>> From the Library of
Congress in Washington, D.C.
>> Anne McLean: I'm Anne McLean
from the library's
Music Division,
and with me are Annette
Reisinger and Matthias Diener
from the terrific
Minguet Quartett.
We're really pleased to welcome
them for their first appearance
at the Library of Congress.
[applause]
>> Matthias Diener: Thank you.
Thank you.
>> Anne McLean: And as
you'll find out tonight
in just a moment, the
Minguet is admired
for beautifully intimate,
expressive playing
and also an adventurous pursuit
of a huge range of repertoire
that takes in unknown
masters from the past
and masters from today.
And we'll be talking a
little bit about some
of those composers that you're
performing and recording,
some that I didn't know.
Heinrich Herzogenberg is one.
Unusual. Glenn Gould.
They recorded a work by Glenn
Gould, the pianist, last year.
They worked with Wolfgang
Rihm over a decade
to record the complete quartets
and also recorded his
fascinating piece "Et Lux"
with the excellent
Huelgas Ensemble.
It's an incredible piece.
And January, they'll be
performing Ginastera quartets
at the Elbphilharmonie, so that
gives you just a little bit
of a picture.
Tonight, we look
forward to your beautiful
and interesting program
highlighting the wonderful Czech
repertoire with works
by [inaudible],
whom I did not know, Suk,
[inaudible], and Dvorak,
plus a Mahler arrangement
by you.
So that's a whole
subject in itself --
the many threads that
connect great Czech composers
and great quartets.
So first, I wanted to
ask you about the name
of your group, the Minguet.
I know something about this,
and I'm fascinated by the man
for whom you're named.
Tell us about him.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah.
Actually, he was a
Spanish philosopher.
So in the 18th century.
And he was one of the last
general scientists, you know.
He, it was not only about
science, and, you know,
real science, and humanity,
but it was still the idea
of putting everything together.
So he wrote textbooks about
optics, about insects.
But also, of course,
about fine arts.
And his major quote and his
major idea was that music,
or fine art in general,
shouldn't be only
for the upper 10,000, what
he said, but should be able
to enjoy for everybody.
So kind of the opposite of
what [inaudible] would stand
for later -- you know,
the flow of [inaudible],
which means art is really like
in an own tower of, in German,
we say [speaking foreign
language], you know.
And it's, and, but so he decided
and he said it should be
available for everybody.
And as quartet is
a very pure art.
I mean, I always say
it's not like opera.
It's more like poetry.
I mean, 4 people talking to each
other without any substitute,
like not 40 camels on
the stage or something.
You know, like in operas,
it's just boring 4 peoples,
but they are playing
the most beautiful music
and the most exciting music.
And as it was always like
for saloons or for every,
for very educated people,
this kind of music,
we decided it should
be, like Minguet said,
should be available
for everybody.
>> Annette Reisinger: And
this idea is always more
and more important.
This year, we had already
the chance to play,
for example, in South Korea.
Now, we are here.
We were in Mongolia.
We were in Hong Kong.
It's not only to go there,
and there, and there,
but also to bring
the people together.
And for us, it's really great
to be here today and also
to bring this idea here for--
>> Anne McLean: And
you also play
in hospitals and prisons, right?
>> Annette Reisinger: Sometimes,
if there are some projects, yes.
If we have a chance, we--
>> Matthias Diener: Charity
concerts, yeah, of course.
If, and for kids
in schools as well,
we have a education
program running in Germany.
Actually, founded by a famous
pianist colleague, [inaudible],
who's probably well
known here as well.
He invented the broken
chord rhapsody in school,
funnily enough, and so we are
part of this project as well.
So when we come into a city
and we have enough time,
then in the morning, we go to
schools and play for children
or students, and hope that they
come in the evening as well.
[laughs] And sometimes,
they does.
>> Annette Reisinger:
And sometimes,
we have also the chance to
do this in foreign countries.
For example, we did it for 500
children in India or something.
[laughs] Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: You've toured
in India, then, as well.
>> Matthias Diener: Yes.
>> Anne McLean: Oh my goodness.
And so, in your spare time,
I think you also have
a festival, right?
Is it, it's you who
has the festival?
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah,
I just invented recently.
It's in, yeah, near
where we live in Cologne.
We are the quartet that's based
in Cologne, and we are actually,
over the years, not really
living in Cologne anymore,
so it'd be a little bit spread,
and I live outside
Cologne in the countryside.
It's a very beautiful
area between Germany
and Belgium kind
of on the border.
And very old houses from
1600, really European old.
And so -- [laughter] yeah
-- so as, even old for us,
so I just started a
little festival, yeah,
to give something back because
I love to live there and I try
to give something back to
the village people there.
>> Anne McLean: So, yeah.
Well, obviously, you're very
busy all over the world,
and the repertoire
particularly interests me --
the fact that you've made time
to really study and pursue a lot
of these people that
we don't know.
And I wanted to start
with [inaudible].
Am I saying this correctly?
We have actually
on display tonight
in our glass case a
copious manuscript
of the piece you are
performing tonight.
>> Matthias Diener: No, really?
>> Anne McLean: Yes, we've,
my colleagues found it
in our collections, and
it's, it probably came
from an aristocratic household
where they had regular
music evenings, you know.
And we also have a
whole Czech display --
[inaudible] and [inaudible] --
including the autograph
of the Mahler song
that you transcribed.
And we'll get to
that in a moment.
But I wanted to, [inaudible]
is a name that is so new to us,
and how long have you
been playing his work?
>> Annette Reisinger: It's also
new for us, but [laughs] we,
[laughs] he was a composer
of the Mannheim [phonetic].
It's a Mannheim school.
And he was a colleague or friend
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
And I discussed with an
organizer of concerts
from [inaudible] some years
ago, and he, which is very close
to the [inaudible] or the Czech
Republic, and he brought me
to this composer
and to this name,
and it's a good alternative
to Mozart to Haydn
to show really the music of
the time, not the upper class,
but the music of the people.
So I think it's very
interesting.
And for me, when, if I can come
to the whole program a little
bit, it's our Bohemian program,
but all the composers
are international people
in their time.
So this [inaudible], he was born
in Prague, but he died in Rome.
And he had a very
colored [laughs] life,
and it was very hard to
travel in this time, to,
for example, from
Prague to Italy.
And he was on other places too.
And he was [inaudible] naturally
as a son-of-law from, of Dvorak.
He was also very international,
Dvorak, it's well known.
[inaudible], who worked with
so many international things
like the [inaudible] of
Tolstoy, which is Russian.
And Mahler, the story
is also one.
And he was born in the
Czech Republic, Mahler.
Yeah, yeah.
So it's really a
complete Bohemian program.
Yeah. [laughs] In a way.
>> Anne McLean: As soon as I
saw the Mahler song on there,
I said, this is exciting.
We've got to choose
this program.
And I want to talk to you a
little bit about how you decided
to -- do you transcribe
a lot of things?
We'll talk about that.
>> Annette Reisinger:
That's my Opus 1.
[laughter]
>> Anne McLean: Okay, okay.
>> Annette Reisinger: And I did
it only, I had always the dream
to do this because we don't
have repertoire of Mahler,
and it's one of my
famous, my most,
the composers what I
like very, very much.
And I'm, my hometown
is where I was born.
It's in the near of all this.
It's [inaudible], so it's
all in front of the Danube
and near the Attersee
where Mahler composed the
second and third symphony.
And in 2011, when there was
the Mahler year of death,
100 years of death, I
thought it would be very nice
to bring something
to the people,
especially in the smaller cities
where they cannot hear
a symphony of Mahler
because it's too
expensive for them.
And I thought perhaps
a little chance
to bring the great harmonic
in this small piece,
and it's very good
to combine it also
with the Second Viennese
School with Webern, and it's,
or with a bridge from
Brahms, from Beethoven,
[inaudible], et cetera.
So it's a, only a
small mosaic stone.
[laughs]
>> Anne McLean: You know, I
want to go back to [inaudible]
for just a moment
too, but before we,
let's go back and
forth a moment.
So the Mahler, I was
thinking when I heard this,
the Suk piece, the Balada, that
it had reminded me a little bit
of some of the Mahler harmonies
and ideas in his piano quartet,
which was also a teenage piece.
You know, this Suk piece you
said was 16, he was 16 or so
when he wrote the piece, but
and my colleague hears
the early Wagner harmonies
of Lohengrin in the Balada too.
So it's a very interesting
piece, and he's somebody
that we don't know enough about.
And as you say, he's a figure
that his history is woven
through the whole history,
his family history
of Czech quartets.
And was, he was with the
Czech quartet itself, right?
Yeah, the famous quartet.
And I think premiered
some of these works.
>> Annette Reisinger: It's
a dynasty of violinists.
He, this Josef Suk
-- there are more,
some different Josef Suks--
>> Anne McLean: Yeah.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Because this--
>> Anne McLean: Exactly.
>> Annette Reisinger: Josef Suk,
he was son-in-law of Dvorak,
and sometimes I think
when I hear the music,
he would like to be the
son-in-law of Dvorak,
so he composed [inaudible].
So because later, he
composed in direction,
already in the direction
of Second Viennese School.
There are, he recorded all
his works for string quartet,
and it's really far away from
these sounds of Bohemian sounds.
>> Anne McLean: Yes,
very modernist.
>> Annette Reisinger: And
there is another Josef Suk.
He was the son, or son, yeah.
>> Matthias Diener: The
interesting thing is
that at this time,
we are talking now,
we are thinking borders, right?
Czech, Austria, and Germany.
We have to think, in this time,
this was kind of 1 culture,
or it was really mixed.
When you think, Franz Kafka
was writing in German,
living in Prague,
writing in German.
Mahler, which is, we
think of, of course,
an Austrian composer,
but born in Czech.
And so this is very important
to know that this was kind
of a combination and, of
several cultures and influence.
It's not about nationalism
at all.
So this is very important
that, like you said with the --
and Wagner, of course,
as well coming into it --
and I think the time was ready
for, to improve the harmonic,
into a chromatic, harmonic
[inaudible], which said, okay,
there is nothing, there
is no, I can't go on.
I can't go any further.
That's, you know, after
Mahler, what shall we do?
It's so tensed already.
It's so chromatic.
The harmonies, so I
have to do something new
to be still expressive.
But at this time, like Suk,
Mahler, Dvorak, they started
to explore -- I mean,
even earlier, Schumann --
but there with Schumann, we
are more in the right area.
So this is more up,
up, more northern.
But in Czech, they
started really
to experience how far can they
go to expand the harmonic,
the major and minor harmonic
with a lot of chromatic
like Mahler did, yeah.
>> Anne McLean: This, in terms
of the quartet tradition,
each of these works that
you're playing tonight takes it
in a further step.
Like with [inaudible],
he was a classicist,
but he was a model perhaps
for Mozart and so on,
but he also was doing
symphonies, and opera seria,
and, you know, wind quintets,
but he, they say he's someone
who helped develop the roots
for this early quartet form,
and I believe I understand
that he, his works were known
as divertimenti, as
Haydn's early ones were
also divertimenti.
So you have him, and then,
as you say, you have Suk.
Such an interesting figure.
And this too, and going on to
[inaudible], I'm so interested
in hearing your thoughts
about this piece.
You could talk about it so much
from both the programmatic point
of view exhaustively, [laughs]
and you can also talk about it
from the structural point
of view, which you must know
so intimately, so I want
to talk about that too.
>> Matthias Diener: Of course.
I think it's a very interesting
program because, yeah,
let's start from
another point of view.
We are all, we have the
tendency in a lot of programs,
a lot of times, when we
play music from the past,
that we just concentrate
on absolutely highlights.
And then, we think the whole
time is like that, but it's not,
and we have to honor
and appreciate all the
kind of ground workers.
I mean, Mozart, outstanding.
Beethoven, outstanding.
Schumann, outstanding.
But there have been
loads of other composers
which were very important for
the time and very important
for these highlights
composers as well.
I mean, we all know the
drama story about Salieri
and Mozart, for example.
So, and but this is
very, very important,
and I think it's also
important to play the music
to really understand,
why is Mozart a genius
and Salieri is absolutely great
but maybe not a genius,
you know?
So, and that's might be
the same as [inaudible].
So he's, he was very, very
important in the time,
and it's not fair to
not play him anymore.
And he's really,
really wonderful.
He's maybe not Beethoven or not
Haydn genius, but he's very,
very good, and it's worth,
absolutely worth playing it.
>> Anne McLean: What I heard
you rehearsing was very--
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: Interesting
to me, and you, you know,
I wouldn't have known which
composer it was, really,
but it was so graceful,
elegant writing, and so on.
>> Matthias Diener: Absolutely.
>> Anne McLean: We're
looking forward.
It's fun. Through you,
we are discovering something
we didn't have the chance
to before.
And before leaving him,
I was going to just say
that people talk
about him as somebody
that Mozart was very
connected to,
and they had all
these references
in the correspondence to him.
He might look about, I think
there's some references
in our program, but there are
more than 40 comments about him
in the family correspondence,
so he was really an intimate
for a period of time, a major
figure in opera, and the,
the writers who write
about these, of course,
these kinds of things,
and comment on the letters
so that the letter about
him, when Mozart visited him
in the hospital, I believe,
or after he'd had some
very serious treatments
for what was most
likely syphilis,
but the letter is very, very
personal and affecting more
so than much of the
correspondence that you read
from Mozart and very empathetic
with the man's situation.
And he said, how could
I leave my friend,
my dear friend [inaudible]?
So anyway, as you say,
a model and a friend.
I want to talk with
you too a little bit
about the Czech quartet sound
and that Central European sound.
This is a bit of a non segue,
but, non sequitur, but,
you know, you hear these
great, great Czech quartets,
just like German quartets, which
have that deep, rich sound,
and they have a certain
kind of a feel
about the timbre and so on.
We've had so many through
here at the library --
you know, [inaudible]
and so on --
so do you think that this is
something, from your study,
is this something one
learns about as a style?
>> Annette Reisinger:
Yes, it is,
and I think there is
still a big difference
between the Czech quartets
and the German quartets
or the Austrian quartets.
It's very funny because when I
was a child, I had the chance
to go to concerts very
early with my parents,
and because I'm coming
from the [inaudible], yeah,
from the [inaudible] to the
Czech Republic, only 20 minutes
by car, they came -- also,
before, the wall was gone --
they came to our city for
concerts, and it was, for me,
it, a, I had not the
view in the future
that I will play quartet later,
so [laughs] I started
still with my violin.
But I remember very good
that the people were very,
very close together and
in very old coat, dress,
so it was very impressive
to see them.
It was not a highlight, but
to be together and team,
really deep teamwork I remember
very good to these concerts.
>> Matthias Diener:
Yeah, I think they --
I am a strong believer --
well, nowadays, you know,
we have teachers from
all over the world,
and it's mixed more and more.
And so why is a German
quartet sounding different
from a French quartet,
and an English quartet,
and the Russian quartet still?
We still might have the teacher.
For example, I had the same
teacher like colleagues playing
in other quartets, so why is,
why are they sounding different?
I'm a strong believer that's
because of the language, yeah.
So it's the same, you know,
why is a Russian composer
writing different in terms
of sounds for songs, for
example, than a German composer,
or why is an Italian opera,
Puccini, sounding so different
from Mozart or Beethoven opera?
I mean, both, all of them great
composers, but why is it --
I think it's the language.
It's the sound of the
language is the chromatic --
you know, I have an Indian wife.
She's always saying
Germany, German sounds
so [makes cacophonic sounds].
So, [laughter] and you
can say it like that,
or you can say it's
very structured.
So no -- that's what I prefer.
[laughter]
So, but so no wonder
Bach is German, you know.
It's a fugue, you know.
You have a fugue.
You have 1 voice and
then, mathematically,
you can really count on,
after a couple of [inaudible],
coming the second voice,
and then it's coming the first
voice again, the second voice.
It's organized.
It's absolutely organized,
and the art is to make music
out of this structure
because when you keep it
as a structure -- we learn
this at music conservatory.
I can write a fugue,
but my fugue unfortunately
sounds not like a Bach fugue.
So it is--
>> Annette Reisinger: Not yet.
[laughs]
>> Matthias Diener: No, yeah.
So this is the, so and I think,
even everything is
so close in Europe.
I mean, it's a couple
of kilometers to France,
to Belgium to the Czech
Republic or, like Annette said,
I was confronted with a lot
of Russian quartets
when I was young.
Borodin Quartet came over,
and they played wonderfully.
And so, but it's still
really unique sound
of every string quartet,
so I think it has
to do with the language.
>> Annette Reisinger:
But, sorry,
but also with the political
situation because I remember
that [inaudible], he said
when he found the State Opera,
Berlin Orchestra, he
found an orchestra
with a sound 50 years
before or 80 years before.
It was really old sound.
And he's so happy
with this orchestra,
and he tries I think to--
>> Matthias Diener: To keep.
>> Annette Reisinger: To keep
the sound because it was so,
such -- they were in the
east part of Germany.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah,
with orchestras, it's much--
>> Annette Reisinger: It's
very impressive for me.
>> Anne McLean: Yeah.
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah,
I think with orchestras,
it's more, much more difficult
to keep the unique sound.
You see, like, Berlin
Philharmonics, you know,
with [inaudible] had a
absolutely unique sound.
And nowadays, they have a very
-- well, they are amazing --
but they have a very modern
sound, and I think like 50%
of the orchestra
are international.
It's an international
orchestra, meanwhile.
So, but like the Vienna
Orchestra, they still --
especially the woodwinds because
they have an own academy --
and they keep their
special sound, you know.
The oboe has no vibrato.
I think the flute is very --
they have a special
type of French horn.
So they really keep their old
sound kind of military like.
I mean, really strict while all
the other orchestras are getting
more and more mixed, you
know, internationally mixed.
So it's, nowadays, it's hard
for me to really divide if it's,
is it Boston Symphony or
Berlin Philharmonics, you know,
when you hear a modern
recording?
Really, it's difficult, but
when you hear old recording,
it's much easier.
I think, so it's easier with
smaller groups like in a quartet
when they're all coming kind
of from the same country.
Then, it's--
>> Anne McLean: I hear them
so well, and I'm very curious,
you know -- thank you for
answering this at this length
because it's fascinating, you
know, to have a perspective
on this, quartet sounds.
But going back to your
comment about language,
this is fascinating because it
relates directly to this work
that we'll hear tonight because
Janacek, as you know much more
than we, was fascinated with
melodies of Czech speech,
and he called them
speech tunelets.
He transcribed literally
thousands of these snippets
of speech that he heard on the
street, and in shops, and so on,
and he felt fervently
that this was an element
that one could use and
should use in music,
and he was inspired by them.
Some writers say this
is extremely valid
and you can hear it.
Other people say, well, maybe it
was something particular to him.
Well, that relates to
what we're talking about.
One other thing that
just popped in my mind is
that somebody was telling me one
time that for Russian singers,
you know, people always
say, what's the secret
of the great Russian bassists
because they have deep,
incredible, low sound?
And someone who knows about
Russian language said, well,
it might be because they,
the way that people pronounce
Russian involves different
muscles in the lower larynx
and throat, and they use these
in singing in the
cathedrals, the,
you know, liturgy, who knows.
But these things
are all fascinating.
>> Matthias Diener: Might be
the vodka as well, but yeah.
[laughter]
>> Anne McLean: Yeah, yeah.
So, well, this is a good
segue to talk about the--
>> Matthias Diener: Yes.
>> Anne McLean: [inaudible]
Sonata, Number 1, and it's,
at least the last 2 quartets
of [inaudible] are just,
and stunningly dramatic,
full of passion, rage, power.
And I would like to hear from
you how you approach these,
the intimate letters and
this one we'll hear tonight,
the Kreutzer Sonata.
[inaudible]
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah.
I think, well, I
love this subject.
This is one of my
favorite subjects to talk
about what we call
program music or not.
And by the way, about composer's
life and their work as well.
>> Anne McLean: Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
>> Matthias Diener:
This is kind of the,
one of the same [inaudible].
I am a big fan of looking
at the work sometimes even
without knowing who
the composer is
and without knowing
what time it was.
Just the work.
I think the work is
the most important.
It's not important if
Mozart was ill at this time
and he wrote a certain piece,
or if his wife got a
second child, or whatever.
This is, it might be interesting
for us because we are,
we want to know about
this person
because we're always
trying to keep,
why is he so fantastic
and maybe I'm not?
Or whatever.
But in, [laughs] it's, so
we have a certain interest
in biographies, but I'm a strong
believer that this has nothing
to do with the work at the end.
I think the work is kind of
a thing which is much more
than the person who
wrote it, you know.
The work is much bigger than
the human body who wrote it.
I, it's, he's a,
he was a medium.
He was just writing
it down, you know.
It's a God-given thing, and it's
written down, and he gave it
to us, and it was, God
chose just a random body
to write it down.
I mean, Stravinsky said
[inaudible] he was,
it was flowing in
3 days through him.
He was, it was, he
was dictated to do it.
So this is, I mean,
this is the 1 thing.
And then, now, we
come to program music.
I think it's very interesting.
And of course, we have
to talk about Tolstoy.
And it, so, but you can
listen to this work,
and it stays a fantastic piece
without knowing anything
from the story.
It's the same as [inaudible].
You can listen to this piece.
It's a fantastic rondo.
You don't have to
know the story.
When I was a child, I
was listening to Tosca,
and I was so touched
by the music,
I didn't had a clue what was
going on, but I loved the music.
And later, when I go to
know the story, I was bored.
I mean, it, the story's
okay, but the music is
so much better than the story.
So it's, you can always,
when it's about music,
you can keep the music as it is.
Of course, the story
is touching.
I mean, it's a masterwork,
this novel itself.
And it's fantastic how he made
it and, but the structure,
as you talked about,
the structure,
the music structure is so
perfect, you can listen to it
and enjoy it so much
without knowing the story.
>> Annette Reisinger:
And the next thing is
that it's not important
how we understand the story
because if I try to
understand the story,
perhaps I associate
my own biography
or something, and
it's so terrible.
If everybody of the
quartet -- it's so terrible,
[laughs] you have
to stay objective.
It's--
>> Anne McLean: Yeah.
>> Annette Reisinger:
The most important thing.
>> Anne McLean: That's
why I wanted
to ask you how you approach
the work rather than--
>> Annette Reisinger:
By playing emotionally.
>> Anne McLean: Assuming that
it was one way or another, but--
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah, we
are sitting not there and say,
you know, oh, this is the piece
where he got into the train.
Really? Is this a train?
No, I don't think it's a train.
It can't be the train.
That is why he's so angry.
We don't talk about that--
>> Annette Reisinger:
It's terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
>> Matthias Diener: At all.
We just look at the music.
We see that it's
written fortissimo,
and there's this
crescendo, and there's --
he's writing so absolutely
amazing precisely.
Even, you know, when you hear
the [inaudibly], the first kind
of theme part, [humming]
it's coming 3 times.
And it's coming every, in
a slightly different tempo.
It's so precisely written,
so you don't have
to know the story.
Maybe the train was a little
bit faster there, so, no.
[laughter] Forget that.
It really, it's about the music.
>> Anne McLean: And you, there
are these, a lot of people
who study this and talk about
it in terms of architecture.
And as you say, even if
you don't know architecture
or whatever, you can hear
the 1 person I was reading --
Stedron, I think was the, Milos
Stedron -- talked about montage,
modality, and architecture
in Janocek's work.
And they're just so
brilliant the way
that they're put together, you
don't have to be a musician
or a composer to perceive it.
But it, that must be
fascinating to study it
and to be so intimate with it.
And there's so many
things throughout this.
There's, Eugene Drucker I think
from the Emerson Quartet is one
of many commentators who said
there is a canonic melody
relationship to the
Beethoven sonata.
Some people maybe
don't see it as much.
That's 1 thing that's
of interest.
There's fascinating
sul ponticello writing,
and perhaps you'd like
to speak about that.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah,
there are some special
effects, absolutely.
And, but I totally agree it's a,
not a very long piece, but it's,
from the first note until
the last note, it's so full
of tension, and it's the
timing and the construction.
Like you said, the
construction is amazing.
It's a, it's, everything is, the
architecture is just perfect.
It's not very long, but
the tension and the timing,
and when he, even the last --
well, I shouldn't
tell it so much
because you should
experience it --
[laughter] but it's
the last note.
It's short but a little fermata
on, so it's absolutely great
that it's not a long note, so
he's not releasing you yet.
>> Annette Reisinger: And
never sentimental ever.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah,
it's never sentimental.
He's not whiney thing about
this like the novel is.
It's very objective.
Just looking at it as it is.
And he's not rounding
up at the end.
At the end of the piece, when
we do it right, you are shocked.
You'll sit there, and the
piece is stopping kind
of in the middle.
We are not giving you
the time to relax again
and to feel good again.
You won't.
You will be shocked.
And this piece is like that.
It's a perfect timing.
I think music has a
lot to do with timing.
I mean, it's happening in time,
so it's about timing
-- energy and time.
And he's a absolutely
great master with it.
>> Anne McLean: And
the timbre too.
I hear so many fascinating
uses of timbre against timbre,
and coming out of
it, and using timbre
as a structural conception,
you know.
And that there's a lot
of fascinating moments
where you hear these
sort of outbursts.
And you'll hear them
very clearly.
And some are, like, declamations
getting back to the question
of speech and language, and
he says 1 thing with great,
a great outcry, and then
there's a moment of pathos.
So they're just fascinating.
I don't know how
we're doing on time,
but we could talk a
bit more about this
and about the Tolstoy,
but I know you guys will
have some questions.
Yeah, we have a little
more time.
[laughs] One thing that,
again, we could talk
about a little bit is this
-- oh, a question about,
continuing just for a
moment, about the viola.
Is, does this quartet have
a big role for the viola
like the second quartet,
the intimate letters?
>> Matthias Diener:
I wouldn't say so.
Not, it's kind of equal.
I wouldn't say--
>> Anne McLean: Because
I know in that one,
he equates the viola to his,
the woman he was obsessed
with for so long, [inaudible].
>> Matthias Diener:
Not exceptional or not
like [inaudible] on a quartet
where the instrument
of the composers.
>> Anne McLean: That was 1
question I had, and about,
in general, I was
curious your thinking
on how you perform Dvorak
and Janocek back to back.
That is quite a challenge
in a way, you know.
Totally different
but so connected.
They were friends,
right, I think?
They knew each other quite well.
>> Annette Reisinger: Yes,
but for us, really, also,
contemporary music,
it's, all is music,
and we go with the same feeling
and with the same seriosity
[phonetic] to everything.
It's, for us, it's always,
really always the same
from [inaudible] to
contemporary, to premieres.
It's only reading
the score and--
>> Anne McLean: Each piece is--
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: Lives
in its own universe.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Perhaps a top secret [laughs]
from our group.
We had times where we just
discussed a lot about pictures
in our brain, and everybody
said, oh, I see this,
and I feel this, and it was
so terrible because, oh no,
and that's not my idea.
And so we had to, it was
really hours for hours.
And one day, we discussed
and said, no.
Please let us not speak
about pictures in your brain
because also, everybody in the
audience has his own pictures,
and we discussed about the
score and what is written.
We hope that we have the
old text, the, really,
what the composers
wrote in this,
his time, and that's enough.
And we try to realize.
>> Matthias Diener:
Yeah, absolutely.
The task, I think to do
with our education as well.
We are one of the quartets --
I saw the colleagues
[inaudible] are coming.
They are another quartet
coming from the [inaudible]
with the great [inaudible]
quartet with [inaudible].
And, I mean, he's very
well known here, of course.
He's a--
>> Annette Reisinger:
Our teacher.
>> Matthias Diener:
And he was our teacher
for many, many years.
And he was a quartet trainer,
outstanding quartet trainer.
I mean, all things quartets
our generation, yeah,
educated by him, trained by him.
And he was a big, big fan
of just doing what's written
in the score, you know.
Once, I remember
I was asking him,
shouldn't be this another
color or something,
another more colorful,
another color, darker color?
He was looking at me and
saying, am I a painter or what?
[laughter] You know, he
wasn't even talking in terms
of colors -- light,
dark, or something.
It was just about
tones, dynamics, tempo,
articulation, and [inaudible].
But this particular in,
you know, he really looked
at the handwriting to find out
if it's a point or a little,
or could it be a legato,
or maybe more kind
of another thing, you know,
he was absolutely accurate
in this thing, and this
was very, very important.
>> Annette Reisinger: And he
came always to the lessons
with his Mr. Beat,
which was the metronome.
Always first, metronome.
[laughs]
>> Matthias Diener:
He was tapping to find
out if you keep the
tempo and stuff, yeah.
So this is kind of our school.
So we decided not to talk
too much about our emotions.
And by the way, I mean--
>> Annette Reisinger:
But we have.
We have.
>> Matthias Diener:
Yeah, we have.
And [inaudible] also.
I mean, I also saw him
after a great performance
with tears in his eyes.
He, of course, he, I mean, yeah.
But working and talking about
music, it's more helpful
to really see -- you know,
we are not really artists
in the sense that we
create something new.
We are just like actors are.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Reproducing.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah, we
are bringing something to you,
so it's not us tonight.
We are just delivering.
So our emotions or
my emotions I have
when I hear the music
I'm playing tonight,
and it's my personal stuff.
I don't want to be in between
the work, the composer's work,
or let's even keep
the composer out,
as I said before,
about the work.
I don't want to be in the way
of the work and you tonight.
I'm just delivering, and I hope
I do it exactly how the composer
has written.
I'm not playing it less loud
because I think it's nicer
this way or more loud.
I'm, I try really to do what
the composer was written.
And it's up to you
how you like it.
I don't smooth things up.
And this is why Annette
said we don't discuss even
about the quality of certain
pieces anymore, and this--
>> Annette Reisinger: True.
>> Matthias Diener: Brings
us to modern music as well.
We are delivering.
We don't decide if it's worth
bringing it on stage or not.
I mean, who am I to decide what
kind of, what quality it is?
You should decide.
I'm just delivering it.
Without me, you'd never --
when I decide this is a,
not a good piece, then
it won't come to you.
And you might like it a lot,
so who am I to not
give you this piece?
So I think it's very
important --
maybe this is a bridge
to the modern music --
it's, we have, it's like, you
know, like mountain climbers
when they are asked, why are
you climbing on mountains,
their answer is because
they are there.
So the modern music is there,
and it must be performed.
Otherwise, it's not living.
That's what Wolfgang
Rihm said always --
my music is not there
if it's not played.
And so we have to play it,
and you might like it or not.
So, yeah. But--
>> Anne McLean: You're
doing a remarkable job,
really, as I was saying.
You should look at
the recordings
of these masters that are--
>> Annette Reisinger:
And we continue always.
>> Anne McLean: Monuments today.
Yeah, and always growing, and
I wish we had time to talk
about how the string quartet
repertoire is growing,
the techniques, and
all the things
which you are pushing
it to do and so on.
And also, we didn't cover
the Tolstoy sonata with,
I mean, novella.
We didn't get there quite.
But 1 last question, and
that is, do you ever think
of the Dvorak quartet in
American terms in any way?
This is, having said what you've
said, it seems like you don't,
you wouldn't see it as
an American influence,
or American sounds,
or, you know--
>> Annette Reisinger:
There are a lot.
>> Anne McLean: There are some?
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: Yeah.
>> Annette Reisinger: And
especially today, we came by car
from [inaudible], and
I saw some things,
and I associated it
during the rehearsal.
>> Anne McLean: Really?
>> Annette Reisinger: Yes.
>> Anne McLean: Oh, yes?
What were they?
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah,
because our travels --
and we travel a lot
-- are always also--
>> Anne McLean: Oh,
that's right.
The Virginia countryside.
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: You drove
from, you know, Maryland.
Salisbury, Maryland you said.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Yeah, yeah.
So we saw already so much from
the landscape, and the people,
and the black people,
and everything is
so inspiring for our job.
[laughs]
>> Matthias Diener: Yes.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Also, the language, also.
>> Matthias Diener: And
it's, of course, there are,
it's a lot of, I mean, he
traveled over the country,
and he talked to the people,
and he listened to the songs.
And, of course, I
mean, it's, yeah.
It's a lot of American influence
in, and every, but then,
of course, you always,
as the title is American
and he wasn't American, it
was, but then there's a lot
of Czech parts in
it as well because,
sorry to say, he
didn't, he want--
>> Annette Reisinger:
[laughs] Staying.
>> Matthias Diener: He wanted
to say he was happy to go back.
And he was, yeah, he
suffered in New York.
I mean, he was, it was not --
so he was happy to go back,
and he was very religious,
and he went to the church
in New York, and he found a lot
of other people the same spirit.
And so, and you hear, so
you hear in this music,
sometimes you forget that
this music is about chorus,
church songs as well, and
you can hear them as well.
Then, on the ship, he
wrote the Cello Concerto
and really looking
forward to his home.
>> Annette Reisinger:
But it's really great
to play this piece here.
>> Matthias Diener:
Yeah, it's wonderful.
>> Annette Reisinger:
It's incredible.
[laughs]
>> Anne McLean: We're
looking forward too.
>> Annette Reisinger: Yeah.
>> Anne McLean: Well,
just a quick [inaudible] does
someone have a couple questions
for them before they
get -- yeah, oh, okay.
Yeah.
[ Inaudible Speaker ]
>> I was struck by your
comments about the contrast
between Slavic and
Germanic quartets.
It strikes me, as an amateur
quartet player and listener
to many recordings, that there
is an oral tradition as well
as a written tradition.
And many of the works of Dvorak
and others came out of a period
of great national spirit.
And when I listen to the
old recordings and when --
the first concert I saw
at the library was the
Smetana Trio here in '71 --
there's a freedom with tempo
that's very interesting,
and I wonder if, you know,
how a modern quartet
can acquire that spirit.
>> Matthias Diener: Yes.
Yeah, absolutely right.
I, we have a very, very nice and
great colleague, [inaudible].
He's a viola player.
And he told me that he is
telling his students --
and now I'm telling the
same story to my students --
about tempo in German,
German tradition
and in Romanic tradition, so
French, Italian tradition.
And he said he's always
telling his story.
He said, you know, in Germany,
when the lights are
red, nobody is going.
It can be 2 o'clock
in the morning.
No cars. The house
behind you is burning.
A German is not crossing
the street.
It's red. [laughter] So
when Beethoven is writing a
crescendo, that means crescendo.
And when there's
written subito allegro
without an accelerando
before, it means subito.
It means that, and the music is
working like that, only that.
Of course, you can do it,
but then you are leaving
out the chromatic.
In France, it's different.
When you are at the
-- how's it called?
-- the middle, [inaudible]
it's called,
[inaudible] it's [inaudible],
everybody is crossing
the streets is red.
Who cares?
It's traffic anyway, and
the cars go like that.
So nobody, so [inaudible]
it says it's more an advice,
the light, you know.
Red is an advice, so better
you look when you, well,
you can walk, but
you better look.
The same with the music.
When Ravel or Debussy is writing
a CD, it's more like, well,
depends, you know, how
far you reach there.
So maybe it would be good
to a CD, but maybe you are
so slow already, so
why shouldn't you go --
you will feel it,
my friend, you know.
And the music is
working like that.
That's, and there we are coming
to mentality and language.
Yeah, it's different,
and it's only a couple
of kilometers away.
It's another mentality.
>> How total is, oh, how total
is your inclination to totally,
to avoid the historical
context in which a piece
or parts of a piece appear?
Take as an example
you are sight reading
for the first time
the Smetana Quartet.
You get to the last movement,
and you have this intrusive
harmonic, prolonged harmonic.
Would you stop and say,
what's he driving at?
What's he trying to do?
Or would you just go on
and do the best you can
with a very enigmatic kind of
a juncture in the movement?
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
That's fantastic question.
We always discuss
about intonation.
Well, we try to analyze,
you know, function wise,
what is the function
of a certain chord?
And then, of course, we don't
play it [inaudible] sorry,
this is getting very--
>> Annette Reisinger:
By the way,
we play from all our repertoire
from score you will
see this evening.
>> Matthias Diener:
So we always know--
>> Annette Reisinger: Every
piece we play from score--
>> Matthias Diener: So we know
the voices, but we analyze,
and we are big fans of
playing not [inaudible] well.
Of course, there
are some music --
sorry, it's getting very
specific -- but we, sometimes,
we have to play in,
like, in 12 music,
you have to play [inaudible],
but normally, we don't.
So we always try to analyze
what kind of chord it is
because we are still listening.
Kind of probably everybody
is listening functional.
So we are listening to the
function of certain chords,
and when it's getting, like
you said, murkily like Wagner,
you know, the Tristan,
this Tristan chord,
so what is it, you know?
Then, we try kind of to figure
out what it is and coming close
as possible to the
function we listen.
And then, we adjust our
intonation to that, yeah.
Is this what you meant, kind of?
>> Well, and in a, he had
in mind his hearing loss,
or so we are told, while the
announcer introduces the piece.
Maybe that's all
fictitious, but the fact
that he was reminding the
listener of a painful juncture,
milestone in his life
and his, you know,
professional career
could be viewed
as something important for--
>> Matthias Diener:
Yes, of course.
It's, again, I think
this is a private thing.
As I said, I mean, the music
stands for its own, but,
of course, you feel that
there's something really
traumatic happened.
And, of course, I mean,
the title of the piece,
"From My Life," is saying
everything, so you are really,
somehow, you have to care
and, you know, so, I mean,
when you read the title, so you
can't say, okay, I don't care.
So a little bit, you are there,
but still, the music is not --
or let's say the music
is not getting better
when you know exactly
what happened.
The music is great already and
would be even if you don't know
that it's biographical.
>> Thank you.
>> Anne McLean: Yep.
>> You mentioned Walter
Levin as your teacher/coach.
I had a small experience
with him myself, and I wanted
to bring him up because
he did just die in August.
For, maybe name familiar to some
of the audience, but he was the,
he was most known as the first
violinist of LaSalle Quartet
that made many great recordings
on [inaudible] of Haydn,
Beethoven, Mozart,
but also [inaudible].
I went to a private
school, which would be
about the equivalent
of a gymnasium.
I was say 15 in a
string ensemble.
The headmaster of our school
happened to be friends
with Walter Levin, so [laughs]
he got him to come to campus
and coach us in some Mozart.
It was very brief.
This guy was tough.
>> Matthias Diener: Yeah.
>> [laughter] And kind
of like Toscanini was
with the orchestra.
I mean, this is how he was
with the string quartet.
And because he cared so
much about the music.
And he maybe didn't worry if he
said something a little gruff
or rough to the musicians
because it was
in service to the music.
And if he said, if you played
something and he said, well,
that wasn't bad, that was
like the highest praise.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
>> [laughter] So I just wondered
if you had maybe
a few more stories
about what you got from him.
>> Matthias Diener: What,
have some anecdotes about him?
>> One or two.
>> Matthias Diener: Well,
I remembered it's always,
I remember 1 scene -- okay, the
older he got, he got more mild.
So, but when I started
studying with him, for example,
he said to a colleague of mine,
I mean, we were all listening
to the lessons, so the
hole was always full
when he was teaching.
And so I remember first he was
saying to a colleague of mine,
to another cellist,
wow, you play wonderful.
And after that, he was
always criticizing him.
So first, he gave him a
sweet, and from then on,
he was keeping it
-- and one time,
what's the name of his wife?
>> Annette Reisinger: Evi.
>> Matthias Diener: Evi.
Evi was, Evi, his wife, was very
often with him while teaching.
And I remember once he said,
turned around and said to Evi,
you know, it's been a while
since someone cried here
on the stage, you know.
So he was really, sometimes
really, really hard.
>> Annette Reisinger: But
he had also very nice,
a little boy side.
I was a little bit
closer to him sometimes,
and I have some letters with him
where he wrote me very nice also
about his time during
the World War.
I have at home.
I'm very proud.
[laughs] And sometimes,
he, one time,
he said that he had bad dreams
that he cannot play violin.
So I think he was
also very angry.
And this was where
the both sides --
this, very hard teacher, and on
the other side, the little boy.
And so--
>> Matthias Diener:
Yeah, and he was--
>> Annette Reisinger:
[laughs] It's very impressive.
>> Matthias Diener: Boy like.
He was fascinated by tennis.
I remember when we had
lessons during Wimbledon
or Australian Open, he
wasn't able to teach.
So he said, well, guys, I care
a lot about [inaudible] quartet,
but, you know, now
Federer is playing.
I have to go.
He's, and then he came back and
said, I wish I could play violin
like Federer is playing tennis.
He thought Federer was a genius
when Federer came up first.
So, because of this
elegant style, you know,
not really just power,
power play,
but really elegant playing.
So, yeah. He had
this side as well,
and he always knew he was
kind of this, at home,
it was like quartet headquarter.
He knew exactly -- when
he was getting older --
he knew exactly, or
especially his wife,
if he was knowing exactly
on the map worldwide
where all his quartets
were, you know, touring.
So I, once, we had a concert in
south of Germany, Badenweiler,
a famous place for quartets when
LaSalle played a lot of times.
And [inaudible] we were
doing I think [inaudible]
about [inaudible] quartet.
And afterwards, we had a dinner
together, and I was sitting next
to Evi, and Evi was
telling me, [inaudible] is
in Budapest tonight, and I
think this quartet is in Sydney,
and this one is in
London tonight.
They know exactly kind of
where the fleet [laughs] is.
>> Annette Reisinger: But also,
on this place, I heard [laughs]
when these both, these
couple were in a room, well,
there were old wallpapers
and [inaudible] old programs
from Amadeus Quartet.
And Evi said to [inaudible],
oh, look, these bad programs.
[laughs] Without Second
Viennese School or something.
So--
>> Matthias Diener: And
maybe last thing, yes,
it's nice to remember
him, actually.
>> Annette Reisinger:
Yeah, he was a great--
>> Matthias Diener: And he
was nervous behind the stage.
I remember that when we
played at [inaudible] Festival
when we were very young at
this and in the first years,
during the first years.
He came, we had a
master class with him,
and he came behind stage
and said, did you tune?
Did you tune?
[laughs] We said, yes, we are
not doing it for the first time.
We tuned, really.
And he was so nervous
for us, kind of, yeah.
>> Anne McLean: Well,
thank you so much
for sharing these fond
memories, interesting ones.
Thank you for being
with us tonight.
And you will love
this concert, really.
>> Annette Reisinger: Thanks.
>> Matthias Diener:
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
[ Applause ]
>> This has been a presentation
of the Library of Congress.
Visit us a loc.gov.