Talking to violinist and teacher Grigory Kalinovsky at the 2017 Eilat Chamber Music Festival

Photo: Anna Kari

On February 4^th 2017 I spoke to violinist Russian-born Grigory Kalinovsky at the Dan Eilat Hotel, where he was performing at the Eilat Chamber Music Festival and also tutoring some young outstanding violinists taking part in master classes. Hailed by the Vancouver Sun as a “superior poet” and by Gramophone for his “heart and indominable will”, Grigory Kalinovsky studied at the Manhattan School of Music, becoming a member of faculty there on graduation and prior to his move to Indiana. A devoted educator, he is professor of violin at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, teaches at international summer festivals and holds master classes across the USA, Europe and Asia. Performing as a soloist and chamber musician, he collaborates with such artists as Pinchas Zuckerman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ralph Kirshbaum, Miriam Fried, Dora Schwarzberg and Paul Coletti. He has recorded with pianist Tatiana Goncharova. Their Shostakovich CD for Centaur Records was hailed by Maxim Shostakovich as a “must-have for any Shostakovich connoisseur.”

PH: Grigory Kalinovsky, is it your first time playing at the Eilat Chamber Music Festival?

Grigory Kalinovsky: Yes, it is my first appearance at the Eilat Festival, but certainly not my first visit to Israel. For several years now I have been giving master classes at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music and the Israel Conservatory of Music as well as at the Jerusalem Music Centre.

PH: What was your earliest musical experience?

GK: My father was an opera singer in Leningrad and, from age four, I had a teacher come to teach me music at home…not any specific instrument – solfege and ear-training and a little piano. When I was five I started violin lessons. I went to a neighbourhood music school, where I had a wonderful teacher – Tatiana Liberova- with whom I studied till I left Russia in 1989, emigrating to New York.

PH: Did you study in New York?

GK: Yes, I did conservatory studies with Pinchas Zuckerman and Patinka Kopec at the Manhattan School of Music, finishing my bachelor’s degree as well as my master’s with them.

PH: I understand you started teaching quite early on.

GK: Yes. I have always loved teaching. I first started teaching privately, then joined the Manhattan School of Music’s pre-college program and then taught in the college program, teaching there till about three and a half years ago, when I left for Indiana.

PH: Let’s talk about your performing. Are you currently soloing more or playing chamber music?

GK: Recitals and chamber music. I haven’t played solo with orchestra in a while. It takes too much time and effort (with three kids and 22 students!)

PH: Here, at the Eilat Festival, you figured prominently in chamber music concerts. Would you like to talk about your chamber music involvement?

GK: I got most of my chamber music training after graduating, basically playing with other teachers at chamber music festivals. In Russia, there was not much training in chamber music. So, I was lacking the skills, but picked them up pretty quickly and I love playing chamber music more than anything else. Now I play chamber music at the school and at festivals I am invited to attend.

PH: Do you have permanent groups with which you play?

GK: I did have a permanent group in New York. We had a clarinet quartet (clarinet, violin, ‘cello, piano). Over the years, we played in different combinations – clarinet trios, violin trios, etc.

PH: Playing here at the festival, how well did you know these other musicians?

GK: I met all for the first time here.

PH: How much rehearsing did you do?

GK: The standard number of rehearsals for a festival: there were two (with Amir Katz) for the Schumann A-minor Sonata op.105 and three for the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A-minor op.50 (Amir Katz - piano, Hillel Zori - ‘cello) we had three…well, two rehearsals and one run-through. But the artists do know the pieces. It works if people are experienced chamber music players, know the works and can “read” each other.  Of course, there are pieces you can’t put together like that. But, in the case of the Tchaikovsky Trio, for example, if you know what you are doing it “plays itself”. I have to say that the colleagues were amazing! Amir Katz is a superb pianist and how inspiring it was to play next to Hillel Zori’s ‘cello sound.

PH: Would you like to talk about your current work as a recitalist?

GK: Yes. Nowadays, I mostly give recitals in conjunction with master classes at Indiana University or at summer festivals. Next week I will be in Oklahoma to run a master class and to play a recital with my good friend Tatiana Goncharova – we played together for over twenty years while I was living in New York. On my way back to the USA, am flying through New York, will have a 6-hour layover there to have a rehearsal with Ms. Goncharova in Manhattan, then flying back home. (Have never tried rehearsing after a 12-hour flight!) Then we meet again in Oklahoma. Then I have another recital coming up with her at Indiana University.

PH: And I understand you have a recording with Ms. Goncharova coming out soon.

GK: Yes. It will come out in March on the Naxos label. It includes all the sonatas for violin and piano by Mieczysław Weinberg (1919-1996). Weinberg was a Polish Jew who fled to Russia, where he spent the rest of his life. He was a very close friend of Shostakovich and a protégé of his. Shostakovich considered him one of the most important composers of his generation. Many years ago, my father actually sang in one of his operas! I have a newspaper clipping of Shostakovich’s article on the premiere, in which he mentions my father’s name.

PH: Can you say a few words about the Weinberg sonata project?

GK: For various technical reasons, the CD is only coming out now, but we actually recorded it in 2010 It is very good music. Of course, when you take music written over a composer’s lifetime, there must be some unevenness of quality. We start with opus 12, the last work on the CD being written 10 years before Weinberg passed away. But it is all very interesting music, very diverse. The last piece – Sonata No.6 – was only discovered when I was already starting the project: I received a letter from the publishers to say they had just discovered a manuscript - Sonata No.6 -  in the archives. So, nobody had ever seen the music. In fact, when I started looking at it I saw things that were not actually playable. It was clear Weinberg had not worked on it with any performer. It was typeset for me and we figured out a few small changes to make it playable. I did not go for technically easy solutions, but, as I said before, there were just a few things that were simply not possible on the instrument. It is an absolutely incredible piece, written on the death of his mother – probably the most unique of the pieces, very short…under 10 minutes, very dark, very profound. It begins with a violin solo of a page and a half of running eighth notes (with different harmonies). It took me a while to realize what this was: one of those sensations when you lie awake at night and hear all the clocks in the house.  By the way, a lot of his sonatas have big piano solos – of several minutes – unusual for such sonatas.

PH: Was Weinberg a pianist?

GK: Yes. He studied as a pianist at the Warsaw Conservatory.   To write something that complex for piano he would have to be. Sonata No.4 starts with a three-minute-or-so piano solo. Sonata No.5, dedicated to Shostakovich, has a huge piano cadenza (Shostakovich’s Violin and Piano Sonata does, as well!)

PH: What else have you recorded with Tatiana Goncharova?

GK: The other CD we did a few years before that was the Shostakovich disc you mentioned above in the introduction. It includes Shostakovich’s Sonata for violin and piano and transcriptions of the opus 34 Piano Preludes. Nineteen were transcribed by violinist Tsyganov, who was a close friend of Shostakovich. I commissioned the remaining five from Lera Auerbach, who is one of today’s most prominent composers.

PH: Do you yourself play new music?

GK: Sometimes.  I have played some of Lera’s music, for example. Also, at Indiana University, I played two concerts of music of university composers – a work by Don Freund and another by Claude Baker, both wonderful pieces.

PH: What about Baroque music?

GK: Well, I teach it, obviously. No violinist can do without studying Bach. I haven’t performed Baroque music in a while. Before leaving New York, I did a Vivaldi concert in the Zankel Hall of Carnegie Hall. However, the older I get the more I appreciate the authentic style of playing…when it is done well. I feel like you have to know what you are doing in order to do it properly. I don’t have a Baroque violin, but I did buy three Baroque bows for my studio so my students to try them, see how it feels and get an idea of the Baroque idiom.

PH: What is your opinion of the standard of performance in the Eilat Chamber Music Festival?

GK: It is of a very high level. Wonderful concerts. What I heard was very inspiring. Really great musicians.

PH: You were also tutoring young players in Eilat. What age group were you teaching?

GK: The whole spread: one 10-year-old girl from St. Petersburg, then a 17-year-old Israeli boy (who is actually auditioning to study with me in Indiana), a university-age student of Hagai Shaham (Tel Aviv) and a girl of similar age from Malaga, Spain.

PH: How many lessons did each student on the program receive?

GK: Officially, we were supposed to give each student three lessons, but I gave them four where I could. They came with works prepared. It was a kind of master class, which is all you can do in such a short time span.

PH: What violin do you play?

GK: My current instrument is a late-1690s (Italian) Gioffredo Cappa violin. I have had it for 12 or 13 years. I use a Sartory bow. I have also just commissioned a violin from Collin Gallahue (USA), a wonderful contemporary maker I just met this last summer. I was very impressed with his work.  He is a student of the great violin builder Zygmuntowicz. I have always wanted to have a great contemporary instrument I could loan to my students for when they have an important performance. And at some point, many years down the line, I will retire and want to sell my Cappa, so it would be great to have another inspiring instrument to play. There is a three-year waiting period for a Gallahue instrument and I am looking forward to seeing the result!

PH: Professor Kalinovsky, it has been wonderful hearing your concerts at the Eilat Chamber Music Festival and most interesting talking to you. Thank you for finding the time in your busy schedule here.