Stephane Ginsburgh (Intérprete) 

 

But of course the way in which you perform music, the way in which you consider music, can be contemporary. Bach or Beethoven can be contemporary in the way in which you rethink and perform their music. It is somehow keeping that music alive as if it were still music of today that makes it contemporary. But of course it is not contemporary music in the sense of how music is catalogued or classified by musicologists.

There are some issues with contemporary music, the issue of tonality, the issue of understanding or of what you think you understand. Adorno said that when you don’t understand in Schoenberg you don’t understand in Beethoven. This is not a good argument because it is only the superficial part, the part of the tonality or the things that can make this music more familiar. What we know is a problem with contemporary music could also be a problem of understanding with other kinds of music. Bartok had his problem of ‘understanding’ back in his time. And when Beethoven wrote some of his quartets, he was very contemporary: people did not like it, musicians did not like it and performers complained about it.
 
10. R.P.: Do you think that is necessary to understand always what you listen? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: Absolutely not necessary. It is a question of listening. It is a question of giving your concentration a chance and of trusting the music you are listening to. If you want to be listened to as a composer you need to have the attention of your audience. If you do not have their attention, it is very hard. It is important go into the music and take time... sit down in the right conditions, listen to it, not only once but more times if possible… otherwise you only write for the people that understand and not worry about the rest.
 
11. R.P.: What is your DNA as a pianist? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: I think there are things that I am looking for when I play a piece of music. The sound, look for a special sound, everything is in the sound for me. It is not only about making a ”beautiful sound”. The sound is the identity of a piece of music. The sound is part of the musical form. I always say when a sculptor is doing a sculpture, he works on a material: wood, stone, etc.… and he shapes it. For musicians, it is the same. We work with a material, sound, and we shape it. You have to consider shaping the sound because this is your material. Unity is also very important for me ... unity in a piece of music.
 
12. R.P.: What is your main obsession as a pianist when working?  

Stephane Ginsburgh: Sound but in relation to gesture. Learning to play the piano is learning to perform not only theoretically but by doing…knowing what movement, what gesture you have to make to produce a special sound. It’s not quantifiable. It goes through your body, the experience of your body and the memory of your body. That’s what I am doing when I practice: making sure that the body does what it needs to do to connect with the sound and the music. So the score is also at the centre.
 
13. R.P.: How do you go about putting together a new work, could you describe your creative process?  

Stephane Ginsburgh: It is always a difficult question above all if you are a performer, an improviser and sometimes creator… I learn from scores and I try to understand what is written there. This is basic in order to accomplish the work.
 
14. R.P.: What has your greatest extravagance been? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: This is a question of reference. I try to be open-minded so for me nothing is extravagant….everything is possible. I have played naked, which could it be considered extravagant but I was not the first to do that. Or when I explore the repertoire of Speaking Pianist, I work in a way that some people could find extravagant but again other people have done this before me. Sometimes people think that something is extravagant because it is strange or not common, such as playing and talking at the same time. Maybe that impresses people…maybe it is extravagant because it is outside the boundaries usually considered normal in classical performance ... but it’s ok.
 
15. R.P.: What does music contribute to education? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: We are in a difficult situation at the moment because in a lot of countries we are fighting against people who want to make the world efficient economically-speaking and who want to get rid of all the things that they consider inefficient economically-speaking. And they want to sabotage. They can tell you: if you want to do this then do it but without help from the government. They are pushing hard and do not say anything clear because they present themselves as people who care about the collectivity and who take care of public resources but we know that it is not the case because there is a robbery going on, things that should be shared are not shared as they should be and the difference between the rich and the poor gets bigger and bigger. The first victims of that are education, welfare, heath, culture and the arts – the very things that most people should benefit from.Music is important not only in a utilitarian way. Music uses qualities in human beings that very few activities use at the same time: your intelligence, motricity, sensitivity, emotions, etc. The benefits of music are wide and it takes time. In life, knowing how to be patient is very important. Music teaches you this.
 
16. R.P.: What would you like to do as a pianist that you have not been asked to do yet? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: I am pretty happy in terms of what I do. I consider myself quite lucky. I have paid the price to be independent. But it’s difficult to remain independent. You have the tendency to do things in a circle and, after a certain time, you return to previous things. But I am lucky. I do mostly what I like to do. There are a lot of things that I would like to do in the future, things that I want to explore. I will do them.
 
17. R.P.: What are your next projects? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: One is a project with Stefan Prins, a Belgian composer who has been working on a series of pieces called ‘Piano Hero’. It is a performance which involves the pianist not only as a pianist but in interaction with image. It’s a very rich piece and I like his universe a lot. He’s very interested in technology not only as a tool for his music but as something human beings can interact with. I am very excited.

I am also working with the composer Christophe Guiraud. He’s writing a piece and I like his poetic universe, I like his scores. They look like Leonardo da Vinci paintings.

And I have a lot of work with my “Speaking Pianist”. I have several performances of this, one with works by Frederic Rzewski. The “Speaking Pianist” makes me realize that things like a special communication between music and you is very iconoclast. And I also have my project with Prokofiev.
 
18. R.P.: How do you see the contemporary music scene today? 

Stephane Ginsburgh: It is not easy. There are a lot of good things. There is so much going on that it is difficult to know everything.Sometimes I am so busy that I am completely focused on the composer I am studying or exploring at that particular moment. I wish I had more time.

Brussels, March, 2016