It has been 43 years since Itzhak Perlman made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 18. In the ensuing decades, he has mastered the entirety of the violin repertoire, recorded most of it, and earned a reputation as today’s top star on the instrument.
But at 61, he still is finding new things to do. A few years back, he picked up the baton, and conducting now accounts for an increasing amount of his busy international schedule.
He also teaches at the Juilliard School and, in 1995, he and his wife, Toby, founded the Perlman Music Program, a training institute for musicians ages 12 to 18. When the program starts in mid-June on New York’s Shelter Island, Perlman will cease his globe-trotting routine to concentrate solely on his students.
He was in Toronto recently to lead the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony and the Beethoven Triple Concerto. The soloists included his daughter, pianist Navah Perlman.
QHow many times do you think you’ve played the Beethoven Violin Concerto?
AAt least twice.
QHow do you keep it fresh?
AWhen you play the same piece over and over again, the only way to keep it fresh is to never assume that you play it the way it goes. … There are so many ways of playing a phrase. It’s not like black and white. It’s shades of gray and shades of blue and shades of green.
QDo you ever go back and look at the score?
ATaking out the score’s a good idea, but once you look at the score and see what’s going on, then you still have the challenge of playing it.
You know, things in music are contagious. … When you turn a phrase and the phrase is not quite as successful as you wanted it, then it starts to avalanche a little bit. On the other hand, if you turn a phrase that’s just right, somehow the second phrase is more likely to be right. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle where all the pieces fit perfectly, and if one piece doesn’t fit, then that piece messes everything up.
QWhile striving for that spontaneity, what keeps it Perlman’s Beethoven?
AI can’t tell you. The way I play is the way I play. Every person who plays an instrument or sings has his or her own personality, his or her own way of doing things. It’s like a fingerprint. … I get disappointed when I hear a musician who sounds like somebody else. I welcome individuality.
QHas your playing evolved over the years?
AI feel that I’m much more aware of what’s going on in music and I ask more questions. Part of the reason is that I’ve been doing much more teaching. When you teach others, you teach yourself.
QHow do you encourage students to get their own sounds?
AI don’t demonstrate (during lessons). I don’t believe in that. A lot of the kids are very talented and can imitate easily, so they’ll play what they hear.
Instead, I ask them questions: “How do you feel about this piece? Can you imagine a picture when you play? … is it sunshine or rain, bright or dark?” Some kids come up with very interesting observations. Once they do that, it’s really their own.
QAs a conductor, do you feel more in charge than when you’re a soloist?
AConducting is very mysterious, because you do certain things and you get certain results. If somebody else does the same thing, he or she will get different sounds.
I also love it because it’s new repertoire for me, the orchestral repertoire. It gives my musical life more variety, and it’s fun because it’s a little bit like teaching. What do you say to a group of people who are very, very good at playing fantastically and have played the same piece for the umpteenth time? What do you say to them that will make them play it differently? That’s a great challenge, and I enjoy that.
QWhat in music are you still exploring?
AAt the Perlman Music Program, everybody has to sing in chorus. I’m in the bass section! I come to every rehearsal and we do serious stuff – the Mozart Requiem, some of “The Messiah.” Everybody who plays an instrument has to sing because the breathing you get from singing is [also] what you should get when you play.