Itzhak Perlman, Academy Class of 2005, Full Interview

[Music] I started violin when I was four I like the sound of it so that's why I chose it that's why I said to my parents I want to play this instrument and you know then you start to get reaction from people now is he talented does he have a gift and so on and so forth I was always into sound you know I liked you know I I had a good concept of sound and the violin that you know I heard I heard it in my head so people always only has a very nice sound and so on and one thing leads to another and you know you develop you study I studied with one teacher actually in the Israel studied with a teacher who was a Russian background I studied with her she's the only one that I studied with we started at the age of five and she taught me until I was 13 and that's when I came to the States so and then so one thing leads to another nurse is our well you know he's pretty talented you know and and so on so it's not like you know I I I want to be saying you know I wake up one morning I says that's what I want to do you know it's a gradual thing I was talented and played the violin that people could not take it didn't really take it very seriously because of my polio because I had polio when I was four and so I was sitting down and I was playing and people always said well you know I don't know if we can have a career bla bla bla and take it seriously and so for me to go to the United States I would say that you know in every little country you know after a while you go abroad to complete your studies and we have this Hebrew word sizzly Alicia Talmud which means to complete a completion so and and and I wasn't having any success I was on The Ed Sullivan Show twice sort of three times when I was 13 and three times when I was 18 and and I'll just give you a very quick history about this Ed Sullivan in 1958 came to Israel because he wanted to have a show made only of Israeli artists Israeli act because with that Sullivan you know Ed Sullivan was a true variety program so I said that's why I said acts because it's like anything went so he wanted to do it just from Israeli artists so there were national auditions everybody would audition you know we want to go on The Ed Sullivan Show that people were the audition anybody - did anything where there were there musicians or or dancers or singers or comedians whatever it is and then it was narrowed down to a few and then he came himself to Israel for the final you know five final choosing and so I was I was one of the people that were chosen to be on this show I was looking forward to coming to the States you know I was you know I was I took some English in school first time you know in my English there was there was no English and there was an English book I remember and there was a picture of the Empire State Building and in the textbook and and I said one of these days I'm gonna be there and so it was my dream you know to go to the States so I was very very you know I loved the idea to have a chance to go to the stage it's very funny because this is the room that she taught in where we are right now that's her studio uh well let me give you the the look I studied the in a very very short history of the way I studied my first teachers I as I mentioned before was a lady named Rose briefca gold guard she was Russian background and she was basically a taskmaster she was very good she she she knew certain things and but it was one of those things where you better practice or else it was one of those things you know and if you don't sound good I'll tell you what to do and you do it then I came to the States and I studied with Dorothy delay and with ivan galamian so at that time I actually was very interesting I heard about galamian when I was still in Israel and that when when the Ed Sullivan situation around arose that was my way of going to Julianna studying with galamian because that was the guy so but at that time Dorothy delay was his assistant so she came when I I remember I was in the hotel downtown Manhattan you know that the first hotel there very depressing you know it was one of those hotels where you opened the door and you could touch the window that's how big the room was and and she came in and I was not very happy because I was missing my father because I came here only with my mother and then my father joined us later and I was missing my friends I had friends in school and stuff so I was alone and I didn't speak the language John and so I was not in a great mood and mr. Lai came in and she said something in English and I couldn't understand what she was talking about and I just played so that was and then we started then she so she was the first one to to teach me and then galamian joined late later you know a few months later so I system was different than anything that I have experienced before the way that she would teach would be you would play something and she would ask you what you thought about it and she would ask you what I think can be done to maybe improve it or what what what I think in other words she and I would always hate it because I wasn't used to it I was used to people tell me what to do and I would try and do it she didn't tell me what to do she asked me what should I do and I would always said to her I just tell me she would always you know my my favorite example is but something was out of tune she would say sugar plum you know she would always call you sugar plum he was from Kansas she's at sugar plum what is your concept of g-sharp that was a code word that it was a little out of tune and I would always say just tell me what to do is and I'll do it she wouldn't do that she would she would she would do things to make you think the student the student just following orders in some ways is not as imaginative in other words the concept it does not require so much imagination it does not require a lot of thought it just inquires following orders that does not make it your own if you actually figure out what the problems are whether its phrasing whether its intonation whether its timing whatever it is if you can figure it out yourself then you own it imitators what I heard yeah I imitated what I heard so uh so that's think is that one of the things that that I feel that I'm very lucky two things actually maybe a few more first of all I'm lucky that I make a living at something that I love which is actually should be the goal of everybody the goal of everybody is to make if you can make a living with something that you really adore what better things can happen if you can do that that's one thing the other thing is that I'm actually able to cry when I hear certain kinds of music and and I think that's amazing that I think that I'm affected by that you know and it's it's it's it's something it's me you know so if I hear something on the radio and a recording that they think is me and I hate it or I'll cry did I record this you know sometimes no I hear this I listened on radio and I hear a violinist playing and I said oh my god I hope it's not me because if it's me oh I wouldn't do it like that today or you can say it better be me because it's too good so it's always it's always something what makes me cry anything anything that you know I remember my first experiences are supposed to that made me cry is Jimmy music by Brahms the opening of Mozart's Requiem that is just like forget about it it's just and it's not like it's not a tearjerker it's just it moves you it moves you in a certain way and you know I can I can then people ask why and I can't understand you know it must be I think that if you want to really be specific and you want to be really accurate this what what it is scientific about it it's probably a thing about harmonies that the harmonies affect you in a certain way and that's why I believe that not everybody cries in the same spot you know it has it's a harmonic reaction and and so that's that's very scientific you know it's not like you say oh well you know just that music moves you know like when you listen for example to to Puccini you know like Bo a.m. you know and that's that's kind of automatic they almost call it a musical pornography because it makes you oh my god you know so but what is that really it's basically really it's the way the composer put the harmonies together and I think that's that has an effect that's one of the great challenges for a performing musician and that's what I talk about to my students they always say to them you know it's very easy to play a piece for the first time because you're excited you know you're a little nervous you you get inspired then the second time comes and you feel a little better about it because you know that you can do it and then the third time it may be maybe well you know how do I play that piece well I play that piece like yesterday and then the fourth time who knows and then after a while the danger is to play the piece the way it goes and that's where the mistake is you know I mean there's no such thing as the way it goes you know you don't play a piece of the way it goes you play a piece the way it is and the way it goes is danger because then as a result what happens is you imitate what you do and it loses the spontaneity so the way I deal with that is I basically always always listen to the music rather than just saying well you know I play this phrase this way and that's the way I play it that's not necessarily the case you know I may play the phrase slightly differently and again it's not a question of today I'm playing loud tomorrow I'm playing soft it's not like that's it's very subtle I always call it you know I always call it it's our kind of improvisation because when people play jazz they improvise but when they improvise they really improvise they they play different notes they they play different harmonies and and they do certain things and then if you hear a piece one time you hear the same piece of second time it's it's it's really different with classical musicians the improvisation is very subtle you know you hear it the first time it's like this here the second time it has maybe a freshness and that's a little bit of an improvisation but it's very subtle it's about timing it's about phrasing it's about color but it's not about necessary not about notes the notes are the same so in many ways to be to improvise that way in classical music is very difficult cholera has to do with a lot of things again people with talent know how to do color now if you want me to talk to you about the technical aspect of color it has to do with bow pressure it has to do with bow speed it has to do with the amount of V brother the Jews in the left hand it has to do it do you use more of your brother use less vibrato what's the combination you know it has to do yeah but these are very kind of like scientific kind of things color kind of there's another thing you know color can be people are inspired they use color and of course color is a talent do you teach can you teach that I don't think so you can say well here you should play softer here you should play more usually but when it comes to naturally doing something that's a talent and I always mentioned to my students I always said I don't want to know what you're doing in other words the minute I know what you're doing then it's not spontaneous you know like so all here they're gonna do they're gonna slow down here they're gonna play softer here they're gonna play out it becomes an effect I want you to be a musician not a musician a magician what does a magician do it does something that sleight of hand and you see it it's the same thing with music you know you have to be a magician so that we've been listener listens listener says oh my god this is so amazing rather than saying well I like the way he did this and I like the way that that's no longer spontaneous I just want to relax you know of course as a teacher if somebody asked me what made it so good I can kind of go into it and they were magnifying glass and say well you know this way it was that way but as a listener I just want to say oh that was so fresh that so nice I just loved it they don't ask any questions and that's a talent all I do is my job my job is to tell the audience what is my concept of the piece that I'm playing listen to what I'm playing and this is the way I feel about that piece and that hopefully communicates to the audience it's my job so my job is not to play something and to say well you can listen if you want I'm doing my own thing you know I'm doing this and I'm presenting this for the audience so whenever whenever I play a piece it's this is my representation of the piece and I hope that the audience understands the way I feel about it that's that's that's the way I do it and then when that has nothing to do whether it's Carnegie Hall or whether it's in a small place any place whenever I play whether it's a big place or a small place or small town big town etc etc I have to communicate with the audience bored with with music right now because of the way I because of my teaching and my playing and my conducting I have a lot of stuff that still is fresh from me and new to me and one thing helps the other and so I'm not on nothing about what my effect would be I don't think about it I'm being very selfish I think about how am I going to continue to have a good time in music and and to and to be still inspired by music and as long as I can do that then my goal is is accomplished one of my dreams was to play with the Israel Philharmonic because growing up in Israel the dream is if you're a musician is to play videos or emilynics so that was I would say that's probably was a very memorable to me and it was very funny because it's a it's a it's a good story they introduced they took out a copy of a letter that I wrote when I was 11 years old and I wanted to play with the film ah where there's a fellow we're gonna wrote a letter to the Philharmonic saying I hereby request an audition to play with the orchestra I wrote it all myself in pen and so on Sincerely Yours and so and they never answered and then they showed it to me because they kept it so when I played with them you know that then that was like a dream come true for me as a youngster I like the sound in the violin everybody that you know when you hear people playing different instruments and you ask them what was that about this instrument that you like they would always say that it appeals to me my favorite example is you know in our in our program the program music program we have it's a program for talented string players and one of our teachers is a wonderful bass player and one time I asked her said did you start on the bass or did you just play the cello and then he decided she said no I always wanted to play the bass so what is it about the bass well it's about you know somebody's reacting to a low sound I reacted to a high sound my daughter always wanted to play the flute what is there about it I don't know it's something that appeals to you you know it's the same thing about about like you know you go to a restaurant and you look at something so I don't like this and that's not my you know I I hate that you know I like this I know what is it well we are all different my first violin was a almost a toy size violin which didn't sound very well and I just said that's not what I want because I you know because what I read in my ear was uh you know I heard - Asha - on the radio that was the sound and I wanted to hear so you know I was not I was not very impressed by that and then it was another one that was none of it was very very I was not impressed by it you know I always play them you know whatever there was a whatever was available so it was it was not a big deal I would say they were quietly supportive and they were there were not they were they believed in me that's the thing they believe them it's very easy you know when you have many of a child you know with with an illness like polio and Kent walking and so on and so forth it's very easy to be shall we say quietly about all he's playing the he's playing music that's very nice but no they didn't do that they said you've got to you know they took they took my music seriously they took me seriously and that's the important thing you know because if they didn't take me seriously then look when you were a kid practicing is not something that comes naturally to you you know if you get a kid that did if you tell me a kid that involves you really incredibly disciplined with practicing I would say that kid is very unusual shall prodigy is used is always is is is often used wrongly I think I mean it'sit's used commonly if you want to if you want to know what the child prodigy is Mozart was a child prodigy that's a project prodigy you know to be able to to compose at such an early age and somebody was gifted I suppose you I would call them gifted talented very alright so you can say very talented extremely talented but prodigies is I don't know it's it's kind of it's used to often and and and it's the same thing as genius you know off this guy's a genius what's in all circles a genius Einstein was a genius I would just kind of describe myself as somebody very talented and if you talk to my wife she would absolutely disagree she would say that that I was much more than that but I don't think so I mean I was I you know I had a gift I had a gift you know when I was when I was you know when I was 13 and I was on The Ed Sullivan Show I still feel that when you heard me play at the age of 13 you thought that it was somebody who was 13 and that somebody was 25 and you know sometimes you hear kids at the age of 13 and that's just like accomplished totally ready for Carnegie Hall but then comes the big challenge what happens in the next five years like six years will you survive your gift that's important certain things you cannot teach and certain things you can now mr. Lai was very interesting she believed that you could teach anything and we would always have a fight about it we would say now mr. Lane that you can teach this you can teach this you can teach that but you cannot teach a certain gift for you know when somebody plays and it moves you cannot teach that cannot teach that that's that's something that and you don't you know and the player obviously does not really know what he or she do to to make that happen it's very funny the other day the other day was like a week ago somebody sent me in an email this guy said plays the piano is amateur pianist but it's very serious and he said how do you make an audience cry says I want to know how you produce tears in the listener when you play because I don't know how to do it and I want to know what they do what the deal is I said to him I don't know what it is I said all you have to do is just think about the music and about how you feel about the music and the rest is up to the audience if that makes them cry you know people can cry in concerts for various reasons they can cry if what you play brings some sad memory you can do that you can cry by a particular effect of harmonies that just makes you cry whenever I sometimes I teach when I teach and I have studio classes with our kids sometimes we take the one of the things that we talk about is the goose bump moment in music you know what moment in music gives you the goosebumps and I'm always curious about whether the same moment would give goosebumps to all the people or what each person has a different moment in music that gives them the goosebumps and I think that that's the case everyone a react everybody reacts differently so so that's so so one of those things I don't think you can teach we have a lot of applicants for our program this for this program my wife started 23 years ago four very talented string players and so they send us videos and you know you have so many different experiences listening you know and you see somebody plays and sometimes they play perfectly and nothing happens here and nothing happens here and then you see somebody play and maybe it's not as perfect but you said oh oh that person really got it did is it a better teacher no it's something that you're born with now how how do you treat that we don't know but it's it's something that you have and that's what I said to miss delay you cannot teach that sometimes people play and they don't know what they do they just just comes and plays and one morning they wake up and they said you know what I'm doing is really really tough and then they start thinking about it and it's got and I'm telling you you you if you look at YouTube an Internet you see so many incredibly talented and gifted players 8 years old 9 years old 10 years and you said oh my god this does not necessarily mean that they're going to grow up and have a career doesn't mean that at all and sometimes as America when we hear somebody who is incredibly talented at the age of 11 or 12 or 13 we always say we have to cross our fingers because what would happen to these people when they turn 18 or 19 there is so many opportunities for everything to go wrong let's face it it's it's a - to be a musician is is it's it's not normal it's it's abnormal you know if you are anything that you do as a child that is special whether it's ice skating playing tennis playing the violin playing the cello playing the piano which requires practicing what's natural about that you know that you have to spend you know when I was growing up I spent three hours a day practicing now three hours a day is not even a lot some kids you know and and I would say to them don't practice you know five hours is it but can you imagine that you have to go to school and practice and do your homework it's very serious and so sometimes you know you have to have a real something inside of you that really wants to do it it's a different exactly that it's a different style it's not as you know we always say playing the violin in the grand tradition the grand tradition so what is the grand tradition well I can give you examples of grand tradition I like to play the grand tradition - wasn't the grand tradition you know Chrysler was just beginning you know you know Oistrakh Stern you know this were all sort of grand tradition so I basic sound of the instrument you know big large sound instrument certain slides certain way of phrasing and so on big big plane right now there's a lot of stuff you know some people still playing the grand tradition but a lot of them play sometimes you know you have this business with the early music playing where they don't vibrate you know that comes into this situation shifting is a bit less than it used to be and so on and it's very interesting because I feel that during our summer program the program music program we always have a couple of nights where I play for the students it's like studying history I play them old violinists I play them violinist that used to play 40 years ago 50 years ago it's changed you know it's like jazz you know and a lot of the stuff the if you ask me why has it changed I believe that it has changed because you know every time something gets evolved and then people listen there's so there's so much more chance of listening today it's very easy you know I just put on YouTube and you can listen to anything you want and it depends who is affected by by what I always like to tell my kids don't listen only to who is playing today these days you've got to listen to who played 20 years ago 30 years ago 40 years ago 50 years ago you know it's part of history you know because otherwise you play like blinders like your blindness you don't see anything you have to hear a history of listening when I was going to Juliet we listened to everything then we listened to Chrysler we listened to always turn of course everybody listened to - it was the guy that everybody listening to today sometimes they do too - I mean Milstein Elmen Stern and so on and and it's like a part of learning you know you learn but jazz is the same thing how did jazz develop you know when you listen to our tatum that's a different kind of piano playing than if you listen to somebody's playing today it's it's different harmonies but they were all affected but what but by by what happened before it's all his historical having polio did not affect my career as to as to getting the career that was a little more difficult there was a little more difficult I because I constantly had to prove to people that they should just not look at the fact that I'm sitting I just listen to me so it's and that that was it it could have had an effect a negative effect but my parents were very very much believers in me they were very strict as far as especially my mother you know you've got a practice that was basically the whole the whole thing of my childhood this you got a practice you know that's what we always would fight about would fight about anything else I was pretty good in school so on but you got to practice and that's what I tell everybody you know you've got you know practicing is really important you know you you can have the gift whether you you know Jascha Heifetz used to say practice you know to play the violin is 90 well it's 10 percent talent and 90 percent sweat where you have to really practice the Barack Obama one that was was for me an incredible experience simply because it was so cold it was something cold it was just incredible it was such a great honor and it was it was being a part of history is is something special you know I've played many many places you know I played I suppose that the there's something that stands out is when you play something that is as I said before like a part of history so I came I played in Russia before when it was the Soviet Union with Israel Philharmonic that for me stands out because it was something that didn't occur before it was like it had political ramifications and so on then it's so that that stands out playing in the in the Eastern Bloc countries sometimes that stands out but but I know that after this interview I would think of so many things that I did not mention about what stands out is that I played you know it's it's hard when it's hot and it's hard when it's cold it's you know you want to plan inside a hall you know sometimes you know during the summer times I've had many many experiences where I had to play where they had to actually put heaters on the stage because it was that cold and then of course there's a thing where you have a hundred degree humidity and everything slips and everything you know and you sweat with your hands and so on and there's nothing you can do about it it's too many times I have there I forgot my cufflinks oh I forgot I forgot my white tie I forgot my cummerbund I've this this way you know it's like it looks neat I can I can I just put a t-shirt and then I put a nice shirt on top of the thing and it hides everything it looks neat I don't need to worry about anything I had a tour of the Far East and then I went to I went to China and Shanghai and then I went to a store and and I saw this thing as oh that looks really nice I put it on and I don't know whether Toby my wife said you should try and play on it in AI trainers oh my god that's so comfortable there it was well I've had a couple of interesting memory slips that forced me to actually compose as I was looking for as I was looking for the to find myself back into the into the thing so that that was a that was shall we say a nice experience in quotes and that was really it was really something and I remember I was I was clanging and and all of a sudden I was I was doing my mind my playing and and and I heard the conductor clearing his throat in the middle of the performance and I said myself can he clear his throat quietly because was gonna you know I said what is he doing so I kind of looked up and he was going like that you know like with a kind of question mark and then I realized that I actually skipped an entire movement and I started the beginning and I was already at the end and so I immediately went into defense mode and I and I just kind of went like that don't worry about it and that's when I started to compose a couple of lines to get back to the cadence I like certain reactions more than others you know sometimes the audience is very polite and collapse nicely and that's very nice but then sometimes you know you have audience where they are very noisy you know when they when they like something and they Shawn Bravo and stuff like that so it's it's kind of nicer you know I mean it's kind of gives you but the more form even more important thing is the you know when you plan a concert hall that has really good acoustics and you can play the hall that's all I can you can play the Holly there's certain halls in the States for example that are like that for example uh Boston Symphony Hall in Boston so easy to play the hall because it has a lot of reverb that comes to you and then you can control it it's almost like you know what it's like I know if you have ever seen Frank Sinatra alive or a video Frank Sinatra he knew how to work in a mic he would go with a mic closer or further sort and you know he knew he had good mic savvy so it's a little bit similar to that you know when you have a hall that gives you stuff and then you can sort of get the music you know and control the colors and so on because you have that whole if you have a hall for example with the dry acoustics it's more difficult I'm only gonna go until I feel that I'm not playing as well and then I'm not gonna you know if I have something to offer why not I must say that traveling is horrible and sometimes they feel I don't want to do anything because of the traveling because it's so it's it's so impossible the difficulty you know the all of the all of the challenges hotels you know rooms which are not accessible or they are accessible and how are they accessible airports and so on horrible it listen it's horrible for a lot of people but for me especially it's even more horrible so that's from me I would say when I when I when I maybe when I reach the point where I say I can't take that anymore I would say well you know what I'll do I'll just maybe I'll just travel by car if I can get to a place by car or by train even train then I'll do it but otherwise it's it's it's just impossible it's really a very very great problem for me one of the most dangerous thing to do is you retire you know I mean I love it you know sometimes people ask me to write letters greeting letters to people who are retiring says so-and-so is retiring can you write something nice to congratulate them congratulate him for what to retire you that does not that does not you don't need congratulations to retire what what it says is I hope you do something after you retire because you know if you retire anyone what's life for you know I mean you know how much can you sit down and at the beach or have son or go fishing and stuff like that after a while you've got to do something so so in music in many ways is is a very good professional because there's so many things you can do you know if you don't play you can teach if you don't teach you can you can conduct if you can do that you can talk just like I do right now so I large hands does not help you with the violin large hands is not something that you need average hands large hands helps you with playing the piano playing the cello maybe playing the viola but playing the violin large hands is not a is not a plus and then sometimes it's a - because you know because the spaces on the violin are smaller so I do it the 20 minutes a day that's good if I do it you for me the practicing is not so much how much you practice it's the how often at my age it's how often you know if I do something every day that's good rather than then do a couple of hours one day and then not do anything for three or four days that's bad so it's it's it's the it's the often less I don't think that's a word is to do it as often as possible so if you do it every day your hands are familiar to be a musician you you're recreating your you know you re that's your business is creativity you know I mean you know sometimes people say you know when you're a composer you're creating music but when you're a musician when you're a performer you are recreating what's written so - you know a lot of people connect certain things to music Einstein felt that that that helped him I know that a lot of people love to hear music when they don't feel well and music is something that helps them and I know that in Israel when things were not going well you know there were Rockets coming up the concert halls were full of people they came to hear concerts that helped them forget for me a harmony is a painting and then when you play something in the phrase is a very special phrase I always tell my my students I said it's not like you know you go to a museum and you see a painting it's nice nice nice nice then you see the Mona Lisa and you just say nice nice nice and you just go away and he said no if there's a special harmony like a great harmony you have to you have to say that's something special and has to and you have to show that in the way you phrase it so you have to tell the audience I am aware that this is a special moment in this piece if you are aware of that everybody will be aware of it but if you just go like you pass by a great work of art and you just go oh nice nice nice nice then nobody's gonna be aware of that what is the definition of success in music see that has changed as well because it used to be that if you were if you were not playing a Carnegie Hall with orchestras and solos you were not a success this is not the case today you know today you can be a success with so many other things you know you can be a successful teacher successful Chami music player a successful soloist and successful in all three but it's not not as pure as it used to be you know it's much more people use more of their imagination is that's what I said to my students you know because a lot of them you know who are very very talented then comes the point what do I do with my life in music and those who are able to figure out and be imaginative those are the ones that succeed and it doesn't have to be and one thing it doesn't have to be like if I cannot do this then I can't do anything I think it's very exciting to be a musician I don't think it's more or less it's just exciting and it's different it's absolutely different you know it's you know things are you know you used to used to be management used to have programs where you could play 50 concerts a year in little towns and stuff like that they don't have that anymore so you have to do something else you know if they figure out you know I know some of my students you know they they involved in music festivals then they become involved in chairman music they become involved in in you know combination of stuff you know it's it's a lot of people have you know if you always say you've got to use your imagination to see what you want to do especially since you love it you know if you're a musician then you just do it just for the sake because your parents told you to do it this or that then you have to have it in your gut so you have to say I'm gonna do I can't do this I'm gonna do this I'm gonna figure out I can figure this one out I can maybe I can do this as a group or whatever it is it's it's you know you have to be imagined classical music is here to stay and it's always going to have a future it's it's it's we've proved it we've proved it it's lasted a long time

Channel: Academy of Achievement

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Id: o3vCa7u2IoM

Length: 49min 10sec (2950 seconds)

Published: Mon May 14 2018