I had a wonderful interview with Bryn Terfel last week and it is in today's Independent, here. Bryn sings the lead in Der fliegende Holländer at Covent Garden, opening tonight.
Here are a few bonus bits of the interview.
Bryn on...Andris Nelsons (who conducts the Wagner tonight):
"The first time I met him was in Birmingham - and then I heard the Boston Symphony Orchestra had snapped him up. He’s married to Kristine Opolais,of course, which will only make him an even better conductor of singers – but he can sing! Goodness gracious, you should hear his voice. He's a stunning bass-baritone and he loves to sing from the pit- and he laughs and winks at you. From what I hear, the orchestra loves him as well. Isn’t that a great formula already? Who knows where he’ll go?"
Bryn on...his foundation to help student musicians:
"Whatever I do concertwise now, the money I
get for that goes to the foundation. I need to work a little bit harder, maybe, on getting people to invest some of their money into the youth of my
chosen career, so I’ve given some nmoney to young Welsh singers, I’ve given
some mopney to a young accordionist who's doing really well at the moment,
Ksenija Sidorova, I gave her a little foundation money – I’m sure that any
student coming out of college would like some help. So that’s something for the
future. In the next 10 years I’m going to home in on my foundation. I started it because I heard from students that they were coming out of
university with debts and that made me think that maybe they need the money
now, while they’re still in college. So the money I’ve given to students, they’re in
college now, spending it. And there’s no stipulation about what they can spend
it on – they can buy shoes, a car, a dress – and these are things you need as a
performer. I’ll never forget Sir Geraint Evans telling me: 'Buy a new suit.' And
he was right. Because that generation, thety’d come to rehearsal in a
three-piece suit! I’ll never forget who I got money from. Capital Radio gave me
£500 once. The Kathleen Ferrier Scholarship I won was £5000 and that was really important for extra coaching and extra language coaching."
Bryn on...the great pianists:
"I’ll never forget going to hear Martha Argerich
play with the young Verbier Symphony, full of kids under 25 years old. I
sat there with Peter Gelb and he said 'It’ll be brilliant tonight.' I can guess a pianist will be brilliant by the names, but to hear
piano music being played I need to study a little more, I think, on the
difference between brilliant and mediocre, because I think they’re all fantastic.
And Peter said that at the end of Horowitz’s career he was his agent and filmed
him playing in Moscow for the last time. He said they didn’t want to film him from the front of the audience, so he had
the camera on Horowitz from behind - and looking through into the audience, all
these Russian people were sobbing. But he said Horowitz had said to him: 'Only one
pianist will take over what I’ve started, and it’s Argerich'. So I was about
to listen to this woman – I listen to a lot of Horowitz anyway on Youtube - his
White House soirées with presidents are recorded on video. So that
was one of the most exciting evenings I’d ever had, having heard that story."
