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| Photo: Lauren Pressler |
In June and July of 2020, Jochewed Schwarz and I
met at her home in Kfar Saba, Israel. Ms. Schwarz talked of her life as a
musician, about her career and her approach to early music. The Israeli-born
harpsichordist and early keyboard artist is a graduate of the Rubin Academy of
Music (now the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music) Tel Aviv, the Schola Cantorum
Basiliensas (Switzerland) and the Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University. Jochewed
Schwarz is active as an international soloist and chamber musician in leading concert
series, has recorded for Israeli radio and for the Meridian and Toccata
Classics labels and has taught at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music. She is often
invited as guest lecturer in different countries and was granted the 2011
Israeli Artist Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. For
six years, she served as director of the Felicja Blumental Music Center and
Library, Tel Aviv.
PH: Jochewed Schwarz, you have studied piano,
performance on early keyboard instruments, historical keyboard construction,
keyboard instrument maintenance...and Law. How does one combine all of these
disciplines in one career?
JS: Well, it's a rather long story…
I had and still have a great passion for music. As
a child I played the piano and eventually studied piano at the Tel Aviv Music
Academy with Edith Kraus before my military service (in the "academic
reserve" unit). As a student, I would get to the Academy early in the
morning to look for a practice room. In those days, the building was much
smaller than today. I arrived there one day to find that all the piano practice
rooms had already been taken. There was only one room free and that was a room
with a harpsichord. I had never "met" or played a harpsichord before;
So, I took its cover off, opened it,
started playing it and really forgot myself - I liked the sound very much. And
that’s how it all started. I looked for someone to teach me. There was hardly a harpsichord class at the Music Academy. Boris Berman played
harpsichord; a few people were studying with him, so I became a student of his,
graduating from the Academy in both piano and harpsichord.
After two years of military service I continued my
studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis Switzerland, a school and research
centre for Historic Performance Practice. I focused on harpsichord, clavichord
and fortepiano.
Following my return from Basel, intent on
performing and developing my career, I realized how difficult it would be to
manage financially. While maintaining my musical career, I decided to return to
the university to study Law. That was also very interesting.
Since completing law school some twenty years ago,
I have been dividing my time between the two careers, but not always equally.
There have been years when I engaged more in the legal profession, but then less
so over the last decade, when I engaged in much more musical activity. But
studying law had its advantages: I had acquired another discipline, seeing life
from a new angle, as well as achieving financial independence.
PH: So where do the studies in construction and
maintenance of historic instruments come in?
JS: This also happened for practical reasons.
Returning from Basel, I brought back a harpsichord, a French model - Blanchet
(c.1730) - from the William Dowd workshop in Paris. In those days, it was not
easy to find technicians in Israel for harpsichord upkeep, so I decided it
would be best if I myself looked after its “needs". I was able to carry
out the simpler tasks, such as changing strings and plectra. But, with the Israeli
climate very different to that of Europe, in particular the high humidity here,
other problems arose and, in order to address them, I felt I would need to have
more technical know-how. In addition, I was curious to familiarize myself with
the harpsichord action in more depth. Unlike the piano, there are many styles
and types of harpsichord with which I felt I needed to become acquainted.
So, some years after returning to Israel, I went
off again, this time to do an apprenticeship for two months at Reinhard von
Nagel’s early keyboard studio in Paris. There, I gained some knowledge on
solving more complex problems than just changing strings and plectra. Today, I
could not claim to be an expert technician and would not take on the
responsibility of working on other people’s instruments, but I do have an
understanding of the action, the soundboard and what one can do to maintain an
instrument. I now have several keyboard instruments, which is wonderful, but
all of them need some work from time to time, and it's great to be able to
"do it yourself".
PH: Are you from a musical family?
JS: No. Not at all. My parents were both child
Holocaust survivors, were not able to complete even their basic education and
immigrated to Israel as young adults. At home, we would sing – both my parents
sang well and loved listening to music. They did give my brother and me
whatever they could, including a good, solid music education, the ability to
dream and the determination to make a dream come true. With me, music became my
big love. My brother plays the recorder quite well but engages in music only as
a hobby.
PH: Who has influenced you in the world of early music
performance?
JS: It really is hard to say. First and foremost, I
owe a lot to my teachers, especially to Boris Berman, my first harpsichord teacher at the
Rubin Music Academy. Of the many things he taught me was the importance of
getting to know early repertoire.
When studying in Basel, I was greatly influenced by
my teacher there, Rolf Junghanns. He had been a student of pianist, harpsichordist,
conductor and musicologist Fritz Neumeyer, who, in turn, had been a student and
colleague of Curt Sachs, musicologist and music ethnologist as well as the
founder of modern organology (the study of music instruments). Junghanns was
very thorough: he addressed touch and technique as well as theory-based
interpretation. But, the emphasis of this school of thought was on two aspects
of music-: being familiar with the many early instruments and
getting to know as wide a variety of repertoire as possible. Junghanns himself owned a large collection of keyboard instruments, located, at the time, in a
health resort close to Freiburg im Breisgau – Bad Krozingen, Germany. This
fantastic, playable collection, the many concerts that were given there (which
I could always attend) and Rolf’s vast knowledge have equipped me with a very
special perspective.
Different in approach to other people of that time,
he understood and emphasized (apart from technique and the repertoire) the
great importance of knowing from what background a work had come. He taught me
to dare and look for the unfamiliar, to be very cautious of convention when
playing, to take careful note as to who had written the piece, what his style
was, at what time it was composed, for what purpose, what instrument the
composer had (or might have had) at his disposal, what else he had written in the
same genre...in short, to put together a profile via a larger view of the
repertoire. To some extent, Rolf Junghanns and Boris Berman shared similar
characteristics in their artistic approach. For both, what was important was to
be curious about everything, to read essays and treatises and peruse all
possible information. This school devoted a lot of time to the study of
background information and not only to performance.
Regarding other harpsichordists who have had an influence
on me, this would be a very long list. I love listening to other players; there
are so many inspiring musicians I have been lucky to listen to their playing
live and to so many recordings… I could, however, mention some of the players hosted
by the Schola Cantorum at the time I was there for masterclasses.
One was the Belgian musician Jos Van Immerseel, who
also possessed a large collection of instruments; he, himself, is better known
today as a fortepianist and conductor. Gustav Leonhardt visited the Schola
annually, often teaching 17th-century repertoire; the
way he presented a subject and the examples he brought to his lessons have left
a lasting impression on me. Anthony Woolley dealt with the lute song in his
eye- or rather ear-opening masterclasses. Of the faculty members there in whose
classes I participated was Johann Sonnleitner; he always made
connections between texts and music and he had a wonderful sense of
humour. I made a point of attending Jordi Savall’s lessons; they were
informative and innovative...very interesting.
As to harpsichord recordings, my first strong
impression was of Wanda Landowska's recording, of Bach's fifteen Inventions
with the Concerto d minor. I didn't like the Pleyel harpsichord sound but hers
was a very charismatic performance. There are so many fantastic harpsichordists!
Mentioning only a few does injustice to a great many wonderful musicians, but I
simply cannot mention all.
However, maybe Violet Gordon–Woodhouse, another
pioneer of early keyboard instrument playing; Igor Kipnis, Kenneth Gilbert,
Scott Ross, Davitt Moroney, Bob van Asperen, Ottavio Dantone, Pierre Hantai,
Olivier Baumont… and I take pleasure in the “harpsichord personality” of each
and every one of them. Those I listen to most scrupulously are the players who
have made connections between musicological research and performance; that is
very characteristic of Moroney’s approach, for example.
But it is not just harpsichordists. I absolutely
love vocal music of all times, enjoy 19th-century symphonies
and, of course, always have a place in my heart for chamber music…
.
PH: Where do you stand vis-à-vis the authentic
early music performance movement?
JS: I am not sure one can reach any decisive point
of authenticity in performance, but I do think and believe that, as far as
possible, it is worth aspiring to understand in which musical world a composer
existed in order to hold a dialogue with a work of his in the way that would be
closest to what he might have imagined or wished to hear, the sound of
instruments or media at his disposal and to his ideas and musical language. A
work of art, including a musical composition, has a context which I feel must
be respected, in the case of music this being sound, melody and harmony, tempo,
rhythm and much more. Of course, one can only aspire to knowing all there is to
know, without reaching any decisive point, and there will certainly be my own
personal understanding, preference, musical ideas which I bring to my
interpretation.
I remember a concert I heard many years ago played
by an early music ensemble at the Tzavta Hall in Tel Aviv - one of the more
modern halls, its construction consisting of much concrete. One of the players
introduced the concert program saying: “This Is what it would have sounded like
in Mozart’s time”. Such a presentation was needed then in order to make a
point, to show differences and explain artistic decisions taken. Today, of
course, we would not be making this kind of error. With time, I think we have
come to realize that we will never have the possibility of knowing exactly how
music sounded in any specific time and place. And it's not only the inability
to know things "for sure". When you read a book, it is not just the
book’s text that is involved in your reading: you bring your own personality
and life experience to the way you understand it; a meeting point is
created…this is inevitable.
Preparing a composition for performance is a long
process which anyway may produce various results. In playing a work, I don’t
think I have ever performed it twice in exactly the same way, in any
“authentic” manner; and I cautiously suggest that the ideal performance of a
composer's work does not exist as the "one and only" possibility. A
performance also depends on the acoustics of the music room or hall, on
the instrument being played and on the audience present at any specific
performance. And I would rather think of “historic” performance according to my
philosophy, if I may say - “historically informed performance” is what I would
prefer to call it, rather than “authentic”.
PH: Do you play chamber music?
JS: Yes. A lot of it and with great joy. I love
playing music with other people and have played a great deal of chamber music. This was my
major focus all through the years before I took on directing the Felicja
Blumental Music Centre and Library. The job there meant my having to limit my
chamber music playing due to time constraints and to do more solo playing.
At home, I have been running a series called
“Concert & Coffee”. Till now, the events have taken place twice or three
times a year, but next season, if possible, I plan increasing the number of
house concerts to as many as possible. Unfortunately, it is difficult for me to
perform in Israel because of the high cost of moving the harpsichord to various
venues.
Overseas, I am able to perform in venues that have
historic instruments in place, which makes it easier. But I am looking
forward to returning to the long-established tradition of salon concerts.
PH: Would you like to talk about your partnership
with harpsichordist Emer Buckley?
JS: Yes, of course. Emer and I have much in common,
in that we both come from small countries in which, at the time we were both
students, the tradition of early music performance was very sparse. Emer is
Irish. She studied in Dublin and in Italy and then in France, where she studied
with Kenneth Gilbert. We were both very enthusiastic about playing the
harpsichord, having encountered the instrument at our academies of music.
We have been close friends for decades. We met at our harpsichord maker's workshop - Atelier Reinhard von Nagel. During 2011, when I had a
six-month artist residency at the Cité internationale des arts (Paris), we met
often and decided to use the time for playing together. From the
moment we started playing together, we have found so much enjoyment in it we
cannot stop! Our work together is rewarding: we hardly speak, taking up ideas
from each other as we play. Either I go to Paris or she comes to Israel and we
engage in long playing sessions, but not before each has worked through the
material alone. We both carry out much research.
Repertoire for two harpsichords that is in print or even written out is
limited. But there are many different verbal descriptions from various sources
and suggestions here and there for the practice of playing musical compositions
written for other instruments – on two harpsichords or two keyboards. We do not only play existing scores but are constantly trying out all sorts of works,
arranging music, looking for- and thinking about musical possibilities. This is
very enjoyable.
PH: Some years back, you ran the “Sounds and Words”
series.
JS: Yes. This was a concert series I initiated and
in which I was involved with for nearly twenty years. At first it was called
“Sounds and Colours” and was a collaboration with flautist Erella Talmi (the concerts were held
in various art galleries; we looked for connections between the plastic arts
and musical repertoire). Later, with traverso player Geneviève Blanchard, the series became called "Sounds and Words from the Baroque", our approach emphasizing historical
performance practice. The focus was a question we asked ourselves: what had
taken place in a certain year, or in a specific genre, what was happening with
a certain vocal colour or timbre and so on.
PH: You are about to complete a six-year tenure, in
which you have directed the Felicja Blumental Music Center and Library.
JS: Yes. The Music Center houses a large library -
a public music library. The former A.M.L.I Central Music Library, it is the
largest and only one of its kind in Israel. It was established almost 70 years
ago. The library comprises very interesting archives and there is a musical
instrument collection, mostly of folk instruments, built up from many
contributions and preserved there. The centre provides music information for
all music lovers: teachers, students, musicians, amateurs, journalists,
researchers and whoever else is interested. The archives offer a service to the
academic world, to people engaging in communications - films, television
programs, to people conducting research and writing books, newspaper articles
both in Israel and overseas. It even serves to help people carrying out
genealogical research. We have had more than one instance of people looking for
family roots and who, through us, have ended up discovering previously unknown
details or even unknown skills of family members.
The musical instrument collection has great value
in that it can widen musicians’ perspectives on sound possibilities. It is
important for us, musicians from one field of expertise, namely "art
music", to get to know other fields. For example, kamenche player Mark
Eliahu can be heard in the television spy series “Teheran”, for which he has
written the soundtrack. An outstanding artist, he plays on instruments
unfamiliar to westerners. Visiting the FBMC’s instrument collection can
acquaint the public with this and other wonderful instruments.
The library also offers opportunities to the
general public to get to know other disciplines - music therapy, music via the
computer, film music, etc.
Throughout my six years there, I have made huge
efforts to expand the collections, to present some of them on open shelves in
order to make browsing possible; also, to gain new patrons and make the library appealing to
children. For example, we have collected and added many children’s books about
music as well as educational musical instruments, in order to enable parents to present
the world of music to children in an attractive way. For adults, we have also
built up a collection of novels that have some connection to music; there are
many such books by writers like Natan Shaham, Vikram Seth, Batya Gur and Uri Adelman,
to mention just a few, these ranging from high-quality literature to some fine detective novels, all with some element of music, bringing people closer to
music. For those interested in playing music we have built up a modest
collection of instruments - guitars, pianos and more, which can be used there,
subject to availability. The library has sheet music, informative books and a
huge collection of discs and records. It has something for everyone.
PH: Now that you are leaving your position as the
director of the Felicja Blumental Music Center, what is on the agenda?
JS: I will be devoting more time to playing music,
discovering it again in all its fascinating aspects, and I hope to be teaching again.
I have also begun PhD studies at Haifa University and am enjoying that very
much!
PH: What music is occupying you at the moment?
JS: What I can say with confidence is that there is
no day without Bach. This has to be. Either I play through some Bach works or work
on a specific piece. At the moment, I am also working on Couperin’s Book 4; it
is so different from his other collections…I find keyboard music of the second half of
the 18th century, bridging the harpsichord and the fortepiano very interesting and my plans include covering
works of all Bach’s composer sons. I am interested in understanding more
closely the years from Bach’s sons to Mozart and Haydn, a subject on which I
have focused less in recent years.
PH: What about the local concert scene?
JS: I usually attend concerts when abroad; that's time for myself. At home, always busy, I lack the time and, quite
often, the peace of mind... I love listening to non-classical music of
many styles and, over the years, have attended many performances of popular
music; but, in recent years, the sound volume in these performances has
increased to a degree at which I find impossible to take. This is a pity,
because a live performance is so much more interesting than a recording.
PH: What instruments do you have?
JS: All my plucked instruments were made by
Reinhard von Nagel at his Paris workshop. I really fell in love with his work
when I was a student at the Schola Cantorum and am still very happy with my
harpsichords. He is a very good maker, aware of the gap between old instruments
and newly "rebuilt" instruments. Just as an example, years ago,
Reinhard and his team beautifully restored a 1765 Blanchet harpsichord. They
even made the original leather from 1765 fully usable again using marmot fat.
(Today, the instrument is in the Mamamatsu Museum, Japan).
My Reinhard von Nagel “continuo” harpsichord is
quite a small, light instrument. Its external dimensions are according to the
Couchet harpsichord of 1679, but expanded; it has 56 keys instead of the 49
keys of the original instrument. The compass is GG-d3 (56 keys, plus
transposition) - the 1679 Couchet has a compass of C-c3 (49 keys without
transposition). The compass of the old instrument lacked the short octave but
had its C-c3 of 49 keys -
chromatic. "This is the range that J. S. Bach, two generations later, uses
for Book 1 of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Jan Couchet was ahead of his
time" says Reinhard von Nagel. The construction is interpreted freely; the
instrument could not be considered a replica.
My double-manual William Dowd harpsichord is based
on an instrument by Nicolas & François Blanchet, Paris 1730. At that time,
François was an experienced builder at 30 years of age and head of the
workshop, while Nicolas, his father, was close to death. The Blanchets were a
dynasty of keyboard instrument makers. Their harpsichords were based on models
of the Flemish Ruckers family, but they enlarged and improved their
harpsichords to suit the new French style and taste. The compass of the
original old instrument was FF-e3. My instrument has the very popular compass
of FF-f3 + transposition, tuned on 392/415 Hz (it was originally tuned to 415 -
440, but I have tuned it down to 392, to early 18th century French pitch – and
415 - because I play a lot of French music and it really sounds well that way).
It is about 24 mm wider than the older instrument, therefore, claims Reinhard
von Nagel, not a replica. The construction is also an interpretation. In the
choice of materials, von Nagel has tried to stay very close to the original
instrument, but he has also used creative freedom there.
My single-manual harpsichord is a completely
"free creation", even less of a copy, but clearly of the French
school.
Another instrument in my collection is an Anthony
Sidey clavichord (built from a kit by Heugel Keyboard Instruments). It's an instrument
with two independent strings for each key - a "bundfrei" clavichord.
Compass - C to d3. Anthony Sidey, a Parisian harpsichordist, learned his
craft with Arnold Dolmetsch in England. He studied clavichords of various
epochs and has restored a whole range of these instruments from private
collections and from the Musée Instrumental du Conservatoire National Supérieur
de Musique in Paris. This "historic" instrument has also been
designed after these instruments.
And finally, a square piano, a Broderip and
Wilkinson from 1798, London. It's compass is FF - c4, five and a half octaves.
Francis Broderip made use of three features under patent rights he was able to
purchase from their inventor, William Southwell: a type of damper which was
attached directly to the back of the key lever; additional notes in the treble
for which the hammers could appear through an opening at the far side of the
soundboard and fretwork apertures backed with silk on both sides of the
keyboard to help the sound present itself with fullness. The instrument was
restored by square piano restoration expert Michael Cole, Cheltenham, UK; it
has a very rich sound and a soft touch.
PH: Do you edit music?
JS: Not as yet, but I have a manuscript sitting
here that has never been published and on which I am trying to work. It is
still in its very early stages…
.
PH: Do you write about music?
JS: Yes. About music and the people around it...
Before taking on the job at the Felicja Blumental Center, I was writing quite
intensively on my blog - “Keys and Strings”. I then started another blog called “A
Musical Moment”, which covered the work we were doing at the Felicja Blumental
Music Center. Some of this material was presented by me in recent years in lecture series for music lovers and the general public. Although I very much
like writing, I do need a lot of time for it. I hope to be able to continue
it….
PH: Do you write music?
JS: No, apart from noting down my own interpretations
of certain embellishments here and there, I have never tried composing. Writing
music is such a specific and complex skill…
PH: When it is not music, what interests you?
JS: Mostly spending time with family and close
friends. My favourite hobby is baking cakes and bread. I find it relaxing. I
also enjoy reading, cinema and… walking the dog.
PH: Jochewed Schwarz, talking to you has been most
interesting. Many thanks for your time.
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