel a bond to this music which I grew up with. When I play it, it feels like taking a piece of my home everywhere and inviting people to experience it with me.


You’ve openly expressed your wish of playing more in the USA. How come?
The US is a country that takes the importance of classical music and culture in general very seriously. There is a lot of interest in supporting new projects and after having the opportunity to travel all over the country, I realized with great pleasure that people attend to concerts regularly filling full houses everywhere. This gives a lot of hope and enthusiasm.


When we offered you the chance to organize an imaginary festival, you stated that you were dreaming of performing of all of Beethoven’s piano concertos on one occasion. Has this dream come any closer to realisation over the past years?
I still dream of having my own festival and of course to play the whole Beethoven concerti would be one of the things that I would love to do. But not only, as I told you before I’m hoping to have a very eclectic festival in which, many friends musicians, known and not so known, would collaborate all together in a real music feast!


Discography:
Ingrid Fliter Plays Beethoven & Chopin (Vai) 2003
Ingrid Fliter Plays Chopin (VAI) 2003
Ingrid Fliter Live in Recital (VAI) 2006
Chopin Piano Works (EMI) 2008

Homepage:
Ingrid Fliter