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发表于 2003-11-23 07:13:00
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地址：http://musicteachermag.com/html/article02_john_williams.html
本部分原文：
AP-L: A lot of people feel that the Bach Chaconne has been almost a signature piece of yours over the years. How do you view it?
JW: Funnily enough, I do feel it very much as a guitar piece rather than just a piece that works well on the guitar. Apart from the fact that it is a tour de force of the virtuoso variation style, and therefore a logical choice for a soloist, I very much feel its Iberian origins, both as a dance form and its Spanish style harmonies, and that's certainly very guitaristic in a sense. It's also the only one of its kind that Bach wrote - the Goldberg Variations were a set of variations on a tune, whereas the Chaconne is kind of an extended 4 bar baroque blues! So in that sense, it has a fascinating and magnificent mixture of folk music and high art, and the popular element in it strengthens the piece rather than trivializes it.
Also, although there are difficult sections in it, there are more difficult guitar pieces around. It's a rewarding piece technically, because difficult parts sound like they're worth it, which is not always the case with guitar music. From a musical point of view, it's also very colorful because it doesn't have the rigid formality of separate dance movements that you find in the normal baroque suite, but rather it moves along with a great variety in its melodic and rhythmic aspects, so its always a very enjoyable piece to play. I would cheerfully pick up the Chaconne almost any day of the week whether I'd practiced or not, because even if it wasn't particularly clean, it would always sound good, and I'd never have a problem in deciding to include it in a concert program at the last minute, even if I haven't played it in a while.
AP-L: Of all the prolific recordings you've done through your career, do you have any favorite albums you've recorded?
JW: Well, when it comes it solo records, not unnaturally I usually feel best about the ones I've done most recently, like the baroque album and the "Spirit of the Guitar." That doesn't mean I hate what 1 did in the sixties with Albeniz, but I feel I have done it better now on the Smallman; I will be re-recording more Spanish music in a couple more years like Granados' Valses Poeticos. In some ways, the older records I feel fondest of are the collaborative efforts, like the Theodorakis with Maria Farandouri and the albums with Cleo Laine. Also, I still like the "Streets of London," for sentimental reasons.
AP-L: Guitarists generally talk about their "influences", the other guitarists or musicians who helped to shape their sound and style. Who were your main influences in that respect, aside from Segovia?
JW: I have always loved fiddle playing, so if anything I think 1 have been more influenced in some ways by violinists like Alan Loveday who was at the Royal College with me in the late 1950's, especially in the baroque style of playing. I also learned a hell of a lot from Rafael Puyana, the harpsichordist, for things like Scarlatti, Bach and French music. Itzak Perlman is my favorite fiddle player, and I've done a record with him as well.
One thing I feel strongly is that it is the way someone plays is more important than whether it is "authentic" - for example, if you hear Heifetz or PerIman playing Bach, it could be argued that they are not playing in true baroque style, but their playing is far more enjoyable to listen to than a historically correct performance that is as dry as a bone. I think in regard to Baroque music it would be hard not to be impressed and influenced by some of the electrifying performances of baroque music that are around today, and the interpretation of baroque ornamentation has also advanced greatly compared to the boring stuff that was common years ago.
AP-L: Reading between the lines of your interview in George Clinton's book on Segovia some years ago, there seemed to be an edge of tension between you and Segovia. Could you enlighten us on that?
JW: Yes, there always was really, and it has come out more as years have passed and I've felt a little more confident in talking about it. To be honest, I feel it has become necessary for me to become open about what my reservations with Segovia were. It's all very well hiding behind respectful statements, but there was a personal gap between us that began in the mid-1950's. Segovia had organized, or was involved in organizing, a guitar competition in Switzerland and asked me to compete in it. At the time, I would have been the logical winner, so it was an attractive idea. But my father was against it, partly because I was still at school and also because he felt I was still too young. My mother, however, supported the idea of my entering, so in the end it was really left to me to make the decision. As it turned out, 1 decided not to enter, and very soon after received an extremely angry phone call from Segovia, in which he abused me roundly in Spanish and called me all sorts of names of names.
Anyway, we all got over that one, but in the years that followed
there always seemed to be an edge of tension when he was present for Summer School in Siena. Mostly, the players there like Alirio Diaz and myself would teach each other, because Segovia wasn't always there a great deal, but when he did come, it often felt strained. As I've said on other occasions previously, he taught mainly by example - four bars here, four bars there, in which you were meant to imitate him - and I suppose that my training at the Royal College was giving me a more structured and structural approach to learning music, so it was sometimes hard to adapt to his very individual teaching style.
Having said all that, of course there were many positive aspects to Segovia and his influence on me as a guitarist and as a person. You couldn't help being influenced by him and his sound when you were as close to it as I was. And he was extremely generous and usually very sweet tempered most of the time. But it would be wrong, especially now that he is gone, to assume that there were never any difficult moments between us, because occasionally there were, especially musically. As time passed, I found my interpretive approach becoming more direct, more linear, whereas Segovia's was often shaped by the beautiful resonant qualities of his Hauser, which didn't suit either my personality or musical inclinations in either solo or chamber music. Also, Segovia emerged during the age of the other great soloists like Kreisler and Heifetz, and some would argue that their period sound is dated, and it may be, but you can't say its wrong, just different. But you can't change the fact that it all began with Segovia and his sound. We wouldn't be here now if it weren't for him.
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发表于 2003-11-22 22:05:00
