Parity

In April 2015, Professor Rácz let fly at a well-known critic, who the professor reckons criticized a production without having any basis for such comments. Do you prepare your students for self-defence against critics?

ZOLTÁN RÁCZ: I wrote a few choice words of which I am not proud, followed by a longer text, every word of which I avow. I am not calling into question freedom of speech and expression, but I do resent slander. Neither F. M. nor other critics can take advantage of the fact that while fewer than a thousand can buy tickets to a concert, ten times as many can read his words. It is a minimum requirement to be cognizant of the origin and performance history of the work being reviewed.

BALÁZS FÜLEI: I think that criticism is a taste-shaping genre, or at least this is what it should be. A sort of guideline on the basis of which the audience, uncertain in its own judgement, comes to a decision about whether what they heard was in fact good or bad. However, criticism is becoming increasingly an advertisement, with campaigns disguised as criticism being organized that influence an entire career. Of course, this sort of thing happened in earlier times, too, but the proportions were different. I am not a great reader of art criticism, but I think that earlier the professionalism was stronger and the marketing character did not dominate. As a matter of fact, I regularly write reviews after department concerts, reflecting on the performance of my students. The texts contain assertions and observations that I truly do believe, and some which I don’t think are true. The task of students is to decide what they can take from the criticism. In other words, whether they believe what is not true, whether or not they take to heart personal remarks, and whether they notice what is truly worth considering. I think the only thing that counts is what is dictated by our judgement. Freedom of speech exists, everyone can say what they want; the artist must do his or her thing. As far as the artists are concerned, the “inner voice” ruthlessly voices the self-criticism; in this, there are no lies..

RZ: It is a very good method, it is just a pity that according to this it has no use.

Zoltán Rácz and Balázs Fülei (Photo: Liszt Academy / Andrea Felvégi)

Not even when a production is criticized in such a way that it is compared with another?

RZ: How many times did Béla Bartók listen to Mozart recordings? Who’s interested in the recordings? After all, there is the sheet music, the original work, it contains everything. And by the way, I would start Liszt Academy training by teaching students to read sheet music. Today, some classical musicians are practically incapable of finding their way around a score. They play pieces that the audience know by ear, too, and conductors lead works which require the score only as a reminder, even though a re-reading could tell them much more. Simply because we have a different ear. Balázs’s or my hearing is to a significant extent accustomed to the music of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Thelonious Monk or Miles Davis, which supposes a totally different attitude to that of 100 years ago. It could not be otherwise. John Cage once said to me that percussion music is beautiful because it always sounds different. I think this is true for all music. If somebody is required to copy somebody, then this is ridiculous.

FB: It is not necessary to imitate but rather to understand and reformulate within.

RZ: I think that music can be learned from composers. We cannot phone up Schubert, but we had been able to phone up Ligeti or now we can get in touch with Eötvös and those who are still with us. Make no mistake, Haydn and Mozart were also contemporary composers in the strictest sense of the word. It is incredibly important for a person to deal with the music of his own age. I think only in this way can our predecessors be understood.

FB: In the event of uncertainties in interpretation, I reckon that primarily the composer has to be questioned, and if in no other way, then through the study of co-pieces. The fact is that the answers are there in the oeuvre. This is akin to the prosecutor’s evidence...

All this requires the training of thoughtful artists.

RZ. Why, is there any other way? I really like reading the scrolling quotes in the top right-hand corner of the home page of zeneakademia.hu. They tell us what the purpose of teaching at the academy is.

FB: When meeting for the first time, I always ask students who come to me what they are training for. Almost nobody has an answer. The fact is that in the Liszt Academy these days the majority are just preparing or the next exam, or for a competition, perhaps a concert, and finally for their diploma. However, they should be preparing themselves for something completely different right from the very first moment.

RZ: Don’t forget that at the same time, for this two acts of the by now virtually extinct teacher-student relationship are necessary. When a student selects a teacher, this assumes an absolute commitment, and when a teacher accepts a student, the teacher undertakes far-reaching responsibility for him or her.

Tamás Vajna