Interview, Jan Bartoš on Beethoven

A pupil of Alfred Brendel and Ivan Moravec, Czech pianist Jan Bartoš made an impressive debut on Supraphon last year with Mozart’s Piano Concertos No. 12 and 20, partnered by the Czech Philharmonic and the late Jiří Bělohlávek: The Sunday Times declared that ‘the soloist’s crisp articulation and singing legato are never far from the spirit of the composer’s sunnier comedies’, whilst Gramophone observed that ‘Bartoš is careful never to eclipse his partners’ and praised his ability to ‘spin a beguiling, sustained melody’. For his first solo studio recording (released last month on the same label) he presents an all-Beethoven programme, ranging from the early Piano Sonata No. 3 to the great last Sonata and taking in the Appassionata along the way.

Our friends at RSK Distribution have kindly granted us permission to share this interview which he gave to the label about the new album and his future recording and performance plans.

What was the main impulse for you to devote an album to Beethoven?

The answer is simple: in my opinion, Beethoven is the greatest composer of all time. I’m fascinated by the range of his personality, encompassing virtually everything, which is duly reflected in his music. And the sonatas on the album depict various facets of that personality – masculine energy and elegance in Opus 2, nobleness and earnestness in Opus 14, passion and extreme drama in the Appassionata. And the final Sonata and Bagatelles teem with compassion and love, as well as a mystic visionary quality. I deem Beethoven to be the greatest revolutionary in the history of music: his highly personal approach changed everything. Without him, Romanticism and the further evolution of the art-form are simply unimaginable: Schumann, Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Strauss, Schoenberg, Shostakovich and dozens of other major composers took up the baton and ran with it. Beethoven essentially transformed many genres, and his final pieces showed the path to the distant future.

How did you select the repertoire for your new album?

I wanted to juxtapose different types of works, so as to highlight the sheer diversity of Beethoven’s music: this kind of approach speaks to me more than consistent chronology or thematic cohesion. The pieces featured on the album are among those I love the most, and I had the opportunity to explore them with my dearest mentors, including Ivan Moravec and Alfred Brendel.

What are the greatest pitfalls of Beethoven’s piano works?

His compositions are perfectly built: everything is logical, everything fits together like a puzzle. Consequently, now and then his music may come across as predictable, or overly rational - yet I have identified the same problem with Johann Sebastian Bach. Owing to the absence of performance instructions and tempo markings, Bach affords the performers great freedom of interpretation: what some may perceive as slow and almost sacred, others may feel as being fast and dance-like. In my opinion, this type of freedom is out of the question in Beethoven’s case, as his precise notation provides a relatively clear notion of this or that piece’s character. Yet it is necessary, and indeed imperative, to “psychologise” the rigorous structure of his works – the interpreter should square up to the variability of emotions and nuance everything to a greater extent. This, however, is purely my opinion, and I am sure that some colleagues of mine would disagree!

How often have you performed Beethoven’s music at your concerts, and how pronounced is the difference between live performances and the recording process in the studio?

Beethoven’s music has been included in almost all my solo concerts. Last year, l combined his works with short pieces by John Cage, this year with Franz Schubert’s compositions. My first two albums feature live recordings of concerts, and the presence of microphones makes no difference to me in a live performance. So why did I agree to make my first studio recording? For several reasons. When I play Beethoven’s music at concerts, I get easily enraptured by it, and thus I occasionally overdo the tempo or dynamics - but, as far as I know, that happens to virtually all pianists. Whilst it may work well (and may even be exciting) at live concerts, it does not serve Beethoven well on recordings. To give a specific example: I wanted to record the third movement from Appassionata more slowly than is usual, so as to comply with the tempo-marking Allegro ma non troppo. Precious few of us succeed in pulling that off in concert.

What major concerts do you have planned for the next season, and have you decided on your next recording project?

This autumn, I will not solely focus on the music featured on my new album: besides Beethoven, I will also pay great attention to Leoš Janáček, whose works I will present at concerts in Spain and Italy. At the end of October, I will perform his complete piano oeuvre at two recitals within the Leoš Janáček International Festival in Ostrava, as well as at other concerts. Next season, I will perform Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and the Choral Fantasy with the Janáček Philharmonic. My next recording project will be a Janáček album, and after that Jakub Hrůša, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and I will embark upon recording piano concertos by Johannes Brahms and Vítězslav Novák.