The Sound of Perseus feat. Composer & Conductor Michael Ostrzyga

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Welcome to another episode of The Pianapod, everyone.
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This season, we are exploring creativity and
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connection, highlighting artists who are rethinking
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what it means to create, perform, and live as
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musicians today. Today's guest is Michael Ostryga,
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composer, conductor, and music director at the
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University of Cologne. His work spans choral
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music, orchestral writing, and editorial scholarship.
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But in this episode, we focus on his piano writing,
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especially his recent album. Perseus. This is
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not an album you just follow from beginning to
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end. It's something you spend time with. It moves
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through structure, memory, and sound, sometimes
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very precise, sometimes very open, almost suspended.
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And what I found especially compelling is that
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behind all of that is something very human. During
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the recording of this album, Michael went through
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a deeply personal moment in his life. and some
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of the music we hear actually comes out of that
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experience. So in this conversation, we talk
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about how music begins, whether from structure,
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from memory, or from something we can't quite
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explain. We also talk about expanding the piano,
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writing for different kinds of performers, and
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what it means to stay connected to tradition
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while still creating something new. Thank you,
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as always, for being here and for supporting
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The Piano Pod. Here is Season 6, Episode 15 with
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Michael Ostriega. Please enjoy the show. You
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are listening to The Piano Pod, where we talk
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to the brightest minds in the industry about
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how they are bringing the piano into the future
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and thriving in a complex, ever -evolving world.
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Michael, welcome to the PianoPod. It's a pleasure
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to have you with us today. Thank you so much
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for being here. Thanks for having me. And before
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we begin, may I ask where you are joining from
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today? I'm in Germany, in Cologne. I'm based
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in Cologne and also in Munich, but now I'm in
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Cologne in my home. Wonderful. So today we're
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going to focus primarily on your piano writing,
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especially your recent solo album, Perseus, and
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your ongoing primes cycle. Am I correct saying?
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Primes, yes. Primes, yes. And then while still
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acknowledging the broader artistic world that
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surrounds it. So your work spans composition,
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conducting, editorial scholarship, choral music,
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and your role as a... music director at the University
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of Cologne, and all these threads inevitably
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shape the way you think about sound and structure
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and the piano itself, I'm sure. So with that
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in mind, I would love to begin with this first
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question. With all that you do, what is the core
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artistic impulse or purpose or mission that connects
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everything you do? That's an interesting question.
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I think, you know, there's this saying, I think
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it's attributed to Arnold Schönberg, which is
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Kunst kommt nicht von Können, aber von Müssen.
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So it's art is not derived from to be able to
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do something or to, yeah, to can literally, but
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it's derived from to have to do something. So
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that you are, actually, you must do something.
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I, from early age on, music was sort of my refuge,
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my sanctuary, my very own thing. And later it
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became much more a shared thing. But what I kept,
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I think, is the sense of discovery or exploration
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and also a sense of play. I think for us musicians,
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that's very important. We have to make sure that
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we don't lose this aspect of playing and this
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sort of very naive, open -mindedness to explore
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things we do not know yet. And I think that's
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one of my core motivations. And what's interesting
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maybe is that all these... roles i play um like
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conducting like composing like doing editorial
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work you know sometimes um these roles are interfering
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with each other so when i'm more in a conductor's
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mindset i am not a good composer and when i'm
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in a composer mindset i'm not a good conductor
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because it's different thinking yeah you know
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when you conduct you do like um very very split
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second decisions you do a lot of uh many things
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simultaneously in your head so you you guide
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the music but in the same time you do run diagnostics
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what's going on how can i what why are they doing
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it like this and not like that what can i say
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and do to to bring the vision i i want to want
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to um realize with with the music and so it's
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a lot of things are going on and then When you
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cut off, you have to be very clear and very short.
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In very short time, you say, we do this and that.
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And then it goes on. So there's a flow of this
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rehearsal and in a concert as well, of course.
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And that's a very psychologically different situation
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compared to composing. When I compose, I can
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think about two notes half an hour. And nothing
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happens. And I need it also. So my conductor's
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mind is too quick for my composer's mind and
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vice versa. Wow. So then when you begin a new
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work as a composer, where does it truly begin?
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Is it, you know, your music engages with natural,
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technological, astronomical, historical. logical
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ideas, but in the moment of creation, when the
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idea begins to form, does it come with an image
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or concept or sound itself? That's different
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and I don't know really. Sometimes it's just
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a memory. I have a memory like when I visited
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a certain place or when I experienced something
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like, it could be nature that I visit a very
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beautiful, but also a very inspiring place. And
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this sometimes is looming in the back of my mind
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for years. And then there's a situation which
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makes this pop up again. And then I feel the...
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need to translate this into a piece of music.
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It also can be like with my cycle's primes, which
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is about numbers. It also could be something
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like constructions or architectural ideas. You
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could do like configurations, figure out configurations
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of certain structures. And then this intrigues
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me. And then I try to translate it. Often it's,
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usually I have much more ideas than I have time
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to deal with them. Yeah, sure. Wow. It actually
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makes sense because I've been listening to your
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piano album, the recently released album, Perseus.
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And so there was, it's a portion of Journey you
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mentioned, you know. and places and so on, and
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also different inspirations. So let's talk about
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Perseus, right? So I, first of all, I just wanted
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to say thank you. When you, you know, emailed
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me at the, for the first time and you introduced
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me to your album and it just opened my ear, opened
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my eyes. It's like, wow, piano can do this. You
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know, I thought, you know, we, we. heard it all
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we've you know explored it all but even then
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there's more to it it's just an amazing instrument
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but also amazing uh album so for those who are
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listening uh to this episode this is truly a
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must listen album and the link in the show notes
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but the title perseus uh where does that come
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from it's the last track of the album right Thank
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you, Yukimi, for saying this about my music.
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I feel very honored and thank you very much.
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I'm grateful that you like it. It happened that
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the pianist who plays on the album at one occasion
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told me, because we were recording on the Bösendorfer
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Imperial, which has the additional low keys,
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he actually said to me, you need to write about
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Perseus. And I said, what are you talking about?
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And he said, yeah, you know, there's, I have
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seen this in a TV show that they actually recorded
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sounds from a black hole in the Perseus galaxy
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cluster. So it's a galaxy cluster somewhere out
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there. And in the center of this galaxy cluster,
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there's a, there's a black hole and, and the,
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and they recorded, recorded sounds, which can
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be heard. there because there's gas in the galaxy.
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So you know this tagline in space, nobody hears
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you scream from the movie Alien. But actually
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in this galaxy, you can hear something because
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there's gas everywhere. And so they recorded
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this. And actually somewhere in the internet,
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you can easily find it. They actually... had
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to manipulate the recording and put it like 50
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octaves higher so that you actually can even
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hear it because it's so low we can't hear so
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it says something like 50 octaves higher and
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then it's forced very very low and very disturbing
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in a way and i listened to that and then i thought
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yes i could I could create a sort of a travelogue
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going to that galaxy in a way and in my music
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translate it in a actually very formally speaking
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in a very traditional way because I have of course
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I have these modern effects like playing inside
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of the piano I devised that but then I also have
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something like a recitativo part in it where
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I felt this is this is like in an oratorio or
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opera where we have actually like a scene going
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on which is happening right there and where where
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the black hole is described or something like
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that of course it's very very there's there are
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no words describing it or explaining it it's
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not explicitly said but that was my idea to have
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sort of these traditional Western ideas of our
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music, how we illustrate things in our nature,
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like Haydn's The Creation or pieces later on,
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Programmusik, you know, this like Beethoven's
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Sixth Symphony. So there's sort of this idea
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of illustrating what we see there in musical
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terms. dive into Perseus inside. So take us through
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the pieces. So first piece is Personare. Is that
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how you pronounce it? It's so meditative. Yeah,
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Personare. That's actually a piece written in
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space notation, so there's no real rhythms. It's
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just like relatively notated. Every performer
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who plays this will have to come up with his
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or her own vision to realize it. Because he needs
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to, because of the space notation, he needs to
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find his or her own approach. And so it's different
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all the time. It's also different when you play
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it next week or in four weeks, because this all
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influences it. And that's what I find. Yeah,
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particularly interesting also because it explores
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the inner world, the most inner world of yourself.
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And that's why it's in the beginning of the album.
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It was sort of like starting within, in your
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own heart or your own soul, in your own being.
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And then from there, it goes out and explores
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the outer world. You mentioned, so the notation
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is. What do you say? Space? Space notation. Yeah,
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that's notation. Right. Yeah, that's when you
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don't use real bar lines and rhythmic precise
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designations, but you just use like on the five
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system, five line system, you use, of course,
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pitches and notes. But the space between the
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notes is informative when the next note will
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come. And also I used like very small notes,
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smaller notes and bigger notes. And also I used
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grace notes. That was the only thing I also added.
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Grace notes as very fleeing, like very short,
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elusive tonal events. So it really depends on,
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like you said, the day, depends on the person
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who plays, how you interpret the space or the
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time is different, right? Right. Yeah. So it
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could be very long, a long piece. It could be
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very short. And also this has the sense of play
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again then, because you need to like play or
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discover the material, discover what your own
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mood and mindset is at the moment. Wow. Interesting.
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Wow. You can sort of tell what kind of personality
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this person has too, right? Yeah, it's like a
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Rorschach test. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Wonderful. So then followed by two pieces, primes
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from primes. So primes five and seven. Yeah,
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it's, you know, primes, of course, like two,
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three, five, seven, 11, and so forth, like these
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numbers. What you mentioned about five is correct.
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In this case I used a pattern of five notes and
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I actually have had that pattern go through different
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bars. So the bar is different than the pattern,
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the length of the pattern. And also like that's
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a minimal music conception, actually. I changed
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or I put on this pattern of five notes, I put
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different patterns on it or below it, which have
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like three notes or four notes. And this changes
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all the time. But the five -note pattern is...
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present all the time so it's like like the same
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uh but different these these numbers are uh very
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inspirational for me because it's um of course
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there are a lot of structural ideas behind that
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how you can combine these things but also they
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have like you know like um cultural dimensions
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or also in our collective consciousness there's
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something like dance going on with or patterns
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in nature like inhale exhale or the cosmic things
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like the planets going in certain intervals and
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that is something which already Bach was inspired
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by and was used and you know also Bach for example
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has this numerals in his pieces sometimes that
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is like 14 numbers because that is his name.
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And so this sort of cultural implications also,
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that's something I was inspired by very much.
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Interesting. And then, so then tell me about
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the prime seven. So first it's seven parts, the
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pieces in seven parts. And you hear that very,
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very clearly. And secondly, there is very often
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this seventh interval. And of course, on the
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piano, we can only play like four notes in seventh.
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You know what I mean? Because I think even Rachmaninoff
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couldn't play or Horowitz couldn't play more
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than a fifth one because it's just so stretched
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out. Then I thought, no, I want to have actually
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all seventh on the entire keyboard. And I made
00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:24.779
this possible with grace notes so that the pianist
00:20:24.779 --> 00:20:27.900
has a grace note at the beginning and then switches
00:20:27.900 --> 00:20:30.819
to a higher chord in a way, a seventh chord.
00:20:31.539 --> 00:20:35.339
And that was interesting also psychologically.
00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:39.390
That's something I'm interested in. that the
00:20:39.390 --> 00:20:42.450
pianist then needs to come up with a solution
00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:47.130
ergonomically, how to do that in a very soft
00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:51.490
dynamic and in a very soft manner, because I
00:20:51.490 --> 00:20:56.690
specified it to be like pianissimo and very slow
00:20:56.690 --> 00:21:00.450
and very, yeah, the atmosphere is like an awakening
00:21:00.450 --> 00:21:05.049
in the beginning. And so, you know, this movement
00:21:05.049 --> 00:21:09.339
has to be very quick, but in the same time, It
00:21:09.339 --> 00:21:11.720
has to be quick because actually I wanted to
00:21:11.720 --> 00:21:15.940
appear at the very same time all these notes,
00:21:16.140 --> 00:21:19.799
but you can't play them in the same time and
00:21:19.799 --> 00:21:25.799
he has to move very quick, but the expression
00:21:25.799 --> 00:21:29.160
of it should be that it's very calm. And this
00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:33.640
is sort of a contradicting process going on.
00:21:34.450 --> 00:21:38.369
because I wanted it to be translated as a very,
00:21:38.390 --> 00:21:40.789
very calm movement, but it has to be very quick,
00:21:40.890 --> 00:22:23.599
actually. that is something well just mind -blowing
00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:27.339
i actually have to see this you know score again
00:22:27.339 --> 00:22:30.599
and then you know listen to what you said again
00:22:30.599 --> 00:22:34.539
but now before we go any further i know that
00:22:34.539 --> 00:22:38.380
you're developing your solo piano cycle primes
00:22:38.380 --> 00:22:41.700
right yeah that's true i've started with five
00:22:41.700 --> 00:22:45.099
and seven because that that was just the first
00:22:45.099 --> 00:22:50.710
things which took off in my mind and in the beginning
00:22:50.710 --> 00:22:53.069
I didn't know I wanted to do the other ones too
00:22:53.069 --> 00:23:00.309
and then it became quite quickly clear to me
00:23:00.309 --> 00:23:06.089
that I wanted to have a set of pieces and also
00:23:06.089 --> 00:23:09.710
that is the prime like five or seven movements.
00:23:10.700 --> 00:23:14.880
Of course. But the particular one, like in five,
00:23:14.920 --> 00:23:18.640
the five is much more present, of course. And,
00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:25.000
you know, there's, yeah, what I hinted at, there's
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:28.319
then this, there's a lot of things you can do
00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:31.140
with the number. Like in seven also, there is
00:23:31.140 --> 00:23:34.099
a section where I use scales because a scale
00:23:34.099 --> 00:23:40.390
is seven notes. So I use scales. But I use different
00:23:40.390 --> 00:23:43.450
scales all the time. And then I jump to another
00:23:43.450 --> 00:23:46.309
octave to a note which was not in that scale,
00:23:46.509 --> 00:23:49.230
present in that scale. And then I could start
00:23:49.230 --> 00:23:52.329
another scale from there. And then again, I could
00:23:52.329 --> 00:23:55.410
jump to another note in another octave to a note
00:23:55.410 --> 00:23:57.490
which was not present in the previous. So it's
00:23:57.490 --> 00:24:01.809
like a serial way of composing, but with tonal
00:24:01.809 --> 00:24:08.210
materials and not with atonal with like dodecaphonic
00:24:08.210 --> 00:24:11.809
material, but with tonal material. And that was,
00:24:11.930 --> 00:24:15.549
you know, I'm very interested in recombining
00:24:15.549 --> 00:24:20.490
tonal material or traditional material in ways
00:24:20.490 --> 00:24:24.769
which are new. You know what I mean? And the
00:24:24.769 --> 00:24:28.880
numbers are sort of like an... Yeah, like a jump
00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:32.279
off point to find a lot of structural ideas.
00:24:32.619 --> 00:24:35.180
And then also, yeah, what I said is the, you
00:24:35.180 --> 00:24:40.059
know, the cultural dimension or the, what I added,
00:24:40.099 --> 00:24:42.359
it's just not about the numbers because that
00:24:42.359 --> 00:24:45.259
would be boring, wouldn't it? When you just have
00:24:45.259 --> 00:24:51.180
the numbers. But I also tried to like encapsulate
00:24:51.180 --> 00:24:54.319
a certain mood with every of these movements.
00:24:55.130 --> 00:24:59.829
So the five movement is sort of like a computer
00:24:59.829 --> 00:25:03.029
playing around with figurations very quickly
00:25:03.029 --> 00:25:10.190
or like a mosaic of lights appearing and repeating
00:25:10.190 --> 00:25:13.789
in certain ways. So it's sort of like an imagery
00:25:13.789 --> 00:25:17.529
which is present and you could probably easily
00:25:17.529 --> 00:25:21.950
translate this to like a movie where something
00:25:21.950 --> 00:25:23.670
like this is happening, like flashing lights
00:25:23.670 --> 00:25:26.630
going on. And seven then is completely different.
00:25:26.690 --> 00:25:31.809
It's more like a very sinister mood, you know,
00:25:31.829 --> 00:25:37.609
like the seven sins or like, yeah, I don't know
00:25:37.609 --> 00:25:40.230
if it's only an European tradition, but the seven
00:25:40.230 --> 00:25:44.670
is sort of like the number of bad luck. And,
00:25:44.690 --> 00:25:49.289
yeah, we say, for example, we say when you are
00:25:49.289 --> 00:25:56.279
married. the seventh year is the so it's the
00:25:56.279 --> 00:26:02.259
wicked seventh year or the you know yeah and
00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:06.900
so I used it sort of like a diabolic music also
00:26:06.900 --> 00:26:12.640
in that very violent also in some moments how
00:26:12.640 --> 00:26:15.759
interesting so you're using number not only the
00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:20.390
structural purposes but also like putting sort
00:26:20.390 --> 00:26:25.529
of like um i don't know different elements to
00:26:25.529 --> 00:26:30.890
it like uh right superstitious and you know some
00:26:30.890 --> 00:26:33.349
some things are obvious like three has of course
00:26:33.349 --> 00:26:36.569
of course the trinity you know in the in the
00:26:36.569 --> 00:26:41.250
early music the the three uh the the tempus perfectum
00:26:41.250 --> 00:26:46.359
was like the division in three And so there's
00:26:46.359 --> 00:26:48.480
a lot of cultural implications already coming
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:52.220
with a number and I can allude to it and change
00:26:52.220 --> 00:26:55.240
it a bit or follow it. And that's what interests
00:26:55.240 --> 00:26:59.460
me very, very much. Thank you for sharing that.
00:26:59.880 --> 00:27:04.400
So let's get back into the Perseus again. So
00:27:04.400 --> 00:27:08.420
we were at just finished talking about Prime.
00:27:08.519 --> 00:27:11.609
So that's track number three. From track number
00:27:11.609 --> 00:27:15.829
four and on, there's a series of North Sea, how
00:27:15.829 --> 00:27:19.029
do you say, tag book? Yes, it's diary in English,
00:27:19.210 --> 00:27:22.970
yes. Diary, yeah. And so it's a North Sea journal
00:27:22.970 --> 00:27:28.809
or diary in English. Yeah. So tell us about these
00:27:28.809 --> 00:27:33.890
compositions. Yeah. So I spent a lot of time
00:27:33.890 --> 00:27:38.470
on vacations, actually, at North Shore Islands.
00:27:38.769 --> 00:27:42.000
You know, we have this. islands in the North
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:49.380
Sea. And they are sort of like microcosmic places,
00:27:49.380 --> 00:27:56.180
literally. They are islands, very small islands.
00:27:56.359 --> 00:28:01.140
And also like of the community is also a microcosm,
00:28:01.140 --> 00:28:08.509
cosmos. The nature there is quite unique for
00:28:08.509 --> 00:28:11.490
Germany because, of course, there's the very
00:28:11.490 --> 00:28:18.470
rough sea. The North Sea is quite a very interesting
00:28:18.470 --> 00:28:23.630
sea also because the difference between the high
00:28:23.630 --> 00:28:28.329
tide and low tide is a big difference. Sort of
00:28:28.329 --> 00:28:30.990
like in Canada, you know, on the Canadian coast,
00:28:31.109 --> 00:28:33.410
also there are some regions where there's a big...
00:28:34.289 --> 00:28:39.410
difference in the tides. And yeah, there are
00:28:39.410 --> 00:28:45.589
certain things I discovered there or I experienced
00:28:45.589 --> 00:28:51.670
there which just never left me in my memory.
00:28:52.069 --> 00:28:58.509
And then I thought of putting them to music in
00:28:58.509 --> 00:29:02.920
a very aphoristic way. Maybe here, to give one
00:29:02.920 --> 00:29:05.839
example, there's this piece called Windflüchter.
00:29:06.259 --> 00:29:11.720
These Windflüchter are plants or like trees which
00:29:11.720 --> 00:29:15.160
are exposed to the wind all the time and for
00:29:15.160 --> 00:29:17.440
that reason they grow in a certain direction.
00:29:18.250 --> 00:29:20.130
because the wind is coming all the time from
00:29:20.130 --> 00:29:22.670
a certain direction and so they lean to this
00:29:22.670 --> 00:29:25.190
direction and they there's then usually a group
00:29:25.190 --> 00:29:29.430
of trees somewhere which are leaning to one direction
00:29:29.430 --> 00:29:34.809
and i in this this case i translated this into
00:29:34.809 --> 00:29:39.009
a music which was also leaning all the time upward
00:29:39.009 --> 00:29:43.130
and on the keyboard to the right so so to say
00:29:43.130 --> 00:29:45.990
the wind comes from the left of the player and
00:29:45.990 --> 00:29:50.349
it moves to the right and um and i use different
00:29:50.349 --> 00:29:57.509
planes of the same rising little gesture and
00:29:57.509 --> 00:30:01.309
in different tempos and so it's very simple and
00:30:01.309 --> 00:30:07.690
it's just one minute long i think and um what
00:30:08.299 --> 00:30:12.759
What is interesting here for me, too, is that,
00:30:12.799 --> 00:30:17.779
of course, it's also a metaphor for human experiences
00:30:17.779 --> 00:30:20.240
or for human behavior or for human development.
00:30:20.420 --> 00:30:22.920
Because when we are born, we are also exposed
00:30:22.920 --> 00:30:26.940
to a lot of wind coming from the same side and
00:30:26.940 --> 00:30:32.240
maybe differently than you or me. But we are
00:30:32.240 --> 00:30:37.400
exposed to certain things constantly. and this
00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:41.740
shapes our leaning into a certain direction and
00:30:41.740 --> 00:30:44.460
that's what yeah what inspires what inspired
00:30:44.460 --> 00:30:47.279
me here also and so you can in all these pieces
00:30:47.279 --> 00:30:54.240
find find these um these inspirations and how
00:30:54.240 --> 00:30:57.299
they are translated to the piano but also see
00:30:57.299 --> 00:31:03.960
like metaphors for our human experiences we all
00:31:03.960 --> 00:31:10.059
share also as mankind, because I believe very
00:31:10.059 --> 00:31:16.480
much that we have a collective, of course, that's
00:31:16.480 --> 00:31:18.920
a common concept. We know there's a collective
00:31:18.920 --> 00:31:21.680
memory, a collective consciousness, subconsciousness.
00:31:22.019 --> 00:31:26.160
And I believe that music is sort of the language
00:31:26.160 --> 00:31:31.480
of that. And it harkens back to the days when...
00:31:31.819 --> 00:31:35.420
when music was not known as music but as everyday
00:31:35.420 --> 00:31:40.400
life. As far as I know there are still cultures
00:31:40.400 --> 00:31:44.420
on earth where civilizations couldn't interfere
00:31:44.420 --> 00:31:49.640
so far and they have not a word for music, they
00:31:49.640 --> 00:31:52.319
have just a word or more than one word for song
00:31:52.319 --> 00:31:58.200
or for dance or for morning prayer. And that
00:31:58.200 --> 00:32:02.680
implies everything, music, dancing and sharing
00:32:02.680 --> 00:32:05.960
and community. And, you know, this sense of,
00:32:05.960 --> 00:32:10.380
yeah, this sense of that music strikes something
00:32:10.380 --> 00:32:13.880
in us, in our inner collective memory. That's
00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:17.759
something I believe very much in. Now, then the
00:32:17.759 --> 00:32:24.720
album followed by the piece called Walks, then
00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:28.779
followed by Sweet Four. Prepared Piano. I mean,
00:32:28.799 --> 00:32:32.339
I'm sorry, I can't quite pronounce the language,
00:32:32.420 --> 00:32:35.819
but it's correct, right? Yes. Yeah, it's correct.
00:32:35.960 --> 00:32:39.680
And then followed by Far Side of the Moon and
00:32:39.680 --> 00:32:44.279
then Erste Sterne Stern. Erste Sterne, right?
00:32:44.559 --> 00:32:48.720
Yeah, that's the first star. Yeah. So all these
00:32:48.720 --> 00:32:52.900
titles are beautiful. And Impulsar, Toccata for
00:32:52.900 --> 00:32:57.339
Piano. That must be really difficult to play.
00:32:57.460 --> 00:33:02.559
Oh, yeah. It is. I can't play it. It's an incredible
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:06.339
piece. And then ending on the Perseus. So can
00:33:06.339 --> 00:33:09.519
you tell us briefly about all these amazing pieces?
00:33:10.039 --> 00:33:12.700
Yeah, sure. You know, Wox is just a very short
00:33:12.700 --> 00:33:18.859
contemplative piece. And the suite for Prepare
00:33:18.859 --> 00:33:23.059
Piano, that's one of my earliest pieces, actually.
00:33:23.900 --> 00:33:27.839
And, you know, the pianist playing on the album,
00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:31.799
Christoph Schnackertz, it was his idea that in
00:33:31.799 --> 00:33:36.440
the album sequence of pieces, the suite would
00:33:36.440 --> 00:33:41.539
be like the turning point or the frontier or
00:33:41.539 --> 00:33:45.279
the pivot where you go from earth into space.
00:33:45.619 --> 00:33:50.029
And so everything we hear before that is... experiences
00:33:50.029 --> 00:33:53.650
on on here in our on our earthly surroundings
00:33:53.650 --> 00:33:58.029
and then after it it deals with heavenly phenomena
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:28.039
And the suite is, yeah, it's an for piano is,
00:34:28.199 --> 00:34:30.619
of course, you think of John Cage when you hear
00:34:30.619 --> 00:34:34.460
this. But I was also thinking of Bartok and and
00:34:34.460 --> 00:34:38.039
also Debussy in a way and of organs, because
00:34:38.039 --> 00:34:41.019
on an organ you have you can play on different
00:34:41.019 --> 00:34:45.199
keyboards at the same time. And and sometimes
00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:50.269
I use the preparation. to have like an additional
00:34:50.269 --> 00:34:57.690
keyboard with a special sound going on another
00:34:57.690 --> 00:35:04.429
plane. And also in the suite there's a quote
00:35:04.429 --> 00:35:11.690
of a fugue by Bach in the slow movement. But
00:35:11.690 --> 00:35:14.369
actually, you know, because it's prepared piano
00:35:14.369 --> 00:35:18.710
and also Perseus, I... I was inspired in these
00:35:18.710 --> 00:35:21.909
two pieces by George Crumb. You certainly know
00:35:21.909 --> 00:35:26.750
him, Yukimi. I met George Crumb personally in
00:35:26.750 --> 00:35:31.969
Italy. You met him, yeah. And that was fantastic
00:35:31.969 --> 00:35:36.530
to meet him. And I am very haunted by the music
00:35:36.530 --> 00:35:40.210
of George Crumb. It's something which follows
00:35:40.210 --> 00:35:43.170
you when you have... It pops up in my mind sometimes
00:35:43.170 --> 00:35:47.329
because it's such a special music. It's so unique.
00:35:47.829 --> 00:35:53.489
So I actually it's actually my quote of Bach
00:35:53.489 --> 00:35:58.110
is actually a quote of crumb quoting Bach. Wow.
00:36:00.170 --> 00:36:05.329
Lots of name dropping. Yeah. So there's even
00:36:05.329 --> 00:36:09.269
more like an inter -referential or super -referential
00:36:09.269 --> 00:36:14.130
plane to this. And yeah, that's in the suite.
00:36:15.230 --> 00:36:19.070
Are these the only ones that are sort of quote
00:36:19.070 --> 00:36:22.909
-unquote prepared piano? Yeah, this is the only
00:36:22.909 --> 00:36:27.360
one prepared. I never did this again also. I
00:36:27.360 --> 00:36:31.239
don't know why. Yeah, I don't know why. I did
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:34.639
write something for detuned pianos, like two
00:36:34.639 --> 00:36:38.539
pianos which are a quarter tone apart, which
00:36:38.539 --> 00:36:40.840
is very interesting because you can write something
00:36:40.840 --> 00:36:43.440
like glissando in a way because you hear it like
00:36:43.440 --> 00:36:49.360
glissando. The mind, like a mind completes a
00:36:49.360 --> 00:36:52.239
circle when it's incomplete. The mind, when you
00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:55.559
hear like a quarter tone scale, you hear it almost
00:36:55.559 --> 00:36:59.639
like a glissando. That's interesting. It is interesting.
00:36:59.800 --> 00:37:02.099
Wow. This is like a completely different language.
00:37:02.179 --> 00:37:05.579
Like really, totally. Like your mind works like
00:37:05.579 --> 00:37:09.559
an engineer. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And the other
00:37:09.559 --> 00:37:12.599
movements following the far side of the moon
00:37:12.599 --> 00:37:16.320
is just, it's also inspired by Bach because it
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:20.239
alludes to a certain piece by Bach for organ,
00:37:20.340 --> 00:37:22.800
one of the trio sonata movements I played as
00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:27.289
a young teenager. Then is Erste Sterne, the next
00:37:27.289 --> 00:37:33.150
one. Erste Sterne is indeed a very special memory
00:37:33.150 --> 00:37:38.510
of a certain situation. I still have very vividly
00:37:38.510 --> 00:37:42.989
in my memory. Yeah, and then it's Impulsar, which
00:37:42.989 --> 00:37:45.949
is like a play on, the title is a play on words,
00:37:46.190 --> 00:37:51.019
like Pulsar, these very fast rotating. objects
00:37:51.019 --> 00:37:55.579
in the sky and impulse and impulse and impulse
00:37:55.579 --> 00:37:59.679
and also pulls pulses in there. So it's a play
00:37:59.679 --> 00:38:02.980
on word. And then there's Perseus, the last one
00:38:02.980 --> 00:38:08.420
where also have the pianists play inside of the
00:38:08.420 --> 00:38:13.380
piano. That's of course something which owns
00:38:13.380 --> 00:38:16.420
a lot to George Crumb because he did that so
00:38:16.420 --> 00:38:21.219
beautifully so often. That's right. Wow. Well,
00:38:21.260 --> 00:38:26.679
thank you for showing us your piece. Is this
00:38:26.679 --> 00:38:30.420
album available on Spotify and Amazon Music and
00:38:30.420 --> 00:38:34.420
iTunes and so on? Yeah, it is. There's also a
00:38:34.420 --> 00:38:40.500
CD out there with a beautiful booklet and a lot
00:38:40.500 --> 00:38:46.280
of text in there about the pieces. And a lot
00:38:46.280 --> 00:38:49.239
of beautiful artwork also. But you can listen
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:52.039
to it on streaming services, yes. But if you
00:38:52.039 --> 00:38:57.800
want to actually purchase a copy of the CD, is
00:38:57.800 --> 00:39:01.380
it available on Amazon or should we visit your
00:39:01.380 --> 00:39:06.119
website? It's not on my website. I think it's
00:39:06.119 --> 00:39:08.039
on Amazon, I'm pretty sure. But you can also
00:39:08.039 --> 00:39:11.820
just browse the website of the label. It's Spektral.
00:39:12.059 --> 00:39:16.469
I have a booklet here. Spectral. Oh, beautiful.
00:39:16.750 --> 00:39:21.130
Yes. This is, yeah, you know, this is a picture
00:39:21.130 --> 00:39:26.210
of the Perseus, a part of the Perseus galaxy.
00:39:26.369 --> 00:39:31.789
Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay. Right. And on the website,
00:39:31.869 --> 00:39:36.750
you can purchase it there, for example. But I'm
00:39:36.750 --> 00:39:40.369
sure it's on Amazon as well and also available
00:39:40.369 --> 00:40:04.230
from other retailers. Thank you. You know, as
00:40:04.230 --> 00:40:06.670
much as I love discussing concepts and, you know,
00:40:06.690 --> 00:40:10.230
compositional ideas, but this season of The Piano
00:40:10.230 --> 00:40:12.750
Pod is centered on creativity and connection.
00:40:12.949 --> 00:40:16.090
And for me, music is always most powerful when
00:40:16.090 --> 00:40:19.389
we understand the human moment behind it. So
00:40:19.389 --> 00:40:22.070
I'd love to shift our lens now to something more
00:40:22.070 --> 00:40:25.190
personal in the recording process. So you mentioned
00:40:25.190 --> 00:40:27.989
that in the guest form, you know, during the
00:40:27.989 --> 00:40:32.750
recording period for Perseus. An unexpected technical
00:40:32.750 --> 00:40:36.570
incident forced rescheduling. On top of that,
00:40:36.690 --> 00:40:41.889
you had some personal family issues that you
00:40:41.889 --> 00:40:44.949
were dealing with at the same time. So if you
00:40:44.949 --> 00:40:50.449
don't mind sharing the story. Yeah, sure. So
00:40:50.449 --> 00:40:54.050
we had on the second day of recording, I got
00:40:54.050 --> 00:40:58.539
a call from the tuner. the guy tuning the piano.
00:40:58.619 --> 00:41:02.000
And he said to me that the low C string snapped
00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:07.780
when he tuned the piano. And one of the pieces
00:41:07.780 --> 00:41:10.460
we wanted to record on that day was my toccata,
00:41:10.519 --> 00:41:13.860
the Impulsa piece. And it's full of the C. There
00:41:13.860 --> 00:41:16.860
is a lot of these, exactly this note in it. So
00:41:16.860 --> 00:41:19.639
we had to reschedule then because we couldn't.
00:41:20.590 --> 00:41:24.730
And then the next, it turns out in the end that
00:41:24.730 --> 00:41:28.110
the next recording day, everyone was available.
00:41:28.269 --> 00:41:33.429
The pianist, the sound guys and me and the hall
00:41:33.429 --> 00:41:37.010
also, the instrument was then four weeks later
00:41:37.010 --> 00:41:41.349
or five weeks later, I think. And on the very
00:41:41.349 --> 00:41:48.150
same day, because then I had off the day, I decided
00:41:48.150 --> 00:41:53.210
to visit my father. And with my kids, with two
00:41:53.210 --> 00:41:56.389
of my kids. And I tried to reach my father that
00:41:56.389 --> 00:42:02.510
day. And I couldn't reach him. And he also didn't
00:42:02.510 --> 00:42:06.349
text me back. And that was unusual. And I tried
00:42:06.349 --> 00:42:11.829
to reach him. And yeah, what was strange then
00:42:11.829 --> 00:42:16.090
that his phone was like switched off. But then
00:42:16.090 --> 00:42:19.280
again, it was turned, was switched on. later
00:42:19.280 --> 00:42:21.780
because i could get through but he didn't take
00:42:21.780 --> 00:42:24.500
the call and then it was off again it was on
00:42:24.500 --> 00:42:27.900
again so i thought it it should be okay because
00:42:27.900 --> 00:42:31.760
when he has the phone on and off he's obviously
00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:36.599
just there she's he's moving somewhere and or
00:42:36.599 --> 00:42:39.380
he turned it on and off again so he's okay but
00:42:39.380 --> 00:42:43.500
it turns out that in later that day so in the
00:42:48.920 --> 00:42:53.440
and also the police and the emergency, where
00:42:53.440 --> 00:42:57.159
you can place an emergency call, etc. So I called
00:42:57.159 --> 00:43:00.980
there, and when I had the second hospital on
00:43:00.980 --> 00:43:03.780
the phone, they said to me, yes, your father
00:43:03.780 --> 00:43:08.019
is here. And then I thought, okay, he's there,
00:43:08.099 --> 00:43:10.659
he's okay, but he's there because he will take
00:43:10.659 --> 00:43:16.039
the call now from his room. But then there was
00:43:16.039 --> 00:43:19.960
a nurse. coming in the line. And she said to
00:43:19.960 --> 00:43:23.260
me that my father had a heart attack and had
00:43:23.260 --> 00:43:29.139
to be reanimated for almost half an hour. That's
00:43:29.139 --> 00:43:33.260
terrible. It is, it is. And, you know, then it
00:43:33.260 --> 00:43:39.099
was a weird serial call because she just listed
00:43:39.099 --> 00:43:41.659
all what happened like you would do to another
00:43:41.659 --> 00:43:44.139
doctor or something. It was like a report, very,
00:43:44.219 --> 00:43:48.429
very... rational report of what was going on.
00:43:48.530 --> 00:43:54.690
And then the doctor took the phone and he even
00:43:54.690 --> 00:43:58.849
explained to me things I didn't understand, like
00:43:58.849 --> 00:44:02.869
medical terms. And I was like completely overwhelmed,
00:44:02.989 --> 00:44:06.269
of course, and didn't know what to do. And the
00:44:06.269 --> 00:44:11.409
next day I drove to the hospital and then I was
00:44:11.409 --> 00:44:17.130
actually every day there. He was in a coma. They
00:44:17.130 --> 00:44:20.590
had him, but not an artificial coma, you know.
00:44:20.670 --> 00:44:24.329
It was not that he, they let him sleep because
00:44:24.329 --> 00:44:28.170
he needed to like heal, his lungs needed to heal
00:44:28.170 --> 00:44:31.090
and his heart and everything. And so it was like,
00:44:31.190 --> 00:44:36.730
he was really on the verge of fading. It was
00:44:36.730 --> 00:44:41.619
really like very, very critical. but in the end
00:44:41.619 --> 00:44:44.559
like he was in a coma for three weeks i believe
00:44:44.559 --> 00:44:48.380
and i was like sitting there and also playing
00:44:48.380 --> 00:44:53.679
music for him all the time of course not myself
00:44:53.679 --> 00:44:57.500
but on an uh on an mp3 player or something i
00:44:57.500 --> 00:45:01.039
was playing music and um in the end he came back
00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:06.719
and um yeah i was in in that time that's maybe
00:45:07.560 --> 00:45:10.360
weird but in that time I actually composed two
00:45:10.360 --> 00:45:16.480
pieces which are now on the album and weren't
00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:20.599
even meant to be on the album because they didn't
00:45:20.599 --> 00:45:23.980
exist at all so for the original recording session
00:45:23.980 --> 00:45:28.900
we planned these pieces weren't there and you
00:45:28.900 --> 00:45:34.239
know somehow in dealing with the tragedy I was
00:45:34.239 --> 00:45:39.940
somehow drawn to write music, sort of like an
00:45:39.940 --> 00:45:50.500
escape from facing all these things which I didn't
00:45:50.500 --> 00:45:53.400
know will happen or won't happen. So would I
00:45:53.400 --> 00:45:57.599
have to say goodbye to him and never speak a
00:45:57.599 --> 00:46:01.199
word to him again? quite tough and then there's
00:46:01.199 --> 00:46:04.440
you are switching between hope and despair and
00:46:04.440 --> 00:46:07.079
sometimes not know and also you're like in a
00:46:07.079 --> 00:46:10.659
managing mode because you're talking to the to
00:46:10.659 --> 00:46:15.260
the doctors and saying yeah they they ask you
00:46:15.260 --> 00:46:18.219
can we do this can we do that and also you you
00:46:18.219 --> 00:46:22.159
make new connections to to the person personal
00:46:22.159 --> 00:46:26.179
uh working there so you you get to know them
00:46:26.179 --> 00:46:28.340
quite well because you are every day there so
00:46:28.340 --> 00:46:31.690
there's a lot of things which changed in my life
00:46:31.690 --> 00:46:37.469
and were different than before. And somehow music
00:46:37.469 --> 00:46:44.369
draw me to it. The music draw me to music, if
00:46:44.369 --> 00:46:47.190
that makes sense. And then I wrote these pieces.
00:46:47.389 --> 00:46:50.670
And one of them is Far Side of the Moon. That
00:46:50.670 --> 00:46:55.150
was, of course, my father being in a coma. But
00:46:55.150 --> 00:47:00.539
also it was like, you know, when I remembered
00:47:00.539 --> 00:47:06.960
how my life was with him, there's an aspect of
00:47:06.960 --> 00:47:11.000
childhood, fatherhood. I am now a father. I know
00:47:11.000 --> 00:47:15.159
the other side also, which is like a very huge
00:47:15.159 --> 00:47:18.539
distance between a father and his child or a
00:47:18.539 --> 00:47:20.800
mother and his child. You are connected, but
00:47:20.800 --> 00:47:23.920
also in a way, there is something you don't understand
00:47:23.920 --> 00:47:28.019
and you think he... there in in this and this
00:47:28.019 --> 00:47:31.699
sense he or she is on the far side of the moon
00:47:31.699 --> 00:47:34.199
and that is what my piece is somehow about it
00:47:34.199 --> 00:47:36.639
circles about this idea that we are connected
00:47:36.639 --> 00:47:41.480
but also disconnected in the same time yeah and
00:47:41.480 --> 00:47:43.780
perseus of course is then the piece we talked
00:47:43.780 --> 00:47:47.860
about already uh the piece about the black hole
00:47:47.860 --> 00:47:51.679
and this also came to me it just came to me it
00:47:51.679 --> 00:47:55.860
was just there and i i wrote it maybe quicker
00:47:55.860 --> 00:47:58.820
than any other piece I wrote. It just was there.
00:47:59.559 --> 00:48:03.840
I work on the piano often and I just play like
00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:08.800
improvising. And then I feel, okay, you have
00:48:08.800 --> 00:48:11.099
something here. And then I explore it further.
00:48:11.539 --> 00:48:14.420
And Perseus was just really one of the pieces
00:48:14.420 --> 00:48:18.519
where I didn't reconsider and reconsider again
00:48:18.519 --> 00:48:23.340
what I often do. But here I decided very quickly,
00:48:23.500 --> 00:48:26.320
you know, composing is like, also performing
00:48:26.320 --> 00:48:29.219
playing piano is like making decisions all the
00:48:29.219 --> 00:48:32.400
time isn't it like and and sometimes you can
00:48:32.400 --> 00:48:35.920
do it very quickly sometimes you need a lot of
00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:38.739
time and you are not like in a mood where you
00:48:38.739 --> 00:48:42.500
can make decisions one after the other and in
00:48:42.500 --> 00:48:46.539
this case i could do it very very fast and then
00:48:46.539 --> 00:48:50.099
the piece was there and we recorded it in the
00:48:50.099 --> 00:48:53.579
in the remaining recording sessions And so they
00:48:53.579 --> 00:48:59.719
both made it onto the album. Wow. What a story.
00:49:00.699 --> 00:49:04.300
You know, I get to interview a lot of composers,
00:49:04.380 --> 00:49:06.519
too. And then they said, oh, my music tells a
00:49:06.519 --> 00:49:10.420
story. Yes, but sometimes it's nice to hear the
00:49:10.420 --> 00:49:13.980
backstory, too. Just gives a different, I don't
00:49:13.980 --> 00:49:17.780
know, dimension to this. whole entire work. You
00:49:17.780 --> 00:49:20.699
know what I mean? So I appreciate you for sharing
00:49:20.699 --> 00:49:23.139
your really personal story here and that you're
00:49:23.139 --> 00:49:25.539
a good storyteller, by the way. Oh, thank you
00:49:25.539 --> 00:49:29.300
so much. Thank you. So once again, for my audience,
00:49:29.360 --> 00:49:35.099
please listen to Michael's amazing album called
00:49:35.099 --> 00:49:39.480
Perseus available on streaming services. So,
00:49:39.599 --> 00:49:46.639
you know, you are also an educator. work in a
00:49:46.639 --> 00:49:51.119
college or university right now, but you used
00:49:51.119 --> 00:49:55.960
to teach young students too. So 10, 20 years
00:49:55.960 --> 00:49:58.860
ago, so correct, right? And then you wrote this
00:49:58.860 --> 00:50:04.300
method book, Der singende Wind. Singende Wind,
00:50:04.500 --> 00:50:08.280
right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So tell us more about
00:50:08.280 --> 00:50:11.940
this book, please. Der singende Wind, which is
00:50:11.940 --> 00:50:15.769
the singing wind. That is a... collection of
00:50:15.769 --> 00:50:20.389
very short pieces I wrote for my piano teaching.
00:50:20.750 --> 00:50:27.670
And it also introduces the very young students
00:50:27.670 --> 00:50:34.389
into techniques of the 20th and century. There's
00:50:34.389 --> 00:50:37.949
also, it starts with very aleatoric notation.
00:50:38.329 --> 00:50:42.210
So that's very, a lot of things are free. It's
00:50:42.210 --> 00:50:47.949
like relatively notated. And then there are pieces
00:50:47.949 --> 00:50:53.110
which are actually later on like 12 -tone music
00:50:53.110 --> 00:50:57.130
in a way, but in a very special way, very simplified
00:50:57.130 --> 00:51:00.550
in a way. And then there is a lot of minimal
00:51:00.550 --> 00:51:02.929
music in there also. So it's like an introduction
00:51:02.929 --> 00:51:08.630
to modern music in a way. And also it's full
00:51:08.630 --> 00:51:15.789
of imagery, like Debussy. wrote in his preludes
00:51:15.789 --> 00:51:26.369
or also like Liszt sometimes wrote or these character
00:51:26.369 --> 00:51:29.449
pieces by Dvořák where it's a certain also like
00:51:29.449 --> 00:51:35.119
certain topos, certain topoi, like there's in
00:51:35.119 --> 00:51:38.079
The Old Castle or Edvard Grieg, you know, these
00:51:38.079 --> 00:51:42.119
lyrical pieces by Edvard Grieg, the dancing pieces
00:51:42.119 --> 00:51:46.559
or these wedding pieces. So that's like a certain...
00:51:47.159 --> 00:51:53.539
imagery, which is in the tapestry of our Western
00:51:53.539 --> 00:51:57.400
music history for kids. And I also used this
00:51:57.400 --> 00:52:03.739
in that album. And yeah, it sort of was like
00:52:03.739 --> 00:52:12.159
the summary, in a way, of my teaching activity,
00:52:12.300 --> 00:52:15.280
because when this came out, I was already...
00:52:15.639 --> 00:52:18.000
I already stopped being a piano teacher because
00:52:18.000 --> 00:52:21.199
I then was appointed as a music director at Cologne
00:52:21.199 --> 00:52:26.579
University. And this music is sort of like, this
00:52:26.579 --> 00:52:30.820
album is sort of like a testament or my legacies,
00:52:30.820 --> 00:52:35.860
if that is not too preposterous, of my piano
00:52:35.860 --> 00:52:40.219
teaching in terms of modern music. I would love
00:52:40.219 --> 00:52:45.039
to purchase that. Is it available? It is. It's
00:52:45.039 --> 00:52:49.880
available from the Breitkopf and Tertel publishing
00:52:49.880 --> 00:52:53.760
house. But I believe you can get it on Amazon
00:52:53.760 --> 00:52:57.420
and everywhere, I think. It was quite a success.
00:52:57.639 --> 00:53:00.019
It got very good reviews. I was happy about this,
00:53:00.079 --> 00:53:03.079
of course. It's always nice when your work is
00:53:03.079 --> 00:53:05.900
recognized, of course. And I was very happy.
00:53:06.039 --> 00:53:10.619
And still today, sometimes people write me and
00:53:10.619 --> 00:53:15.469
they say I'm really... i'm i'm really uh so happy
00:53:15.469 --> 00:53:17.849
i found this this album that's great and they
00:53:17.849 --> 00:53:21.289
love it and um it's it's nice that this part
00:53:21.289 --> 00:53:26.989
of my career um of my musical life somehow is
00:53:26.989 --> 00:53:29.929
still in a way there you know i feel sometimes
00:53:29.929 --> 00:53:32.590
when this pops up again it feels like a letter
00:53:32.590 --> 00:53:35.150
from from a former self you know what i mean
00:53:35.150 --> 00:53:40.130
because it is it's i didn't teach piano for maybe
00:53:40.800 --> 00:53:45.300
15 years or maybe even more. Yeah. Except now
00:53:45.300 --> 00:53:48.639
for my own kids. So sometimes I teach them. They
00:53:48.639 --> 00:53:51.039
have a piano teacher, which is not me because
00:53:51.039 --> 00:53:55.699
I'm struggling to teach my own kids. It's hard
00:53:55.699 --> 00:53:59.639
to teach your kids. Yes. Isn't it? So they have
00:53:59.639 --> 00:54:02.420
a piano teacher, but not everyone, but some of
00:54:02.420 --> 00:54:05.840
them. But I practice together with my, for example,
00:54:05.860 --> 00:54:09.239
with my youngest daughter. And then. and then
00:54:09.239 --> 00:54:12.280
this is this is fun also it's sometimes not fun
00:54:12.280 --> 00:54:15.739
because when you are so close you are also like
00:54:15.739 --> 00:54:22.500
i'm sure i know and and and very open and very
00:54:22.500 --> 00:54:28.119
uh yeah so um so my so this album i i i see it
00:54:28.119 --> 00:54:31.280
like in like a letter from my from a person i
00:54:31.280 --> 00:54:36.539
once was uh also and um yeah i'm happy it's there
00:54:36.539 --> 00:54:39.619
it's it's always always nice you know that's
00:54:39.619 --> 00:54:42.400
the the beautiful thing as a composer because
00:54:42.400 --> 00:54:46.320
you create something which which stays here and
00:54:46.320 --> 00:54:50.739
so it's uh it documents it documents something
00:54:50.739 --> 00:55:08.150
you created Could you take us back to your early
00:55:08.150 --> 00:55:11.630
musical life? Do you play any other instruments
00:55:11.630 --> 00:55:15.130
besides piano? I played a recorder, actually.
00:55:15.989 --> 00:55:21.250
I had lessons in playing the recorder when I
00:55:21.250 --> 00:55:25.710
studied music in Cologne. But apart from that,
00:55:25.769 --> 00:55:28.909
I don't play all keyboard instruments. So I play
00:55:28.909 --> 00:55:37.500
like organ. like an organ nerd when I was young.
00:55:38.000 --> 00:55:41.280
And sometimes I was in the church before school
00:55:41.280 --> 00:55:46.420
and played in our organ music. Then how was this
00:55:46.420 --> 00:55:50.860
composition, the desire to compose, was introduced
00:55:50.860 --> 00:55:55.599
or came to you? I think it very much came from
00:55:55.599 --> 00:56:00.239
my organ teaching because what my organ teacher
00:56:00.239 --> 00:56:05.659
also did was... that i had to learn all these
00:56:05.659 --> 00:56:10.659
cadences and all these sequences all these harmonic
00:56:10.659 --> 00:56:16.900
patterns you know and in every key so i i had
00:56:16.900 --> 00:56:21.699
this um this training in in playing all these
00:56:21.699 --> 00:56:24.860
things in every key and that sort of brought
00:56:24.860 --> 00:56:31.949
my mind to think in this harmonic rivers and
00:56:31.949 --> 00:56:35.949
harmonic oceans and to swim in this. And when
00:56:35.949 --> 00:56:39.010
I was listening to music, I started also to hear
00:56:39.010 --> 00:56:41.769
it in this way. So I was listening and thinking,
00:56:41.849 --> 00:56:44.090
ah, he's going from this chord to that chord,
00:56:44.349 --> 00:56:48.329
or he's going from this scale excerpt to this
00:56:48.329 --> 00:56:54.409
scale. And also that started in a way my interest
00:56:54.409 --> 00:56:58.170
for music theory, because I'm also a music theorist.
00:56:58.800 --> 00:57:01.260
I teach today music theory at the university.
00:57:01.599 --> 00:57:04.679
And that started there because I was thinking
00:57:04.679 --> 00:57:08.239
music in structures very much and learning these
00:57:08.239 --> 00:57:15.800
structures. And from young age on, then also
00:57:15.800 --> 00:57:21.400
came the desire to somehow not only improvise,
00:57:21.400 --> 00:57:25.500
play freely on the keyboard, but also write something
00:57:25.500 --> 00:57:30.000
down. There is also this element of being proud
00:57:30.000 --> 00:57:33.280
of having written something, of course. You know,
00:57:33.320 --> 00:57:35.619
like, I have accomplished this. This is my piece.
00:57:35.800 --> 00:57:39.699
And back in the day, when there wasn't a computer
00:57:39.699 --> 00:57:43.460
and wasn't software you could use to write notes,
00:57:43.579 --> 00:57:47.460
you had to do everything by hand. And so sometimes
00:57:47.460 --> 00:57:51.679
I find my early fair copies of my compositions,
00:57:51.679 --> 00:57:56.690
and then I myself am quite... I'm wondering,
00:57:56.809 --> 00:57:59.230
oh, you did write this and this so carefully
00:57:59.230 --> 00:58:05.710
and beautifully, actually. And, yeah, this element
00:58:05.710 --> 00:58:09.409
of being proud to have something done, which
00:58:09.409 --> 00:58:15.210
is there, certainly played a role. And then somehow
00:58:15.210 --> 00:58:21.679
all these trades going on in my life. Like playing
00:58:21.679 --> 00:58:25.260
on piano, playing on organ, playing in choral
00:58:25.260 --> 00:58:27.619
rehearsals. I played a lot in choral rehearsals,
00:58:27.619 --> 00:58:31.059
which trained me to play Prima Vista, you know.
00:58:32.820 --> 00:58:35.599
Prima Vista is a sight reading. Right, right,
00:58:35.639 --> 00:58:39.079
right. So when I was 14, I was playing in a choral
00:58:39.079 --> 00:58:41.300
rehearsal and the conductor said, we are going
00:58:41.300 --> 00:58:43.599
to do these pieces right in front of the rehearsal.
00:58:44.119 --> 00:58:46.480
So he gave me three pieces and I'd never saw
00:58:46.480 --> 00:58:49.019
them before. And then I was like quickly looking
00:58:49.019 --> 00:58:51.079
at them and then I had to accompany the chorus.
00:58:51.659 --> 00:58:54.619
So it was like, and there was no pressure. That
00:58:54.619 --> 00:58:57.079
was good. There was no pressure when I couldn't
00:58:57.079 --> 00:59:01.000
do it because he knew you can help or connect
00:59:01.000 --> 00:59:04.159
help, just play with us, give us the pitches
00:59:04.159 --> 00:59:08.079
and so forth. So I learned to sight read in a
00:59:08.079 --> 00:59:12.019
very... in a very friendly atmosphere where I
00:59:12.019 --> 00:59:15.219
could make mistakes a lot and so forth. And all
00:59:15.219 --> 00:59:20.340
these traits, playing keyboard instruments, listening
00:59:20.340 --> 00:59:27.820
to music in a different way. Also, when I started
00:59:27.820 --> 00:59:31.699
to study, I studied actually in the beginning
00:59:31.699 --> 00:59:34.460
to become a teacher at school, at a normal school.
00:59:35.500 --> 00:59:37.980
That was my first thing because I didn't know
00:59:37.980 --> 00:59:40.420
what to do. I wanted to do something in music.
00:59:40.500 --> 00:59:43.260
I wasn't good enough to become a real concert
00:59:43.260 --> 00:59:47.320
pianist. So my technique was not good enough
00:59:47.320 --> 00:59:53.079
for that. Also, when I practiced too much, I
00:59:53.079 --> 00:59:56.340
had problems in my fingers, like a pain going
00:59:56.340 --> 01:00:01.219
on. So I couldn't practice so much. I couldn't
01:00:01.219 --> 01:00:06.320
become a concert pianist. And in all this journey...
01:00:07.260 --> 01:00:10.579
Where I didn't know where I would be at some
01:00:10.579 --> 01:00:16.019
time, composing was there all the time. Sometimes
01:00:16.019 --> 01:00:20.420
more, sometimes less. And I'm actually quite
01:00:20.420 --> 01:00:25.480
happy that I did this like 20 or 25 years, 30
01:00:25.480 --> 01:00:30.940
years ago. Because in those days, you had really
01:00:30.940 --> 01:00:33.440
to do it by yourself, like write it on a paper.
01:00:35.230 --> 01:00:38.969
You know, there's a lot of good things when it
01:00:38.969 --> 01:00:41.130
comes to computers and so forth. And, and, and
01:00:41.130 --> 01:00:46.809
K I also that, um, AI, uh, also that, but, um,
01:00:46.989 --> 01:00:49.630
I think when you have to do it and everybody
01:00:49.630 --> 01:00:52.829
has to do it, uh, by himself, not having this
01:00:52.829 --> 01:00:57.110
tools there's for me, it was a good thing because
01:00:57.110 --> 01:00:59.909
I could like figure out it by myself, like discover
01:00:59.909 --> 01:01:06.360
it in my own tempo. And. yeah composing stayed
01:01:06.360 --> 01:01:09.360
with me all the time and to the to this very
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:13.019
day and i'm happy about this very much because
01:01:13.019 --> 01:01:15.539
it's you know with composing you can express
01:01:15.539 --> 01:01:18.820
yourself you can communicate you are also it's
01:01:18.820 --> 01:01:26.300
like a therapy in a way sure Yeah, then you got
01:01:26.300 --> 01:01:30.139
to study with Peter Dickenhart. Is that how you
01:01:30.139 --> 01:01:37.219
pronounce his last name? And that's George Crumb's
01:01:37.219 --> 01:01:40.820
student? Yes, he studied with George Crumb a
01:01:40.820 --> 01:01:43.340
lot and he introduced me to George Crumb's music.
01:01:43.860 --> 01:01:48.539
Peter was fantastic. He was really a very inspiring
01:01:48.539 --> 01:01:54.940
teacher. and especially interested in modern
01:01:54.940 --> 01:01:58.219
music and also in jazz, for example. So we played
01:01:58.219 --> 01:02:00.739
a lot of jazz and listened to a lot of jazz music.
01:02:00.800 --> 01:02:07.500
He was very much advocating that we need to cross
01:02:07.500 --> 01:02:12.539
all these borders we have, like between pop music
01:02:12.539 --> 01:02:15.679
and jazz music and classical music and contemporary
01:02:15.679 --> 01:02:20.719
music. And he advocated. that very much and um
01:02:20.719 --> 01:02:25.460
yeah i was i actually i learned a lot about jazz
01:02:25.460 --> 01:02:28.679
from him just the pieces that they are there
01:02:28.679 --> 01:02:31.820
for example he listened to so much jazz music
01:02:31.820 --> 01:02:37.059
and um and then also um also for us pianists
01:02:37.059 --> 01:02:40.639
they're one of the greatest pianists were actually
01:02:40.639 --> 01:02:43.280
jazz pianists weren't they i mean like oscar
01:02:43.280 --> 01:02:47.360
peterson and what what a piano technique uh incredible
01:02:48.280 --> 01:02:50.260
And Peter also introduced me to George Crumb,
01:02:50.340 --> 01:02:56.019
yes. And I miss Peter. He died a couple of years
01:02:56.019 --> 01:02:59.840
ago. Strangely, you know, it's another very strange
01:02:59.840 --> 01:03:03.780
story. I had a dream that Peter Degenhardt was
01:03:03.780 --> 01:03:07.500
somehow with me at a place. I don't know what
01:03:07.500 --> 01:03:10.559
happened. I don't remember. And the next day,
01:03:10.659 --> 01:03:14.500
a friend of mine wrote me an email that Peter
01:03:14.500 --> 01:03:18.099
had died. So I believe that Peter just said goodbye
01:03:18.099 --> 01:03:23.840
to me in that night. Wow. Yeah, it's true. You
01:03:23.840 --> 01:03:28.480
couldn't make this up. What a story. And I think
01:03:28.480 --> 01:03:33.579
all these people who influenced you and gave
01:03:33.579 --> 01:03:38.320
you wings, gave you roots and wings, you know
01:03:38.320 --> 01:03:42.980
this saying for sure. And I'm very happy for
01:03:42.980 --> 01:03:48.239
so many. so many personalities which accompanied
01:03:48.239 --> 01:03:53.900
me in my life and gave me inspiration and strength
01:03:53.900 --> 01:04:00.679
and somehow guided me to have a life with music.
01:04:00.900 --> 01:04:04.760
And today I'm happy that I can give it back,
01:04:04.880 --> 01:04:12.159
so to say, when I do my rehearsals and also compose.
01:04:13.340 --> 01:04:16.619
particularly when I work at a university where
01:04:16.619 --> 01:04:20.360
there are young, very young, beautiful souls
01:04:20.360 --> 01:04:24.099
there coming and want to do music together. And
01:04:24.099 --> 01:04:29.280
I can help them experience beautiful music and
01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:34.679
community and share this. And I am very honored
01:04:34.679 --> 01:04:39.099
and very privileged to have this job I have at
01:04:39.099 --> 01:04:42.349
the university. It gives me the opportunity to
01:04:42.349 --> 01:04:46.170
give something back. I know you also write, you're
01:04:46.170 --> 01:04:51.150
known for writing choral works and other ensembles
01:04:51.150 --> 01:04:55.469
as well. So the recent one you just told me about
01:04:55.469 --> 01:04:58.809
this, you were commissioned by the Harvard Choruses
01:04:58.809 --> 01:05:01.929
and the Massachusetts American Choral Directors
01:05:01.929 --> 01:05:06.389
Association to arrange Beethoven's Mass in C
01:05:06.389 --> 01:05:11.139
for forehand piano. with harmonium. So it's a
01:05:11.139 --> 01:05:16.000
large orchestral work, but they told you to write
01:05:16.000 --> 01:05:19.639
for four hands. So can you tell us more about
01:05:19.639 --> 01:05:22.579
this? You know, there's the tradition of having
01:05:22.579 --> 01:05:28.780
a big choral repertoire arranged for piano, for
01:05:28.780 --> 01:05:32.079
four -hand piano, or for two pianos. Beethoven's
01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:37.320
mess, first mess, when Harvard When I was asked
01:05:37.320 --> 01:05:41.619
to arrange it, actually, the original commission
01:05:41.619 --> 01:05:45.880
was to arrange it for just piano forehand. And
01:05:45.880 --> 01:05:53.300
immediately I said, and harmonium. And they said,
01:05:53.420 --> 01:05:56.559
yeah, great idea. And so I arranged it for piano
01:05:56.559 --> 01:05:59.940
forehand and harmonium. And, you know, harmonium
01:05:59.940 --> 01:06:03.349
also is. Today, it's not that present, but in
01:06:03.349 --> 01:06:06.150
the 19th century, the harmonium was one of the
01:06:06.150 --> 01:06:10.590
major instruments in the US and also in Europe.
01:06:11.070 --> 01:06:14.449
It was in churches, in schools, because there
01:06:14.449 --> 01:06:18.530
was no electricity, you know, and it was an instrument
01:06:18.530 --> 01:06:23.070
you could easily tune, not like a piano. It was
01:06:23.070 --> 01:06:25.869
in tune and you don't need anything but just
01:06:25.869 --> 01:06:28.559
the instrument. It was much cheaper than an organ.
01:06:28.659 --> 01:06:31.480
So it was everywhere. And it has this unique
01:06:31.480 --> 01:06:35.340
sound atmosphere. So I wanted to have these colors
01:06:35.340 --> 01:06:37.780
in this arrangement. You know what happened?
01:06:38.300 --> 01:06:43.239
I arranged the entire thing very quickly. And
01:06:43.239 --> 01:06:45.780
I was playing everything myself, like the two
01:06:45.780 --> 01:06:50.059
players myself. And then I played the inner hands.
01:06:51.239 --> 01:06:54.960
So the left hand from the Primo and the... right
01:06:54.960 --> 01:06:57.920
hand from the second part, if it works. So I
01:06:57.920 --> 01:07:02.119
played this. And then I had a lot of crossing
01:07:02.119 --> 01:07:07.420
hands devised because I somehow believed, yeah,
01:07:07.559 --> 01:07:11.019
I don't know, this was better, but yeah. Then
01:07:11.019 --> 01:07:13.619
we had a rehearsal and we played it and I found
01:07:13.619 --> 01:07:17.800
out it didn't work. Because I was thinking as
01:07:17.800 --> 01:07:21.260
a conductor who plays a score with four hands,
01:07:21.480 --> 01:07:23.800
that was what I was thinking, like one person.
01:07:24.110 --> 01:07:26.949
having four hands and playing the score and you
01:07:26.949 --> 01:07:30.409
know like and this of course would work if there
01:07:30.409 --> 01:07:33.570
would be a person with four hands and then and
01:07:33.570 --> 01:07:38.230
then i rewrote this and had in mind i need to
01:07:38.230 --> 01:07:40.869
write this as a pianist not only as one pianist
01:07:40.869 --> 01:07:44.889
but as a piece for two pianists who who share
01:07:44.889 --> 01:07:48.909
this in spirituality but also in the space they
01:07:48.909 --> 01:07:53.420
have and And I changed this completely and then
01:07:53.420 --> 01:07:58.079
it worked. And the harmonium is the third personality.
01:07:58.139 --> 01:08:01.039
So I needed to recalibrate what I was thinking
01:08:01.039 --> 01:08:04.960
I was doing. And I was then rearranging it in
01:08:04.960 --> 01:08:08.059
a way that it's for three people, three shared
01:08:08.059 --> 01:08:12.199
minds or hearts who play together. But each of
01:08:12.199 --> 01:08:17.039
these individuals has... her or his own space
01:08:17.039 --> 01:08:20.579
and can move in that space without struggling
01:08:20.579 --> 01:08:23.739
to to collide with the other one with the other
01:08:23.739 --> 01:09:04.930
hand So this Beethoven's Mass in C for four -hand
01:09:04.930 --> 01:09:08.250
piano is available as a score? It will come out
01:09:08.250 --> 01:09:11.729
from Bärenreiter Publishing House in this summer.
01:09:12.189 --> 01:09:15.010
Because next year, you know, it's a big Beethoven
01:09:15.010 --> 01:09:19.470
year. It's the 200th anniversary of his death.
01:09:19.770 --> 01:09:24.369
And the score will come out. And yeah, you know,
01:09:24.390 --> 01:09:30.149
this came completely out of the left field. this
01:09:30.149 --> 01:09:34.130
commission and i was really i was like at first
01:09:34.130 --> 01:09:36.890
i thought oh this is a lot of work do do i want
01:09:36.890 --> 01:09:40.789
to spend this much time of my life to this project
01:09:40.789 --> 01:09:43.430
because then i can't do other projects but then
01:09:43.430 --> 01:09:46.680
immediately i thought no that's such a fantastic
01:09:46.680 --> 01:09:49.800
opportunity to delve into this music and also
01:09:49.800 --> 01:09:52.260
to explore the piano in a way I haven't before,
01:09:52.460 --> 01:09:54.600
because I never did this before. I wrote for
01:09:54.600 --> 01:09:57.560
two pianos and for piano forehand. I did that,
01:09:57.619 --> 01:10:00.680
but my own music and I never arranged it. And
01:10:00.680 --> 01:10:03.119
there's this rich tradition like Carl Czerny
01:10:03.119 --> 01:10:08.720
wrote a lot of this forehand works by Beethoven.
01:10:09.000 --> 01:10:12.479
There is actually a forehand version by Czerny
01:10:12.479 --> 01:10:17.550
of the Beethoven Mass. But you can't combine
01:10:17.550 --> 01:10:19.729
it with the chorus because it has all the chorus
01:10:19.729 --> 01:10:23.510
already in. You know what I mean? It's like the
01:10:23.510 --> 01:10:26.670
full score with all the forces is already translated.
01:10:26.850 --> 01:10:30.510
So the soloists are in the foreground, the chorus
01:10:30.510 --> 01:10:33.069
is in the foreground. So when you put the chorus
01:10:33.069 --> 01:10:36.029
now back in, in reality, it doesn't really work
01:10:36.029 --> 01:10:38.869
because the balance is different and the materials
01:10:38.869 --> 01:10:41.569
are not, it's not structured in the right way.
01:10:42.970 --> 01:10:45.470
But it was interesting to see all these pieces
01:10:45.470 --> 01:10:48.130
by Czerny, how he did that, how he translated
01:10:48.130 --> 01:10:53.430
the music which was much larger. For example,
01:10:53.489 --> 01:11:00.770
what he did was that he often added a dissonant
01:11:00.770 --> 01:11:04.510
note, like a seventh, to a chord which was not
01:11:04.510 --> 01:11:08.069
there in the original. And I believe he did that
01:11:08.069 --> 01:11:12.140
to... to compensate that you don't have all the
01:11:12.140 --> 01:11:16.340
orchestra resonances and all the sonorities of
01:11:16.340 --> 01:11:19.399
the orchestra. So he needed a note more in the
01:11:19.399 --> 01:11:22.140
chord to give that impression that there is more
01:11:22.140 --> 01:11:25.399
resonance. I believe it, at least. And that was
01:11:25.399 --> 01:11:29.899
very interesting. Once it's published, I can't
01:11:29.899 --> 01:11:32.479
wait to check out this Beethoven chorale. And
01:11:32.479 --> 01:11:35.340
also, I want to talk about your Mozart Requiem,
01:11:35.500 --> 01:11:41.229
right? Tell us. Yeah, Mozart Requiem is, yeah,
01:11:41.329 --> 01:11:46.630
you know, that's a holy cow. And as we all know,
01:11:46.770 --> 01:11:51.409
he himself didn't finish it, but Süssmayr did
01:11:51.409 --> 01:11:57.189
finish it. And yeah, that was something I more
01:11:57.189 --> 01:12:00.670
and more discovered, you know, like when I experienced,
01:12:00.829 --> 01:12:04.550
I remember to this very day that I, for the first
01:12:04.550 --> 01:12:12.430
time, noticed. or recognized, okay, this is not
01:12:12.430 --> 01:12:15.689
entirely by Mozart. That was, I think, when I
01:12:15.689 --> 01:12:18.729
was 18 or 19 years old. And then I noticed like
01:12:18.729 --> 01:12:22.029
five years later, oh, there are different completions
01:12:22.029 --> 01:12:24.390
because I listened to a completion and I was
01:12:24.390 --> 01:12:27.430
in the Lacrimosa in bar nine. It was like, oh,
01:12:27.569 --> 01:12:30.850
different music. It's not Mozart. And then I
01:12:30.850 --> 01:12:34.369
learned, okay. There are different completions.
01:12:34.369 --> 01:12:37.609
And then the next step was that when I started
01:12:37.609 --> 01:12:43.470
conducting, some of the classes for the church
01:12:43.470 --> 01:12:50.010
musicians had on the desk one of the modern completions.
01:12:50.050 --> 01:12:53.210
And so I learned to analyze this completion and
01:12:53.210 --> 01:12:55.770
compare it to the Zussmeier and so forth. And
01:12:55.770 --> 01:12:59.829
yeah, the end of it is that I tried my own completion.
01:13:01.310 --> 01:13:06.430
by studying Mozart, analyzing Mozart's scores
01:13:06.430 --> 01:13:11.430
very very thoroughly and then try to come up
01:13:11.430 --> 01:13:20.069
with what I think is within the space in which
01:13:20.069 --> 01:13:23.329
Mozart would have written it. So of course it's
01:13:23.329 --> 01:13:26.270
not what Mozart would have written because Nobody
01:13:26.270 --> 01:13:33.850
can know this, but at least it's inside the stylistic
01:13:33.850 --> 01:13:39.949
framework, which you can figure out by comparing
01:13:39.949 --> 01:13:43.170
all the scores. Is it available as a recording?
01:13:43.470 --> 01:13:46.909
Yes, it's on Spotify. There are two recordings.
01:13:47.109 --> 01:13:49.750
And it's interesting because for some of the
01:13:49.750 --> 01:13:53.119
movements, I made alternatives. So there's a
01:13:53.119 --> 01:13:57.239
reason for this. I can't delve into this. This
01:13:57.239 --> 01:13:58.840
would take too much time. But there's a certain
01:13:58.840 --> 01:14:05.039
reason that I found out that from Sanctus and
01:14:05.039 --> 01:14:11.180
Benedictus could be in Mozart's style in two
01:14:11.180 --> 01:14:14.960
very different keys, for example. And so I realized
01:14:14.960 --> 01:14:17.840
both versions and the conductor needs to decide
01:14:17.840 --> 01:14:21.399
which versions. he's going to perform. And one
01:14:21.399 --> 01:14:25.600
of the recordings on Spotify has one scenario
01:14:25.600 --> 01:14:27.859
and the other one has another scenario. So that's
01:14:27.859 --> 01:14:32.340
great. So you, meaning you, you created two versions.
01:14:33.439 --> 01:14:37.399
Only of two movements. Oh, I see. Okay. Okay.
01:14:37.439 --> 01:14:39.739
Yeah. You know, and, and so what I, what I was
01:14:39.739 --> 01:14:43.760
actually, it's like the next step in this history
01:14:43.760 --> 01:14:46.760
of completing the piece that I involved the performers
01:14:46.760 --> 01:14:53.039
in deciding. how the final version of the piece
01:14:53.039 --> 01:14:56.800
will appear in the concert. It's been so much
01:14:56.800 --> 01:15:00.260
fun talking about your music. I have just a few
01:15:00.260 --> 01:15:04.140
couple of more questions regarding more philosophical,
01:15:04.479 --> 01:15:08.659
if that's okay. You talk about responsibility
01:15:08.659 --> 01:15:12.020
early, contributing without expecting immediate
01:15:12.020 --> 01:15:15.020
reward and remaining curious about the unknown.
01:15:15.260 --> 01:15:17.600
What does responsibility look like for a young
01:15:17.600 --> 01:15:23.500
composer? performer today that's an interesting
01:15:23.500 --> 01:15:29.479
question because you know composing is like in
01:15:29.479 --> 01:15:38.680
a way creating worlds and um and creating provocations
01:15:38.680 --> 01:15:45.500
or creating reactions how we live and i think
01:15:45.500 --> 01:15:49.760
we need those reactions in in in in a cultural
01:15:49.760 --> 01:15:54.000
way it could also be a painting or it could also
01:15:54.000 --> 01:15:58.420
be a theater piece or a poem i believe we need
01:15:58.420 --> 01:16:06.500
this reaction to know who we are and to know
01:16:06.500 --> 01:16:11.920
where we want to go and what kind of community
01:16:11.920 --> 01:16:18.699
we want want to have and want to be and um I
01:16:18.699 --> 01:16:22.520
strongly believe that music makes us better humans.
01:16:22.819 --> 01:16:27.359
Of course, I didn't invent this wording, but
01:16:27.359 --> 01:16:33.819
I strongly believe in this. I believe that we
01:16:33.819 --> 01:16:38.600
need to try to reinvent ourselves and our music
01:16:38.600 --> 01:16:45.060
constantly. Not that we have to discard what
01:16:45.060 --> 01:16:49.579
has come before. But for me, it's like necessary
01:16:49.579 --> 01:16:53.579
to have the complete picture because our lives
01:16:53.579 --> 01:16:58.600
are not a museum where everything is set and
01:16:58.600 --> 01:17:02.760
everything has been done and you can see it like
01:17:02.760 --> 01:17:06.199
behind glass and see it as something which is
01:17:06.199 --> 01:17:13.239
there and you are not able to interact with it.
01:17:13.340 --> 01:17:18.689
And that's what I... is very important that we,
01:17:18.810 --> 01:17:24.369
as much as possible, can interact and being involved
01:17:24.369 --> 01:17:31.010
actively in modern arts. Also in sports. The
01:17:31.010 --> 01:17:37.750
same for me in sports. And it's not only because
01:17:37.750 --> 01:17:40.810
of the music, but because of the community aspect
01:17:40.810 --> 01:17:45.869
of it, you know, because of the sharing. aspect
01:17:45.869 --> 01:17:49.329
of it because it's like it's communication it
01:17:49.329 --> 01:17:53.310
brings us together Steve Reich said an interesting
01:17:53.310 --> 01:17:57.510
thing when he when he he said something like
01:17:57.510 --> 01:18:01.210
when he started to become a composer everyone
01:18:01.210 --> 01:18:04.550
was supposed to write his own language because
01:18:04.550 --> 01:18:09.689
that was the definition of a composer to to invent
01:18:09.689 --> 01:18:13.529
his own language but then he said the next step
01:18:13.529 --> 01:18:18.050
for him was to to recognize that when each of
01:18:18.050 --> 01:18:22.409
us speaks his own language only, there can't
01:18:22.409 --> 01:18:24.989
be a communication. It's actually like Babylon,
01:18:25.470 --> 01:18:29.229
you know, like the Tower of Babel, because nobody
01:18:29.229 --> 01:18:31.949
knows what the other one is wanting to say. And
01:18:31.949 --> 01:18:35.529
also, it imposes on the others, my language is
01:18:35.529 --> 01:18:44.270
more relevant than yours. But what I know...
01:18:44.670 --> 01:18:50.930
theoretically said in reality is very hard to
01:18:50.930 --> 01:18:58.369
grasp and very often I don't know how I would
01:18:58.369 --> 01:19:02.750
do it or I can do it but my compositional activity
01:19:02.750 --> 01:19:08.609
is sort of my humble attempt to seek out how
01:19:08.609 --> 01:19:13.539
I can do all what I just said and I think I appreciate
01:19:13.539 --> 01:19:17.119
other composers very, very much and appreciate
01:19:17.119 --> 01:19:20.779
when they find it sometimes in very often in
01:19:20.779 --> 01:19:26.899
ways much better than I can ever do. And maybe
01:19:26.899 --> 01:19:29.960
it's important for you to just don't give up
01:19:29.960 --> 01:19:33.380
when you feel this. You know, I very often feel
01:19:33.380 --> 01:19:38.159
I can't compete with what I just heard or with
01:19:38.159 --> 01:19:42.779
that other composers have written so far. But
01:19:42.779 --> 01:19:45.380
then on the other hand, that's not the reason
01:19:45.380 --> 01:19:48.659
why I write to compete. The reason is that I
01:19:48.659 --> 01:19:53.479
communicate what is inside me and wants to be
01:19:53.479 --> 01:19:57.399
said. And that's what I think is sort of the
01:19:57.399 --> 01:20:01.479
authentic aspect of it, that it needs, of course,
01:20:01.500 --> 01:20:05.000
to be in your own language, but put in a way
01:20:05.000 --> 01:20:10.680
that others can react to it and can be involved.
01:20:12.039 --> 01:20:15.380
Now, so what's coming up for you? What's next?
01:20:15.960 --> 01:20:19.979
I'm sure you're working on next few projects
01:20:19.979 --> 01:20:24.520
and maybe you have an exciting collaboration
01:20:24.520 --> 01:20:28.479
coming up. Can you tell us as much as you can?
01:20:28.680 --> 01:20:33.619
So I'm preparing the Bärenreiter edition of my
01:20:33.619 --> 01:20:36.800
arrangement that will take time to the summer.
01:20:37.619 --> 01:20:44.939
Then I will be... editing um i will i'm the editor
01:20:44.939 --> 01:20:50.800
of a new urtext edition of a german requiem and
01:20:50.800 --> 01:20:54.380
i'm yeah i'm working on this for a long time
01:20:54.380 --> 01:20:57.920
already actually for more than a year already
01:20:57.920 --> 01:21:01.000
and this will come out this year so this will
01:21:01.000 --> 01:21:04.819
take a lot of time to to prepare everything uh
01:21:04.819 --> 01:21:09.779
it is it is almost finished the preparation but
01:21:09.779 --> 01:21:11.859
still there's so much going on to make sure it
01:21:11.859 --> 01:21:15.760
is everything is correctly printed and so forth
01:21:15.760 --> 01:21:20.039
and prepared and yeah and then there are some
01:21:20.039 --> 01:21:26.359
commissions for choral music this year also i
01:21:26.359 --> 01:21:28.819
will i will give a master class in choral conducting
01:21:28.819 --> 01:21:31.819
for the first time actually a choral composing
01:21:31.819 --> 01:21:36.119
sorry choral composing a new format here. And
01:21:36.119 --> 01:21:42.600
also I'm working on the next North Sea diary,
01:21:42.920 --> 01:21:47.260
North Shore diary on the next one. Okay. Volume
01:21:47.260 --> 01:21:53.760
three. And then there's this prime cycle coming
01:21:53.760 --> 01:21:57.220
also next year. So there's a lot of project.
01:21:57.340 --> 01:22:01.140
You know, the older I get, the harder it is to
01:22:01.140 --> 01:22:04.489
switch. from from one thing i do to the next
01:22:04.489 --> 01:22:07.289
so often there is a day i just want don't want
01:22:07.289 --> 01:22:10.109
to switch and i just work on one thing but actually
01:22:10.109 --> 01:22:13.850
i need to work on another thing so what i do
01:22:13.850 --> 01:22:17.449
is i do like um is that the word in english procrastination
01:22:19.130 --> 01:22:22.010
With my own projects, I do a procrastination
01:22:22.010 --> 01:22:25.689
from my other projects. Well, you know, with
01:22:25.689 --> 01:22:29.149
experience, each project you do becomes really
01:22:29.149 --> 01:22:31.810
so profound that it's very hard to switch around,
01:22:31.970 --> 01:22:34.710
you know? Yeah, that's true. And maybe that's
01:22:34.710 --> 01:22:38.729
one of the differences when we get older and
01:22:38.729 --> 01:22:44.210
more focused on one profound project we are working
01:22:44.210 --> 01:22:46.810
on. Yeah, that's true. Because you know what
01:22:46.810 --> 01:22:50.890
you want, you know? True, yes. Yeah. So what's
01:22:50.890 --> 01:22:53.109
the best way for my listeners to stay connected
01:22:53.109 --> 01:22:58.829
with you? Your website, ostriga .com? Yeah. So
01:22:58.829 --> 01:23:02.149
everything which is happening is on that page.
01:23:02.250 --> 01:23:04.710
There's also an archive and a list of my composition
01:23:04.710 --> 01:23:10.130
on that page. But also I have an Instagram account
01:23:10.130 --> 01:23:15.109
and Facebook and also on Spotify. I believe there's
01:23:15.109 --> 01:23:20.229
the playlist. done by Spotify. But if you want
01:23:20.229 --> 01:23:25.890
to be in contact, that is possible via the homepage.
01:23:26.329 --> 01:23:31.449
Great. So that's Ostriga .com. O -S -T -R -Z
01:23:31.449 --> 01:23:37.130
-Y -G -A .com. Wow. It's been a wonderful conversation.
01:23:37.270 --> 01:23:39.289
But before I let you go, we have one more thing
01:23:39.289 --> 01:23:41.510
to do. It's called the PianoPod Rapid Fire Questions.
01:23:41.670 --> 01:23:45.569
And we take this segment very seriously. The
01:23:45.569 --> 01:23:51.069
questions are quite silly, but each answer will
01:23:51.069 --> 01:23:53.689
give our listeners a glimpse into who you truly
01:23:53.689 --> 01:23:57.189
are. So let's do this. Now, please answer each
01:23:57.189 --> 01:23:59.670
question with the shortest response possible.
01:23:59.729 --> 01:24:04.250
No explanation is necessary. So question number
01:24:04.250 --> 01:24:09.520
one. What is your comfort food? Pasta. Yes, that's
01:24:09.520 --> 01:24:12.079
a good one. How do you like your coffee in the
01:24:12.079 --> 01:24:17.279
morning? With milk, no sugar. Cappuccino, but
01:24:17.279 --> 01:24:20.399
also just a plain German, we say filter coffee,
01:24:20.659 --> 01:24:23.380
which is just the old machine where you put the
01:24:23.380 --> 01:24:28.199
water in and yeah. Cats or dogs? Cats. I have
01:24:28.199 --> 01:24:33.340
a cat. Oh, cute. Sunrise or sunset? That's hard.
01:24:35.359 --> 01:24:41.100
Oh, I can't choose. That's good. Summer or winter?
01:24:41.460 --> 01:24:45.239
Summer. What skill have you always wanted to
01:24:45.239 --> 01:24:48.760
learn but haven't had a chance to? Flying. Oh,
01:24:48.979 --> 01:24:52.340
that's a good one. Yes. What is your word or
01:24:52.340 --> 01:24:57.680
words to live by? It's like carpe diem. She's
01:24:57.680 --> 01:25:02.100
a day. Yeah, right. Because I often work too
01:25:02.100 --> 01:25:07.140
hard. You have to live in the moment. Right.
01:25:07.380 --> 01:25:12.079
Favorite venue you have ever performed in? I
01:25:12.079 --> 01:25:15.319
think it's Cologne Philharmonie because it's
01:25:15.319 --> 01:25:19.119
great. But you said no explanations. Okay. What
01:25:19.119 --> 01:25:22.180
is the most important quality you look for in
01:25:22.180 --> 01:25:27.640
other people? It's honesty. Name one piece in
01:25:27.640 --> 01:25:31.180
your current playlist that's hard. But try your
01:25:31.180 --> 01:25:34.920
best. I don't care if the genre is like hip -hop
01:25:34.920 --> 01:25:40.500
or pop music or classical. That is John Williams'
01:25:40.779 --> 01:25:45.899
film music. Last question. Fill in the blank.
01:25:46.399 --> 01:25:50.659
Music is blank. Everything. Music is everything.
01:25:51.290 --> 01:25:53.270
Perfect. Michael, thank you so much for joining
01:25:53.270 --> 01:25:55.710
us today, for sharing your artistry journey and
01:25:55.710 --> 01:25:58.609
reflections. It's been a really pleasure and
01:25:58.609 --> 01:26:01.210
honor to have you here. And to our listeners,
01:26:01.289 --> 01:26:04.989
I encourage you to explore Michael's album. Perseus,
01:26:05.010 --> 01:26:08.869
his ongoing prime cycle, and his recent Beethoven
01:26:08.869 --> 01:26:13.109
Mass in C arrangement. Please visit ostriga .com
01:26:13.109 --> 01:26:16.210
to learn more. You can also find links to his
01:26:16.210 --> 01:26:18.909
recordings, publications, and upcoming projects
01:26:18.909 --> 01:26:22.229
in our show notes. And to everyone listening,
01:26:22.409 --> 01:26:25.649
thank you for spending your time with us. And
01:26:25.649 --> 01:26:28.909
if this episode resonated, please like this video.
01:26:29.029 --> 01:26:32.000
And I also... Love to hear from you. Share your
01:26:32.000 --> 01:26:34.760
thoughts, leave a comment, and tag us at The
01:26:34.760 --> 01:26:37.779
Pianopod. We'll see you next time on The Pianopod.
01:26:38.279 --> 01:26:41.140
Michael, thank you so much. Thank you so much
01:26:41.140 --> 01:26:43.239
for having me. It's my pleasure, my honor to
01:26:43.239 --> 01:26:44.539
be here. Thank you. Thank you.