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The city where I was born in 1957, and where I had my first lessons
at the music school, together with my sister. At first I played the recorder,
because it was the cheapest instrument, but it turned out I had no talent for
wind instruments. Friends with guitars taught me my first chords; I loved to
play along with records. But playing in a band didn't suit me, and an electrical
guitar is no solo instrument. When I heard Julian Bream over the radio, that
sound, that many-voiced harmony, I wanted a classic Spanish guitar. I bought
my first one when I was 13, en at the music school I had lessons with Mr. Van
Hoek. Later I had private lessons with Christine Pennings, and she encouraged
me to go to the conservatory; I did my entrance exam at 17. In Breda I also
gave my first concerts: as the soloist in a Vivaldi concert with the guitar/mandolin
orchestra Estrellita of Benny Ludeman (now teacher of mandolin at the Amsterdam
conservatory), en in the church at the Begijnhof I played the program of my
final exam for an audience.
I took lessons there from Dick Hoogeveen, from 1975 till 1982.
They had an extensive guitar department with 50 tot 60 students, but very few
of them became performing guitar-players. Hoogeveen taught me technique, through
the classic methods by Pujol, Carlevaro, the etudes by Sor, Giuliani and Villa
Lobos. Of course I also broadened my knowledge of classical music; I was (and
am) particularly fond of violin music, but I was advised against the violin
as a subsidiary subject. At my final exam I played the Bagatelles by Walton
that I knew through Julian Bream, Rossiniana by Giuliani, Barrios' Cathedral,
and together with my fellow student Chris Erwich the theme and variations from
the string sextet by Brahms. Just after the final exam I played the guitar concert
by Villa Lobos with the orchestra of the Rotterdam Conservatory, directed by
Otto Ketting.
The Japanese lute-player, teacher at the Conservatory of The Hague,
with whom I had private lessons for 5 years after I graduated at the Rotterdam
Conservatory. I knew Toyohiko from records and radio broadcasts, and he seemed
to be the right person to continue my studies with. The origin of classical
music is to be found in the baroque, and when you gain more in-depth knowledge,
you understand more about the structure of music, the phrasing, the construction,
the articulation of a piece, from later periods as well. With Toyohiko I have
learned a lot about the practice of performing and I built up a repertoire,
baroque as well as romantic and modern pieces. In addition I had bought a manche
theorbe in my last year at the conservatory, an experimental invention by the
Frenchman Roger Généraux († 1980), a modern use of an old
idea: extend the guitar with the bourdon strings of a baroque lute, so that
Bach's lute suites can be played on guitar with the original part-writing.
I have owned one of his guitars for 10 years now; so far it is
the most complete instrument I have, because it unites the different qualities
that make guitar music interesting. Marin has studied the classic guitar-builders
like Torres, and he worked as a trainee with Bouchet, who modernised the sound
of the Spanish guitar, made it less Spanish and more French one would almost
say, lighter and more transparent in sound, with very long tones.
I get many compliments for this instrument, from the public as well as from
musicians and guitar-builders. I have developed my personal sound on it, a certain
refinement, elegance and melodiousness, but also power. A large "spectrum
of feelings".
Apart from that guitar I also have a 20 years old instrument by Alex van der
Horst (Alejandro), who learned to build from Marin Montero. My latest purchase
is a guitar by Gust den Aantrekker, a builder from Antwerp whom I met at a guitar
festival in Zwolle. That instrument has a soundboard of 40 years old wood, which
enabled him to make it very thin. That is rather different from the wood that
is used in commercial guitars now, which has a limited life span. My ideal is
to buy an instrument by an old master; when I held an old Bouchet in my hands
a whole new world opened up. I have the feeling that the building traditions
of before World War II have not been passed on very well to the modern builders.
The lost sound. That's what a fellow guitar-player said about
my sound after a concert in Paris, a compliment that made me very happy. My
concern is the poetry in music, a sound that resembles a voice. As soon as the
technical possibilities of the instrument start to dominate, you lose that sound.
In early Renaissance instrumental music was based on singing; in the Italian
baroque you had canzoni da sonare, instrumental songs, and in the Romanticism
it gets more individual, the player tells his story. With Paganini it's called
sonare parlante, and one really hears the questions and answers in the music.
A well-known anecdote about Paganini is that he 'said' buona sera once on his
violin at the beginning of a concert, and that the whole audience then wished
him a good evening too. That tradition of the speaking sound runs from the classic
guitar-players like Sor and Giuliani to Tarréga, Llobet and Segovia.
With Segovia it seems to have come to an end.
Those are people who have added something to the character of
their era, something unique and personal. That shows in the diversity of the
body of work, the avoiding of clichés. I find that in Bach, Beethoven,
Brahms, Paganini, Granados, Albéniz, and out of the more modern composers
in Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Prokofjev. The great violin concertos, the string
quartets, and duets for violin and piano, I often listen to those.
The Amadeus Quartet with Beethoven and Brahms; that violence,
that tension. I am also a real fan of Kyung Wah Chung, and Maxim Vengorov, but
often my favorite musicians are aged or already dead: Menuhin, Perlman, Oistrakh,
Haifetz. Gidon Kremer is more intellectual.
Out of the pianists of course Alfred Brendel, Richter with his Russian repertoire,
Bella Davidovich. I love what they call 'foreign temperament' in Holland. The
Dutch and Flemish are good at old music, Gustav Leonhardt and the Kuijken brothers
are good examples, as is Philip Herreweghe.
Guitar-players? Julian Bream the way he used to play; his expression was a great
source of inspiration for me at the conservatory. He sounded like an ensemble.
Not until later on did I appreciate the sensitivity of Segovia. Now I have all
his recordings, including very old ones. He is the last really romantic guitar-player
in the Spanish tradition, a continuation of Tarrega and Llobet. John Williams
has a phenomenal technique and he is a very good guitar-player in ensembles;
he adapts himself easily to all kinds of musical styles. I do think it is a
pity that he opposes himself so pointedly against the Spanish heritage of Segovia.
Toyohiko Satoh is very special for me, because he is such a warm musician and
he works with concepts. That is fascinating and it appeals to me, I can extend
it further. My own concert programs always have a narrative thread too. (see
also Repertoire and programs]
It's not the size that is most important, but the acoustical proportions.
Justice should be done to the instrument, and you have to be able to work without
a microphone, or something is not right. I prefer to play at historic locations
full of atmosphere. I often like old buildings better because of the stylishness,
the warmth they radiate. At special locations you also play special.
Charming small churches, like for instance the Waalse Kerk in Breda, are very
suitable for guitar. I have played at many interesting spots, like in The Hague
the Anna Paulownahall in Hotel des Indes, the Louis Seizehaal in the Pulchri
Studio, and 'salon concerts' at the Kurhaus, in Amsterdam in the Amstel Hotel
and Museum Van Loon, and in Paris in Salon Bouvier at Musée Carnavalet.
But the open air concerts at the historic courtyards in the Jordaan in Amsterdam
are also fun to do. They are like small halls without a roof, the atmosphere
is informal and the contact with the audience very direct.
I have my fantasies, and hope to play once at Wigmore Hall in London, the Alhambra
in Granada, the Salle Cortot of the École Normale de Musique in Paris,
and in that beautiful miniature concert hall that Frederick the Great had himself
built at the Neues Palais in Potsdam near Berlin. And of course in the grand
hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where Segovia also played without microphones.
I have postponed it for a long time, because you can teach better when you
are more experienced, have a broad repertoire and perform regularly. Making
good music is something that surpasses matter, like all art. Students, no
matter at what level, should get in touch with the music, be themselves in
the music, and then they can convince others. It is about the contact that
you share, and you don't realise that until you play for other people, whether
that is your neighbour or a hall with an audience. I organise a students'
concert every year, where they play for each other. Lots of fun and very educational
for all concerned.
Teaching should be done from a certain tradition, and with the classic Spanish
guitar you have to go through Alfonso el Sabio until Leo Brouwer if you want
to learn to play well. Especially Tarréga is important, he is the founder
of the classic guitar technique. He composed and made excellent transcriptions
of classical pieces of for instance Bach and Schumann, and when I'm teaching
he is my point of departure. [See also Guitar lessons]
That is the name of the house in the old centre of Amsterdam where I live with my wife. It means 'Peace be with you' and that's the way it is. I can work there without being disturbed, and without disturbing anyone, which is often a problem for musicians. The former shop downstairs is over 17 feet high and has good acoustics; with the mezzanine in the back you could almost say it's a small theatre. And then we have a beautiful garden on the roof, very peaceful and relaxing in the middle of the city. Ideal!
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