„One cannot play the violin in fear”
She is one of the most multifaceted violinists of our day: she plays Baroque on a period instrument, the great Romantic and 20th century repertoire on a modern violin, yet she is also open to folk music and jazz. Viktoria Mullova was born in the Soviet Union but defected at the age of 23, since when she has lived in the West. She arrives at the Liszt Academy with a Baroque programme, although in her interview with Concert Magazine the subject matter extended far beyond this: from her childhood, fears and joint projects with her jazz musician husband, to practical matters concerning playing the violin.
You received a strict, one could say old-fashioned musical upbringing in the Soviet Union. Can you see the advantage to this?
The technique I learned there proved a very good starting point for me. The technique has to be deeply rooted by the age of 16, because after this it is too late. But nobody taught me to play music, they didn’t tell me how to phrase a piece, how to interpret and so on. They only taught technique.
When did you turn towards period playing? In an interview a long time ago you said you would never learn to play on gut strings because of the difference and difficulty…
That really was a long time ago, around the time I first heard Il Giardino Armonico play. I admired them and I did not believe in myself. With the help and influence of fantastic Baroque musician colleagues I started experimenting and began to pick up this way of playing. Today, I can play in a period way on my instrument, my modernized Stradivarius, because I have learned to play Baroque violin. My other instrument is a gut string Guarneri with short Baroque bow. I play different repertoires on the two instruments and frequently switch over in a single concert. But I also play Beethoven’s violin concerto on gut, even when accompanied by a modern orchestra. The history of steel strings begins in the 20th century.
Your husband, jazz musician and cellist Matthew Barley, is part of a different music world. You do have joint albums, though. What have you learned from him?
He has a far more relaxed, improvisational style, which is great to experience and learn. We played pop and jazz on our first joint record (Through the Looking Glass). The second (The Peasant Girl) contains peasant and Gypsy music-inspired pieces, most in arrangements written by my husband. The latest (Stradivarius in Rio) was made according to my ideas and it contains South American music. I like this style of playing. In fact, the sheer enjoyment of playing violin came relatively late. Right up until about 15 years ago, I didn’t like playing the violin at all… I found no pleasure in it. I hated the sound of the violin, I preferred the cello much more. My parents put the violin into my hands because they wanted me to be a success.
And this is what you became.
True, they were right, I’m not finding fault with them, but this was not my choice. As a child I hated the whole thing.
But then you won major competitions and your whole career was built on the violin.
Yes, but I was scared all the way throughout my life. I was scared of the stage, the criticism, the critics, the audience, everything. One cannot play the violin in fear; music only works when the person likes to play music.
There is Hungarian material on The Peasant Girl recording. Do you know much about the very rich Hungarian folk music tradition?
Naturally. For us in the West, of course, everything that is East European is ‘Gypsy music’. But I am intimate with and play folk music-based works by Bartók and Kodály.
Do you play Bartók often?
I wouldn’t say that but I do occasionally. I have recorded the Solo Sonata – an extremely difficult piece! – and of course the ‘great’ Violin Concerto. Sometimes I put aside certain composers for a few years, Bartók is one of them. I didn’t play Shostakovich for 15 years and then I returned to him.
How do you handle the physical stresses of playing the violin? Everybody has their own technique for this.
Yes, playing violin can be very tiring if one does not acquire the appropriate posture and way of playing that suits them. I do different stretching exercises every morning in order to remain flexible and so that playing is not a painful experience. And I don’t practice too much, at most two hours each day or less. Or I even leave a few days out. Perhaps even longer. Last year I didn’t play for eight months, I didn’t even touch my instrument.
The best known story about your life is how, when you were young, you escaped to the West during a tour of Finland. Can you imagine what your life would have been if you had remained in the Soviet Union?
No. I became somebody completely different and I don’t feel myself to be truly Russian.
Judit Rácz