Category: Talking about Music

“The best thing about coming to studio class with Paul is always the other players who come and share music.” 

Although the Ravel piece that Monica Chew will bring to the workshop is the most modern music on our series, to Monica it’s very much music of the past. She has returned to classical music after many years away: having studied piano with Hersh for a year when she was a Conservatory student, she pursued a career in tech after college, coming back to piano as part of her renewed music life as a composer and new music advocate.

“I hadn’t seen Paul in many years, I took a long time off of music after I finished my Masters with him, and it’s been really nice to reconnect.”

She says she now finds that her approach is different from his, because “Paul is very score-based. Now that I’m also a composer I know how much there is that can’t be expressed in a score. I view music-making as much more a collaboration.”

“I’m very intimidated by piano music, simply because there’s such a large body of work for piano, probably more than any other instrument, and so much has already been contributed. What can you say that’s new? I still study piano music, and Ravel is one of those composers whose piano music is incredibly idiomatic. One of the things I love about his work is how well it lies underneath the hands. Even though he writes a lot of really difficult music, one always feels as though he really thought about the pianist.”

Monica talked about working with Paul: “He’s certainly a Renaissance man! He has many areas of interest in which he’s achieved a high level of knowledge. One of the things I really appreciate about Paul, is his curmudgeonliness about piano music and playing the piano. He doesn’t care how difficult a piece is or how well-regarded it is in the literature, or how much you’ve struggled just to get the notes out of the instrument. It’s very much an approach of, if it can be more musical, then let’s try and make it more musical.”

“I’ve felt this connection with Chopin ever since I was very little – it came as a primordial call. 

When I first started playing Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 in my teens, it was a very difficult work for me – there were many challenging technical details of dynamics, pedal, voicing, and touch to overcome. In time after studying all four ballades and many other piano works, you come to terms with Chopin’s language and style. And then you start to understand what he meant in a particular part of the third ballade and you go back and revisit everything with new knowledge. Once I reached a point where the technique was not such a big challenge and I could go beyond the stress of playing the notes, it was very helpful to read the four poems by Adam Mickiewicz. The poems were not a direct influence, because Chopin was a purist, he would not understand or agree with any external connection between the music and other things. His music is never descriptive [of] a poem or a landscape. In fact he doesn’t have names for his compositions, they’re scherzos, ballades, etudes, sonatas – there are no descriptions. But I couldn’t help seeing the deep impression he received, particularly for the third ballade, from the poem about Ondine, who is the goddess of water. Throughout the piece there’s the feeling of being under a spell of a nymph who has an agenda towards the shepherd – she wants him to get into the water and get lost in the water so she can possess his soul. It’s just so obvious to me that there is a story behind this piece even though it’s not declared, it’s not named so when I play it, it goes in front of my eyes like a movie, it has a narrative, it has a story to tell. That’s what I love about this piece.  

The third ballade has a particular way of describing an inner state of being completely fascinated, almost under the spell of something bigger than you, almost paranormal – when you’re drawn into something, a call you can’t resist – and this piece has that call in the main theme. It’s like something is calling him irresistibly. It’s so human, it is such a description of the human journey, and part of the human journey is to be magnetized by things that we can’t understand. We get so wrapped up and completely involved to the point of being completely lost – it’s a feeling between wonderful and terrifying, and I think this piece conveys all these feelings. That’s why it is so compelling to me.”

“Piano class has  been an incredible experience – I get so much from everyone who is there. 

“We meet every two weeks . . . every pianist has a different style, and we benefit from what they think. Paul is amazing – just his depth for the feeling of the music, his perspective as a pianist and a violist and having played so much repertoire for so many years – it’s been a really amazing experience for me. It’s also good to be able to play things differently than you usually do. They challenge you to do it differently on the spot, so you have to be flexible enough as a pianist to be able to do that. Paul is so open to suggestions – he used to play for us and have us comment on his playing. It’s amazing for someone of his stature to do that. He’s so curious about music and welcomes everyone’s thoughts and feelings—very inclusive.”

“I don’t recall my musical life without Paul!” 

Christopher Basso has known Paul Hersh for over 40 years since working on his undergraduate degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. “His words and his insights into the music have stayed with me over all of these years and even in my own teaching today, I find myself harkening back to the things that I’ve learned from Paul – elements in the music I look for as a result of studying with him. I think for musicians in the Bay Area, Paul is central to that musical life not only for pianists but string players, because Paul is in that unique position where he’s a pianist who is also a violist, so he is exposed to music and plays music that pianists can only dream of. He adds insight from a string player’s point of view, which is more rare with pianists. I don’t know any other pianist who also plays another instrument professionally.” 

In a masterclass series that Paul gave at the Conservatory on Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas, Chris remembers hearing the 3rd movement of Op. 109 for the first time – “I’d never heard anything like it!  I’ve studied the piece for over four decades on and off, and every time I come back to it there’s new insights, new things to be discovered – you never finish a piece. That’s the great thing about music, it’s a living thing, so every time I come back to it, there’s been something else that I’ve picked up on.”,