NPR’s Rob Schmitz speaks with pianist Emanuel Ax about his new podcast “Classical Music Glad Hour.”
ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
All through his decades-long profession, pianist Emanuel Ax has been performing within the nice live performance halls of the world. And now, as an alternative of the stage, he’s stepping behind a microphone to host a brand new podcast with WQXR and Carnegie Corridor. It is referred to as Classical Music Glad Hour, and it is half interviews, with visitors like celebrity pianist Yuja Wang and musical comedienne Isabel Hagen, and half sport present, with details about well-known composers’ deaths.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “CLASSICAL MUSIC HAPPY HOUR”)
EMANUEL AX: As Beethoven…
YUJA WANG: May die sooner (laughter).
AX: As Beethoven lay dying with a failing liver, his publishers thought, you realize what he wants (laughter)? You already know what’d he actually admire? A case of wine.
WANG: Wow.
AX: And as a matter of truth, apparently, Beethoven’s final phrases had been, pity, it is come too late.
SCHMITZ: That is Emanuel Ax. Manny, as his associates know him, joins me now. Welcome, Manny.
AX: Thanks. Very good to be with you.
SCHMITZ: It is nice to have you ever. So it is fairly apparent that your podcast may be very completely different from a typical live performance corridor expertise. The place did the thought come from? And why did you suppose a podcast was the proper format?
AX: Nicely, really, the thought form of got here 20 years in the past. My pal Yo-Yo Ma and I had at all times talked about doing a music “Automotive Speak” as a result of we had been such…
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
AX: …Followers of that present. I believe that is form of the way in which it started. He left it to me to form of get some visitors, do some video games, try to present the personalities of not solely musicians however individuals who love music, to indicate that we’re perhaps a bit of extra relaxed than individuals suppose we’re.
SCHMITZ: So that you and Yo-Yo Ma, the Click on and Clack of classical music podcasting (laughter).
AX: Sure. However undoubtedly the poor man’s Click on and Clack.
SCHMITZ: So a whole lot of the conversations you have been having virtually flip the picture that many individuals have of classical music on its head. One musician who I believe does this very well in classical music is Yuja Wang, who we heard from within the first clip on this piece. Now, I met Yuja Wang a few decade in the past backstage at one among her exhibits. I met her mom, and we had a dialog the place her mom informed me about her husband, Yuja Wang’s father, and about how her husband – when Yuja was very younger, her husband, Yuja Wang’s father, stored telling her, you have to decelerate. Clearly…
AX: (Laughter).
SCHMITZ: …That recommendation didn’t work very nicely. As a result of if anybody who’s listening to this doesn’t know Yuja Wang or just isn’t conversant in her, simply put in Google Yuja Wang and “Flight Of The Bumblebee.”
(SOUNDBITE OF YUJA WANG’S PERFORMANCE OF NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV’S “FLIGHT OF THE BUMBLEBEE”)
SCHMITZ: She is without doubt one of the quickest musicians I’ve ever seen.
AX: Sure.
SCHMITZ: How are musicians like Yuja altering classical music?
AX: Whenever you meet individuals like Yuja, like Yo-Yo, like a whole lot of the those that I’ve on this podcast – once you meet them speaking in a extra relaxed means, you understand that they are very a lot enjoyable and that they do not take themselves so significantly, and subsequently, the viewers should not both.
SCHMITZ: Proper.
AX: Folks at all times suppose there are guidelines to listening to music. You already know, you come to a live performance. There’s some form of arcane rule that you simply’re not allowed to applaud. That does not make any sense. You already know, it is not solely counterintuitive, however it’s traditionally improper.
SCHMITZ: So let me ask you this, Manny. What place do you suppose classical music occupies in as we speak’s world? How do you assist somebody fall in love with the music that you’ve got devoted your life to taking part in?
AX: Nicely, I want to suppose that if we are able to simply get individuals to hear – that is a very powerful factor – in a roundabout way or different. You already know, it’s extremely – today, it’s extremely accessible. Yow will discover music wherever on-line. I believe we simply must by some means say, that is attention-grabbing, do it. You already know, I bear in mind after we moved to this nation. I used to be, I suppose, 12 years previous, and I noticed a soccer sport on tv – New York Giants, with Y. A. Tittle being the quarterback. That is – I am positive that is…
SCHMITZ: These had been the times.
AX: …The identify for you. It is form of like me mentioning Beethoven to you. You already know, it is the…
SCHMITZ: (Laughter).
AX: …Similar interval of historical past. However he was the quarterback I first noticed with the Giants. And I bear in mind simply – I did not know a factor. However I acquired excited by it simply by it, you realize?
SCHMITZ: Proper.
AX: And I believe it is the identical means with music. If – after all, not everyone goes to be fascinated, however the those that could be , that could be excited by it, then you definately begin listening, and the extra you hear, the extra you realize. And the factor is, there’s a lot happening as we speak. There are such a lot of selections for teenagers, rather more than there was once, I’d say. The entire know-how that is made issues a lot simpler has additionally given us an unbelievable variety of selections. So music is simply one of many selections now.
SCHMITZ: So, Manny, let’s return to your podcast. What’s one factor that you simply hope of us take away from listening to it, in addition to all the, you realize, fascinating ways in which well-known composers have died?
AX: Yeah (laughter). Nicely, that is solely one of many video games we play. We have got a bunch of different video games. What I am hoping is that the composers I speak to – John Adams, Gabriela Ortiz, Jeanine Tesori – are additionally seen as people who find themselves thrilling, progressive, enjoyable to be with. So I hope that comes by a bit.
SCHMITZ: That’s Emanuel Ax, host of the podcast Classical Music Glad Hour from WQXR and Carnegie Corridor. Manny, thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.
AX: Thanks very a lot. Thanks quite a bit for taking the time.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHNNY GREENWOOD’S “TRIO FOR WILLA”)
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