Itzhak Perlman in Conversation with Alan Alda

this is so great to be with you tonight and to be with it suck again we we have these wonderful conversations it's sucking I've known each other for I don't know how many years a couple of hours yeah and we we have these wonderful dinner conversations which we did for about a minute and a half in in this wonderful movie about it's called it's odd that he's so good you got to see it go go to Amazon or download it to get so good this is fantastic isn't that one that we're finished we just came here to advertise it and you know you know you know even the part that I'm not in is good that's something now this is a compliment so what is our conversation tonight will be a lot to like what we have at the dinner table whenever we get together without the spaghetti and without the wine it's like it's a great connoisseur of wine you belong to that what is the burgundy what is this these people who organ do you drink all the time no it's it did go and you eat a lot of rich food and a lot of great what is it what did what did you get a ribbon and yes you get a ribbon with a little cup you know and it's a mishegoss you know but it's it's very nice you know and people get together and and they drink a little and they discuss Oh yesterday they an 82 Bordeaux that was absolutely amazing and it was showing very well it's still a baby you know I know I'm my 40th my 40th birthday somebody gave me a bottle 82 Chateau Lafite I know that bottle I had never tasted anything like that in my life and I said I'm never gonna drink anything but this two years later we had to sell the house you know this the first time I had the Chateau Lafite you know there was a long time ago when it was actually reasonable I remember that my idea of a great tasting wine was Manischewitz you know and and so I thought that well this might be a really something Manischewitz plus so you trace this thing and I said what is this you know and then I had to learn to to forget about my past and look for the future did you have to learn to enjoy Lafitte yes well you have to learn to enjoy it you know it's it's a taste thing because I had an uncle who had I had a bottle of Lafite and I knew he had never tasted it before and I thought I'm going to open this up and share it with him and give him something that he's never to any tasted and he said you have any Gallo extra hearty burgundy and then he really gave me a good tip he says let me give you a tip when you have a glass of wine put an ice cube in it this way this way you'll never get bombed have you ever tried that no no I just I was thinking of doing a spritz you know a little soda anything but you know that that goes with sweet wine actually is very good I know it's sacrilege we're not talking about right now it's sacrilege but never mind they're gonna take your ribbon away and the cop - you know I when I love what we talked about this on the podcast a little oh I have a podcast called clear and vivid and Itzhak was our second guest in the first season which just ended go take a look a little take a listen I mean there's a podcast and listen to it suck he's so wonderful on the podcast because you're so good at talking as as amazing as you are as a musician you're so good at talking that when did you start talking No I've interviewed a lot of people that I get that sometimes you know this is this is a thing where it where you know when you would you play a concert and somebody comes backstage and they don't know what to say oh yeah because they don't know maybe they didn't like it and so on so they look at you in the go and you can take that any way you want and you know there are people who go backstage to actors who think that they've got it all worked out they don't have to like it but they can say something that will get them past having to talk so they say things like well you did it again yes yes no this has happened to me a lot you know what what you what you don't want to hear I you always tell me and I always feel that that's such a good thing to even tell my students you always told me that when somebody plays whether it's an actor or a musician after they do it all they want to hear is a wonderful compliment you got a say in my opinion you have to say you were wonder if 'ok yes wonderful brilliant is okay yes but you got to say you and you got to say were these are important words if you say it was that could be the scenery yes exactly gotta say you and you kind of say were meaning tonight you were wonderful and also Henry yes and also don't say congratulations no that's that's death you know the first time somebody said that to me I nearly cried yes Oh congratulations I mean what congratulations what what you mean you made it through they made it through it wasn't so good but you made it through but when did you start talking to the audience well there was that something you did from the time you were a child and performed oh no a moment when you startled it was it was you know I wanted you know I was playing something and and then I said you know I would like to explain you know what I'm doing and so on so it started to do it and then all of a sudden you know I would say something that was mildly amusing and I got a nice reaction so from then on those from then out I said something that was very mild real you know and I love that what you said to them in Canada oh that way I love that well which which you which joke are you talking about because so many you know be you were playing the chanson sample or yes yes yes I was well that's what I do you know I I played a piece by Chekhov see cause song without words which in in Francis shall songs some parole so I tell them that Tchaikovsky wrote this for a friend of his who was accused of a minor misdemeanor and put in jail forever and it's called shall stone son parole so now believe it or not not everybody gets it but but in Canada they get it very quickly because of the French languages yes exactly so so did you ever try that in France no never but I didn't try it in Japan either it do you have a harder time hitting laughs in Japan yes well Japan a lot of a lot of the a lot of the funny anecdotes in Japan you know you it's difficult because if they don't speak English a lot so I one time I I did something I was playing a piece by a guy named Rhys and it was and I thought at the exactly I was saying I'm playing a single piece by Rhys so if you do that in Japan I did at one time and there was I think one American there so because I know it because I said that then somebody's good you know but it was only one person maybe you should have played too then you could say Rhys pieces to get it I did that of course you did that too didn't work I found out you got to pick the exact right word you know it's I mean I know that some some comedians work for years to get the exact right word like for instance I've been trying to find out if I'm genetically Jewish I think I am because my Italian grandfather said our family came from Spain and around 1492 so that pretty much is a good indication you Jewish absolutely so I sent away for a DNA test I scraped off some of my cheek and sent it away and the analysis came back that I was four percent Jewish and six percent Neanderthal that's okay because it's the Ashkenazi Neanderthals there was a funny one I like that I'll use it haha so the reason that I found that out there today is I've been saying before that the Ginsburg Neanderthals that just got a mild laugh tried the Goldberg knee and it didn't get did work said I can izing the article oh boy you know why it's got a K in it you look Neil Simon had that theory that words with K's in them are funnier than words without Kay's okay see the incredible laughing you got there if you had said all right forget it exactly that was good we didn't work on this you said something to me backstage that I thought oh this would be good to talk about out on the stage what did you say I forget no no I said that we should not not talk about it because we should save it to talk about here but he since you don't remember you know I'm always curious as to what happens to an actor on for example in Broadway because that always fascinates me as to how you perform and how does the audience affect your performance this is what I'm always wondering about you with the violin it's very interesting there for us your focus is on the other actor if you're talking to the arts you have one of those parts where you talk to the audience and your focus is directly and for me anyway the focus directly on them but if I'm with another player I'm so I'm just like I think it's like chamber music for you I'm taking everything I do off of you I respond to you you hopefully you respond to me and something happens between us that couldn't happen alone so has it ever happened for example of that you are working with somebody and that person is just something is wrong with the energy or whatever it is saying oh I'm trouble you're in you're in business for yourself at that point right one night in summer stock when I was in my early 20s the other actor came on stage completely drunk and he was standing there weaving like it's just standing there and I'd say my line to him and he'd just look at and we've I had to say his lines and my lungs like you say I know what you're thinking and then you say his line that's the worst example of that but when things go well you talk about the awareness of the audience when things go well I'm talking about how you if you have an audience that you know are absolutely right there as opposed to an audience that you have to you know - you know that's so what happens to your perform it's a mistake to try to capture the audience you got to meet them where they are you know Saturday night people used to say Saturday night audience were going to be great it wasn't my experience Saturday night audiences had steak and scotch before they came into the theater so that's difficult and they're half-asleep and often the man doesn't know why he was dragged to this play so they're in some other place altogether so you just got to do the play and if they find it interesting or funny they will and if they don't at least you did the place so you don't have to try special and reach out you just do your thing right now how does that apply to you in any way yes well with me it's it's not just the audience but it's also the acoustics Oh Oh tell about cause you know because sometimes you play in a hall that when you plan a hall that acoustically is it gives you everything I like you know there's certain halls in the states here that when you go on the stage and you start to play it's like you're playing the hall you could mean colors you can do stuff and then it's just fantastic now on the other hand sometimes you play in that hole that's like a convention center and it's very and it's not it's geared for you no microphone you know it's not geared for natural acoustics so and I always tell my students I said if you do something like this happen don't try extra hard just do what you normally do same thing can't try it same thing the the more you try the more it looks like you're putting effort into it too intense so what about what I love to explore with you and I and every time we talk about it I learned a little more about the similarities between what you doing what I do I so value spontaneity I think it's the thing I value most in a performance almost any kind of so tell me how is spontaneity how do you do spontaneity when you have the script when you have the Alijah where is the spontaneity there if if we're actors on a stage right and you say a line to me I don't say my next line because it's in the script or because I memorized it I say my next line because you've said something in such a way that makes me say the next line or I want something from you so badly that I say the next line based on that and if we're lucky you have the same response to me and your changed a little bit by the way I say and each night it's a little different mmm the dynamics are a little that we're saying the same lines we're in the same part of the stage but none of that is different so the difference is what is in the inflection and the voice that energy how is it difference you know when you are when you know all those things come out the energy the voice the inflection but it's not because you put them there for me it's that's what spontaneity is it's not because I invent in this moment a way to use my voice it comes out in a different way because you've done something to me and I'm willing to your reactive you are willing to react yeah now how does that compare to which oh very much so you know I mean the thing is that I've been you know I teach every day when I'm in New York so today I was teaching somebody and I we've talked about reaction to harmony mmm reaction to material what is the music because some some people says what do I do mr. P what what do I do with this thing how do you know what to do there and I say you have to listen up harmonically as to what does the music tell you and what I do is sometimes I I make them you know I take I don't know a book or something anything and I read and I say to them okay so there is there is a paragraph and the paragraph says mister so-and-so has been occasionally incredibly involved with whatever so what is a word that you want to really accentuate is incredibly so you don't say he was incredibly involved you don't say that you say he was incredibly a mom so there is something that you say if the word tells you to give it a little bit of a you know like a you you want to get into that word because or it like if they say heroically you don't just say heroically you said and that's the way you do it with with when you play a phrase and you have a harmony that you feel is very special so you just have to play it in a sense and I say to the students see them I want to know that you know that this harmony is very special and the minute you know that you will play it slightly differently because you will be aware of it you know this is very much like when my father used to say to me who he started in burlesque 80 85 years ago and he told me if you know it's funny they'll know it's funny and I never believed it because I thought it was telegraphing it and saying it to them but there's a little bit of that even though you're if you want to be straight and deadpan about it somewhere in the back of your head you know there's something funny going on and it's contagious and the other the other things that I find in music and I don't know and I'm sure that there is a parallel in acting is that I always say to the kids that you have to be like a magician you have to do thing - the phrase that I will not know that you're doing mmm that but all as a listener is that I would enjoy what I hear but that I will not say oh he did this he make her a maid a diminuendo and he played now softly now he made an accent and now I made this whatever you do it has to be so subtle and yet somebody is gonna say oh you know I don't know what it is but I just love that this is almost exactly what Spencer Tracy used to say I'm not acting act as well as you can but never let them catch you doing it the same time salutely and and for me it comes spontaneously up from as much as possible from the back of my head which doesn't mean I don't prepare I know it's not that I don't study and try to figure out what's going on and maybe even think of some version of how I might do it but when I'm doing it I'm beholden to what's taking place if it's a monologue I'm gonna want to know how this compares with you you're playing all by yourself I hear it start to come out a certain way and I go with the wherever it goes there was a great actor it's called Sam Levine who did Guys and Dolls was my father on Broadway I used to stand in the wings two shows on Saturday and Sam Levine said the same words every night he said him in a completely different way he would follow it wherever it went and the the effect on the audience was they'd laugh in different places well that's great I love that that's amazing it would mean it was each night a kind of improvisation so so what do you do you're playing a piece of BA mm-hmm how much do you allow yourself to interpret the BA your way to find out where it's going and still be playing by well Bach is a terrible example oh and I am out we're a little late so good night well now tell you and I'll tell you no I'll tell you why it's a terribly again tell me because Bach is now you know there's so many people playing Bach in different ways well there's no such thing as the right way to play Bach you know you have you know you have things like early music style where you don't vibrate things like that and so so all the way to the Swingle Singers that's right exactly so what happens is that if somebody plays Bach I would say 50% of the people will say this was great and 50% of the people said this was horrible because there's nothing it's never a right way to do it as far as style is concerned so Bach is you know I mean I I've been accused of playing back in a very romantic way I don't think I play back in a romantic way I think but I play back in the classic classical way so what do I do again I listen harmonically but it's much easier to do it if you play a more of a romantic piece and then there's you have a little bit more freedom like if you play something by Brahms so bright and Browns you you you have less less latitude well you have less correctness you know because it's oh it's it's a it's a little freer it's a little freer that's why Bach is so difficult it is so difficult you know when when we have juries at Juilliard you know Bach is always required you know you can have somebody playing you know Brahms and Bartok and Tchaikovsky LA and comes to back it humbles you it really does because first of all technically it's very transparent and you have to phrase in such a way that will make sense and I'm sure that that's good in that's the you know what is the difference let's let's talk a little bit and I'd like your opinion let's do a timing anything about timing that you can tell me what will ask me what's the secret of comedy ask me well I see it coming yeah yeah but but so so in a when you do it with okay here's what I think about tiger I thought a lot about timing a lot of people think timing is count to three before you say it they actually have actually heard people have hear that suggestion no I think timing is a thought process do you process something as you say it and it'll be different depending on what comes before it and what's going to come out at the end of the timing what's the thought process going to indicate is going on inside your head so timing is not time that transpires it's part of the process of of thinking you think the part that's not funny the setup you think the next thought that's silent and then there's the funny part and Wendy will come in with a funny part that's the thing as it you come in when when the silent part is over I so but when is the silent part over yeah that's the if something's not happening in the silent part it's not going to be funny somebody will actually interrupt you because I I knew an actor who in conversation was always trying to use timing he'd say I went at it and and people start talking because he was mechanically timing the punchline so no spontaneity that it was nothing was really happening you know you know in Israel what they do is they when they do a conversation and they think about it they have a thing like really that yes you say so so tell me so well that's a note no no it when I say it it to knows somebody else says if it's just Japan they say I know right oh I don't know and and what do we say you know it drives me crazy as people say I mean here you know you know is another one you know I wouldn't mind but I mean you say ask somebody question what time is it I mean it's quarter to four I mean is what you say when you've said something that they don't know what you mean and then you say what do you mean you don't say what you mean because you haven't said anything yet first you say something then you mean it I don't know what I have to go now yeah I don't know what you mean so what so do you when I hear a piece of music I often hear a conversation even if it's one instrument I hear I hear a statement like a sentence and then I hear something coming in under it that says like maybe the statement is right I do that you really oh yeah I do that you know something break it down with it like can you remember a section that you did that and then what you watch what did you how did you do it well sometimes I feel that when you when you play a phrase and for me there is there are so many characters in a phrase so you can have an angry character you can have a pleasant character you have a decide I like the decisive character so sometimes you have a phrase that repeats itself so you say the first is you know you you you you you announce it and then it repeats in the menu and then it comes the third time he says and I really mean that you have to play that in that way so you cannot just yes I know yes I know yes I know yeah so that's what happens you know it can happen in anything whether it's a Mozart concerto or a Beethoven sonata or anything like that but I make it up you know and I mean sometimes I used to one of my first teachers you know she would always say to me you know that Mozart phrase do you remember we imagine that there are people in a ballroom you know the the way they dress during Mozart's time you know with the handkerchief she will always set up a like a scenario was that helpful what absolutely why I do it today I don't know if it was helpful but I still do it you know you you remind me of the question of spontaneity when you did those three statements of yes I know because what interests me is at home before you ever play in front of an audience you might decide it's yes I know yes I know yes I know yes so you might go generally for that but when you're in the moment the third yes I know depending on what happens before that good yes I know yes still accentuating it or it could be yes I know so many different entities but that's where the spontaneity comes in I think so the rush anyway I don't know so does the audience affect that or not they the audience or is it the other actor there's usually it's the other actor but the audience affects it even in a serious play sometimes you know they're emotional because you hear them reaching for their handkerchiefs I'll tell you an interesting thing we did a play about the Richard Fineman who helped work on the atomic bomb and after the bomb went off and killed so many people in Japan he he became depressed and what did I start talking about Richard Feynman about about yes I know it'll come back to me later that's funny I've you know because I played him on the stage and when I said his name I started thinking of so many things well the reaction the reaction of it'll come back to me do you do you do you follow it where it goes when you're playing by yourself in any way no there's got to be a frame what do you mean a friend you know in other words a phrase you know you cannot I always feel about did one of the great things about a successful phrase is the sensor you know we all have to have a sensor when we play so all right let me explain a sensor is this let's say that you have Ritardando it means slowing down how much do you slow down mmm do you slow down just enough that you will feel that it's slowing down or you slowing down a little bit too much and you know I always tell my students that when you have a glass of water that's totally full how much water does it take to spill just one drop that's one drop you'll be all to spill so and that brings me back to the timing yeah so that you know if you sort of do a on two and you do it a little bit too much messes up the phrase it's gotta be right so that then then when the audience hears that they said yes that's the way it should go and that's usually very simple but you have to have the sensor you have to have the idea and and another thing that's very very difficult is playing a tune why a simple tune because everyone when a tool is beautiful everybody is trying to do stuff with it and then you know you said yourself let the tune play itself the composer knew what he was writing just let the term play itself done don't start you know it'll sound I don't even know the word Unger pajkatt you know anyway so that's what it would sound like this is exactly like what a director will say to an actor who's doing so much with so little that all you have to do is do it you don't have to make something out of them the director will say don't just do something stand there well that's a good director yeah that's exactly what you tell you look I mean let it let it just let it just play itself you know otherwise it becomes like you know something that's that's not natural the censor you talk about funny I was thinking about that this morning I was thinking of Larry Gelbart who wrote a lot of the episodes of mash and was a quick wit and yet I always felt that his mind was producing funny sayings a mile a minute but he only said ones that were really funny tonight I think he heard a lot of retorts he heard a lot of gags coming up in his head but he wouldn't say the easy ones that anybody would say an easy pun or something yeah he bled out the ones that were really special and it's one thing to have a quick wit but you might sacrifice for quickness you might sacrifice taste absolutely true I hear arguments for me but taste you know but of course how do you how do you say to your student it's nothing good taste actually I do say that in a kind of funny way because we talk about slides you know what's sliding on the violin yeah sometimes you slide and it's kind of a Zooey not in good taste yeah is there an equivalent of a slide and acting where you do something and you say it's really not you shouldn't really do that is it overly dramatic or I mean how would you how would you call somebody you say uh that that person really didn't quite think above I can't think of something that that's similar that because you can call you you know what a slide is yeah in enacting no no I'm not talking about slide just anything an inflection or anything that's in bad taste oh sure well mugging mugging making faces to try to make it funny when it's all all you have to do is go through the experience all I see I see so you mean they're going like something like that like yeah you know like I've been doing all night yeah yeah you told me once something about taste that I keep listening for and I can't get it which is you don't like it when Broadway singers vibrate oh yes notes oh yes why they won't get me started I want to get you started I wouldn't understand it clearly I hear them they go some enchanted evening crowd get to the very end of the thing then they go whoa no they don't do that they let me tell you what though what all can tell I will tell you what they do they start and they start the thing and they sing and then finally they said only started yes little its art we've garnished and with a with no vibrato and you said is it ever gonna be finished you know and finally they vibrate at the end it become it's becoming a style it's a Broadway style so now tell me why it should bad taste that I don't know I don't I don't know if it's in bad taste I just think it's an effect it sounds affected yeah it's the same thing in music you know it's well in this music you know it's an effect that a lot of you know you don't get me started you know I'm a I'm a vibrato not now what kind of not a vibrato Oh righto you know yeah yeah because I feel vibrato is one of the important musical tools that is not being used enough for music sake now there's a case of the century it seems to me having a role to play because I've heard some singers vibrate so much that they're giving me three notes for everyone yes you said they used I just told today this story they used to be a conductor by name of Sir Thomas Beecham and he and and and he had in this Orchestra an oval player and usually the oboe player gives the a so and all players in Europe they vibrate you know they sound like well you know very huge vibrato so the over play goes yeah and he turns to the Orca sisters pick your choice gentleman it was so like that yeah yeah yeah so anyway but but so how do you judge how much you're gonna vibrate and how are you going to tone it alright so I'll give you my vibrato lecture okay my favorite lecture vibrato and cornstarch in Chinese food how is that that's my lecture all right okay can't wait I'll explain that so X will do MSG now you're talking so if we had if you have it can really do with anything if you have cornstarch usually you know and in Chinese food you sometimes they use cornstarch to thicken it and and and just to make it the sauce right so if you have if you have Chinese would you ever say this Chinese food has excellent degree of cornstarch you never say that you only say not enough or too much yeah see you never say this so with vibrato it's the same thing the minute you hear the vibrato something is out of kilter the rubato has to help the phrase it has to help the plank so that you hear but and again nobody ever comes to me and says Oh mr. Perlman you have such a wonderful vibrato it does say that you know I mean sometimes you know you hear a student plane he says machine gun vibrato it's always too much yeah so so I so I say to the kids you know the minute I hear your vibrato that means they have to adjust the the ratio of what how you vibrate so that I can hear the phrase I hear bossa nova singers who to my ear don't vibrate at all so if that bothers you then all thing I love it Oh a mysterious sound to me I live did you know what I'm talking about I'm know but I will I will listen I really called it tomorrow up here at the Y you can tell Cody - I've been wanting to ask you a question about mash and have you had any like episodes where you had to repeat stuff over and over and over until it's just impossible or was it all because it looks so spontaneous but how spontaneous was it or is it something that sometimes if it's very like on unmask sometimes we would have a scene with a lot of things happening a lot of physical action happening and in order for it to get to be really spontaneous we would have to do sometimes 20 takes to get spontaneity yet spontaneity now that sounds weird but so but is it difficult you yeah it's very difficult because this bump and then boom boom boom boom boom boom you know all these things are happening in in the right rhythm but they can't look like they're happening mechanically in that room they have to come up almost on the wrong and yet all fit into a path so you had a director that make the judgment call us to how the or or did you look at the takes and to see what you know did you use your own judgment they're still well I think I was directing the one I'm talking about director oh good I I kind of went for I that's a mistake I made I don't think I'd make any more I would do fewer takes if I were directing though because it's easier to get to spontaneity if it's really spontaneous so you have to work you were like you had to work for spontaneity that's yeah and that's better key it is tricky because a lot of people the more they do it the less spontaneous they get but I was working with an actor when she was a brilliant actor but he couldn't remember the lines to see he was him talking for a minute and a half and that's happened to me to his no no shame to that but I wanted to do the scene in one take one shot I mean all in one shot he said why don't you do it in cuts then I can just remember three words at a time didn't know you when you do it great you've got all this energy and it comes it flows and what that flow of energy so he did it sixty nine times and he hated me he was was but the final one was great brilliant and spontaneous that's funny you think that what she got gave up he got on the train and he went with it you know and after the shot he said that's perfect print it we got it and they said well the cameraman says there was a reflection of the mic boom in the in the mirror is the most horrible thing you know I said nobody will notice that it's in the movie you look at the movie there's the mic boom in the shot all kinds of things if you put it down to one frame at a time you see you get your money's worth that way usually do you have a machine like that that can put it one frame at the time yeah doesn't everybody in oh yeah now I remember I remember we used to have you remember there long-playing records the elders the DLP's we would listen to our great great violinist you know and I would always you know sometimes you would find that maybe there was a little a little flub a little mistake yeah and I would run parties at the house you know and play it now what about the popcorn and everything let's listen to that again that was on the LP yes that was before they could edit them the way the-- but right now we're the cds can do anything but but that's it do you when you record in the studio do you leave little things in that that sometimes other people want to take out I try not to but it's a mistake it's gotta be it's spontaneity so we're expecting a telegram thank you oh if you say so so you sure you play those little sections over in there edit sometimes you do sometimes you do that bother you do you feel like others you know but sometimes you said you know but if you have a particularly great take then you just said all the hell with it but that doesn't always happen you know I've been accused of over overly overly and you know making sure that everything is right so repeat it again it's always a mistake what you do to try to do the whole thing yeah yeah yeah that's that's that makes sense to me because there were things in Section K that don't that would wouldn't be that way if you didn't play aid to K differently that's true that's true that's no these are questions from the audience I'm not answering this first one I'm not answering you know I just read this first one is for you it says it suck when did you know that you had talent is that really what it says right there well we can you don't have to answer if you don't know no I didn't know that I did not know that I had talent you know people around me thought that I had talent so I believed them you know I mean like people who do know now right I found out last year do you think talent is the ability to perform or is talent what you start with and then you make something of it well talent is there's some ability to perform what's talent is something that comes naturally uh-huh that you cannot teach and then you have to work yeah but you know I mean it's it's it's the level of talent is if for me you know we've been something some lincoln like sometimes a student place for me and like the phrase just comes out perfectly you know you can't teach that yeah you can teach you know you can say i'll do it this way do it that way do it that way do it this way but it's not threatening you know you've got to have something that's spontaneous so this other question on the this card is why the violin well I'm Jewish so we're gonna tell you why not [Laughter] well you know you know a famous violinist once say the violin is because it's easier to carry you know as opposed to a piano or something yeah but I know it's it's a question of hearing the sound on the radio in my case and you when did you find your Stradivarius oh that one yeah that one is an interesting story the Stradivarius belonged to the great ear hoody menuhin and and I was you know during the time that I started to play we all were looking people young people always look for fiddles they always look you know there's always a violin here in a violin there the the difference between at that time you know I was talking about 40 50 years ago is you can actually look for great Italian violence that were sort of affordable relatively affordable and so I heard about Granero violin you know that somebody got and I approached Menuhin and I said I heard that he knew the person who bought that violin and so he talked to me about it and then finally I said by the way what do you plan so he said I plan a Stradivarius and I said can I try it so he gave it to me Annie I pledged three notes and I thought I was gonna die you know it was like I couldn't believe it I never know were you at that point about 2324 something like that you know was early on and so I said to him I said to him you know if by any chance you ever think of selling it please let me know and he didn't but he let somebody else know that he wanted to sell it and so one morning I got a call from my friend in London who was watching that violin for me he was my violin spy as to what to make sure that many one doesn't sell it to anybody else and and that was right after we bought a house so we had no money and and so it's 6:00 in the morning I get the phone call it happened I said what happened what happened he says the violin is in my house and it only goes to you or I buy it myself you know so I turned to my wife Toby and I said Toby what are we gonna do we have no money so well so we make a loan so so I paid the loan off last year it was 30 years ago anyway they buy this movie it shocked this has become like you know like you advertise your stuff I dress here what how would you advise a young professional with the history of performing music and a passion to keep music in their life well I was going to say keep going yeah that's is there any piece of music you haven't yet played publicly that you would like to no me neither question is asked to me all the time - it's is a mr. old is any role you would like to play no I I don't plan on the future anyway my whole life is an improvisation so there's something I want to do I'll find out about it you know that's a good title for a book my life is an improvisation by that book - yes did you have there's a question then I know the answer is you have fun making the documentary yes well you know I had for a year you know I was sort of I was being followed not all the time but there was some time so that was being followed I always like to tell this story because you know Alison who's the director and she's always followed me you know at certain times during the year and so on and until and today when something happens that is particularly remarkable I still I'm such a habit of being followed and I keep going where's Allison you know where where the cameras you know this is the most disgusting thing that ever happened I need a camera to take a picture of this you must you must be happy with how wonderfully you and Toby both come off in this movie well listen I mean we are good together we're very good to get and people say you know your wife was absolutely amazing in that movie you are good to know but it's true you know I mean we're women we make a good I think I think we make a good now if you buy the movie you can judge for yourself do you have a philosophy and if so what is it yes you have another question wait a minute philosophy yeah well that's very general it is but is there some guiding principle you always fall back on that that has done you a good a good job you know what you know I tell you what it's in deciding what decisions you make in life and for me that my philosophy is when you make a decision there's no such thing as a gray area I don't believe in gray areas it's either right or it's wrong so if you make a decision he said well you know it's nothing yeah but it's it's not or like they say it's not illegal or something like this I don't believe in that I believe that you know you have to morally you have to do the right thing oh you mean when they say it may be unethical but it's not illegal and it can that either or maybe it's not exactly unethical but hey I don't believe in that I believe in you know it's it's either right or it's it's wrong you know we're getting back to the verb righto on donor oh my god oh don't get me started again you know so I have a similar thing that I guess you could call as a philosophy similar to that which is that I am a big fan of reality things are what they are mmm and I I don't I don't mind denying reality sometimes I'm denial is been very good to me but with the i'll is very good a lot of people yeah I know but when I know something is true and I'm not denying it you know without realizing I'm denying it then I'm a big fan of it it's very helpful to be to face it you know but I get the feeling you're that way too I must be yeah sure absolutely you won the that prize in Israel what was it called Genesis Genesis yeah where they give you a million dollars yes but you can't keep it all that's it's I call it the Jewish prize you know I give it to you and you have to give it right back but you get to choose where you're giving it you got to choose within reason oh oh you have to talk it over well yeah why not look I I chose to give it to two things that have to do with disability and with music you know so those are the two things that I'm most involved in and so on so so it was good but as I said you know it's it's it's you know when people say oh you know they give you a million dollars oh my god it's wonderful it's it's a give it gave it right back it's good you know it made the final payment on the violin I'll go no way no way no way so what can what when you give some of that money to a project or or a nonprofit that deals with disabilities and what what do they do what what what so it depends on the program depends what they have something accessible it's a it's sometimes at school that that has a lot of kids who have disability various disabilities you know it depends you know depends on their organization you know there's always action for the blind for the Deaf you know for people with disabilities for people who are you know to help with you know with exercise and you know hospitals or whatever it is you know that's there's so many organizations they're very good ones that that you can that you can help you know like I mean like there's an organization here that says that's it says concert in concerts in motion for example so where you have musicians going into houses where and play for people cannot go out for a concert so they play the given little concerts and so on and so forth that's you know things like that they're very very vines yes absolutely you know do you think do you think the world is getting a little better I mean every corner has a scooped out part where a scooter like yours can go but does that mean that the world is getting a little more cognizant of those of us with disabilities a little secular fellow people still still there's still ways that people are you know I go through horrible situations you know where for example I check myself in the hotel and you should see the some rooms that that have been designed by architects who really don't know anything because they have a code book and look at the code book and you know and the code book you know codes don't apply to everybody it's and they're very cold you know so if you if you go and if you have a code where their bathroom needs to be accessible it says put two bars and you have an accessible bathroom you know no matter where you put them it's nothing so that's so I there's a lot of problems a lot of problems and I find that we have to constantly keep talking about it yeah constantly talking about because those problems stay I I think our our awareness needs to be changed I a few years ago I had broken my foot on vacation so I had to take a wheelchair in the airport and I thought oh it's bad enough being well-known now everybody's gonna be staring at me nobody looked at true you did soon as you get in the wheelchair you disappear they you totally totally and any know if somebody X specialist not somebody will you drives you in the wheels unit chair the people that's if you go to the counter for that for your ticket the the ticket agent will not talk to you actually I'll talk to the driver you know to that the person the drone or driving the wheelchair yeah yeah where's she going yeah where is he going yeah and then you know so the other day I was going the other day was just two days ago that that does that constitute the other day if it was two days ago two days anyway so you know exec again you know I was going with my pianist you know and he was saying something and this she said where is he going so he says why don't you talk to him just so I thought she said I thought you spoke for him but you spoke for him yeah you know I mean I wanted same thing I once went on an airplane and I was waiting for my dinner and and it never arrived and so I said to excuse me sir but where's my dinner system oh you speak English because they assumed that I was going with somebody else's I was just sitting there and then it a lot of things where is Alison with a camera no you're right we that's right be in the movie absolutely yeah well it's a wonderful movie I hope you get to see it I had the podcast about this when when when singers on Broadway get to the end of their song and they sing the last note think of me think of me at least they know how to end it we're ending it this way well thank you thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: 92nd Street Y

Views: 8,638

Rating: 4.955801 out of 5

Keywords: 92Y, 92nd Street Y, perlman, jewish, alda, itzhak perlman, alan alda, violin, violinist, violin playing, actor, acting, M*A*S*H, itzhak

Id: ZOCV2RtuomY

Length: 56min 32sec (3392 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2019