Ivan Šiller – interviews with musicians

Welcome to the ISCM podcast. Today I am here with Ivan Šiller. Welcome. 

Hi. 

These podcasts focus on piano. We talk to pianists really about everything, but primarily about music and the piano. If someone asked you what is so interesting and appealing about the piano, what would you say? 

Everything. From the sound of the piano, which is very colourful, contrasting. From the mechanics, the fascinating world of the strings, the hammers, the chokes, the soundboard, to really the physical tough of the instrument. Hey, that you actually hear something and then you transfer it through your body, through your fingers, and it makes a sound. Well, and the very fact that every instrument is different. Every instrument, even though we are still talking about the piano, sounds different in a different hall. Hey, the same instrument would sound different in Žilina State Chamber Orchestra, or in the Košice Philharmonic, or in the Slovak Philharmonic, so the sound work. 

Is there also something less appealing that you sometimes get fed up with, let’s say, in connection with the piano? 

Yes, well, it is just the mechanical stuff. We pianists feel very much when the piano is not right, when it is not well tuned or the chokes do not come back the way they are supposed to, when the pedal squeaks or the left pedal does not work. But these are things that we encounter quite commonly, so it is that, as I said, rich world of mechanics that is often the problem that bothers me. 

When you were talking about working with sound, it is really specific to pianists that they do not have that familiarity with their instrument, maybe they have it in their practice room or at home, but in concerts they are always referred to another instrument. Do you have a strategy when you approach a new Steinway or an instrument that you have never played or have not played in a long time, that as you are getting acquainted, getting to know each other? 

I like to, if there is any time space, I like to play the repertoire that I am going to play in the hall slowly, at a slow tempo. To literally feel the instrument, the keyboard and the acoustics, how much I am going to use the pedal, for example, or not use it. I mean, I like to play in a slow tempo, not the whole concert program, but a significant part of it, and then it depends on how much time there is before the concert. I will play it, some of the passages in right tempo as well, so that I have a realistic idea at that time. But it is more like feeling the space through slow playing. 

It is such a friendly getting-to-know-you kind of a thing, or sometimes you get caught up in the panic that I have to redo some places or think differently, and I am not just talking about bad instruments, but it is also in the case of very good instruments that you realize that you have to interact differently with a particular type of instrument. 

I leave that to the concert itself. I am already at the dress rehearsal… 

You do not change fundamentally. 

This rational process in me does not take place. I cannot remember it; I leave it for real time afterwards. 

Don’t you have that, some tricky stuff where you really want a certain colour, that if you give it to this teammate of yours? 

So, yeah, it just works with pedal work, with pedal work, hey. And that changes, that changes with every acoustics literally or so with, like, how much I use legato or, conversely, lighten up some of the faster passages because there is richer acoustics, longer reverb and stuff like that, but it is really happening in like real time for me. 

Different types of instruments have certain characteristics. Of course, instrument to instrument, there are differences even within the same brand, but if we were to kind of generalize it, Steinway, Fazioli, Bösendorfer, Yamaha. Do you have a favourite brand that never disappoints you? 

Any of the brands you listed is nice, unfortunately we do not have them in Slovakia. 

If it is a big and high-quality instrument, it is a pleasure. 

Exactly, if it is a big and high-quality instrument even a big and high-quality Yamaha is a great instrument, but what I like about Steinway is just its composure. Actually, in all octaves the sound is very high quality and very balanced. The Bösendorfer, on the other hand, has a distinctly beautiful bass. With the Steinway it is perhaps more soprano. And with the Fazioli I like that ringing, that almost ringing sound in the two-line octave, three-line octave, so that kind of piercing tone. Very pleasant too. That is.

It seems, that you like piano in general. 

I do. (laught) 

And it shows, in your recordings, your concerts, in you as a performer, but also as an organizer. For example, you invented the Piano Days festival, which is primarily about piano. Why did you come to the decision to organize such a festival? 

So far, I have done several piano festivals in the world. For example, also in Ghent, Belgium, where I studied, and I was very attracted to the format. There it took the form of a week-long festival. Once a day there was a concert. And so, I lived this idea for a very long time, and ironically during the covid, when the concert halls went quiet, actually many orchestras could not play, and even those stable concert seasons did not happen in that mode. We moved more into the online space, so that is where we thought it was a good time, as there were few things going on and it was one performer, or one cameraman, so we met those covid criteria where music could happen, just in the form of a solo piano recital. Well, and the second reason is explicitly that I feel like there is not enough of it. That there are not enough piano recitals and some of our concert halls – the Slovak Philharmonic, the Košice Philharmonic, the Žilina State Chamber Orchestra have excellent instruments, but basically very little used for solo piano or solo recital. There is often a concert on the part of the organisers. whether people will come there in sufficient numbers. But we have had only good experiences so far, for example in Žilina, where in the first year there was a smaller turnout, but in the second-year people got used to it and came and there was a great atmosphere in the hall. But we have not yet succeeded in encouraging the Košice Philharmonic to also have such a cycle, but it is a pity because the instrument is unused and it is a royal instrument. 

Piano Days has a benefit for you also as a listener and visitor of those concerts, because you also played at this festival as a performer, you are an organizer, so you have your head full of these things, but you get used to being present at the concerts as a festival director, we can say, which pianists rarely manage to go to a concert. What are your experiences of being in the audience? 

Arthur Rubinstein even said that he does not advise pianists to go to other piano recitals. 

So, you take that risk on a regular basis. 

It is challenging, I have to say, because I see the qualities of the other players, hey, we just have great pianists in this country. And so, one is that awe – it catches me that whew, I would like to go practice right away. Because to keep up the pace, hey, with the others. But, of course, I love to listen to other pianists. I always learn something; I always learn something. I get to know new repertoire. In the last year we had Dann Vandewalle with excellent dramaturgy, but our Slovak performers can also come up with very nice and interesting dramaturgy. So, I take it also as an educational dimension for myself. 

And you also get free entry. 

Yes, I have free entrance. (laught) 

I have also had pianists Júlia Stahl Novosedlíková and Kristína Smetanová on these podcasts, and they are great soloists, but they do four-handed play together, so we were thinking about four-handed playing. What challenges does it bring, what advantages. You also get used to playing four-handed sometimes. For example, I have the privilege of that with me. 

You, for example. 

And interestingly enough, we also got on the topic that what kind of gets on our nerves, those players kind of get on our nerves about four-handed play, we like it a lot in general. I think I speak for both of them.

Yes. 

But still, there are those challenges. How do you feel about it, this topic.

The challenges, if you remember, besides playing with you for the last few years, I played for many years with Andrea Bálšeová and I just liked that the last two years we thought very much about the seating, that the other player actually sits a little bit more obliquely, so there is also space in the middle between them where they are not banging their elbows together so much anymore. So, it was a significant shift in the game where that physical aspect was suddenly more enjoyable. That is the first thing, and the second thing, exactly, with four-handed playing, and in our concerts the last few years, we have also enjoyed that improvisational moment of playing a lot of Leo Smith, his Divertimento for four-hands piano. 

Where there should not be a lot of improvising. 

Where you should not improvise a lot, but, I mean, improvisation in the sense of the idea of the moment, when we have something already well-rehearsed, like, we have rehearsed this piece, we have recorded it. 

Yes, that is a very nice advantage, a nice observation, that actually the inspiration is always with the soloist, that he creates also directly, but in this way, he can still be inspired by the sound of the other one. 

Exactly, you can inspire each other, just in pieces that we know well, that we have played, so we experienced something with Ravel – My Mother Goose, so for this I like the four-handed playing, because there is that mutual inspiration, but also the moment of surprise. 

In these podcasts we play that kind of game. We give – even you, when you are in the moderator role and I am in the moderator role – we give our guests a selection of two options, and that game is interesting when you really only choose one, because it is perfectly comfortable to say both options, but you only have to choose one. Of course, that reflects maybe just your current setup or this period of time that you would answer differently tomorrow, but we will see, so the game is the game. I hope we have some fun as well. 

Exactly. 

So, pick between these two. 

All right. 

Classical sonata or baroque suite? 

Classical sonata. 

Really? You love Baroque and you play Bach. 

Yes, yes. 

But the suite, huh? 

But now this particular sonata, I have not dealt with it for a long time, so now it has come up. 

Music analysis or music history? 

Right now, it is music history. 

All surprised. Even with the others. I always make a guess, so I am sure he will give this one and you all give the others.

Because I have just taken up the harpsichord and I am learning about the wonderful music of Couperin, William Byrd, I am learning general bas. I am reading a fantastic little book on Bach by John Eliot Gardiner. So, I am so immersed in that history now. 

I am glad you brought that up, because that is very important part of you now, that you are studying the harpsichord and therefore early music, we can say. And, ratio or emotion? 

Ratio. 

Mathematics or chemistry? 

Mathematics. 

Concert or individual search, study, preparation? 

Now it is individual study. 

Solo or chamber music? 

Solo.

A dense, technically efficient typesetting or a one-part meditative melody? 

I am past those meditative. (laughter) 

Again, he answers differently than I thought. 

So, again, I am back to the dense typesetting. 

System, structure or freedom? 

System, structure. 

All wrong. 

So, general bas, you know, like general bas. 

Exact notation or open notation? 

Exact notation? 

Schumann or Ligeti? Schumann, I presume. Because it is all backwards now.

No, Ligeti. 

This remains. 

Yes, Ligeti remains. 

Smetana or Dvořák? 

I have to tell the truth, I actually know very little of their music, both Smetana and Dvořák, but so if I had to pick one, Smetana. 

Pedal or playing without a pedal? 

Pedal. 

Legato or portamento? 

Oh, heavy. 

Well, since it is harpsichord, I suppose portamento. 

Well, yes, that is how it is now. 

Forte or piano? Forte though, I suppose piano meditative, but like you said, you have had enough of that. So, now it is going to be forte. 

To play forte momentarily, a nice, soft forte is a challenge for me. 

Fine art or dance? 

Fine art. 

Sculpture or painting? 

Painting. 

Nigh of day? 

Day. 

Unless you consider the third or fourth hour to be the day, when you start. 

Yes, that is when the day begins. 

So, that is like a day, okay, well, even though it is not dawn yet. 

But it is already day. 

Ice cream or schnitzel? 

Schnitzel, definitely schnitzel. 

Don’t you like sweets? 

I do, but after the schnitzel. 

Oh, so we will start with the schnitzel first. That was Ivan Šiller, pianist, festival organiser and organiser of all sorts of things in the field of education. Thank you for accepting the invitation.

 Thank you. 

And for sticking with me for this interesting interview. 

It was, as always, hilarious. 

Thank you. 

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