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Interview with Gemma Rosefield (Great Britain) Dariusz Meclik (Jagiellonian University, Institute of Musicology)

What are your first impressions after one day in Krakow?

It's a beautiful city and I'm very glad to come here, because my grandparents are from

Nowy Sącz. So I'm Polish. I have no direct link any more, but it's special for me to

come here for the first time and discover my past. Maybe I'll visit Nowy Sącz next

time.

It's 28th International Festival of Krakow Composers and your first time on the

festival as well. What do you think about this event?

What I know so far, I think it's extraordinary collaboration of contemporary

composers and musicians. We all come together in one place and celebrate new

music. For me it's very special. And also it feels very open for audience. I'm looking

forward to see who comes to the concert, to see what interest is there in new music,

to compare it to England as well. See, how things are here, because it feels like

a celebration of the new music, which I think is very significant for me. I love to play

old music, but new music is equally important for me, because it's our generation, it's

our chance to discover a new style and to be playing and working with the composers

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like Maciej Zieliński – so closely. It's a very special experience.

The new music takes an important place in your life?

Yes, I always try as much of it as it is possible, even if sometimes it can be hard

to persuade promoters to programme it. I always try include one or two contemporary

pieces in my recitals programmes, because of the audience and of me I find it very

important, and sometimes you get resistance from promoters. They think if you put

a contemporary piece in the concert then people don't come. But often I find after

those concerts, that the audience is coming up to me and the piece they speak about is

often the new piece. For me that makes it worth it. It's important to be persistent with

that.

During the festival you will play Maciej Zieliński's „Concello” and it will be

second time you will be playing that piece.

I did it two summers ago on a festival in Wales, which was the celebrating of Polish

composers. So many Polish composers came that time. We did a lot of Panufnik,

Paweł Łukaszewski and it was a big celebration and then I met Maciej. For the first

time I've worked with him on his piece. It was an amazing experience. He's such

a great man and a musician. He understands the instrument very well, as this piece is

very intensive, emotionally and physically intensive. At the end of it I felt like I was

not able to play another note. But, of course, I could. I had a feeling it had taken me to

the end of my emotional road. Obviously five minutes later you are able feel it again.

I'd like to know a little bit more about your background as a Cellist. Tell us

a little more about your early studies. I read that your piano teacher said to your

parents “Don't waste your money, she has no musical ear”. Had this sentence

had any influence on your career?

For sure! Because I'd started with the piano, and I just wasn't natural with it. Then,

I was singing and playing and I loved music. My parents are not musicians but they

love music very much. My grandfather was a doctor for The Opera House, so we

grew up with a lot of music around. And when that teacher told it to my parents – they

were, obviously, upset. Then I had a school teacher who told me to ignore it, and

when I was 8 or 9, I picked up a cello and I started playing. I fell in love with the

sound and the feeling it gave me. And that was it. From then I was very passionate

about playing and the sound of the cello for me it was like human voice. In fact,

in “Concello” I have to sing and play at the same time. Of course it's not a natural

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feeling but I realized when I played, actually, I make sometimes “singing noise”.

I did a recording last month, and the producer said: “Oh, you need to be quieter!”.

But for me it's very natural, that we are doing such an expressive thing with this

instrument, when you connect with it, your voice also, a little bit occasionally comes

out, and this is what Maciek wanted, when he wrote this line. When I play the line for

two minutes, and I have to sing but not to sing perfectly, to “humm” and to go in and

out, and sing what I feel, and it makes an incredible effect.

Your family supported your musical choices?

Yes, they supported me very much, they encouraged, and they forced me to practice.

I hate to practice but I like to play a lot. Now I'm grateful to them.

What about your studies as you grew older?

I had certain teachers who were very influential for me. I studied with a Head of

Strings in Royal Academy of Music David Strange, then I was influenced by

Johannes Goritzki, Gary Hoffman, and many other people. They were big mentors for

me. Then I studied with Ralph Kirshbaum – wonderful cellist and teacher also. That

was a very serious working time, and I really changed a lot in my technique and how

I practice. He was very influential for me. Nothing stays the same in music. I discover

something new every day. Even when I play some piece for 40 times, I discover

something new, which is very exciting.

Do you have any advice for young musicians about their career?

The most important thing is the music. It sounds funny, but you should always keep

the music in the centre of your circle. Everything else that happens around is great,

and you go for it, but the music stays in the focus. I think in today's world it's easy to

be distractive by “career” – tweeting, fans, photos, and everything, which is important

for getting concerts but if you focus so much on that, you can lose sight of really what

you're doing on your instrument and with music. Because that's what will last for

hundreds years like it has done. That's why contemporary music is important, because

in 200 years it's not contemporary any more, it’s like Beethoven for us. I think you

don't want make a mistake with your career choice, when the music is in the centre.

Now you already have a really wonderful career that's growing and expanding,

playing in many different countries with many different orchestras. You also

perform a lot as a soloist and in recitals. Do you have a different mind-set when

you are a soloist than when you play a recital with a pianist or do you find this

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pretty much the same?

I'm lucky because I do a mixture of things, which for me, keeps it very fresh. I do solo

concerts, recitals, and concertos but I also do a lot of chamber music. It's not

a different approach to the music. For me it's all the same when I do recital, concerto,

string quartet, piano trio. I look at the music in the same way. But of course

technically it’s a different balance and you, listen to different things. It’s different, but

the approach to the music should be the same.

You are also playing with The Leonore Piano trio.

Yeah, I have The Leonore Piano Trio, Ensemble 360 with wind, string quartet, piano

and bass, and it’s great, because we get to do any piece of chamber music with them.

With my piano trio we do lots of concerts, and recordings. I'm very lucky because

I’ve found two people who are having the same approach and mind-set, and rehearsal

is easy and fun, and concerts are constantly exciting and new experiences and always

with good feeling. The other group with whom we can do any combination of

instruments, I can play piece in octet which is very hard normally to find all of those

different people. We can just do it. Such an amazing music you can normally do,

because of the combination.

What are some of your thoughts about chamber music? How is it evolving in

today's world? Has it the same importance as in XIX century?

It’s different but it's just as important as anything, I think it's even more important.

I know people talk a lot about classical music, that it is just for older people. Although

I don't think so. They also say because it's for older people it's dying. I think those

sayings are rubbish! It's been going for many hundreds of years. The bigger part of

audience is in the older half of generation but then the next generation becomes older.

I do a lot of work introducing it to younger people and I don't think that they find it

boring. I think it’s how you approach it with them. And for me, the most important

thing is to break down the barrier of a musician on stage and the audience. Somehow

we have a connection. I always speak at my concerts. My colleague always introduces

the pieces, and our instruments. I think for younger people I don't find they have that

barrier and also I find them very open minded to contemporary music. Because they

don't have a trained ear with that like Mozart's music they don't have any ideas for

what music should be. They just listen with opened ears. Once, when I did concert,

there was a six-year-old child, and I asked what was the favourite piece. It was

Beethoven, Mozart or Szymanowski. Child chose Szymanowski. Because it's

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evocative and not in a form such as classical form which makes me happy. That's why

I don't agree classical music is dying.

If you play with the greatest orchestras it is possible to play very soft, but overall

when performing as a soloist it is necessary to always be aware of projecting the

sound out in the hall.

Of course. But you can project and you can play very soft at the same time. Often,

people make a mistake. They think of projecting, playing “very vast” all the time.

Sometimes you have to play vast when music demand it, but sometimes if you can

force the audience and the orchestra to listen, it's the most projecting thing

emotionally for the music, then playing loud all the time. In a piece such as tonight it

is consistently loud however it has moments which are very quiet and these moments

are most important. It is easier to play loud all the time, but if you can really force

people to really listen, they just want more.

You're playing on a cello from 1704 from Naples made by Alessandro Gagliano.

Can you tell us more about this instrument?

I love this instrument very much and I'm very lucky to be playing it. It belonged to the

king of Spain and then he gave it to king George IV of England, who was the cellist.

He liked it so much, he put his name on the back, and he decorated all around the

sides, and it's still there. It's in great condition, because it wasn't past around but kept

for long time.

It’s also interesting that you are playing on instrument from XVIII century

a contemporary music as well.

It’s a very interesting question. Because there are lots of great new instruments being

made, and I'll be very happy to play one. But I'm lucky that I have this cello to play.

For me it doesn't matter which instrument I play. I mean, of course, as long as it is

a good instrument you still sound like you. So when you play Mozart or Bach,

on instrument made last month, or you play Zieliński on a 1704 instrument it doesn't

matter – it’s the music that matters and you have your sound also. Of course

it changes a bit, but not really. Your voice doesn't change.

What is your wish for the future?

I would be very happy for the rest of my life to continue the path which I'm on now,

to have the right balance – to do solo work and chamber music. The two together are

perfect balance, because if I just do concertos only, I would find it very difficult for

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my soul. I would feel maybe lonely also. I feel that now I have just more than I'm

doing now, I would like, because for me the chamber music equals passion and

I couldn't do it without either.