Have you ever wondered what life was like playing as part of a string quartet?
Members of the Afiara and Tokai String Quartets will update us on a regular
basis of their progress and preparations for the upcoming Banff International
String Quartet Competition.
The seventh and final entry comes from the Afiara's viola player David Samuel
August 25th, 2007
With the BISQC approaching, we are beginning to feel more and more
excitement. It's rather difficult to believe that in less than 48 hours,
we'll be settled in at the Banff Arts Centre. In preparation for the
competition, we gave two performances last weekend (Friday and Saturday
evenings), which covered all of our Banff repertoire. These proved to be
extremely beneficial for us. One of our mentors attended both concerts with
a pencil and scores in hand so that he could, quite specifically, point out
our weakest areas. Apparently there was so much to write that he more or
less made it through the entire first concert without looking up. He spent
the better part of 2 hours with us on Monday going over his observations. I
can't tell you how wonderfully helpful that was. We've since been able to
focus our efforts on tying up those loose ends and I feel now that even
though we're all a little anxious, we're prepared. One of the major
challenges that we have found is keeping the music fresh. This is
repertoire that, in some cases, we've been playing regularly for nearly a
year. For me, it's a matter of discovering new things about the music that
pique my interest. With these great composers, it's as though there is no
end to what one can discover about a piece. Continuously looking in that
direction has really helped us to come up with new ideas all the time - or
at least reinvent some old ones. Today will be our last day of rehearsal,
then tomorrow we're off. Wow, I still need to do laundry!!
August
9th, 2007
I'm sure most people can relate to how strange one's own voice sounds when
played back on a recording. We've been experiencing that a lot the past few
days as we play for our very objective "coaches": a mini-disc recorder
and DAT tape. Basically whenever we have an idea we want to try out, we record
it to hear how it really sounds from an outsider's point of view. We've been
both pleasantly surprised—when something plays back sounding more convincing
than we thought—and slightly bewildered, when we realize that something
we thought was fine actually needed rehashing. The funny parts often come before
and after the takes, in the form of spur-of-the-moment exclamations, peals of
laughter, and completely unrelated comments such as "When is the Mr. Bean
movie coming out?" (this one from Yuri). Thankfully we wince more often
at the sound of our voices than of our instruments.
We've also dug up some recordings of our Banff repertoire from our recent concerts.
It's informative to listen to these performances from just a few months ago
to determine what worked, what didn't, and how our interpretations have changed
since then. In some instances we've thought, "I kind of like what we did
back then—maybe we should try it that way again", and other times,
"Wow, I'm sure glad we don't play it like that anymore!"
To balance this very detailed recording work, it has also been important to run through our repertoire. It takes stamina to perform a Beethoven quartet! It also takes trust to rely on the hard work we know we've done and to let things go in the spirit of performance, when things often don't go according to plan. This is one of the most fun aspects of playing in a quartet. In a performance situation, there are always risks taken, and it's exhilarating to know that three other people are with you on stage as you feed off each other's energy and spontaneity. We have a couple concerts here in San Francisco next week that will give us the opportunity to perform each of the seven pieces we're preparing, a week before we leave for the competition. Time seems to be flying by these days!
As we put in several hours each day in rehearsal, it has become more and more apparent that we need to take good care of ourselves physically. We've all had our share of sore shoulders and fatigued muscles. On any given day we can be seen giving each other back rubs or doing yoga poses during breaks (well, maybe not Adrian, who is reluctant to try anything called "Downward Dog"). I wonder if they offer a package deal on massages for quartets…
Tomorrow we're rehearsing a movement of a Shostakovich quartet not in our Banff repertoire with a group of dancers. It should be a nice change of pace!
Valerie Li
July
31, 2007
11:20p.m. It has been almost a week since we've gotten back from our two week vacation. Rehearsals have been going well - I missed playing quartets with the rest of the group while on break. The one thing I did not miss was the San Francisco fog. We all live in the sunset district of San Francisco, and during many months of the year, the sun loves to hide behind the a nice layer of fog in our area. It's like walking through a cloud, but not like that fluffy cloud you thought you could float on or lounge in as a kid, but like a misty spray that feels so good when it's hot out, only it's cold and windy out. So instead of sunny, warm days in the upper 20's, we get foggy, cool days in the mid to upper teens. At least we rehearse in the downtown area where the sun does shine and it actually feels like summer, even though we're inside the whole afternoon…
11:40p.m. Anyway, about our preparation for Banff, as of today's rehearsal, we have gone through all of our repertoire at least once. We spent a good amount of time working on intonation on unison passages today. Not too painful! We haven't actually talked about it, but I think our plan of action is to keep on rehearsing with great detail as well as play through our pieces as much as possible. We can easily spend an entire afternoon on one movement of a quartet without realizing how much time has passed. I think yesterday's rehearsal was one of the first where we actually ran through a few of our pieces. We are also planning to record some of our upcoming rehearsals, which always provides interesting feedback. It's like hearing a recording of yourself talking, it always sounds funny to me.
12:14a.m. Almost an hour has passed since I began writing this journal entry. I think having The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air reruns in the background has been somewhat distracting. Even still, I haven't always been the fastest when it comes to writing. I should also add that I talk slowly. And Adrian talks really fast.
12:23a.m. These days when we're not rehearsing, I am eagerly awaiting my turn to read the final Harry Potter book. I saw the latest movie during our break and it was great, the best one yet, in my opinion. Last night I did sneak in the first chapter and I'm hoping to read another chapter very soon. A couple of my students read the book in a day and a half! Impressive. Okay, I think that's it for me. Goodnight!
Yuri Cho
July
29, 2007
Well, I'm back from my honeymoon and it’s been only two weeks, but I
have to say it already feels far far away. Of course I won’t forget it,
no worries! Actually the opposite. I will probably need to recall just how relaxed
and worriless I was while swimming in that gorgeous pool after that fabulous
meal....well, it's a thing of the past now. The first thing that reminded me
of that was a phone call from one of my quartet members on the FIRST(!!) day
I got back, asking about the time of the day I would prefer to rehearse tomorrow,
and gently reminding me of our upcoming obligations at the Toronto Summer Academy
& Festival. Not having the violin in my hands for two weeks seemed like
a great thing after the hectic year we had, but this was the moment I started
to question whether not taking my violin to the honeymoon was the right thing
to do. Never mind the jet leg, I started practising my quartet parts which made
me realize that playing an instrument for 20 years is fortunately not something
you easily forget. So we started off our first week after the break with a "lite"
6hs\day schedule. I love when we have all the time available to work on details,
and having the luxury for everyone to say what they want to, and discuss our
ideas. It was like a family reunion with the occasional heated arguments speckled
with funny stories about the past few weeks when we haven’t seen each
other. A good thing about our quartet is that we get along really well as friends.
And if you think that's normal, than you might want to look into reading some
of the great books about the exciting, but sometimes overly dramatic life of
four musicians that try to spend most of their available time together with
the goal in mind that eventually (sometimes only on stage, in performance) they
will think, and feel the same way about something as complex as music. And this
is called a string quartet.
But back to our Road to Banff: in the last week we managed to work with Mayumi
Seiler and the Leipzig String Quartet and also to play two concerts - one at
the University of Toronto and another one at the home of our friends and supporters
the Albaums.
It is great to revisit old pieces from our repertoire. Things we already played
a while ago, and now we can use the fresh inspiration and incorporate the ideas
and valuable tips we got from such great artists as Mayumi and the Leipzig Quartet.
One of the difficulties of quartet playing is that there isn't a fifth member
who can just listen from the outside and tell you what exactly is coming out
of the four intentions united. Of course it is part of the trade that you develop
an outside ear and you can judge better and better, but because of the acoustical
changes in different rooms, always every time you are required to do some adjustments.
So as we get inspiration from other artists we are leaving to Port Milford to
hopefully pass on some of our own excitement and experience to the young generations.
There is a great music camp for kids on a farm by the lake in a beautiful environment,
where we will be spending the next two weeks teaching, coaching chamber music,
rehearsing and playing more concerts. What else could you wish for as a musician?
Csaba Koczo
July
24, 2007
After two weeks of holiday, we're ready to get back to quartet life. All four
of us are returning to San Francisco at various times today and we'll meet up
tomorrow to rehearse. It's amazing what a refreshment two weeks at home can
be. Personally I haven't had this long of a vacation for a very long time. I
find that a break like this does a couple things. First of all, we each get
a break from each other. After spending so many hours together for so many months
on end, the break was great. There's also something special that happens to
a piece of music after one gives it a rest. I don't know exactly what causes
this but we tend to subconsciously achieve a broader understanding of a piece
of music just by letting it sit. I'm looking forward to getting back to work
again tomorrow and seeing what fresh ideas present themselves. This imposed
break also allowed me to spend some time practising my own part, which is sometimes
a difficult thing to do when we're in the throes of rehearsals. Being able to
practise in a relaxed atmosphere at home has been immensely helpful in renegotiating
some left hand tongue twisters.
I should report that I was able to intake some poutine during this trip. Adrian
alluded to our love for poutine in last week's journal and living in California
severely deprives us of this delicacy. I also took this opportunity to stock
up on Canadian chocolate bars. They don't seem to taste quite as good south
of the border. I do have to say, however, that California wine is in a league
of its own (except for Ontario ice wine). During a coaching we received from
one of the violinists in the Artis Quartet of Vienna, the coach told us that
in order to be complete musicians, we must be able to appreciate good food and
good wine. By design, musicians naturally appreciate good food. But he's exactly
right. Learning to appreciate good wine as well greatly expands our palate for
ideas. One could say, for example, "Could you make that sound more like
a nice, rich Cabernet?" We strive for these kinds of images in our music.
After all, we are four young people trying to understand the depth of emotion
that exists in, for example, a late Beethoven quartet.
Well it's off to the airport. Hopefully airport security will be nice and gentle.
For me, airport security always offers a really wonderful element to air travel........
David Samuel
July 13th, 2007
The Afiaras are currently taking a short vacation. Valerie's in Vancouver,
Dave's in Guelph, I'm in Mississauga, and, well, Yuri's in New York, but she'll
be joining us in Canada in a week. After having seen each other for countless
hours everyday with no break since January, we decided two weeks off -- and
some time away from our base in San Francisco -- could do us some good.
It did make me feel a little sheepish, though, when Ian from CBC Radio 2 asked me to talk about what the quartet's up to this week -- with regards to our preparation for Banff. I assumed "sitting" and "eating poutine" weren't immediately impressive itinerary items. But, then again, maybe no one really needs to argue for the benefits of taking a break to recharge batteries. Though that doesn't necessarily exclude music; for my two weeks, I'll be playing a recital and dabbling in a couple of hip hop projects with my rap group.
However, right before boarding our planes northbound, we performed an outdoor concert at the Lake Tahoe Music Festival. We played two pieces (a Mozart and Beethoven) that will be in our repertoire at Banff and, prior to that, we had the chance to perform three other works for the competition (Haydn, Bartok and Mendelssohn) during our teaching residency at Chamber Music of the Rockies in Colorado. We're using most of our concerts to get to know the works we'll be playing better through performance. Fortunately, the repertory range for the competition is fairly wide, so we've been able to include them.
And the truth is I can't wait to get back at it. The newly commissioned work by Kelly Murray-Murphy is wonderful and, though we've worked on it extensively, we have some new ideas that we want to try out.
I guess I should hurry up with this poutine.
Adrian
Ok, here we are… It’s July 13, 2007, the competition opening day
is Aug 28th. We have about 6 weeks to get ready for the *9th Banff International
String Quartet Competition. We are the Tokai Quartet. My name is Rafael Hoekman,
and I am the cellist. The other members of the quartet are Amanda Goodburn,
1st violin, Csaba Koczo (sounds like Chubba Coatso) 2nd violin, and Yosef Tamir
viola. We’ve been playing together in this formation since October 2003.
We started a year before that with a homesick Argentinian violist named Javier
Portero who went back to Buenos Aires after finishing his studies here in Toronto.
After he left, we picked up Yosef and immediately made plans to participate
in the 8th *BISQC (see above) in August 2004. We did that, and went there, and
played and learned a lot from not being in the finals, and talking to the jury,
and so on…So much has happened since then.
I grew up in St. John’s, Nfld. I studied in Montreal and Toronto and am now the father of a 10 month old boy named Samuel. My wife Meran Currie-Roberts is also a cellist, but has really put her own career on hold as we are starting this family. I live and work in Toronto playing various gigs and have a good rapport with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra which sees me playing most of the season next year. We make some money playing quartets, but the bulk of our income comes from orchestral work.
Amanda has just a finished her third season as a full time violinist in the TSO. She grew up in South Africa and studied in England. She is a fantastic violinist and musician!
Csaba just finished his third season with the National Ballet Orchestra, and his second season with the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra. (It is possible to be a member of both orchestras at the same time since they both occupy the new opera house in Toronto).
Yosef is also a member of the COC, he is officially on leave from the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra till he gets tenure in the COC…this was his first season.
So we all have work in Toronto, which subsidizes us to have this String Quartet….or something like that….life is pretty hectic for all of us. Lots of work, lots of notes, lots of rehearsing in between four different schedules! To make matters worse, Csaba is on his honeymoon in Hungary till the 19th… (the wedding was on the 6th, I hosted his stag on the 4th) I’m going to Nfld to introduce my son to my family tomorrow morning…I won’t be back till the 20th. We really only have a few short weeks till the competition, and I don’t even want to say what we have learned, played and not played before. This competition is more difficult that the one three years ago. Far less choice in repertoire, and some very specific selections required by all… Scary stuff!! Suffice to say, we have our work cut out for us when we all get back together on the 20th....
Rafael
Experience some of the brightest young classical musicians from 2007's BISQC.
See behind the scene photos of life in a string quartet.
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