Interview with clarinettist Kateřina Váchová

The clarinet is a beautiful instrument. (Though I have to admit that at first I wasn’t convinced about it, perhaps because I hadn’t chosen it myself). I like its diversity. You can play various genres on the clarinet – classical music, jazz, folk… It’s got a beautiful sound and can also be a highly virtuoso solo instrument. Personally, I’m most taken by its sound in orchestral work (e.g., Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms), or in chamber compositions that also feature strings.

How demanding is it? Can you allow yourself a day without practising?

I think that in comparison with other wind instruments (the oboe, the horn), the clarinet is not among the most demanding. I don’t know. I can’t judge. But given that there are very many good clarinet players in the world, it’s probably true. I can, of course, allow myself a day without practising, as long as I don’t have an important and difficult performance coming up in the near future.

What music do you most enjoy playing?

Pieces from the eras of classicism and romanticism.

Following your Brahms project, what composition do you have a particular desire to record?

Definitely Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet, his Clarinet Quintet and Carla Maria von Weber’s concertos for clarinet.

Do you ever have the opportunity or desire to pick up other wind instruments?

I played the saxophone at the conservatory, and at Academy of Performing Arts I had the opportunity to borrow a basset clarinet and play Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with an orchestra. It was really interesting.

In what way?

The basset clarinet is very similar to the “standard” clarinet, though of course it measures around 18cm longer, which enriches its range by four undertones: D sharp, D, C sharp, C. They are played with the right thumb and have a dark colour reminiscent of a basset horn. It was first presented to the public in 1789, when Anton Stadler played it in Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet in A major. Though the basset clarinet isn’t commonly used, several musical instrument producers offer it. It’s particularly interesting to clarinettists who wish to play Mozart’s compositions in the original, unmodified notation.

What about today’s piece? Have you played Bruch before?

Not yet, but I’m very glad that I can perform it, and that it’ll be with Mr. Pěruška. Bruch’s Double Concerto is from 1911. The composer wrote it for his son, the clarinettist Max Felix Bruch, and the viola player Willy Hess. It’s sometimes played in a version for violin and viola.

Your biography reveals that you picked up laurels for victories in international competitions in Portugal, France, Spain and you have first prize from the 2002 Prague Spring International Music Competition. That’s a really superb springboard for an intensive solo career? Has it arrived in a form and to an extent that suit you?

I don’t know… Winning a competition doesn’t guarantee somebody an intensive solo career these days. At least not in my case. Musicians have to know how to look after themselves, and not just by playing well.

You’ve got a daughter of seven, Barbora, and a boy of five, Vojtěch. Do you find it hard to combine the role of mother with music?

It was tough when the children were very small. And the hardest thing of all was to accept the fact that I can no longer devote as much time to work as I’d like to. Today the kids are “luckily” at an age where they tolerate my practising. They take it as part of their mother.

Do you try to introduce them to world of music in some way?

I don’t even need to. It’s enough that both parents are musicians. From when they were little, the children go to watch rehearsals or performances. They’re growing up in music.

How did you actually get into music? Do you have musicians in your family?

I don’t. My parents simply enrolled me in music school and there I met a teacher, Mr. Brožek, who chose the clarinet for me.

So no musicians whatsoever among your predecessors – but in any case you’ve now got one at home, your life partner. Can you recommend a union between two people in the same field?

Definitely!