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   Wu Han and David Finckel, the original image for the cover of their Russian Classics CD on ArtistLed.   Photo: Adam Grabois

Wu Han in Conversation

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Pianist Wu Han ranks among the most esteemed and influential classical musicians in the world today. She appears regularly in many prestigious venues across the United States, Europe, and the Far East as both soloist and chamber musician, and has toured extensively as duo pianist with cellist David Finckel.

Wu Han and David Finckel serve as Artistic Directors of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They are also Artistic Directors of Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival in Silicon Valley that has garnered international acclaim since its inception in 2003.

Wu Han's wide-ranging musical activities also include the founding of ArtistLed, classical music's first musician–directed and Internet based recording company.

Another innovation that the pair have started at The Chamber Music Society are audio note CDs. Anyone who buys a concert ticket in advance gets a CD of custom-made audio program for that concert. Including musical excerpts and comments from the musicians.

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CD:    I want to make sure I get this right, this is your first concert together for The Chamber Music Society?

WH:    This is the first concert where we'll walk on stage as a duo.  A full concert, just ourselves, as a gift to the Society.  We have been on stage in Lincoln Center, performing for instance at the Chamber Music Society Gala in September, but that was as a part of a trio.

CD:    Where there some bizarre scheduling problems?

WH:    Absolutely, it was a total scheduling issue.  We usually are booked for around two years in advance.  Currently I know exactly — every day — where I am suppose to be 2006 until May 2007.  When we startd atthe Chamber Music Society, which was in 2004, we found that the only time that would fit our concert into the whole schedule was February 28th, 2006, two years ahead  That's what my life is like.

CD:    When you walk on stage, do you think you will be under a little more scrutiny than usual?

WH:    Yes (laughs)...  we have been here for a year and a half now, so my Board, and The Chamber Music Society audiences have only seen me as an Artistic Director — except that one time on opening night, playing the Smetana Trio.  People in New York have not seen us walk on stage as players.  It's incredibly exciting because performing music, I feel, is what I do the best and enjoy the most.

One can only talk so much, before people just don't want to listen to you any more, but one can always play music — and I know that just goes straight to your heart, that particular language, you can't fake the making of music. I think yes its under more scrutiny — but I'm totally excited, and looking forward to that open forum, so we can have that communication with our audience, with our subscribers.

CD:    I'm sure that everyone who knows you here will have a chance to say, Oh, she can play the piano as well.  Most people in the audience will think isn't it amazing that these musicians are also able to run a major arts organization.

WH:    It's funny, usually in the musician's world you get pigeonholed very quickly. Tomorrow for instance I am leaving New York and I'll be on the road for the next two weeks, on stage every night.  So I find very often when I go out to meet my audience, and people see the musician side of me it's very hard for them to understand that I actually come here and work.  They ask, “do you really have the time?”  “Do you make phone calls there?”  And here —

When I come here as an administrator it's an entirely different story, They say: “You play the piano, oh yeah, we forgot.”  If I do an interview, for my recording company ArtistLed, people will only talk to me about recording models — they forget that I do other things as well.  It's really a funny combination.  Oh, I have another side, if I go out just as David's wife, a lot of people think “that's right that's who she is.”  Or my neighbors they think I'm a total mom.

CD:    On the musician side, when you and David are working on a piece, how do you work out interpretation?

WH:    I have to say, thank God, our relationship started out with music.  In our rehearsals we usually have very few discussions.  In fact when we started to play together I did not even speak English, that must be twenty-three years ago.  At the very beginning, when he first started talking to me I didn't know what he was talking about, I just stared at him — this man's trying to talk to me.  So from the very beginning, our relationship to music making was focused on communication though pure sound.

We have very few arguments, I actually can not remember having a disagreement with him in terms of tempo or other things.  We both also are professional enough from the very beginning, we never bring any personal issues into the rehearsal, the rehearsal is treated quite separately.  Also it helps when you live together, we will go to a concert and we will have a wide ranging discussion after the concert.   I'll give you an example: David will say “ Alice Tully Hall is so large, maybe the tempo should not be so fast.   Remember that concert — we want to hear these passages clearly.”

I know his opinion, I know his experience.  So the next time we play Alice Tully Hall I will remember to pull the tempo a little slower.   I can hear David enrich the bass in a particular register.   So it's a huge advantage that we live together and have the chance to grow together as artists.   Few people believe me, but we have very few arguments.

CD:    I enjoyed listening to the Audio Notes CD for the concert of the 28th.   Your comments on the difficulties of the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata are very funny.  So is there a part that is so hard that when it's over you just want to pass out?

WH:    That's right.  For the pianist the Rachmaninoff Cello Sonata is insanely difficult, probably, just as hard as the Second or Third Piano Concertos.  It's very tricky because you want to make sure you don't drown the cello out.  The piano part is quite thick and filled with millions of notes.

CD:    I don't know if we understand just how tough it is, we might be listening to the melody, and you're slaving away.

WH:    Well, Rachmaninoff was a great pianist so for him when he writes these millions of notes it's probably just so easy for him.  You ask why did he write something so difficult — because he can.  It's nothing for him.  And it makes such hell for pianists.

On the other hand there is a sensation when you play Rachmaninoff that it is really hard to explain to non-pianists. Even his millions of notes somehow fit into your fingers, it's uncomfortable, it's difficult, but once you learn it — it's a joy.   Once you hit the specific pattern, you can really enjoy the sense of control of the keys.   That feeling is fantastic.

Some composers have the talent to always provoke your feeling.  I don't care what some critics say “He's not revolutionary enough” or “not controversial, as Stravinsky was” — but you hear one melody and you melt.  I will always play him.  I know critics might not like it, but that's their problem.  The audience loves it, musicians love it and I love it.

CD:    Rachmaninoff wrote the Cello Sonata around the time of the Second Piano Concerto, and they share a lot of features that have made the Concerto immensely popular. But the Cello Sonata is not as popular in the Chamber music world. Does that say something about the audience for chamber music?

WH:    I know what you mean, I would say the chamber music audience knows it too. When a composer writes for this art form it is not necessarily for the general public.  For instance, when you write for a big symphony orchestra you usually need a commission.  The composer is compelled to make a big, huge, public statement.  When you write for a pianist in that case it's big and virtuosic.  Chamber music is composed under different circumstances.   Usually for a private party, or something quite heartfelt, for your friends or loved ones.  Janacek's Intimate Letters was written for his girlfriend.  Shostakovich's Quartets composed during Stalin's time were written and put in a drawer, not written for performance.  So a lot of our chamber music repertoire came from the most heartfelt circumstances.  Schubert wrote all his chamber music for his small circle of friends.

There is a certain sense of intimacy and passion in this repertory.  Now, the audience usually gets hooked on chamber music, not necessarily in a huge lavish public space; usually they will come to a small chamber concert, sometimes a private home concert.  The chamber music lover is like a wine connoisseur — they really can taste the difference — and they get addicted to it.  There is an incredible, sort of magical, combination in the chamber music field.  They are so close to the sound source they get hooked on the intensity and the intimacy.

I love drawing in the audience and having that intense communication.   I can always feel that in my concerts.

The Rachmaninoff is very hard, not a lot of pianists want to spend that much time on a cello sonata, especially because many people think of a cello recital as a cellist and an accompanist.  At the Chamber Music Society, we are all equals here, I know I can happily walk on stage and I am not treated like an accompanist.  It's a great joy to play an equal partnership in a duo recital.  The Prokofiev Cello Sonata as well demands an equal partnership.

CD:    We will also get to hear Lera Auerbach's Sonata.  It was written for you and I understand that you have made it a major part of your programming.

WH:    We've performed it quite a bit, I have taken that piece to Aspen, Washington, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver — all over the place.  Usually if we commission a piece we really commit to it.  The piece is specifically written for me and David, and we worked very hard with the composer.  The sonata is incredibly passionate, it's very dramatic.  It's the modern Russian voice that should be heard.  Lera is a pianist herself.  You heard her interview on the audio notes CD, she also writes poetry, she is one of the most articulate composers that I have ever met.

We met many times, we showed her the Britten Sonata which has lots of great cello writing.  We showed her the Shostakovich Cello Sonata which covers quite a bit of the range of the piano.  We showed her, basically, the best of the cello repertory, and we said: “Lera if you can write a sonata we would be so grateful!”

It was in the middle of winter on a snowy day, she called us up at home and said “The Sonata is ready can I come play it for you? ” She came in, her hair was all over the place, matted with snow — she was a little crazed looking.  She was very nervous and very shy, and she said (speaking haltingly) “Can I just play it for you on the piano?” She went for the piano and started playing — and started screaming out the cello part.   David and I sat motionless for a half an hour, it was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had.  I remember it was snowy outside, very cold, and this crazy Russian woman was screaming in my living room.  To have that personal contact, and feel that heat coming from the creative source — it was fantastic.  I will always remember that moment.  Every time I play that piece I think of that day.

I remember that sort of craziness in her eyes, and I'll never forget that.  It made me understand the piece in a way.   There are a couple of passages in the Sonata where out of nowhere there are these monotone chords.  I asked her about them.  She said “I want you to play those chords really cold, no expression.  Like bells, that you hear coming from the top of the mountain.”   Every time I play those chords I think of her.  There are these images in her mind that we try to convey.  I love the piece, and I think that the audience always gets it.

It took us a long while to learn it.  David plays every piece by memory, not only does he memorize his part he memorizes my part — which is so intimidating.

CD:    I love the way that composers and musicians talk about music, if they are not talking formally then they are using picturesque terms.  Do the images help shape the way you want a piece to sound?

WH:    Yes and no.  Usually it's incredibly helpful if you can describe it in emotional terms or in a visual way — except, music does not necessarily conform to imagery of one form or another.  You could play the last movement of the Rachmaninoff Sonata, at one point, when you're totally in love and thinking that the music is the greatest love story in the world.  You can, the very next year, play the last movement and think it's the suffering of the Russian people.  So the imagery is very helpful but you always have to remember that the creative artist has to decide on interpretation. You don't want to be limited by imagery.  Some times when you give out a visual image — or you say, “ this is such a romantic piece,” it's actually limiting your audience's own imagination.

So it's kind of a two–way street, sometimes I'll have to remember that I might be thinking too narrowly, it's a bit like the scherzo in the Shostakovich Cello Sonata — it can be funny and sarcastic at that same time.  Communication is essential — other wise it's too intellectual.

CD:    The recordings are very good, not only artistically but in terms of recording quality, important to me in my audiophile moments.  They are more like the great jazz records of the 1950's.  Very warm, yet the instruments well balanced and direct.

You started recording company ArtistLed in the 1990's.  Artists owning their own labels is not unusual — but since the 1990's you have been entirely web based, you are a pioneer of sorts.

WH:    We started ArtistLed because we wanted to record what ever we wanted, when you record for the big record labels, you put so much love and thought into these recordings — and its under someone else's control.  Now I can never be dropped from my label.

We do it for ourselves, it works for me and David.  It might not for other artists.  We agree on takes and the presentation of the CD.   Everyone has to find their own path, to make sure their art continues to live in this world.

CD:    Final question, non-music oriented: do you have any good “ road stories” you can share with us?

WH:    (Laughs).... No I don't.  On being “on the road” is either Heaven or Hell.  There doesn't seem to be anything in between.  Either you are missing your flights and barely making it to your concerts, or you go to a concert have a great experience, make friends and enjoy new cities.  It's an adventure, but it doesn't make for great road stories.

One thing I would like to add.  David and I pick our projects carefully because we have very limited time, and I have to say the reason we wanted to work with The Chamber Music Society was to put ourselves in the organization and take root here.  It is highly inspiring experience for both of us because this organization has been a leader in the chamber music world.  Very few people are aware that 35 years ago few musicians played chamber music for a living.  The Chamber Music Society has always been on the forefront, pushing the art form.  We are very privileged to be in a position to do continue this, it's such a unique organization.

There is no other institution that offers such an array of chamber music performed at the highest levels of musicianship.  I would like everyone to understand just how important this organization is for New York and classical music in general.  I would love to invite everyone to see us perform — that's the most important thing.

CD: Thank you, and we will be there on the on the 28th.

Link to ArtistLed