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What would you ask Julia Fischer?

Violinists: I'll be interviewing her fairly soon, and I'd like to know your questions for her!

From Laurie Niles
Posted December 16, 2008 at 05:19 PM

I'll be interviewing her either tomorrow, or sometime in the next few months. Just trying to get the schedules together! At any rate, I'd like to know your questions for Julia Fischer!

Ask her where her father has gone - I miss him! :)

Milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

Don't ask her about her father. Here I am! Back healthy, busy and in the middle of a lot of projects (classical music, ofcourse).

Thanks for asking anyway.

FMF

In what ways does she find her piano expertise contributes to her violin mastery? (And vice versa if appropriate)

Will she join V.com and post bloggs and add to threads??????

What strings and rosin does she prefer?

Any books regarding bowing does she like?

I know, I know, but I've been seriously playing for only 11 months now and 24 years ago prior to that, of course someone like me would ask these things.

Kindest Regards,

Royce

Greetings,

does she teach,  plan to teach, have ideas about what makes a good teacher?

Cheers,

Buri

She is simply amazing!

Her playing is as near perfect as I think anyone can be.  I would really love to hear some insight into her practice routine and how she gets a piece to the point of sheer perfection (sound, pitch, everything---she's amazing!)  I am extremely taken by her extremely rocket fast, and clean shifting technique (just watch her clips!!)...Any secretes to that?   Also, her confidence on the stage in terms of presence and control of the piece (memorization) is astounding.  Does she have any tricks to memorization?

I'd ask about her about future recording plans.  She is an amazing violinist, absolutely one of my favorites!

First, congratulate her!

As usual, what strings are her favorite, what does she think about music and young people, the teching methods nowadays?  Does she have a favorite city to tour in?  Does she think people exagerate the good "reputation" of strads and guarneris or do they really play better?  Very off topic but if ever you talk about silly things, does she have a pet (or one at home waiting for her). 

Anne-Marie

Since she is part of the project Rhapsody in School which was started by pianist Lars Voigt and now involves more than 60 prof musicians who combine their concert activity with visiting schools in Germany and Austria, what is her feedback so far ?

and regarding future recording plans (Anthony's Q.) will they include SA-CD and similar modern techniques, and perhaps even serve the growing number of Vinyl-LP fans? Already a lovely JF cover photo on the huge LP sleeve for lets say the Scottish Fantasy or Symphony Espagnole, plus the whole ceremony following.....would be something!

Hansjürgen

I would also be very interested in hearing about her and the piano.  I understand she performed the Grieg concerto at the beginning of this year?

Also, there's a video of her teaching where she makes her student lie down on the floor and play the Bach g-minor fugue.  I'd kinda like to know what that was about too...

Otherwise I'm sure anything the two of you talk about pertaining to music and the violin would be very interesting.  Thank you for always sharing these fantastic interviews with us!

Stephen, I believe she is a professor for violin at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Frankfurt!   I'd like to know if she has any plans to record the Elgar Violin Concerto and also whether she would ever consider switching to baroque violin set-up and baroque bow to play solo Bach?

or even the Elgar?

Looks like it won't be tomorrow but in a few weeks. So keep your questions coming! :)

What does Yoga mean to her?

Yoga is a creamy diet food in the dairy section of grocery stores. Some have fruit and oth.......... ooops.

Hi Laurie would you mind asking Ms. Fischer how she feels being one of (if not THE) the youngest violin professors in Germany and having to work with colleagues and students that are maybe a lot older and experienced (teaching wise)?

What are the things that inspire her?

• in music
• in art
• in life?

Why does music by Bruckner chase her away, and how does she feel about music by composers who hardly wrote for solo violin, like Wagner, Mahler, Richard Strauss.

Any dream projects she might want to realize in long-distance future?

Hansjürgen

Julia would like to know that our Chinese friend who drove over 100 miles to meet us in Cincinnati for her Dvorak performance,  became a JF fan, when having never heard any western classical music, I played her DVD of the Four Seasons for him.  When I returned to the living room after cooking his Kung Po Chicken, I found him on the edge of his seat, and under his breath saying "gosh" , "wow", "oooh" and the like.  When the performance was over, he jumped up and amost shouting, said: " Where you buy that?!"  My wife and I gave it to him as a going away present when he left Albany NY to begin his PhD studies at Ohio State.  My wife and I traveled over 700 mile to hear that (wonderful) performance, but I told Julia that if she had recorded it for PentaTone, I probably would not have spent the resources necessary to come to Cincinnati.  Having a long line of people behind me, I did not get a chance to fully articulate what I want to impress upon her although I did say that PentaTone records to specially formatted  DVD discs rather than CD and that their recordings carry 64 times the information density of CDs.  So promise of a Decca recording would not have been sufficient to restrain us from visiting Cincinnati. 

In stereo the difference is like the difference between an old TV and a new well set-up HD TV.  But even more important, a PentaTone "surround sound" SACD yields an enormous portion of the aural experience of attending a live concert.  The rear channels form an image of the reflections from the rear of the hall, while the left front and left rear speaker reproduce the reflections from the left side and coversely the right is handled in a similar fashion.  As I said, a multi-channel "surround" SACD from PentaTone played back in really good equipment yeilds an enormous portion of the aural experience of attending a live concert.

Julia should not turn her back on this with out experiencing it herself.  It is the sort of thing, like drawing her bow across the G string of that Guadignini,  one can only understand through experience.  I would urge Julia to hear such a system in someone's home.  I would also urge her to use her time with Decca to enlarge her name recognition, it is still lacking in the US.  But I urge her to record for Decca things like Wieniawski, Sarasate, Saint Saens, Bruch - not Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Sibelius, Shostakovitch or Bartok.  Save the truly great concerti for a return to PentaTone.  Decca, now a subsidiary of Universal Studios fired all the great Decca engineers.  They subsequently formed Classic Sound LTD and made some SACDs for Decca under contract.  But Universal didn't see that enterprise as making enough money and they think it is too expensive to spend the money on Julia or anyone else to properly record them to SACD.  Little PentaTone by contrast, has never done any less!

All the above is moot if Decca will make the rest of her recordings to Blu-Ray video discs.    Although the high density PCM used for Blu-Ray is marginally less accurate than the DSD PentaTone uses,  Hi - Def surround sound and video on Blu-Ray would be enormously beneficial and if there were a Julia Fischer In Concert  Blu-Ray disc, that  would prompt me to immediatly go out and purchase the finest Blu-Ray player money can buy.

Hansjürgen, read the "Zeit" interview from yesterday for an answer to your Bruckner question (page 2). Here she explained that to her Bruckner describes a state and not an evolution. She feels like being 80 years old when hearing Bruckner. Although she does not feel ready for Bruckner she can imagine that she may become a Bruckner lover in the future. She thinks there is a classical way from Mahler over Wagner to Bruckner.

Allen, in an interview in 2006 she told that she thinks in music age does not matter. She feels supported and encouraged by her older colleagues and appreciates this.

thanks, Mathias B,

I was fortunate enough to read the Zeit interview online the day before the print issue was out, and thought to add this particular question to Laurie's repertoire.

BTW, who reads the weekly Die Zeit in the US, or in Japan? In Germany its a very limited number of readers, ...

Haj

That's why I tried to provide a summary of her answer. I would love to read an interview with as many as possible questions not asked before by interviewers. But I think I got your point and I agree: Her current opinion on these composers is interesting as it tells something about JF.

"I would love to read an interview with as many as possible questions not asked before by interviewers."

Yes I would love to as well, but lets be realistic.

For one thing, there are hardly any questions never asked before, plus the fact that limelight artists like Julia Fischer, Mutter, Bell etc. have become and have to be - understandably, in view of the media hype - very selective as far as interviewers und the sheer number of interview dates are concerned. Recently in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung mezzosoprano Christine Schäfer mentioned one reason for her to leave the DG label was their massive pressure on her schedule for media presence, she now publishes on her own label.

In view of this it certainly will be a very enjoyable privilege for Laurie to make arrangements for a meeting with one of THE artists of  the century, who, as Bruce had indicated, is not yet much known across the Atlantic.

Cheers,

Hansjürgen

Will she compete in the next Elisabeth-competition in May 2009 or another competition, because it is still possible with her age?

Queen Elizabeth II Competition 2010

Haj

no, it's May 2009. 

had in mind the one on QE2....;-)

still, and serious, Jula's view of and experience with competitions might be of interest.

Haj

Yay, Julia Fischer is awesome.  Ask her if she has a boyfriend?

Also ask her if she has ever played (or is planning to play) the Bach Chaconne on both violin and piano in the same concert.  Or any sort of "Bach only" concert, or any sort of only-one-composer concert.  Has she ever accompanied herself on piano (on recording, I mean..)?

I agree with Charles C (22 Dec) - Julia is unique in playing violin and piano to the highest standard. During her forthcoming (2009-10) tour of the Bach solo partitas and sonatas has she considered playing the ciaconna in its original version and in the Busoni arrangement for piano which I know she admires from one of her CD insert notes. It would be fascinating to hear both versions played by the same person and there is only one person in the world who could do it to a high standard - Julia!

At the New Year's Day concert in Frankfurt 2008 she played the Saint-Saens 3rd violin concerto and the Grieg piano concerto as soloist in both and this was recorded on film/video. I spoke to the company that made the recording and they said it might be issued on commercial DVD - does Julia know if this is to happen?

I much enjoy her CD insert notes - on the importance to her of Glenn Gould playing a particular Bach keyboard concerto as seen on the Art of the Piano, on the importance to her of Menuhin's performance live of Bach solo works, on why she chose to record the Khachaturian concerto, and on that Bach-Busoni ciaconna as played by Kissin. On her more recent CDs these personal writings have dried up - on future CDs please could she revive writing for us on what matters to her, which influences have formed her?

The boyfriend question is a bit sensitive. She mentioned in an interview circa 2006 a boyfriend who was a student engineer at MIT. If this has blossomed see if she is prepared to talk about it. If not, nothing should be published on the subject. I would like to see her happily married and producing the next generation of musicians, she has such a generous affectionate disposition. Lisa Batiashvili is a model to her and indeed Hilary Hahn in combining marriage and two children with a high profile career as a leading soloist.

I'd like to know what, and how, she practices. Is violin playing still difficult "on old Olympus' topmost top"? Or is it more and more about interpretation? Or both?

I'd like to ask her something along the following lines:

1)  Do you have any general thoughts on the current state of the classical music recording industry?  Do you believe there are too many choices currently among standard repetoire works for consumers?  Does this make it harder for newer artists to sell newly-recorded CD's of standard repetoire works (such as your forthcoming recording of Bach Violin Concertos) with so much back-catalog availability?  

2)  If you could invite any 3 people, living or deceased, over to your house for dinner, who would they be and why? 

3)  What does the classical music community need to do or to continue doing to incease its visability and fan-base amongst the general public?

Thanks. 

 Scott I like your question:

"1)  Do you have any general thoughts on the current state of the classical music recording industry?  Do you believe there are too many choices currently among standard repetoire works for consumers?  Does this make it harder for newer artists to sell newly-recorded CD's of standard repetoire works (such as your forthcoming recording of Bach Violin Concertos) with so much back-catalog availability?"

1)Of course my question in addition to that would be: How broad is her repertoireknowledge compared to collegues. Does she like to listen to rarities and not so well known repertoire from this century and the centuries before? Is there ever a chance she will record for example the seldom played and recorded 3th violinconcerto of Paganini (she played a movement of the 2th in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam) or 3th violinconcerto of Vieuxtemps? OK she recorded the not so well known Glazunov and Kachaturian violinconcerto's.

2 other questions:

2) How much beer did she drink during the Oktoberfeste in Munich (I drunk 4 litres in one day) and has she a traditional Dirndl?

3) Will she begin a weblog on violinist.com and will she begin a Youtube-channel like Hilary Hahn http://www.youtube.com/user/hilaryhahnvideos ?  It is always interesting to read/see the visions from professionals.

Have you tried playing without a shoulder rest? 

I would like Ms Fischer to talk about why she decided to leave Pentatone Classics (a label that fostered her development) for Decca (who don't have a great track record for sustaining investment once the next 'bright young thing' comes along). Does she have any regrets about leaving a loyal company? Does she have any potential misgivings about how Decca might treat her (length of contract and repertoire choice)?

Previously, she was quoted as saying that surround sound (via SACD in the context of Pentatone) was very important to her. Why has more realistic presentation of her art and sound become less important?

Greetings,

I would also be a litlte dunious aout this kind of Janus recording;)   Usually I hope for contrast of person to create tension in a recording.  An interwsting exmaple of his not working well is Heifetz plus Heifetz in the Bach double.

Who know though?  It might be a blast...

Cheers,

Buri

Any practice advice for us amateurs?

 Greetings, everyone! Julia did this as an e-mail interview,and this week I will be posting the answers that she sent me to your questions as part of the daily CD contest. So each day I'll post several of those questions and answers. 

I listened to the Bach, and it's quite nice, a good, brisk Bach Double. She negotiates all that awkwardness in the A Minor Concerto with much finesse. An expert driver in a fine car!

BTW, though the S and Ps are sacred to us, I do believe they are secular music. ;)

Oh, what a treat! Julia Fischer! I've had the fortune of seeing her perform here in Brussels twice. The first time we (my daughter and I)  went backstage and actually met her and asked for her autograph. She said her fingers were still 'numbed' from playing so her signature was a little quirky. I have her autographed photo proudly displayed in my office. I'm going to look for the little video we took of her and maybe post it here.

But my question to her would be: what is her advice for people who start playing the violin when they are, like me, older (in the 30's and 40's). As a teacher, what kind of exercises or methods would she recommend? What approach would she use to teach an older student?

Thanks so much!

Mayra

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