Kristína Smetanová – interviews with musicians

Welcome to the ISCM podcast. In this podcast we will be looking ahead to Piano Days 2024, where a pianist Kristína Smetanová has already performed and will perform again. Welcome.

Hi. 

Just to add a little bit more information, you will be playing together with Julia Stahl Novosedlíková, the two of you form Devanas Duo and you will be performing on the 11th April at the Fatra House of Arts in Žilina. 

Exactly. 

But let’s start with the piano in a more general way. Ladislav Burlas once said that he does not like it when parents say that my child plays the piano, clarinet or violin. According to him, it is more correct to say that my child studies music. So how about you? Because I introduced you as a pianist. Whether I should not have introduced you as a musician before, and even now before this interview you were talking about the fact that you are even performing in a theatre show and you have studied composition as well. So, what’s up with you, with piano and music.

Lately, when I have been posting my resume or bio somewhere, I have been starting to state that I am a musician, for those very reasons you have mentioned. And so, yes, I studied piano, I studied it for the longest time, but music has accompanied me basically all my life, and from a very young age I also learned to sing, I took private composition lessons with, for example, Víťazoslav Kubička. Or even with Július Zelinka, thanks to the fact that our families know each other and…

You studied with Stanislav Hochel. 

Eventually, I studied composition at the conservatory. And so, the study of music was a bit more extensive for me, it did not only concern piano, but I was also interested in other instruments. For example… Actually, when you study composition at the conservatory, you also reach a little bit towards conducting, towards some percussion instruments. So, it is more varied, which I was very happy about and it gave me even more incentives to the piano.

Then you had to choose, when you attended the Academy of Performing Arts, where you also studied for your PhD. So, you concentrated on piano. But despite, other things still work. How is it with you now, to what extent is the piano the dominant one? 

Well, I still dedicate most of my time to the piano. In fact, I play it all day long because I also work at the conservatory, I am accompanying clarinets and actors singing at the moment. So that is quite different as well, and when I went to the Academy of Performing Arts I had to choose between composition and piano. And I figured that if I wanted to do it professionally, I mean playing the piano, I would have to do it for many more years under the supervision of a teacher. And I am very happy for that. I still get to compose sometimes. Right now, I am mainly writing songs or theatre music, so it is more in the popular music sphere, but I have also written a piece for our Devanas Duo, for example, which we have recorded on a CD, and I plan to write some more as well. But what inspires me the most is when I am playing with someone directly and I can write for us. I guess I do not want to write compositions to put them into a drawer anymore, that only maybe they will get played someday; I want to help to it directly, that may mean that I will play it. 

Even though your centre of attention is already broad like that, I would still focus on piano in the context of Piano Days. But even if we focus on piano, again, the music is dominant there. Do you remember the moment when you figured out that the piano, besides the fingers, the playing apparatus and the keys, that it is primarily a means of expression for you, for art, and for music.

I certainly did, I think I first picked the piano, or started taking up piano lessons, when I was four years old. So, there are such vague memories on some scales. I did not really think of them as a means of expression. 

Although, even scales can be played very creatively. 

But at that age… 

Right. 

… Naturally, I hated it, of course. But I liked the fact, that I could put anger into that piano, or listen to only one note. Those are the kind of childlike sensations that I had right from the beginning. And now, basically, when I cannot deal with an emotion, I sit by the piano and play, improvise something, and it is actually a kind of therapy. So, that is how it has transformed over the years. 

In addition to improvising like that, you play very challenging pieces as a soloist in recitals, but also in collaboration with other players. You have played with orchestra as well. How do you pick what to play, what to embark on. At school, you and professor Černecká probably thought about it together, but now that you are on your own, what does it look like – your thinking about what to start working on, what to play? 

Basically, throughout my studies from conservatory to college, I had a fairly free hand in terms of what I could play from the teacher, and my hand was usually reaching for things that were somehow very challenging technically or were quite complex in terms of form or harmony and tonality and things like that… so I have always tried to sort of go further than maybe others, and so now I am in a state where I like to reach back to those pieces that I have already studied, of course, with a more mature view. And so… I do not tend to choose some new things now, which I could not, because I have always had freedom in that, and maybe now I will get more toward some simplicity after all these years. You know, maybe I would like to.

That is what they say about young pianists, that they like complex textures and dense typesetting and technical challenges, and that as you get older you get so internalized, you find that even a simple melody can be played very creatively, so you are already on that path away from the technical challenging, because now, for example, you recently had another recital with very challenging pieces. 

Yes, yes, I was just reaching for those difficult things, but it was in that recital that I first dared to do improvisation, which was something very daring for me, but at the same time it was the easiest piece of the whole concert. By making it up right on stage and it was such a meditative moment. And I would like to keep those mediative moments in the repertoire selection for the future, because I think it makes the concert a little bit easier to consume for the listener as well. 

I read that your doctoral topic was Les Six. 

Yes. 

And I see you as a performer with a wide musical range and repertoire, there is no obvious specialization there. Maybe you are drawn to those lesser-known pieces, but not to any particular style or time period, and suddenly there is the Les Six. How did that happen? 

So, of course, this was done as a consultation with a professor, I was thinking about it and only knew from music history that the Les Six existed. But I realized that their piano music that I have played, I had only encountered it very lightly. I had actually played some Poulenc’s pieces during my studies at the conservatory, but otherwise, nothing. And it occurred to me that how come I do not know it, how come I do not hear anybody else play it. And so, I started to dive into those pieces a little bit and I found them very interesting. I found them very varied in subject matter and very rewarding for a PhD., as there are six of the composers. And the professor agreed with me, I do think we created together a very nice program. And I am very glad I got to know it. I think that if I had not done it during my doctoral studies, I might not have gotten to it in my life, because it is an awful lot of work to even memorize the pieces, and it really takes patience and constant work to be able to immerse oneself in it as much as I have been able to do thanks to my doctoral studies. 

Part of the study, I suppose, was studying specific pieces, but also thinking, verbalising, formulating… 

Yes. 

… things finding contexts. It is important for a performer not only to play, but to get to know the whole context.

It certainly is. Of course, some compositions sort of require less of that, or we assume that we already know something about those composers, of course, when we study it. But I think a lot of times that composer also wrote something in the notes, it is what he/she meant. And that sometimes that looking beyond the musical content is not that helpful. But for example, with these composers that I did not know much about before, it was very helpful to read about them, about those philosophies, how they took it, and so I do not bring something into the music that does not belong there. And that is how I actually got to know their lives, their approach to composition. And I have learned things that sometimes some teachers or professors will just skip over it and say it was not that deep music, but in doing that, that depth just with Les Six is very much felt, it is just not to be taken lightly based in the sheet music. 

That is exactly what I was going to ask, that we have all covered the Les Six at various levels of school in music history and elsewhere. What such surprises were there just because of your deeper dive. You have already said that you were surprised that the Les Six was not just a cabaret mode, but that it was also a depth of statement. Can we flesh out some other things maybe that we are not generally aware of them relation to this music?

So, for example from Germaine Tailleferre I only played one short composition. It was a romance, but she (the composer) has several short pieces like that, little pieces. 

She is such a little known or frequented composer overall. 

But it is actually very charming and I find so much to the simplicity that she has been able to capture, there is a lot of to work with like tonality, harmonies, and there is a lot of ideas that are not trying to be innovative in any way, but it just flows and that music is still beautiful, I still think of it as modern, but at the same time it is not trying to be some kind of explosive thing. And so just the beauty is in that subtlety. And for example, I see that subtlety in Poulenc as well. I have now played his Nocturnes, which were written over, I think, ten years or so. It is a complete closed cycle, but each one brings a completely different world. They even have program titles, but not all of them. There he also shows how he can work with the piano, with the instruments. You can see that he understands it, and he works very much on these little bits of music that have meaning, as long as we understand them and as long as we find that meaning further on in the course of the piece. And it is very important, I think, that the performer understands these pieces. And by that, there is so an awful lot going on, at the same time, in a short piece, which is often two minutes long. For example, there is a whole sonata form in it. 

And at the same time, it is also maybe the way to, as we were saying, to depth and yet at the same time to simplicity. That they are not (not that these composers are not demanding enough), but that one is not impressed at first perhaps by virtuosity and so on. 

They are so much more concise, I would say, they have been so, well, exactly, that they were against such pathos and so forth and that this is not really there. And they are very succinct in what they want to say, I mean, from the pieces that I have played. But at the same time, there is all this depth in that brevity, you just have to feel it and maybe let it reverberate within you. Yet that is it. 

Let’s now open the topic of the Devanas Duo, which you form with Júlia Stahl Novosedlíková. You play together four-handed pieces or compositions for two pianos. You are also performing as part of the Piano Days festival. How did you find each other and become friends musically and non-musically? 

Well, it actually started with Júlia while I was still studying at the conservatory. We were actually both in Peter Čerman’s class at that time. And I think I had some kind of final concert back then. I do not know if it was a graduation recital or some recital before that. But I wanted to play Rachmaninoff’s Tarantella for two pianos. And so, I played it with Júlia. That was kind of our first time playing together. And it somehow went miraculously easy, which does not happen a lot of times when somebody plays with another pianist, because after all it is very difficult to find somebody, you get along with. And that is where we knew that we understood each other. 

Then I started studying at the Academy of Performing Arts and I had to wait until Júlia also got to the Academy, because she is younger. There were four-hands or two-piano projects, so we had a chance to study quite a wide repertoire while studying at the Academy of Performing Arts. It culminated in the fact that we decided to record a CD of contemporary Slovak piano music for four-hands piano. So, some composers wrote pieces for us, some have already existed. And it was an amazingly nice project that made us even stronger as a chamber duo. Devanas duo. 

I am sure you are pleased it is…beautiful work. And let’s maybe flip this side. In that sense, let’s focus on four-handed playing, even if you are playing two pianos. 

The other side of four-handed play. (laught)

Four-handed is just the fact that you only have half a keyboard. And besides the joy it brings, the co-performance, it has some limitations. So, you see, some maybe negatives (it is a strong word for that), but still such challenges rather, that what needs to be addressed in a piano duo. 

Well, we have been playing mostly four-hands for the last few years and we have kind of gotten used to it. Of course, somewhere in the beginning, when we were taking courses in Netherlands and we were already going there to perform as a piano duo, that is when the pressure came from the concerts we had, and we had a little bit of a fight. Because, it is also about what who feels. Everybody has got a little bit of a different pulse in them, and that is where it can get very beat up. Any little thing, exceptionally with a four-hander, has to be extremely precise and we have to feel comfortable next to each other. If we did not feel each other, we would have been poking each other, we are very close to one another, we cross our arms a lot of times and so on. So, we like each other and it has not ruined our relationship or the four-handed play. I think it has only made us better. 

You have solved those physiological discomforts, too. 

Yes. 

Actually, that is also fun to solve, which way to sit or which way to play to feel comfortable.

We do not really even have a division of who is the bottom part and who is the top part. We like to alternate that so we can sort of grasp everything that it entails, and therefore… 

So, each of you is limited only once to the left hand or the right hand. 

Yes, yes. But we understand each other, and I am remarkably glad for that, because at the moment we are seeing less (off piano), and it is because we are playing together, we get to meet more often. 

Which is also important… 

Yes, yes. 

… the non-musical dimension. We will be able to watch and hear this interplay at the Piano Days festival on the 11th April in Žilina. What have you prepared for this concert? 

We will be playing, as far as the four hands are concerned, there will be compositions that we have recorded on the debut CD. There will be compositions by Lenka Novosedlíková, Michal Stahl and Richard Grimm. And then, to round it off with something more classical, Smetana.

In the year of Czech music. 

Then we are actually going to play for two pianos, and there is Piazolla, Kardoš, and then there is Colin McPhee. So, it is quite such a variety, we have basically picked out some of our most popular pieces, orchestrated over the years, and it is quite a challenge because the concert is going to be really long and we have never had such long a space before, so I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out. 

Also, I have got a game for you to finish this interview. 

Game. Whew. 

Do you like to play games? 

Depends on what kind, I do not know. 

This one is very challenging… I do not think it is that hard. I used to play it with my kinds on long road trips. I used to give them a selection between two things and they had to choose one. It is very simple. 

And without giving a reason or…? 

Right, and then they commented on it a little bit. 

Okay. 

That game was so meaningful to me that I learned more about my kids. 

That is a good idea. 

For example, I told them to choose ice cream or schnitzel. They picked ice cream, of course, and then the discussion went on if they only ate ice cream and so on, so it was quite interesting, so your job is to choose one thing from the two. Most of those choices are like, well…you could pick one and the other, but there is no such option. 

I will try. 

So just one of these. A classical sonata or a baroque suite. 

Well right now I am feeling it for the baroque suite. 

No comment. 

No comment, it changes, it changes. 

It changes, yes. Music analysis or music history? 

Music analysis. Definitely. 

Ratio or emotion? 

Oh no, this is the worst question. 

It also alternates, but maybe that, what time of year you are in now, that what attracts you more in art or in music. Whether the structure of the expression of emotion. 

So, after studying so much I guess it is ratio, but there was a period of time where I was looking for more emotion in it. So, it will probably turn again sometime. 

Mathematics or chemistry? 

Mathematics. I find it closer to music. 

Concert or individual study, preparation? 

Concert. 

Solo or chamber music? One would prefer to answer both, in balance of course, but you have to choose. 

Yes. So, at the moment I have played a solo concert and I am looking forward to playing chamber music, so… 

So, chamber music at the moment. 

… right now, chamber music. 

This, we have talked a little bit about. A dense, technically spectacular score or a simple meditative melody? 

Now, I need that simple meditative. 

System, structure, or freedom? 

System, structure. 

Even though you improvised at the last recital. 

Yeah, but that is mostly how I played system, structure. 

Schumann or Ligeti? 

Ligeti. 

In the year of Czech music and the anniversaries of various composers – Smetana or Dvořák? Smetanová, Smetana. (laughter) 

Pedal or no pedal? 

Pedal. 

Legato or portamento? 

Legato. 

Forte or piano?

Piano. 

We are getting to the inside. 

Yes, yes. 

Fine art or ballet, or contemporary dance? 

Fine art, I guess. My mom is a painter. 

You do not have a choice. 

So, I guess I have a closer relationship to that. 

So, one more question of choosing on that. Sculpture or painting. 

Painting. 

Night or day? 

Day. 

And as I started with my children with that example: ice cream or schnitzel? 

Ice cream. 

You are like my kids. 

Well, I do not go for ice cream that much, I mean, I have it maybe ten times a year, but I cannot stand schnitzel, so… 

So, you do not have a choice, you are going to go with an ice cream. 

Yes. Now you have actually created a psychological profile of me. I feel like they did not resemble those answers basically. 

That was kind of a cover-up, it was a game, but it is actually a serious psychological profile and you cannot take it back.

Yikes. 

But as you said, with multiple answers, that is now, tomorrow it could be different again. 

Yeah, exactly, those are the kind of questions, those are the kind of answers. 

Thank you. That can be understood in all sorts of ways. 

But they were excellent, excellent. 

Thank you. I remind you that we spoke to Kristína Smetanová. Thank you for coming and for your very interesting stories… 

Thank you for inviting me.

… Also, cheerful. 

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