### ICS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

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CONVERSATION WITH PIETER WISPELWEY

by Tim Janof

Wispelwey is one of the first of a generation of performers equally adept on either the 'authentic' or modern cello. His expert stylistic knowledge, original and profound musical thinking, augmented by a phenomenal technique enable him to render individual, yet remarkable interpretations of the cello repertoire from J.S. Bach to Elliott Carter. For years now, he has won the hearts of critics and public alike with his unique performances of the Bach and Britten unaccompanied cello suites, and with his recitals of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas either on baroque or modern instruments.

Born in Haarlem, Netherlands, Wispelwey's diverse musical personality is rooted in the training he received -- from early years with Dicky Boeke and Anner Bylsma in Amsterdam to studies with Paul Katz in the USA and William Pleeth in Great Britain. In 1992 he was the first cellist ever to receive the Netherlands Music Prize, which is endowed upon the most promising young musician in the Netherlands.

Wispelwey is in keen demand as soloist. A typical review in Melbourne's The Age reported: "To say Pieter Wispelwey's music-making is ravishing is to utter an understatement of huge proportions. Monday's concert did everything to confirm him as one of the world's great cellists. " His career spans five continents with recital appearances in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, London (Wigmore Hall), Paris (Châtelet), Buenos Aires (Teatro Colon) and Boston. He has appeared as soloist with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Academica Salzburg and Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra and has recorded with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra.

Future highlights include concertos with the the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the HalléOrchestra, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Japan Philharmonic and a tour of the Far East and Australia with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester under Herbert Blomstedt as well as recitals in Paris, London, Amsterdam and Lisbon. Further engagements include return visits to the Edinburgh Festival and the Great Performers Series at the Lincoln Center, New York, following his successful debut at their Mostly Mozart Festival.

Pieter Wispelwey has made numerous recordings for the Channel Classics label, of which no less than six have won international awards. These include the Bach and Britten cello suites, the Dvorak and Elgar concertos, and much of the sonata repertoire. Of his disc of Shostakovich and Kodaly (with the Australian Chamber Orchestra), Gramophone Magazine wrote that Wispelwey is "a musician through and through, someone you can always trust to get the message right." His most recent releases include a CD with transcriptions of Chopin's Waltzes (together with pianist Dejan Lazic) and a recording of romantic cello repertoire with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie.

TJ: Dicky Boeke was your first major teacher. How did she influence you? PW: Now 79 years old, she has greatly influenced my outlook on music, and life, really. She took me on as her cello student when I was 8 years old. A few years later, she also gave me piano lessons. I had been self-taught since I was 4 years old, and she thought that some structure would help my piano playing. I studied both instruments with her for several years until I ultimately decided to concentrate on the cello.

In addition to solidifying my cello technique, I have her to thank for my obsession with gut strings. Even as a child I used them -- pure gut A and D -- and I continued to use them throughout my conservatory years and during the first few years of my professional career. This became problematic when I began performing pieces like the Britten Suites and the Dutilleux and Shostakovich concerto's, so I eventually switched to steel strings, which ironically, in the case of the pieces I just mentioned, was a sort of "period-string" authenticity, as they were all written for Rostropovich, who of course plays steel.

Only two weeks ago, I tried an aluminum-on-gut A string, and it was a revelation, so radiant, so many overtones, so different from the "canned," even sterile and in a way artificial sound of a steel A sound. The other steel strings sounded different too, as if all strings were gut, but with a little more power… Good move.

(Click here for the complete transcript.)