Day One: Masterclass Pavel Steidl
Pavel Steidl is a phenomenon on the guitar. Full stop. You'll be able to notice this best if you see him play. He plays with everything he has got and adds something to the music which you will not read from any sheet music: a playful accent, a few (ore even quite a few) extra notes for clarity or a change, and completely personal dynamics in his interpretation.
Many years ago, I had heard Pavel Steidl playing in Hof 88 in Almelo, a town in the vicinity of where I live. Unfortunately I had to restrict myself to hearing, because I was on the back row, even though I could catch a rare glimpse of his unique playing style. Besides presenting his music to our ears, he also told its story by means of movement and facial expression. Everything in the service of the music!
I was quite curious about the way he would teach. That's why I promptly subscribed when the opportunity arose.
Pavel Steidl is a specialist in nineteenth century guitar music -from classical to early romantic- with names like Johann Kaspar Mertz, Niccolo Paganini, Napoleon Coste and Fernando Sor. That's why I prepared some Ghiribizzi by Paganini.
Ghiribizzi -truffles- are very small guitar pieces, two pages at the most, with a seemingly simple structure, mostly in two voices. Paganini wrote about forty of them in various moods. They are no Studies, but actual performance pieces. The interesting fact about these pieces is that Paganini used the themes of some chart breakers from his time, mainly popular songs and opera melodies. Examples are La ci darem la Mano by Mozart and Nel cor piu non mi sento by Paesello.
Ghiribizzi are seemingly simple. Why? Because their scores are just basic material. The player has the task and freedom to include his musical whims ad libitum. Extra chord notes, playing in octaves, using harmonics, adding cadenzas and everything else you can think of to surprise your audience. If you play the score, the result is pleasant, but you have to add spice to it to get a dazzling result!
Historically this is correct. Often published scores were simplified versions of the actual works, because publishers wanted to sell to guitarists with less spectacular skills too.
A recording of a few Ghiribizzi by Pavel Steidl had shown me the difference between "written down" and "actually played". Well, history states that Paganini did the same thing. He knew his material by heart and played it ad libitum, adding whatever wit he had. Much later someone wrote down these pieces which became the standard as a consequence of the "power of writing".
I must say that I had some "stage-fright" -I guess that is normal if you work with a celebrity on the guitar- but Pavel Steidl immediately dealt with it. With contagious enthusiasm and a lot of mirth he accepts your own interpretation of the piece but also clearly shows with a lot of humour how you can extend the performance of the seemingly simple music. Breathtaking!
I felt very good about Steidl's approach. A great player who communicates with you as a teacher, musician and personality without frills and with such a love for the music, that is first rate! I would experience it like this in the other masterclasses too, in my opinion a big compliment for the choices of the organisation of the Twenthe Guitar Festival.
The things, I learned in this masterclass:
- You cannot learn an play music from paper alone. A challenge for an experienced music reader like me.
- Where the ego plays, the music dies.
- Scores are just the basic material, as a player you are allowed to add some spice within the scope of the music.
- Make every attempt to play your music beautifully and with variation.
- Surprise the audience.
- Do not play any passage the same way as the previous time, present some variation, else you will loose your audience.
- Have the courage to improvise.
- Do not be afraid losing yourself in the music. Everything will be OK in the end.
Needless to say that I was quite curious about his concert on the sunday evening!