Interview with Elena Càsoli (September 2009)

How did the love of Elena Càsoli for the guitar start?

Perhaps as happened to many others, it was the chance that permit me to meet with the guitar, through my elementary school teacher. It was a lucky occasion, and maybe not so common in the 60’s as it could be today, thanks to her I started playing when I was seven years. Less random was the encounter with the music, thanks to the cultural passions of my father. In our house there were many old vinyl records that we listened to the evening, many books, and when I was old enough to attend a concert hall or theatre, I found myself to go in those places in many of our evenings. So the guitar and music soon became a natural and constant presence in my life.

“I play an instrument which today is enjoying one of the happiest periods in its long history. Its structure and sound have evolved and kept pace with changes in attitudes to music, culmination in a range of forms and expressions in the twentieth century unheard of since the renaissance and the baroque eras.” I admit that I was very touched by this declaration of intents: I often read about guitarists complaining about the “poverty” of the guitar repertoire, in comparison with the reportoire of other instruments like the violin and the piano. It seems to me that you reverse this issue …. emphasizing the “contemporary” of the guitar …

I don’t think that my vision is overly optimistic, but a real one, confirmed by the huge amount of beautiful music for guitar written and published. Without any criticism, I shall say that I am truly amazed when I read or hear of guitarists who complain about a lack of repertoire. In my study I have accumulated scores of new pieces and not, that I happily receive by composers and publishers, but unfortunately I don’t have enough time to play and prepare for concerts, because I study every year a large number of other new pieces. It’s a mine of music for which I ask help to my students in Bern, so they shall read and play in their concerts.

In the booklet that accompanies Changes Chances, you make several references to “New Music”, especially referring to Terry Riley. The same Riley in some of his records speak about “New Music”, but I could not understand what really is, a new kind of music? A different attitude?

I think I could say that with this definition of New Music I join the international community of musicians, musicologists, critics and the public that recognizes it such as all the music that is written with an intention of research and artistic creation. The results could be more or less experimental, depending from the path of each composer, but the attitude is common. In particular, in this definition we recognize composers that have links and derivations with the poetic and cultural history of European classical music, of course this definition is imperfect and limited, considering the vastness and variety of music research at the international level. It’s a world of pure creation, fascinating and multifaceted, in which composers invent, develop, transform the field of music with an attitude of profound freedom and independence. Their thoughts will materialize on paper or in the tracks of a computer in total independence from any unbridled rule or influence, which does not arise from their inspiration.

One thing that always amazed me is your versatility with which you approach easely different types of guitars from classical to acoustic, from arciliuto to electric guitar with the aim to be as much as possible to the service at the composer … how can you manage this “park” of guitars? What are the difficulties encountered from one instrument to another?

Sometimes I also wonder how composers think that I can be so much flexible and they write me in the score to pass from arciliuto to the electric guitar in the space of a few seconds! You can imagine how much time is necessary, before this kind of concert, only to change the strings to three or four instruments. But that is, and in the years following the demands of composers and my curiosity, the classic guitar has joined two decades ago a Blade Electric Blue guitar with various effects, then it came a splendid acoustic Taylor one for a work of John Adams, the 1846th Panormo guitar, an elegant lady on which i play Takemitsu and Paganini, and the Arciliuto. Some years ago I studied the Chinese pipa for two works by Philip Glass at the Piccolo Teatro Regio in Turin with Sentieri Selvaggi and I recorded for a Stradivarius Y Despues by Bruno Maderna a 10 ropes classic guitar made by Carlo Raspagli. The differences are considerable, both technically and timbre. I try to “feel” the instrument under my fingers, to grasp as much as the possible its vibrant nature, its physicality, acoustic or electric that is, and then work on them until I feel in confidence, to find the “sound “.

Meeting such a guitar has been such a lucky experience. Lucio Antonio Carbone, a maker of great experience working in his laboratory in Milan, has found this Panormo during a trip to England. As always not all the Panormo guitars yet in circulation are the same and equal value, even for the damage of time. I have tried it before restoration, and I have heard that it had that sound and particular sustain. Despite of the years, it was a very lively instrument, with a warm voice, ready to vibrate just calling. During the restoration, with the replacement of chains and other operations, it has been reported to an ideal balance and it was in England, in Manchester and Liverpool, which this guitar came back again playing for the first time in public in my hands.

Over the years I have had the great fortune of playing with many musicians of great value. I met Jürgen at Ferienkursen für Neue Musik in Darmstadt in 1988, I had met him before during the experience of the summer masterclass of Oscar Ghiglia, and there we discovered a common passion for New Music. So we starter with the idea to create a duo dedicated mainly to this repertoire, commissioning and running premiered works by composers with whom we were in contact. We then also found alongside playing contemporary works which included two guitars in their orchestral, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester. We had great experiences with great conductors such as * Heinz Holliger, Kent Nagano and Claudio Abbado, who along with concerts in duo have helped to make our partnership deeper and lasting. Playing together is a great pleasure, even if some works we have commissioned have give us a tough test for the commitment and the difficulty, like the pieces of Klaus Ospald and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. One of the most significant periods of our work together was the realization of Memorias de El Cimarron and some arias from opera The English Cat that became Minette for two guitars, as an invitation and a collaboration between Hans Werner Henze. The result was a CD that has won in Berlin, the Echo Klassik Preis 2000, and numerous concerts in which these new works for two guitars were heard, and now are in the repertoire of other guitar duos. We already have dates for 2009 and even though the distance between Milan and Monaco does not facilitate the meetings, the commonality of purpose and direction always keep us in close contact.

As I often say, it’s following the composers, their creations, that I find myself in those situations where several kind of arts meet. I like these situation very much, they make me very curious about, though I not deny the appeal for the “purity” of the classical concert. The real difficulty is to create a real and deep interaction between the different languages used and not just pull over on the same stage musicians and artists from various sources using different media. I believe that fusions among the media are a necessary condition so that in the show shall happen something special for the artists and for the public, but this requires time, effort and a strong inspiration.

For me these are two different but interactive expressions of my being a musician. I think that my live activity is a stimulus and not a barrier to the guitarists who work with me in Bern, as well as the energy of my students is for me as nourishment to play better in concert. In Berne I have the Guitar class by I teach also Interpretation of Contemporary Music, in addition to groups of chamber music and special projects in collaboration with the departments of Electronics, Theater, VideoLab. This allows guitarists to meet and work alongside other musicians, actors, composers and learn through this contact to live music not as a reason for isolation, but as a means of communication with other artists and the public. What I am saying may seem obvious to those who do not attend the world of classical guitar, but has a foundation, because in the guitar world, unfortunately, the isolation sometimes has stopped very promising talents who, not nourished by the continuous dialogue with other musicians, have ended up not believing in what they’re doing. The first one who warned me about this danger was Ruggero Chiesa, who had repeatedly witnessed with sadness to this strange form of “aging” as he called it, that get the classical guitarist. I try to help everyone to discover his own direction, to understand the reason of this strong destre to be become a musician and how it can be achieved through the choice of repertoire and contacts with the world of music. When a student is clearly manifested in its motivation he show a boost and an extraordinary energy, he acquires the ability to study long hours to give a concrete shape to his own personal aspirations.

I Listen to everything from jazz, that I like very much, to many dorderline music expressions, like blues, ethnic music, disks that arrive at home bought by friends moving around the world, from Japan to Chile. In this period I’m listening *, in particular, Chet Baker and Bill Evans and Sigur Ros. I often listen to Astor Piazzolla to better understand his so particular phrasing, and I play with chamber groups in Bern. I really like the traditional Indian music and Federico Sanesi, a tabla percussionist expert with whom we recently played at the Comunale di Bologna, sometimes he helps me to understand the extraordinary artists of that world. Right now I’m listening to the latest cd from Paul Beier dedicated to Francesco da Milano and Perino Fiorentino, which Paul gave me just this morning while we were talking about our recent concerts.

Thank you very much!