Off-stage With Badura-Skoda

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 885, 20 July 1956, Page 7

Off-stage With Badura-Skoda

N the neon-lit interior of a hotel foyer we sat and waited for the visiting concert pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, who was flying down from Auckland that day. People streamed past on their way to the bars or the rooms upstairs, glancing at the photographer with his camera on his knee. A hotel steward stood on duty in the background, a cigarette concealed in his hand. We had been waiting for some time before a young man, familiar from his photographs, suddenly appeared at the reception desk. Paul BaduraSkoda’s plane had been late-his trip had proved extremely tiring-so it was not until later that we saw him again, along with representatives of the NZBS and the Wellington Chamber Music Society. In appearance Paul Badura-Skoda is not very tall, with brown, wavy hair, and a pale sensitive face, with lively brown eyes. His first concern, apparently, was to find a barber’s shop-"I played with long hair in Auckland, but it will not do for the capital city," he said. In the plane on the way down he had been busy making corrections in the score of the wind quintet, which he was to play with New Zealand artists in Wellington. He has an _ intimate knowledge of Mbozart’s music, and is anxious that the version to be played will be as near as possible to the original. We were surprised to learn that a Mozart score could over the years have become so corrupt. In this particular quintet, harmonies had _ been altered-‘"all sorts of things," Mr. Badura-Skoda said. A discussion started about the piano to be used in the Sunday concert, and when Badura-Skoda learned that the city’s new Steinway could not be shifted from the main hall to the concert chamber he was curious to know why, and even offered to lend a hand in the shifting. "In New York they are always shifting pianos," he said, and described the shuffle that takes place between the city’s celebrated concert rooms. "However, the other piano may be a good one, too, and then there will be no

worry." Mr. BaduraSkoda was in New Zealand for ten days only, and it seemed that he would have practically no free time-he had six concerts, he keeps up a regular practice schedule when on tour, and he had the special chamber music concert rehearsals as well. The complaint has been made of many concert pianists touring lately that their programmes have often been made up of familiar "war-horses." Mr. BaduraSkoda’s were far more interesting than most, so we asked him how he chose them. "Usually I. plan my tour a year beforehand," he said. "I write out all

the works I want to play on pieces of paper, then I try to fit them all together to make up _ balanced programmes. Each country I go to has its own kind of programme; for instance, in Australia they are not as long as the ones you have. here. When I submitted mine to your Broadcasting Service they wrote and said, ‘These programmes are much. too short!’ so I was pleased I would be able to play longer." In his Wellington programme Mr. Badura-Skoda included a sonata by Hindemith. "Did he always include a modern work in a programme?’ we asked him. "I think you have to introduce modern works gradually," he said, "perhaps put one in each programme, Then the audience can get used to the modern harmonies _and the modern use of counterpoint, until they find they are starting to enjoy it. The younger generation seem to go ahead and understand it on their own. I think the most receptive age is about 20, for then they

have an elasticity of mind that allows them to give themselves completely to something that is new and unknown." "Do you hear much modern music in Vienna?" we asked him. "Yes, a great deal. Twenty to thirty concerts a year offer the most interesting novelties. In Europe there are many festivals of modern music, and the number of performances is really fantastic. The trouble is that now there is quite a craze for something new-people want a new opera each year, like a new hat or a new Car.’ "Is there a younger group of composers following Bartok, Hindemith and Schoenberg?" we asked. "There are many younger composers," he replied, "though young is a strange word to use of composers who are often around forty before they begin to be known. There are Hartmann, Messiaen (who wrote a gigantic symphony), Heiller, Von Einem (who wrote two operas), and Carl Schiske. It is certainly a good time for composers, though the financial aspect of modern music bothers them."

This was an interesting point which, une fortunately, there was not time to discuss fully. We had to content ourselves with a final brief question on the place of the piano in music today. "The piano seems to be thought of as a romantic instrument, and as such is not very popular with present-day composers," he said. "Some seem to like it, such as Hindemith; and there is Stravinsky’s Serenade in A, one of his best works, But on the whole it is not liked." In conversation Mr. Badura-Skoda is charming, considerate and forthright. On the concert platform when he is playing a work that particularly appeals to him his face lights up and he enjoys himself, He is a fine and rare artist, and it is to be hoped that he will return to this country on a longer tour that will enable more people to see as well as hear him.