Friday, January 13, 2006 - Perelman Theater

Arnaldo Cohen: After living 23 years in London, I'm living in the states now. I teach at Indiana University.

PCM: Were you teaching in London?

Arnaldo Cohen: No, I was concertizing there more than anything else, I use to teach at the Royal Academy in London but once a month just giving lectures, not with the intensity that I have classes here.

PCM: You started your recording career in London?

Arnaldo Cohen: Yes, in fact I never really wanted to record. I wouldn't say I was against recording, I had always had serious concerns not only about the industry but also the recording process I don't think it reflects the reality. All the processing.

PCM: You would never record yourself playing violin and piano?

Arnaldo Cohen: I'm a lousy violin player and it is difficult to practice the piano.

PCM: Why is it difficult to practice piano?

Arnaldo Cohen: There's no limit for perfection in what we do, the fact that you have to try to play every last thing perfect as possible you never reach perfection. You practice five hours, OK. If you practice more than that you get better than that. We are in a profession where there is no perfection.

At least with the piano if you play out of tune you can blame it on the piano. If you are out of tune on the Violin, I will say it is you.

PCM: Do you try to emulate what the composer meant?

Arnaldo Cohen: Of course, but I think how can we be sure of what we think the composer meant is what he really meant. I think we are talking about fantasies. I think there is no truth. I think it is quite interesting how there are some artists which I know and colleagues who say, "He meant". He Meant? Here an interesting point. Rachmaninoff was a great pianist, nobody can deny that. He knew the instrument very well, he wrote for the piano but the Russian tradition of how to perform Rachmaninoff has nothing to do with a Rochmaninoff performance himself. This is equal to saying Rachmaninoff didn't understand Rachmaninoff. What the composer meant, you have to be careful of that. Liszt was a piano composer basically, at the end of his B minor Sonata there's one chord with a crescendo. How can you play a chord with a crescendo on the piano? It's impossible. What did he mean by that?

Composers like Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, the music they wrote for the instrument many times the composition was not necessary meant to that instrument. A piano cannot produce a crescendo in one chord. They were composing.

So what is the truth? There is no truth, there's one truth, it's what makes the whole performance work, magic. That's why people go to concerts. What happens in this process the music passes through the personality, sensitively, ability and comes out with a personal stamp. And this is what makes the whole thing beautiful. There's some guy an eminent pianist who say if you don't do it this way your wrong, that's positively stupid.

PCM: Do you remember cities by their piano?

Arnaldo Cohen: Yes, mainly I remember very well places I don't want to play because the piano is very bad.

I did one recital in Philadelphia, they have been very very nice to me. Philadelphia is one of my favorite places to play in this country. They have a great piano technician at the Kimmel Center. You have to have a good piano technician as well as a good piano. Pianos have personality. There are pianos that are friendly some that are really nasty. Like people,

PCM: Do you get nervous before you perform?

Arnaldo Cohen: I won't say nervous, I am concerned because playing a concert you can't rewind the tape, you have one chance to show what you want. You can't stop and say, "Oh I'm sorry ladies and gentleman, I am going to do it again, I did it so much better at home". It's like crossing Niagara Falls without a safety net. Performing can be a very painful but rewarding activity. It's like the story of the guy that hits his head on the wall and somebody ask why he does it and he replies, because it feels so good when I stop.

PCM: Do you like to record now?

Arnaldo Cohen: Well in fact I feel like, if you have a battalion of one hundred soldiers marching right left, if you have one guy marching left right, he's either a stupid guy or he's a genius. I realized it is stupid for me to go against the Ninety nine.

PCM: Do you record what you want?

Arnaldo Cohen: Basically we discuss what they want and what I feel. We come to a common agreement. What will work commercially or if they have a catalog to fill. If it's worth wild to them, for me. I just recorded which will be out in June or July of 2006, two Liszt Piano Concertos and Totentanz. We discuss ideas. The CD I have out now, Liszt Sonata in B minor. It is my best recording. It has received great reviews in Europe.

PCM: Was it hard to get the Brazilian CD out?.

Arnaldo Cohen: Is was difficult, they didn't want to. Anything that is new, is different is hard to get out. I will play a lot of Brazilian Pieces in my recital in Philadelphia. I think in Brazilian music we have so many talented composers. What I tried to do in this recording was give a sample of Brazilian creation, more than anything it is paying tribute to the many talented Brazilian composers.

PCM: You teach at Indiana University along with Andre Watts, what do the two of you talk about?

Arnaldo Cohen: I travel very much, we've met a few times here. Andre is a very wonderful human being, a great artist, we talk about music in general. It's funny, people think when musicians get together they talk only about music. We do but we also talk about everyday things. When you talk to a great musician like Andre I think both sides can benefit. It can open new insights. you can learn a lot.

PCM: How do you determine your concert program?

Arnaldo Cohen: The program has a story to tell. Something to tell the audience as if your taking them on a trip. It's a book with several chapters. There's a concept. You are basically the pilot of an airplane and you take the audience on a flight. Hopefully the plane will arrive. I think that's what people pay for when they go to a concert. I think they pay to get away, just to get away from the everyday life , they pay to get to a different dimension. They pay, I am responsible for that.