Håkan Hardenberger talks to Sarah Willis live on Sarah´s Horn Hangouts about hairstyles, trumpet, conducting and practicing for at least 10,000 hours… Live Interview in Berlin January 16th, 2013
Transcript
Auto-generated from the live stream, expect the occasional robot mishearing.
Hi everybody I really hope that you’re watching this and that you can hear us please write into the chat and let us know just from my nerves to make sure that this is a working fine we’re trying out a new sort of hangout today because up till now I’ve had my guests on webcam as you know and we’ve been face to face on the internet but today
I have the absolute pleasure of being face to face we’ve woken harberger I’m so happy this is actually the best way to interview someone face to face and be able to laugh and look in their eyes and see them welcome welcome thank you so much for joining us thank you very much let me just tell you guys walking out a concert here last night with the mother
Chamber Orchestra a huge success very nice console hidin hidin and goober husky Gruber busking and that’s a half an hour of you busking yes fantastic piece you know with with strings banjo and accordion half an hour of non-stop playing well today well can you you weren’t quite sure what was to what you were expecting here were you it was all you’ve seen a bit of the hangouts but to be to know that you’re live on the internet and all these people all right so someone’s just written in
I love you freaky and Toronto greetings from Norway so that’s what happens um everyone is gonna write in some questions I’m going to be looking at you looking at them looking here on the stone on the chat so you guys I hope you bear with us we have Jakob our wonderful technical guy here in Berlin over here he’s mixing the video picture for you and of course
Tim in Melbourne hi Tim it’s very very late so thank you for staying up to manage this so I’ll get your questions in a bit but first I want to have a chance to ask my question Hawken um when I interview someone I don’t like to really ask the questions that you can google that - so I tend to make phone calls
I mean we’ve met a couple of times but we don’t know you know each other very well um so I i phone a couple of people say hey you know tell me something about pork and I’m not looking for the dirt of course but just sort of things you know that people might be interested in and I spoke to a
Swedish trumpet player who will remain nameless until after the interview and said what is it about Oakland why is this guy so amazing and he said well you know hoping it’s just he’s just this Swedish guy who helped us to be really good-looking and who got a trumpet player for Krishna trumpet for Christmas and practice than 10 hours 10 hours a day so there’s nothing really spectacular in that expect you work like crazy yeah
I think you know the famous 10,000 hours that you’re supposed to do I think I did already or I was you know the trumpet really hits me the destiny of the trumpet that Christmas gift that I was given but you know also very very important is of course that the first teacher the way bo Nelson managed to infuse the love for music and for the instrument
I mean there was no classical music in the family there was no no traditional so he’d been to a concert with Livia Armstrong in the late 50s or something like that and he just remember it was just a fun thing to do he bought all beaten up chocolate and they amended it and then very soon after I met boo you know he was amazing there’s some great footage of you too on on
YouTube and there’s there’s a little thing with a little snippet of YouTube playing a concerto together and he’s looking really serious and you’re just sort of bopping around you know just having a good time you look very you had the most incredible hair there’s a there’s a documentary that I that I looked at to prepare for this and it was made in 1992 and great hair again really great hair but you were already a bit of a media star because you were very good at talking to the camera and explaining what you were doing you had a hose pipe at some point and and it
Was a really good I really recommend really recommend this this YouTube video it’s a it’s a documentary and it’s very inspiring and some great family photos of walking as a young boy so it’s really true that you practiced ten hours a day well I did practice I think you know when I was very young movers were careful
I remember you know practice make us much break as you practice be sure of that and maybe first I would start with little 10-minute session and it was more and more and I think by the time I was 12 I was probably practicing about four hours a day and of course it’s not it’s not the amount of hours itself that is important it’s is what you do it’s like you still practice more hours and
I think I did in a week in the day I just like doing if I don’t really like that I mean they’re ours you put in because how do you prepare yourself meant and mentally to do that much practice you know you see people in their tones watching TV while they practice on tour and or reading a book or of course we wouldn’t recommend this to do at home would we well if it’s something that you just need to get through yeah or even something that you need to get into the yeah it can even be good to watch television do something else for instance
You know some memorizing or something like that where you have a disturbed inspector yeah can be quite the patient but I think the most important is to have an idea why you would practice so you start off with the idea what why am I sitting here now you know and then so you have a girl what you want to achieve how am
I gonna go about it I’m not gonna get it go more than it was one I was experimenting for a while with my concentration span and I remember I need for something like 22 minutes or 23 minutes wellhe experiment well I just noticed that then and so so then I made my practice sessions would be that I would have 22 minutes concentration span okay that’s really like literally just playing for twenty minutes and not thinking about dinner or no change
I mean it was for a while you tried different methods different approach until you find what is what is you are you in the best possible way can can achieve what you wanted you still a lot of hours though and and I think a lot of students will be asking how about my lips if I practice that long you know because
I it’s my practice that longer than next day but maybe you know if you practice to love if you come to it very very soft very soft very very slow you know making sure that you only enter good information to the brain well can Richard another ask do you do anything while you practice that gets you used to distractions while performing like what like train horses in the war they
I remember when I was a kid and I was going to do my first concert we had a dog great maybe a st. Bernard dog and he was kind of sensitive to the sound of trouble but he look at how hey continue we have we have a good we had Carol chances yeah is capped the other day yeah and
Gil Williams her dogs were howling so obviously there will be this thank you can you give us Kendall oz can you give us some examples of your goals and what you want to achieve in a practice session well that would be very much a particular sound a particular attack you know something that I maybe heard a violinist or a singer do but
I would think you know knowing from them the text of the music trying to see what the compressor is wanting and finding you know tebow always said he said on the violin is at least five thousand ways for we’re not on the target we have to you know he said if you can have ten ways of starting in art then you have a language and so
I will I will think about those things and then and then you practice until you get it that way so it’s it’s all a process of thought first you have to be you have to be curious you have to fill yourself up with information you know listening to a lot of music looking at art reading books all the things that will inspire you because if you just sit there and you don’t know what it is you want us achieve then the four hours are not very well spent or ten or ten people was your teacher at the in
Paris yeah that’s a Conservatoire yeah and and there’s a great story about Holcomb you you were probably practice in his house right and you were downstairs or upstairs and whenever you made a mistake he would the people would would bang with his feet on the ceiling I shall never do nothing really and it was good you know because
I think now what I teach one of the things I really would like to do is to kind of observe how people actually do practice because we practice is often not so efficient we are not good at separating what is performance and what is practicing you know so a lot of people they perform a little bit when they practice they like to practice the things they’re good at and especially if you’re in a place where other people can hear you’re practicing and then performing you know when you have your concert or audition as
I think then people suddenly start to practice and being very critical as oh that was not very good I shouldn’t and then if you don’t separate those those things it can be very very practice there’s no way around it what we do is a very old-fashioned thing in that respect it’s like ballet dancing or painting you have to acquire the skill to do that’s for sure
Tomek from Poland mr. Hardin Berger what goes through your head when you play do you sing the melody mentally as you play very much so that’s a that’s a very very good question and and there has to be this this inner voice all the time and the performances that are successful is when you really achieve to hear that all the time and you almost kind of taken away the self you know it’s almost as a
Zen Buddhist thing the self goes away and then you are the best possible conductor in the electric - you know a sense of the word and between the composer and the audience you’re just there and you happen to be playing the trumpet and it’s also big paradox because that’s when you can add the most of yourself it’s it’s strange so you have to turn yourself off to be able to add the most of yourself yes you’ve already said that in 1992 you can’t hear that often enough it’s really it’s really the best concerts are when you can get yourself out of it my worst concerts
Are when I’m worried about how I am going to be what he’s gonna in the audience gonna think of me or my colleagues are gonna think those are just the worst concerts yeah it’s almost worse than a big Orchestra when maybe that’s why I repeat myself because it is something I actually do think about no it’s not that you because you’ve been doing this for many years that you just go on stage like that every day that are on stage that process happened you know
I look in the mirror in the morning and I say hey you play tonight in this hall and this is this process do you worry that today’s gonna be the day that I ruined my reputation no I mean early on I I said to my father you know I look in the mirror and I can almost feel the beginning of my career when
I was very worried these MIT woodshed is it he said well you have to take for granted that you are in good shape or at least you’re my old teacher used to say every idiot could complain with a good set of chops so it’s the days that you play with a bad set of chops that’s when when you really see the the true professionals because if you’re really feeling great it’s a fantastic but you still gotta play great when you’re not feeling so good that’s a tough one to to get over no
I was also with with we knew the right practice you get to know your own system yeah and you can you can fix it very early on in the warm-up well it doesn’t feel so good a lot of questions about warm-ups coming in here Macedonia and I wish I could pronounce his name stole Jam chip so sorry from
Macedonia great place mr. Honda how do you warm up before concerts and that’s always a good question because warming up implies the sort of five hour warm up but you deceptive yeah I have a I have a long warm up in the morning maintenance a developing you know it’s it’s it’s but all the disciplines in it and then when that’s down maybe there’s a rehearsal and
I rest time I go to the concert world and then I have a short yes which is more less always the same is to get me yeah you do that yeah warmups um oh gosh there’s so many questions it’s going crazy it’s fantastic um two similar questions bobbing leaves hello Leeds given all the trumpet warm-up routines are there some out there that you have a favorite now
I know that because I read it in an interview you gave for the trumpet guild or does it depend on your agenda or any particular day of the week play James step on this day or Arbonne on this day or ignoring this there well I met in fact also my first meeting with t-ball had to do with
Starkey he gave me a stamp exercise on our very first meeting so Stan exercises has been part of my everyday diet for a very very long time Valeria says what is important to know about James stamp warmer well that there are exercises that were given for particular reasons to particular people and then of course people other people have collected them in buh yeah you know it’s it’s not to play through like another news certain exercises for certain problems or certain things but
I have there is this three different basic warmups this time and to return to the previous question a little bit depending on how I feel I will choose which one that’s important I think I always try and tell the students it’s not necessary to do the same thing every day you sort of there is good to have the discipline but you should really pay attention to what you think you need what
I look for is the same yeah every day very very good point what you look for is the same but you don’t always have to take the same way to get there and very the most important tool we always talk about lips and lungs and and the most important tool that we ignore too much are the years
Unitas by listening that you can hear which way you should all men all men fantastic stuff now we’ve got someone called who you know that kid you’ve met him he’s from from Bangkok but he’s in Kuala Lumpur right now hi how can you never wanted to play in an orchestra only be a soloist or how did you decide early do you decide early on to be a soloist and did you make your practice session only to be a soloist interesting
Wellston early on before it was decided that I would go to t-bone Paris well your parents a bit worried about that you were 16 I was 16 but they did the choice was rather than I would go maybe to Chicago and study that and oh maybe third or second or something then in Paris I studied so hard and there was so much information and in a way the decision was taken for me because
I I did take one decision it was not to going to do just a straight after Paris because I have so many thoughts 19 I was sent in 1920 so much information that I still needed to assimilate and I needed some time after Paris to do it and I thought if I go into Orchestra now I won’t be able to so
I did that and then at the same time there was some competition in some invitations was it worrying at the beginning of your career because you you were then a trumpet soloist in those days okay ed Morris I agree but that was he making a living only from being a trumpet soloist was he doing what was just oh no
I was he was absolutely so but it wasn’t an easy way to make your living because it was there weren’t there wasn’t enough repertoire at the beginning because you have been amazing in getting all these pieces done for the trumpet players I mean if you’re gonna leave the hugest legacy for trumpet players I’m sure they’re really grateful although they look quite fiendishly difficult most of them but it was a little bit did you just play hide on the road for the first few years so it was necessary to find and
I also realized that for the instrument or a potential server list to be taken seriously the transcription road was maybe not the way to go at that time and Maurice had done incredible things the quality of play and the bringing this trumpet to the concert stage really it was really the first eunbeom me was made me also and definitely the first one to be recognized as an international what was your very first commission my very first
Commission oh it was a little piece for trumpet in Oregon what you know how did you persuade them you know that the bigger composers that the Burt Russell was one of the first people that wrote something for you listen to a bit of that I don’t even know how you read the notes of that piece I would say was more important him and
Philip Jones were more important to me in the beginning than they will you know take the honors for they introduced me how it introduced me to Burt rusev has been to Ligety and also to parts of the music scene I mean I had my first BBC Proms concerts was already in 85 and I was completely under with them and then they commissioned the concerto go to the cross and for them to do that for a completely unknown person
I must be having someone yeah behind the scenes no probably a very good agent by then yeah but I can imagine that these modern composers are really they’re always having to try something new and to know that there was somebody like you who practice 10 hours a day and had been in a whipped into shape in Paris and really you didn’t have these technical boundaries that maybe an orchestral player had in those days it must’ve been so exciting
I haven’t I’m sure I have found reason I am sure I still have boundaries but the new pieces are of course a way of passing them because it’s when when you have something in a piece that you want to achieve something in the text something a composer tells you you have to find the tool what to do it so you go through your toolbox and if there isn’t what about composers ask me to do weird and wonderful things with the trumpet what’s the weirdest thing that someone has made you do
I think tend to avoid anything that history the one I gave all the tricksters was was HK Gruber yeah for the big concerto area because I knew I hate tricks as intrigues as in you know removing slides and yeah kind of sounds and multiphonics singing and playing differently sandy you know because I knew he would use it in a very poetic way you know not as a circus act that’s very important it’s um there’s a wonderful bit in this 1992 documentary where you go to multiple
Giano to see Hen sir yeah bless him and he wrote the Requiem chocolate part for you and you go to multiple channel in the summer and you’re sitting there with him expecting him to bring it out of his bag and show you many such cases I might have the first movement ready by Christmas and you’re like and he said and maybe the second movement by
Easter and you’re like but he wanted to get to know you first well yes and I think he needed also his idea for what the trumpet this was and I remember he said later that he asked me what was my favorite commercial I remember at the time it was Beethoven and then he said oh so I need to write something serious so you know
I think he needed to think about the approach he thoughts a lot Danny acted on multiple charm as well and had many exciting and very adventurous moments on stage with of conducting but it was a total privilege to work with them and and I think the trumpet part of the rec room is just supposed to play in there
I don’t someone went down we couldn’t we had a concert here the original in the in the place which was first performed in Columbia and very emotional and I remembered the first performance it I could really feel that this is this is a moment history very strong piece musical history Brett Dean our friend Brett Dean is writing something for you is at the very moment on a plane that
Brett Dean was a viola player in the brother Phil um and and he’s an amazing composer we’re doing some stuff of his soon too and he’s just on a plane back to Melbourne and it’s really hot there so I don’t know quite how much writing you’ll be doing your agents are watching andreas and EJ so and they have a question which
I will get to very soon I promise your agents your podium swap with your great colleague John so we’ll talk about that in a minute I promise we’ll get onto that so Brett is writing a piece for you and I just I just think it’s amazing that trumpet playing has someone like you who’s commissioning all these works it’s really such a gift for me it’s the way of finding energy to to go on you know
I as much as I love the hydrant Lee you know like last night with a great Orchestra and a great conductor and it is incredible or fun but if if the musical substance is not enough and you know the news I have no idea I’m not I’m not I don’t know take away odds you don’t know how many pieces
I haven’t premiere no I actually made that is there a tip you know do the beautiful thing music is is the moment yeah and it’s not it’s not a trophy concerts however great is not a trophy it’s gone yeah once you’ve done it it’s gone the buses are still running when you come outside even if you’ve had a huge disaster on stage that life just goes on
I know it’s funny you go to this tunnel preparing for a concert and and then you’re off stage and it’s gone but it’s still you’ve touched the souls of many people and you never know quite there might just be one particular person there in the audience who just needs exactly what you’re doing on that day a minute then it’s all a minute sometimes we don’t know that place were hungry and tired and that it’s quite a lonely life on the road yeah no it’s not because of what you do yeah so you can’t actually go anywhere and have a peaceful time everyone you can say
You can decide you can decide today Sarah and all your fans online okay we better get back to your questions online cuz I’m talking to you all about my my things we’ve got Edmundo from Guatemala say he wants to know of what it takes to win an orchestral audition I think we’ll ask that another time because you never did women long as no and in fact
I know you never talk why I never took one so I can imagine them being horrifying terrifying and very deftly not very musical experiences and that fact for instance with the is I don’t know what you use for the horn but for the trumpet is always the - concerto and which is a strange thing because that’s not right you’re going to show your beautiful orchestral sound and it always goes we always wait for that moment in trumpet auditions absolutely well chomp it
Mateus in Freiburg what trumpet do you play what brand with Susie play about hundred trumpets no no not so many in a it’s Bob Malone has been making my trumpet since early 80s and this particular one my C trumpet which is the one I use the most is a kind of a prototype good question Thomas do you warm up on your
B flat or your C trumpet oh my seat when I’m not particularly doing that but I’m sure lots people that are trumpet the trumpet happens to be the one where I feel you know it’s not that it has to be it’s like don’t you know anything I just meant that really gave issues as well I mean that’s okay now
I’m going to get on to something oh hello from mark do then yeah the audition I’m Markin mark was very helpful because he sent me your interview that he done for the trumpet guild yes which is pages and pages of technical stuff so I know now I know a lot about trumpet playing technical stuff but thanks Marcos really great helpful
I’m a great interview out there um he says hi and asked to ask you you use Caruso for strength oh yeah well the cruiser method that period was when I was studying in Paris and Tebow was always always open to the new it was very very unusual and he would he would try it you know himself and make his students try it almost immediately and
I remember these sessions were would be full of eight to ten people doing the exercise all together this horrid sound and he we did it really severely not letting go people would faint Tebow who’d had a couple of heart attacks he would sit back cross side and said if I can do it you can do it you know was very tough and we couldn’t play for days after but
I discovered something in it that we need was very important to me gave me that little extra you know I think without discovering the cause oh I couldn’t be playing the thesis I do so I have you practice as this goes on I think if you’ve got bad days for your embouchure do you feel good every day you know of course
I know I feel and with the years I feel less fluctuation I I don’t have many did and if I have one I almost always know what to do no you know what exercise it’s important for students to listen to their own bodies and then just something okay I’m gonna get my warmup and get that done I’m going to go on to the question that your agents have asked they say your abs are pleased to see you’re so chatty and
I was gonna say never told I never talk to them no you don’t talk to agents just only about money yeah and you’re getting paid so much for this interview yes I’ll pay you in beer later on I don’t know if something was gonna ask about because when we met Joe in Sydney for the YouTube Symphony you conducted a piece so the first time
I’d seen you conduct it was a really complicated brass piece was it was turned into blemish yes that’s right really not an easy piece but they got it you know thanks to you keep keeping them in order their conducting is something that you came to naturally was it something you do conduct from the trumpet how does why did you suddenly know it since
I was call it my cactus plant it’s been standing in the no Sun no nothing but it still keeps being and I really enjoy it it’s just another way of making music I think it started out of master classes and I discovered the feeling of how you by gesture can can bring music out of people and and then it started with small pieces so here’s tale and things like that and you know it will mean the day the trumpet doesn’t sound so good anymore and
I cannot see myself not performing so what’s this podium swap what’s this what was that the podium swap is something in Manchester soon it’s me and John Stewart’s who is brilliant conductor and I think has the world record in tropical Jersey is productive at least eighteen different pieces with me and I’ll surely with some other people more so anyway he sounds a great violinist and he is doing the
British premiere of chemo marquales violin concerto so the first half of the program I’m conducting and I did the symphonies of wings and the violin concerto and then there is the break and then I did the British premiere of two Bs boost trumpet concerto and you notice of course the nothing and then he finishes with Patricia goodness me that’s would be quite funny what does one do
I haven’t got that for you I’m try but at some point some people you talk through scores and hear their experiences and with latest on I take some lessons with and there is also technically a lot of people in our Orchestra we have quite a few conductors in the orchestra yeah and they they have the best training because we sit there and we watched the best conductors in the world
I mean standing exactly doctors say you know what you don’t want yeah but I mean I also realize that I and I suddenly feel like I still enjoy playing the trumpet so much I don’t want to be conducting too much as I said you know the day the trumpet is not sounding good anymore it will do music you still enjoy playing the trumpet and that is the most important thing and
Jeffrey Johnson who writes a fantastic blog sonic labyrinth book by Jeffrey thanks for all your help and publicity for this publicizing this great interview he wants to know what other composers are writing for you in the future we have bread tarnish is plagiarized I love the first PC wrote was dispelling the fears which is part of blood on the floor now which is for two trumpets in
Orchestra and then they wrote from the wreckage which is we just did one out of book that’s it and they’re all you know Mark Antony come on you got to forget a few cheerful cheerful things in your titles there from the wreckage and playing with the other soul testing oh great great but one thing I also want to talk to you about your
I mean you you’ve lived from your CDs as well as yours you know your concert platform career you recorded more CDs I think than any other trumpet player I didn’t count sorry I didn’t have time to count them all but anyway your your CD collection you start your discography that goes on for ages it’s just fantastic but what’s happening now in this day and age because there are these crazy people that come online and and and say oh let’s put everything online and that’s maybe not such a great thing well it is amazing in many ways it’s the most wonderful thing that art can reach
Many many people everywhere that is a fantastic possibility but we have to make sure that the composers and the artists still can live from it you know that’s where the format is not yet good you know the cost of making a recording the cost of an orchestra the technical cost it is very big and you know composer are able to spend composer like
Gruber will spend a year maybe writing the piece and then to be able to download it on with a click and then for nothing that’s what about live playing on the Internet where’s your trumpet it’s also you know you you end up everything it might not always be good that everything is documented you know chilly we’d actually had this idea not to record because because with what we weren’t to earlier that music is in the moment and if we if we always document and it so then we leave that idea a little bit and it’s the unique thing with our art form is that it
Happens in the moment you cannot hang it on the wall you cannot take it up and read it again and we could potentially lose a little bit of its magic but I’m sure there’s a way we try and do that with that it brings a certain stress factor into the live concerts and of course but as you say a live concert as a live concert is just if you know it’s going to be in the archive a few days later then it’s quite a stressful thing but
I just think you know that we’re reaching so many people and you see all the people your your fans to Guatemala from benta from Norway who said hi you know Peter in DC told Mike from Poland it’s really incredible so I mean I would like to say thank you it’s um it’s just been incredible there’s all these questions still what
I’m gonna do is ask in a send you this chat and if there’s anyone you want to to answer in particular tell me and maybe we can get back to you back to them because there’s more questions about bending Sarah and Hawken Oh Sarah and Hawken do you have any advice for someone who has to switch between horn and trumpets as
Austin from Illinois I wouldn’t do it James I would give me one I know that does that need I have got a clue because the only fingerings I know in the b-flat scale and I’d like to further horn actually and I’m sure Holcomb professor the trumpet I asked James Morrison on one of these hangouts why he didn’t play the warrant cuz he plays everything else
Oh Sara the hordes too hard so what are you what are your plans well this is a free day on the tour and then tomorrow against either the bus can you find the bus there and the next premiere will be D will be Briggs that will be Breton and the summer and the Gryphon egg festival in Austria well next time you ever learn
I’m gonna grab you for all your fans here so that you can come back online and thank you so so much to everyone thank you for everyone for joining us we really really appreciate that and all your questions and thank you thank you okay thank you good night to Tim in Melbourne thanks to to Jakob and Stefan our cameraman we’ll have it up in the archive as soon as we can and and see you for
Freud it’s next week on the 24th bye
Horn Hangouts are created by Sarah Willis of the Berlin Philharmonic. Brassbanned is a proud long-time collaborator and streaming partner.
