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Violin virtuoso Itzhak Perlman enjoys a superstar status rarely afforded a classical musician. Loved for his charm and humanity as well as his talent, the Tel Aviv-born musician has come to be recognized by audiences all over the world, who respond not only to his flawless technique but to the irrepressible joy of making music that he communicates. China Daily reporter Chen Jie interviewed Perlman.
Q: What is the most important thing in your life besides music?
A: Family.
Q: We all know you are a gourmet and like various dishes, including Chinese dishes. Similarly, there are lots of great composers for the violin. Do you have any favorite ones?
A: It is like the dishes -- I like variety. It's difficult to say you like Cantonese food or Shanghai food or Sichuan food. Whoever I play, I like. I cannot say I like Beethoven more than Mozart or Bach more than Brahms. I like everything. All these composers are great composers. So I am very lucky. If I did not like something, I would not play it.
Q: What kind of person could be called a musician? What's the difference between a musician and a performer?
A: Good musicians, first of all, should know what they are doing. Then they have a certain amount of talent. To be a musician is a combination of so many things but, of course, education is very important to know what you are doing.
Then to be a good performer is very, very much different from to be just a good musician. You can have good musicians who are not great performers, but you can have not such great musicians who are fantastic performers. The wonderful combination of both is the best, of course. There also have been such wonderful musicians who really express what they feel to the audiences.
I do not know if I am both but I try to be both.
Q: Why do you teach students in such a way that you just let them enjoy music? Is that a trend in music education for the future?
A: I don't know if it is a trend but I hope so. My way of teaching is basically from kindness, from nurturing students, not from being stern and patronizing and being very humorless and seriously saying, "You do this and you do that."
Q: How have you established such an optimistic attitude toward life and influenced your family, friends, students and all the people around you?
A: My life is good. I am very lucky. What I do for a living is a great art. I make music for a living. That's very good.
I would give the same attitudes towards my students. The thing is, if you give them support, then they will appreciate music rather than making music a bad experience. I always say, when you are a teacher, you are really responsible for making sure that your students have a good experience of music, not an experience of fear.
Sometimes you hear of some people who study music and are very talented. But I just heard the other day after they graduated from a good music school, they said: "Thank God I do not have to play again." That's not good. You know you want to play for pleasure.
Q: Is there any concert you gave that impressed you the most?
A: Nothing impressed me and I always feel I could do better. But I always remember the trips to various places where the audiences are wonderful.
Actually, in Beijing and Shanghai, I had a wonderful experience eight years ago.
Another good memory is when I went back to Israel for the first time after graduating from Juilliard and played with the Israel Philharmonic.
Every now and then, there is a good concert that I think I played well but then there is another concert so there is always something to look forward to.
Q: Why choose to play Beethoven's concerto in Beijing and how do you like him?
A: There is nobody greater than Beethoven. This is one of the two or three greatest violin concertos ever written.
The "Violin Concerto in D Major" is a very difficult piece because of its simplicity. When you do something very simple, it is difficult.
Simplicity is difficult while complication is sometimes easy. How to make such a simple piece sound good? So Beethoven's concerto is always a challenge.
Q: What qualification should a child have if he starts to play violin?
A: Of course, a violin player should have a certain amount of talent. I always believe that, when you study an instrument, you really should have a passion for it. That's really important.
Just doing it because your parents tell you to do it is not enough. You should want to do it and you should have a particular sound that you hear in your head.
Then you understand it is your goal, and your goal is for that particular sound. Then you have a reason to practice, have a reason to do that not just because somebody else tells you it's a good thing for you to do -- that's not good.
Q: Have you ever found any prodigies in you camp?
A: We do not think about prodigies here. We just want to make the students have good values and do their best as far as music is concerned, be non-competitive, just do their best.
"Prodigy" is a common term today but I do not like it. Somebody who shows good talent at the age of eight or even younger is much more dangerous than those who show talent at 17 or 18 because the younger will burn out more easily. And it is very difficult to keep the gift and to let it grow very well.
Q: What is the ideal amount of time to practice every day?
A: The ideal amount would be between four and five hours. It depends on the gift, depends on the talent. After five hours, it becomes counterproductive. Like a sponge, you can't absorb any more.
Q: What advice would you give to children who have just started to learn the violin?
A: To be exposed to music, to hear music. The parents should take them to concerts. Listen to recordings, watch people play, not just of today but of yesterday, not just contemporary people but to old recordings. Because it is all evolutionary. The way we play the piano or violin came from 60 or 70 years ago.
The important thing I always tell my students is to know not only what is going on today but what went on yesterday before they were born.
It is really like learning history, the history of the ear.
Q: What should a teacher give his students besides techniques?
A: Enthusiasm and passion. Teaching is really a complicated art in this sense. Teaching is not just to give the kids the facts but to know their emotional problems or know their ability to learn quickly or slowly.
It is not enough to practice a lot but know how to practice. Teachers should be able to bring out from the students what they have inside. A good teacher should not worry so much about what to say but what not to say when he finds a student's talent. When the teacher knows what not to say, he could make the student's talent grow.
Q: What do you think of competitions? Have your students won international awards?
A: I really do not like competitions. A lot of people feel competitions are opportunities for them. Basically, I entered one competition in my life and won it. Afterwards, somebody asked me to enter another. I said, "Why, I won that competition and that's it." When people asked me to judge competitions, I said, "No." Because I feel it's not perfect.
I never encourage my students to enter a competition. I just do not believe in it. I always say to my students that you do not go to a competition to win. You go to a competition for the experience of playing with a lot of pressure. If you win, okay, but never expect to win a competition because so many things can go wrong, so many things can be unfair.
(China Daily August 20, 2002)
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