Interview with violinist Ivan Ženatý

Mr. Ženatý, you’ve been living in the United States for two years. Can you give us some insight into your life there? How much time do you devote to your teaching work at the Cleveland Institute of Music?

I spend around 100 days a year in Cleveland and they’re the calmest weeks of my life. With the pride of youth, my students come to me to perform new concertos and sonatas and to discuss their dreams and doubts. I also practice violin the most in Cleveland, which allows me to return with joy to the rhythm of my long-gone student life. But that idyll is regularly interrupted by concert tours around American and Europe, and once a season to Asia.

How many students do you have? From what countries? And which has brought you the most joy?

A condition of my engagement at the CIM was the creation of a large international class, and I’ve succeeded in doing that during my two years. I’m responsible for 18 young violinists aged 17 to 25 from the USA, Argentina, Canada, Russia, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Romania, Japan, Korea, China and New Zealand. After some hesitation I’ve also taken on two 12-year-old girl prodigies, who regularly travel to see me with their parents from New York and Boston. Absolutely all of them bring me joy. In this collapsing world of ours, I get a great deal out of intensive contact with a generation characterised by strength, enthusiasm and discovery.

What was the main reason for your doubts over teaching the prodigies that you mentioned?

I’ve never taught young children. What’s more, the age around 12 or 13 is when difficulties begin. But in the end I remembered myself, how every Saturday at 5:55 I’d take a seat on the bus from the Krkonoše and travel to lessons with Nora Grumlíková in Prague. What’s more, my young girls are really great and though now they just copy, a time will come when we’ll talk about how everybody can perceive beauty somewhat differently.

How successful have you been at getting involved in concert life in the US?

It happened much more quickly than in Germany. I guess the decisive moment was the instantaneous invitation to the international festival and summer school at Meadowmount in New York. It’s quite amusing that the Americans label me “Russian school”.

What led them to make that classification?

The so-called American school was of course created by Russian Jews, the descendants of Auer and above all Galamian, who left for the US after the revolution. Naturally during the last century the style of violin playing has really changed and the most distinctive American icons, such as Perlman and Zukerman, have arrived at a markedly different approach in technique, and in tone, than those of us who had the chance to study under the former pupils of Yampolsky, Yankelevich and Oistrakh, and we’ve always looked up to them. When I’d completed my first recital at Meadowmount, the 80-year-old Mrs. Thomas, a professor at Juilliard and a former student of Galamian’s, approached me and said: “It’s beautiful and it’s completely different”. I also sometimes recall a line from Sviatoslav Richter: “In Germany I’m a Russian but in Russia I’m a German.” And my next opportunity? After a sold-out Carnegie Hall last year, I’ve received a new invitation for April 2016 – for me it will be, along with a performance at the Prague Spring, the most important and beautiful evening of the next season.

How often do you get home to your house at the base of Mt. Říp?

I’m here every month, above all due to my small children, Juraj, Emma and Jakub. We spend every free moment together and for me it’s an even more intense feeling of happiness than touching Beethoven…

When you do fly to Europe, you don’t stand still, at least going by your programme from the turn of the year: recitals with the pianist Stanislav Bogunia and the harpist Jana Boušková, a concert with the Prague Symphony Orchestra (Martinů’s 2nd Violin Concerto), a tour of Spain with the ensemble referred to (Brahms’ Concerto in D major)… is it harder for you to organise your time than before, when you lived in Germany?

On the contrary, it’s easier, because I can’t improvise. I now plan concerts two years in advance and I have flight tickets bought for the next six months. You know, when you live your whole life in such a merry-go-round, you pay a lot of attention to protecting your privacy.

Are you preparing any new recordings?

Last year I recorded The Carmen Fantasy, the Fantasy from The Bartered Bride and a number of small pieces by František Drdla that will be released on CD this year. And in American a recording of Martinů and Strauss is just ready for editing. I decided relatively recently to get stuck in to the complete Bach. I know it all from memory, but I feel the need to come to grips personally with what is or may be Bach, and what is the sediment of the romantic tradition.

In one question I automatically used the word “home” in connection with the Czech Republic, but… don’t you feel you’re more of a citizen of the world?

I’m at home in the Czech Republic and that won’t change. Prague is the city that I know most intimately of all cities. I’ve got a history here, my memories and initial successes. In every Czech orchestra I know lots of people with whom I’m connected through shared experiences. And alongside this fate has presented me with a “second home” in Ohio’s Shaker Heights.

Today you’re playing Prokofiev’s Concerto in D major with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. What most impresses you about it?

It’s amazing in its oscillation between the dreamy, romantic, in places impressionistic world and the motoric passages typical of Prokofiev that often tend towards extreme tempos. Occasionally it’s as if you’ve found yourself in the love scenes from Romeo and Juliet, but at other times there’s something demonic that sends a shiver down your spine. And throughout a composer who created one of the most original languages in musical history is speaking to you.

Could Prokofiev write for violin? Is he an “appreciative” composer?

He was an excellent pianist but he also had an exceptional sense of the technique and tonal possibility of the violin. In this sense he was also exceptionally well-educated, which is delightful: Though he goes to technical extremes, he respects the instrumental possibilities of every position throughout. And if you’re asking about appreciation, I’m not sure if you’re not getting at the practice of some of my colleagues who have long been mired in commerce. I can say with absolute certainty that the Prokofiev concerto will provide an absolutely unique experience for perceptive listeners.

Not at all. I meant appreciative of you, the musicians, and also the educated audiences that we encounter at PRSO season-ticket holder concerts. By the way, you are among that ensemble’s five permanent soloists. Do you have any ideas as to the direction you’d like that cooperation to take in the coming years?

Going by our most recent appearance at the International Festival in Český Krumlov in summer 2014, the PRSO is in extraordinary form. I’m pleased that we can plan more concerts and recordings together. And it is an honour for me to be part of that famous tradition.