Repertoar Talk with Nicolas Pasquet

The young conductors in Dirigentforum have been very fortunate this weekend to be guided by professor Nicolàs Pasquet, and together they have worked in-depth with repertoire by the old masters Brahms and Beethoven.

Pasquet is a professor in Weimar and is in very high demand as a guest professor all over Europe. We asked Pasquet about how he thinks when selecting the right repertoire for his students, and how can an aspiring and ambitious conductor broaden his or her understanding of the core repertoire?

First of all, all students are individual so I will always try to recognize what he or she needs, and then find the correct repertoire to help them solve their problems. After many years of experience there is of course some music that I know I can use to work on different issues. So if we are working on technique, I will immediately think of Historie d'un Soldat by Stravinsky. In this piece there are a lot of bar changes and much to learn about technique, but the music is still relatively easy to understand. Likewise, if we are focusing on bowings and phrasings in classical symphonies, I would go to Mozart symphony nr 29. It features a small orchestra and it is fairly easy to get a clear oversight of the music. This again will help you to develop an understanding of the different phrasings and the style of the music.

And lastly, if I was to introduce someone to Brahms, I would perhaps not start with the symphonies, but use the Haydn variations. Here every single variation has different things to develop, but all in the spirit of learning the sound and phrasings of Brahms.

So even though you might say I have some standard pieces, every student is an individual, and if I get a student that is already developed I must adjust and find the correct piece for their development. It is important for me not to override my students with information, but give challenges that can make them grow.

These are of course all examples of old and established composers, but Pasquet finds it equally important to have a firm understanding of the contemporary music scene.

 I think it is very important to also work a lot on contemporary music, and the students should start as early as possible. We are very fortunate in Weimar that we have close contact with the contemporary music department, and our students get a lot of time working together with the composers, doing premieres, and rehearsing new music. You really have to get acquainted with the techniques of playing and reading the scores in this genre.

Several times during our talk Pasquet stresses the importance of getting the possibility to go into the depth of the music you are working on, and having the time to focus on the sound and substance of the material, regardless of style. A holistic and critical approach is central, and something that he brings with him from Weimar everywhere he comes to teach. Does Pasquet have any advice for the young and aspiring conductors that he meets on his visit to Norway? How should one study in order to really understand and dig into the fabric of the music?

I would say that the students here are already in very good hands, they have excellent teachers and the students work very hard. But I always say that a conductor must get into the score, it is really important that we always question ourselves what is written and how the music is to be played. Today we have access to so many different recordings which is both a blessing and a curse. You are easily overfed with information, which may tempt you to read things in the score, things you may have heard but are not written. Therefore it is very important to be critical of how you read the score and understand what is written.

Such information may hide behind the markings of the score but is also found outside the music itself.

You really have to know about the context and about the time the music was written. Just think about how closely interconnected music is to different languages. In the Hungarian language, the stress is always at the first syllable of the word, and this is also the case in Hungarian music. Also, if you know that Mozart grew up in Salzburg and Vienna, the language and music have a completely different melody than in northern Germany at the same time. If you know how to relate the language of Mozart to his music, you can learn to understand a lot about his phrasings and how the music should be played.

Likewise, if you know that Schubert was always sitting in the wine houses in Vienna watching people singing and drinking, the second subject of his third symphony makes a lot of sense. It has to be light and full of life, and it is a completely different way of performing the music than if you think of him sitting very serious behind a desk. And just think of Brahms' second symphony, which we all think of as bright and joyful. Brahms himself said that it was the saddest piece he had written so far, for him it was a declaration of love to Clara Schumann, a love that would never happen. We have to know these things to really get the music right!