Interview im Wortlaut

Das nachfolgende Interview fand am 19. Dezember 2002 statt und wurde aus Gründen der Aussagekraft in Englischer Sprache belassen.

Mr. Marshall, in the programme to the performance of the 5th August 2002 you are depicted as a very versatile artist, who is at the same time organist, pianist, song accompanist, chamber musician, composer and conductor. How could you as a musician gain such a universe vocational training in all these areas?

Well, I mean I studied music and, you know, I’m a musician. In fact music is a language, it has more than one voice. Of course I’m basically a keyboarder and I have been playing the keyboard since I was three years old. When I started to play the keyboard, I had not to play by ear, you know, without music. This was a great help for me as a musician to acquire the skills of improvisation, which leaded me as a little pianist obviously to this profession. The fact is, that music making is for me all … and composing. I enjoy the idea, you know, of being a pianist and an organist and now also a conductor. In a way conducting is further extension of my music making in many aspects, because in a way it’s making me communicate in a different way from brain to fingertip. So it’s another way of expressing my musicianship. But I enjoy it actually, I really do enjoy it. I think that it gives me a very wide spectrum of music as a whole, being both, a player and a conductor.

But, isn’t it very difficult to do this all at the same time?

Well, it would be very difficult, if I did it all at the same time.. yes of course. But no, I mean, I am lucky because I can divide my time between all three. So, you know, I am lucky.

During the concert you gave the impression that you became absorbed in the music of George Gershwin and that you were gripped by its effect. What relationship do you have to this kind of music, which is associated with Gershwin in particular?

Well, Gershwin’s music of course is very much based … I mean its language his certainly that of Jazz. And of course I have always had a very strong interest in Jazz. George Gershwin … in fact I first heard his music when I was about eight and the first piece I heard was this piano concerto and I immediately thought then that this is gonna be a music which I was gonna to be play - simply because I think the language of George Gershwin. He speaks very clearly to me as a performer. In a way his style for me is very very straight forward in terms of interpretations. The hard part for me of course is working with orchestras which are maybe not so familiar with this particular style. This is the thing that of course for me as a conductor was a great chance, because obviously I have to try to inspire the musicians to play and understand his music. So in a way, you know I mean, George Gershwin’s music really has been with me for a long time, so that’s why I think I understand what he’s trying to say.

What or which elements in Gershwin’s music do you like best?

Well I like of course, you know, the harmonic idiom or especially the rhythmic aspects of it. So, you know, it’s very very quite unique in many ways, I mean his whole style, if you look at the piano concerto. I think that’s an important case and point; the jazz-element is so strong in this work, indeed in all of George Gershwin’s works! So therefore the language seems very very clearly and very very direct to me.

Do you like more the Gershwin- Songs or his orchestra works?

Well, I see that George Gershwin’s work to me is all, you know, very very great music. So I don’t think, I mean obviously as a pair I enjoy his work very much, not just the songs but also the piano concertos as well. So it’s music which I understand basically.

How do you appraise the significance and importance of Gershwin’s work? Are there influences of his music in other contemporary composers’ creative work?

Well contemporary.. I mean George Gershwin’s music of course is, I would say, contemporary, but I mean it’s certainly a very very appealable music. It speaks to many and that’s why I think that there is a certain, you know, a great emphasis with the music.

When you performed the Concerto in F major you were at the same time solo pianist and conductor. In classical music this way of playing concerts was already usual. Did Gershwin intend the pianist to lead the orchestra at the same time?

I don’t know. Possibly, I mean it’s … maybe not. I really can’t say, I mean, I don’t know whether Gershwin has much of a conductor, but certainly the works of George Gershwin, all four in fact, lend themselves very well to be directed from the piano. But the first person I heard doing this, I’m sure that it was only a prevent, was a great American conductor and of course he gave me some very good ideas. Don’t forget, that most of the piano concertos can also be done at the keyboard. So in some way I approach at the same way. I think that’s very significant in performing his works.

What do you think? Who is more important: The piano or the orchestra?

Well, both. With the eye of a conductor and solo instrumentalist of course both are important. The difficult is of course that, if an orchestra is not used to now having a conductor in front of them, then it is a problem, because then they have to adopt a very very different approach to making the music work. I see that at chamber music and ensembles, so therefore they have to listen as approach to looking at the conductor. So they are very much on their own in many ways. So what I try to do is in the first I try to show doing exactly how these passages have to be. Well, I’m not actually beating time, so that they have pretty ways to remember it and then to do apply it when performing. But of course it does take some time. I mean every orchestra is different. Some orchestras respond just very well to this, but some don’t. And it’s always the one who don’t responded always leads to certain problems. So therefore sometime being piano playing has to suffer a little bit, it keeps them really together. So it depends, it depends.

Which experiences and observations could you make in the course of your occupation with Gershwin’s music? What impressed you most? Was there something especially important?

Well I think this question I already have answered. I think just, that his music is music which I understand very much and therefore you know I find it very straight foreward to play and to perform. So it’s this question of how the interpretations go on their own.

Which personal plans do you have with relation to the works of George Gershwin? Is there still a challenge or rather an inspiration for you, although you have already played all of his „important“ pieces?

Well, I mean the word is how important, I mean I love them. They are part of me, they are in me. So if you ask me about a sort of challenges or the sort of no more plans .. I mean in fact I can go on performing Gershwin’s music for my life. It’s not for me as I find it as a joke, I mean I get the great pleasure out of working with different orchestras and ensembles. I try to make this music really work in a way that it should, I mean just as a farce, approaching a Beethoven Symphony or anything. It’s the same.

Do you also like to improvise Gershwin-Songs?

Of course. I mean that’s a sort of thing that I really enjoy doing. I mean Gershwin did right that he arranged all the songs for solo piano at his own. But what I’d like to do is courses because I improvise. Of course I don’t see any problems in taking his return in improvising in my own style which is what I first do. I would have may recording the songbook, you know, a very selection of songs of George Gershwin in my own improvisations. I think the music lend itself very nearly for that.

Do you think that all his works are written improvisations?

Well, they are in a way. They certainly have this kind of feeling. I mean the songs all have of course the same kind of format. You can take themes of his great masterpiece opera Porgy and Bess and make laugh of all in arranged musical interpretations after those. But I think also that they have the music .. the music lends itself also for improvisation.

Where is the main emphasis of your versatile occupation for you? Which area of music and which instrument (piano or organ) in particular do you devote your time to?

Both are equal. Don’t forget that I started obviously as a pianist. I mean the piano leaves courses for my organ play. You could say that probably as far as the reputation is much greater as an organist, why do it as a pianist? I mean someway I prefer the instruments, for certainly giving concerts, because it’s much more. I did have had more flexibility for this. So therefore I think both are valuable to me.

Thank you very much for the interview!