Day at Night: Isaac Stern, classical violinist

James Day public television pioneer and chairman of the CUNY TV Advisory Board passed away in April 2008 his legacy includes the series day at night which aired for 130 episodes beginning in 1973 the program features interviews with many of the great thinkers and achievers of the 20th century these 30 year old programs have been restored the interviews remain fresh and relevant today exploring issues that are still important to society showing them again as CUNY TVs tribute to Jim and his contributions to public television any lists of the world's leading violinists would have to rank the name of Isaac Stern at or near the top in the years since his debut at the age of 15 he has matured into a virtuoso performance with a worldwide reputation not alone for a skill but as well for his ability to convey to his audience his own love of music and the pleasure he gets from performing it his two favorite instruments are the violin and the telephone when he isn't delighting audience with one he's talking on the other he has 10 in his New York apartment organizing one of his many outside projects saving Carnegie Hall from destruction several years ago was probably the best known or maintaining his worldwide contacts as one of this country's most effective cultural ambassadors abroad mr. stern you once said that happiness and satisfaction is to play the kind of music that solves all human problems that's a pretty big order what kind of music is it that would solve all human problems or how does music impinge upon human problems well I don't know where I've said that it's somewhat of a pompous statement but it allows I'm exotics profile in New York oh that was a long time ago yes it was a pompous statement you don't make it have statements anymore certainly I did but not quite the same I don't know if they solved they had they involve human problems music at its best is a distillation of what man can think and can try for it's certainly nonverbal I don't know who it was that wrote and very accurately that you can describe music but never explain it now how to explain the fact that let us take an example that the first 16 measures of the slow movement of the Mozart symphony consult on for violin and viola have more sheer poignancy and more expression of a thoughtful sadness of life than any number of verbal ballads that are trying to express sadness today whether it's in the pop vein or the classic feel no matter what it is sounds like a distillation of poetry which is a distillation of prose on exactly and again not using and much of poetry and it's in it's very very refined form cannot stand examination word-for-word in a very literal sense in the exact sense the flow the balance the the the the the balancing of one word again to the sound of the word so music well for me music has always been and it's in its most important form the expression of one human being to another whether it's a single one or many people as a performer or from me to to myself or to the next person and it comes if you want to be simplistic about it the moment the fetus begins to have a life of its own it starts with a beat the heart has to beat well that's your basic element of tempo and rhythm you say music has always been a part of you I won't go back to the fetus but rather to when you were a young man your parents brought you here from Russia when you were it brought you to San Francisco from Russia when you were 10 months old were they themselves much involved in music your father was not professionally my father was an amateur painter my mother was an amateur singer they both played the piano a bit the facts of life my father became a house painter and decorated to make a living we went through very parlous times I remember the days of the depression the WPA and many many difficult periods but music was not music for the sake of music it was a necessity in the in the need of living with in a civilized manner is that an old-world concept you think that's true of our own country now well I think it's true of our own country in a great measure today but I think it comes from the old world I think that's the way it came here it wasn't it wasn't indigenous to the to the American as such depending again whom do you call an American the Americans who came or the Indian or those who were brought over in servitude or those who came later and under what circumstances but it's certainly perfectly obvious music was brought over as part of the of the heritage and the training of people from middle and eastern europe close it just understood that you would play an instrument actually in fact you played the piano first no I I was taught the piano was part of general education and then very very unfair friend of mine across the street was playing the violin and because he was playing the violin I wanted to play the violin I'm still playing the violin he's selling insurance you know there's nothing there's nothing no I didn't go to hear a concert when I was four and go home and cry for a fiddle nothing like that but I did start to study the violin when I was about eight and not until I was 12 that I really begin to feel something happening myself what happening is what happens if you suddenly feel that you can do something that it's yours you're not doing what somebody tells you now it's not you're not doing what somebody tells you you do this and therefore that will happen and you do this that's wrong and you're doing and suddenly you can do something and change it you can actually create an effect a psychic effect within yourself perhaps on someone else but it's yourself first it counts and in the end in music making it is always in the greatest element of music making it's always yourself that counts there are several things that make up music and many hundreds of things that make up music but the most difficult ones I think are to learn to develop a technique strong enough that it becomes invisible to develop a technique strong enough that you yourself don't think of it but simply your head and your heart and your viscera simply say this is what must be tried and you do it without trying to figure out those and then how you the technique is instinctive that's what you add is really connected and then you try to do to discern what is in the music what it has to say to you and therefore to others and eventually the most difficult thing of all to learn how to be simple that's difficult very it's possible for very young children and very very experienced professionals and in between is a long way your teacher was now in blender the concertmaster at the San Francisco Symphony your only teacher is a match direct you're very well read up and he taught you for only a brief time this is not well I still admire in virtuosity I studied with him until I was about 17 now he had one great quality he taught me how to teach myself he never interfered with that which I naturally gravitated to or which I did naturally physically or musically whether it agreed with his concepts or not but if it came out in a natural and healthy form he let it alone only if there were physical or musical errors very serious ones that may into that could have interfered later on and that was that was a great lesson to me it's what I've always tried to pass on to to other young people for young performers how to be as natural as possible in the making of music it's again very difficult there's so many elements physical elements emotional elements intellectual elements and it is amazing how the psyche of the performer comes through in the way he approaches his instrument I'm going to ask you more about that in a few moments I want to make passing reference of the fact that in your education you did have the assistance of a wealthy woman in San Francisco and I mention that because too often that kind of chance thing becomes a very important element in development of an artist the support the ability a patron appears in yes it ought not to be I suppose why not I don't know I just thought perhaps that's what you would say no it should be someone I know I see no reason why not I see no reason why people who recognize talent should not do their utmost to help it whether they do it with money or with affection obviously when they're artists who didn't have the patron who didn't have that you know huorchi I'll tell you something there is almost no artist that didn't have a patron of some kind needn't necessarily have always been a wealthy woman or man or a title person as though so often was in Europe don't forget there was a very much a European tradition to have a patron but there are the sheer facts of life there the daily necessities which are which which must be taken care of and the disciplines and the necessary hours of study the need for freedom to search to look to try does not come easily it seems strange that very few there not many examples of young people from well-to-do homes who have made successes then equal numbers to the number of people who come from why is that I have no idea perhaps it's the stage to challenge to to scratch to fight - you have to play their errors in a way you have it to challenges anyway if you have to have a fire in your innards you have to at all times who set that fire and your innards God I suppose and that's that's something that you have and without that without that that immense necessary driving desire that you must do it something is missing the unfortunate thing that happens sometimes in music is that there's sometimes there's more desire than there is talent and it's sad to see because then it turns to frustration and then it becomes a pitiful thing but that desire that need must always be there and then in a performer most of all he has to always have he or she has to always have the ability to impose his or her will on the listener he must say I am here I'm about to express an idea a thought now you will listen how does the artist do that if he does it consciously he's wrong it's something that it seems it has to be instinctive yes it just means I have something to say and it is you'll find it in all fields it's the quality that makes a great actor makes a great politician what makes what makes a Roosevelt or a Churchill but we so awful or rather and pleura is another word for it Kennedy was that's where the word got popularized probably more than any other time but there that was a modern example but it's all throughout history what about the the other aspects of the education of Isaac Stern quite apart from the musical you've emphasized the fact that the human being behind the instrument his psyche is terribly important what elements went into your own education of or did the musical might really consume most of it no no I was I did not go to school very much as a youngster I was taught at home called private tutoring which meant that I got away with murder but fortunately I had and still have an avid curiosity I read a great deal and because of the at a certainly the precocity of my talent I was thrown together with older musicians and that's where you learn you learn by being with people who are better than you who are more accomplished than you are who who have experienced more you you there is there is this constant symbiosis goes on all the time and an osmotic effect if you will that that you if you have excuse if you have a a feeling for people that you absorb from them and that's the way you learn and then you and then and then one one thing leads to another you read about a composer you read about a work you read about a performance you hear about a comment about what a what a piece of music would have thought what an idea all these things what they can mean and that leads you from from one step to another and I was interested in many things I I was interested in music I was interested in in things that went on around me I was interested in sports and politics life the generals interest outside music tend to make you a better musician there's to contribute in any way to the to the quality of of your musicianship or your of your performance that's hard for me to say I cannot say what I could have quit what I might have been had up in someone else because I've never been anybody else I've always I can only know that I am I am I'm a result of all that I have done if I were different if I if I would be more focused down in my in my disciplines to a narrower range of subjects it may be that I would be far more knowing and far more able in a lesser number of subjects the point I wanted I wanted to hear you make was that it is more than playing a note you've said the worst crime as playing notes instead of making music and you've said oh yeah what you are what you are other than a musician has a considerable effect upon what you do I feel I feel that's true I feel that whatever I do is an expression of whatever I am and the more I can be a reflection of as much knowledge as I can I can I can gather or as much experience as I can gather the more I can convey them the the richer mike my understanding of other people of their work of their music of my ability to convey their understanding the richer that that that ability will be and I feel very strongly that this this kind of all-embracing interest this constant curiosity his unwillingness to accept anything as being a final fact as being the beginning end of all knowledge I don't think knowledge ever that I'd only anyone is capable of encompassing what there is available in terms of now it's certainly not in music and then I'm taking only a very narrow area of music which is a very narrow area of knowledge in general and if you can begin to do stay the you know you can go on studying in many fields for years and never reach an end so I don't think that the mind should ever be a static thing and the larger the mind the larger the concerts the greater the the the scope that you can bring to bear the more the more you can have an objectivity in in in in observing what you're doing and a subjectivity in believing what you're doing at the same time this constant duality of doing and observing of being and learning of being experienced and naive the the the the the satisfaction and the dissatisfaction come the to these constant this constant challenges and and and and and things that are churning within you all the time these are the things I think that make that make for an interesting human being in any field and certainly in an expressive field such as music I think it is necessary what what goes through your mind when you're playing for example they Beethoven concerto as as a listener you watch the violinist apparently an intense concentration I've always wondered is he really thinking about what's happening gonna happen when this is all over or is he visualizing the score what does go on neither one nor the other I think I can't answer always for my colleagues I dunno I'm just thinking only of yourself for myself in the first place you're not thinking if you're thinking about what's going to happen afterwards where you good and have dinner whether the laundry is gonna get back and whether you're gonna make the plane you're in trouble the the performance then becomes it comes dead you don't think of the score only because the score is simply a map it's a guide the notes are there in profusion now what really concerns you is that millionth of a second between the notes how do you get from one to the other and what occurs and what you're really doing is you're singing you're thinking you're you're you're doing the the work in your own mind almost in triplicate you're seeing where you have been you're listening to where you are and you're thinking of what's coming all in all Emily back to a second same time you're listening to the orchestra or your accompanist or if you're playing Bach for yourself you listen to what you're doing you know that there are difficult moments physically you have to prepare for them because those are the the technical traps you have to prepare as an athlete does where do you take off the to jump or how do you prepare the stroke or whatever the case may be at the same time that you're doing it as part of a much larger picture that constantly goes as a steady stream of non verbal personal involvement gerrae it is a total involvement with what you're doing at that moment but absolutely total you just focus down so that your whole head is filled with the sound with the idea and you don't verbalize it it simply is the making of music and you hope that your hands wanted to fear with what you're doing do you have to love music to play it well oh very much you have to love a lot of things you have to love in order to make music and you also have to love music no music without why my love does not in order to make music because it's part of its it's an expression of the inwardness of man it's the feeling of holding your child embracing your woman of of having those that feeling of when you look across the room at a loved one you see someone even though you're having a conversation someone else you recognize you send a smile there's a certain there's a personal thing it's it's all this it's the the quality of touch the quality of fielding it's a it's a it's an experience in ecstasy really I think more than anything else it doesn't always happen but it certainly is what you're trying to to say into dune to experience yourself there must be tension with this as well is there not how do you do control tension do you put tension to work no you learn to live with it it's just a to simply say that you know that's going to be there and you and you try to do your best I have seemingly it seems from the outside less tension than many of my colleagues it isn't true it's just that I've learned through to live with it or a mask it to it to a degree I do I do like to be onstage I'm a stage person and I I can expand and rely and do things on the spur of the moment onstage more than I could even do in a room I don't contract is this because of a relationship you feel with your audience just the way I made just the way I made no I feel as I I like to be on stage I like to be able to to make music to people what tension is always there and without tension there's also something lacking in the performance that it's it's that last B there's it's always there yeah oh yes you know people have often asked are you still nervous after all these years let me have a standard answer i've got to say it here that there are only two kinds of people that i know of they are never nervous one is a child and the others an idiot and i don't think i'm one or the other it reminds me of a different kind of tension and that is the possible tension between the soloist and the conductor since you place so much emphasis upon the interpretation or your own feeling about a piece of music how do you resolve the differences between a certain discipline well I say oh no nobody our limit their boundaries they're bound around those about the boundaries their boundaries of taste their boundaries by their boundaries of knowledge boundaries of what the composer wanted to say to to Wed to the degree that we can discern it boundaries of the time in which the music was written in which in which school it was and to what extent you can take all these dissimilar elements and put them together into one visible Horrell edifice now those those boundaries can be that narrow or that lateral or wider it doesn't matter there are many there many different kinds of boundaries the larger your view the larger boundaries and the more room you'll have in-between for personal interpretation now with the conductor the least trouble I've ever had has been with great conductors it was really great nurse itself I suppose no it's because there we we recognize each other's we respect each other's point of view and we know that the other has roughly done the same kind of work and there's a give-and-take it's where the smaller conductor was not so sure and so four has to exert his authority unnecessarily that they sometimes difficulty but they're always where the ways of dealing with that to just turn your back and just close your eyes I want to turn your attention reluctantly away from music for a moment because you've been very much engaged in what you might call politics I guess it is politics you've said all of my politics are really devoted to propagandizing the value and the necessity of the artist to society you may think that's a bit pompous but there is a great importance to the value of the artist to society and you've been a cultural ambassador for life I feel that I feel that very strongly in many ways I think that the artist can at best represent what is best in many societies and therefore he has a chance to cross borders within meat and cross the different boundaries that politics sometimes set up I'm interested in politics not the sense of politics per se but simply the fact that the world we live in affects us daily and one cannot live remotely today by henning they want to be apart from that world you can't it enters your everyday life and as long as it does you might as well know what it's all about and then beyond that to for myself I can only say this that I have a very strong feeling about certain things in politics certain ideal certain standards certain actions that I believe a man must take and I believe you take your stand as a man regardless of whether you're a musician or painter or a professor in an inner university or a student you are a man you are a man that's the first thing and you have to believe in the rights of others and you're willing to stand up for their rights and you try to do that where you can and when you can in the ways that you think are most effective for some people it means going to the streets shouting for others it means acting at different levels I don't believe in herds I believe in people acting the our time together together not unmask because someone else has driven them to this but this is not always possible I don't believe in the use of the arts by a society for the benefit of the narrow ideological edge of that society and pretending that the arts reflect a great idea simply because they come out of that society I do believe that there are places and where the artist plays a singularly unique role in his time I think that is that a that a that a interpretive artists such as I is not quite as important never never has been never will be as a creative man I think the writer the painter the playwright has more effect in the long run but he still the playwright and the composer needs someone to make their work come to life that's where we come in thank you very much mr. stern thank you you

Channel: CUNY TV

Views: 15,137

Rating: 4.8677688 out of 5

Keywords: day at night james day cuny tv

Id: qTItYYew5UY

Length: 29min 21sec (1761 seconds)

Published: Wed May 25 2011