David Jalbert explores Mozart, Liszt and Brahms for masterclass held at University of Toronto Faculty of Music.
On Monday David Jalbert taught three students for 45 minutes each and gave his own recital at Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto. It was a fascinating chance to watch him explain his approach to Mozart, Liszt and Brahms while teaching the students and to compare it to the repertoire he selected, which was predominantly Poulenc.
While coaching the student on a Mozart sonata, Jalbert worked on bringing out the charm and elegance in the first movement, suggesting that the end of a certain phrase should by “like a little curtsey”. The second movements of all of Mozart’s sonatas, he explained, are inspired by soprano arias, falling in a range between C and F sharp, and like the Countess in the Marriage of Figaro, are “heartbreaking every time.”
A short while later, when it was Jalbert’s turn to sit at the keyboard, the pieces by Poulenc, including Les Soirees de Nazelles, two Nocturnes and the Improvisation No XV, Hommage A Edith Piaf, were a bit like the anti-Mozart, much more about mood and colour than charm or elegance. Comparing Poulenc to Gershwin, Jalbert explained that the composer had always loved French popular music and tried to integrate it into his compositions with a modicum of angst, as he felt that these works lacked some of the gravitas of the composers he admired. Listening to the aching throb of the improvisation, the very essence of Edith Piaf’s ceaseless yearning for love and indomitable will in the face of extreme physical pain seemed to be immortalized by Jalbert’s performance. It’s ironic that Poulenc regretted some of his compositions while valorizing a singer whose anthem was “Je Ne Regrette Rien”.
For the student who is being critiqued in a Masterclass, it feels as if he or she is giving a performance because the class begins with the student playing a piece from start to finish, after which the “Master” works on the performance in sections. On the spot, in front of an audience, the student is expected to adapt, and apply new techniques, as well as to explain his or her understanding of the music or reasons for approaching it one way or another. It can be nerve-racking, but what the student should keep in mind, it is the Master who is really performing. Jalbert was quite virtuosic in this capacity, drawing on metaphors, anecdotes, demonstrating at the keyboard, executing a few dance steps to embody the rhythm of a phrase, and reproducing the sounds of a variety of orchestral instruments. There’s no room for inhibition in this role, as the Master must also enact the physical postures required for effective playing, which can be surprisingly intimate. Unlocking the hips and locating the “inner conductor” who is two inches below the belly button, were both demonstrated by Jalbert.
Anyone interested in music will be greatly enriched by observing a masterclass, and there are many open to the public at the Faculty of Music and at the Glenn Gould School.
#LUDWIGVAN
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