Interview with Kathryn Stott
Interview by Sarah Walters
Q: You’re appearing as part of our Inspirational Artists season with pianists from the RNCM. What do you think it means for students to be part of that series, and for audiences to have this programme of events?
I think anything that allows students to engage is really helpful! For the students to work with somebody that they know as, presently anyway, still being in the performing world can be creative in itself: the process of starting from scratch, sitting side by side, and actually having to step up into a professional world. I have to encourage them, first of all, to really engage with me as a performer and not feel like a student having a lesson. That’s my goal – for them to arrive on stage and feel like they are a pianist in their own right. However, before that, we have to go through a process of learning the music together, of feeling familiar, of me passing on whatever I can, of understanding that we’re all in this together. You begin in a role of responsibility, but I hope to leave them inspired, and I hope we engage other students to come and listen – to see their peers up there.
I think most of the students and audiences should be familiar with this music, or at least some of it. Most people know The Planets – but even Wikipedia doesn’t mention the piano version, and though it’s really known as a whopping piece for orchestra, (Gustav) Holst also conceived it very clearly for two pianos, although this was always with the view of orchestration to follow. So, we have to get people through the door anticipating a new experience, because you don’t hear it performed like this every day.
Q: You wear many different hats, as a renowned performer and recording artist, an educator, a collaborator, an artist director, and more. How do you break that down so that the students see you as an equal?
Performers and musicians are able to split themselves into many parts. When I meet young pianists here, they sometimes say they want to be a soloist, and then they might later realise they like collaborating. Possibly those opportunities might not have been there when they were growing up – sometimes they don’t meet any other musicians playing different instruments until they get here. I always try to encourage, especially pianists, the value of collaboration because it’s such a lonely existence; we spend hours and hours and hours on our own. I can use myself as an example while bringing them amazing music to learn, and by the time you get to perform this together you are kind of equal professionals in that space.
Hopefully our 10 pianists will feel enough adrenaline and excitement to get through it brilliantly; my role is to make everybody really get inside the score. I want them to know why they’re playing. I want to know if they know anything about Holst before we start, and Rachmaninoff. What do they know about these people and their music? Is there any curiosity there? Have they listened to the orchestral parts?
I’ve tried to tell the students: ‘Please be ready, let’s not start at ground zero, let’s start in a good place and then we can get some serious work done.’ Playing two pianos has its challenges because we’re sat at completely opposite ends of the room, and I like our pianos to be in that situation when we rehearse. For a lot of people, they haven’t done much of that, and some won’t have done any. Plus, if they’re looking for extra help, they’re sitting a long way from me and I’m through a piano lid! We have to learn how to trust each other through distance; there’s nobody in the middle conducting us.
Q: What are the particular joys and challenges of collaboration, and what has collaboration meant for you as an artist?
Multiple things. To collaborate is like having a conversation, so it’s about being able to listen to the other person and then it’s also about being able to respond. Trust is important and you must know that you can play in a certain way without throwing somebody under a bus! It’s about being able to compromise without feeling that you can’t express yourself. It’s about being able to share. It’s also about dialogue and what each other can bring to the table; sometimes you meet brilliantly in the middle and sometimes you don’t, and you have to work that out. I often coach young groups and I can see there’s a dominant person in there, but being a dominant person doesn’t mean they’re the best musician. It’s quite interesting to observe how that dynamic works. Sometimes there’s somebody in the group who doesn’t say much, but they’re able to digest all that information and manoeuvre it.
So, it’s about all those things, plus all the amazing repertoire that there is! I mean, I’ve been playing chamber music since I was eight or nine; I went to Menuhin School where we had to play for each other. For me, it’s natural. What will be the challenge with the young pianists in this project, is that we don’t have that much time to build up a strong collaboration. We have to make the music come to life – that’s fundamental. Then, we have to get to grips with each other, both sides – I have to know all of their parts and I’ve asked them to be familiar with my part. I have to be working things out all the time: what they’re doing, how they play, and hopefully they’ve got enough headspace to be doing the same with me. Everyone must walk away from it feeling better at the end of it than when they started, feeling part of a journey and part of a group effort that we all made good.
I’m super happy that the pianists are playing with me, but I’d like to see that extended; I would love it if there was more side by side opportunities for our RNCM pianists with amazing string players, for example. It’s quite hard for pianists to fit in sometimes because they don’t have as many outlets, and it would be great to let them step up to other disciplines.
Q: Do you feel like a champion for collaboration?
No, I can’t say that because I think there’s a lot of us doing it, but there are certain things that I try to instil into pianists. I did a tour of Japan in the early days with my long-term collaborator, Yo-Yo Ma. The promoter made a big programme book about him with pictures of his family and tons of information. For some reason, Yo-Yo flicked through one night and found that right at the back, there was my name in very small print with only a few lines about me. From that moment on, it was in the contract that our names had to be in the same font, both our photos had to be on the posters, and everything had to be the same. If you look around, you’ll see it a lot; old habits of forgetting there is a pianist in the concert. I’ve been lucky to work with somebody who actually made a difference in this respect on a global level.
Q: How do you know when an audience has connected well with the work?
It’s how they listen. You can always sense collective listening whether it’s a hundred people or a thousand people and it’s very powerful. That might not last a whole concert because it’s a long time for people to focus, but that’s our role as musicians – to take them away from daily life and give everybody an experience. We’re in the profession of storytelling and our stories have to come off the page.
The standard has to be the highest, the commitment has to be 150 per cent, our wish to be there has to be clear. I always say to the students: ‘The odd wrong note, that’s not important, we’re not machines – what we want is for you to really mean it and have something to say.’
Q: Do you have a piece of music that makes you ‘lean in’ in that way, or do you remember the first piece of music that made you do that?
No, and I’d be lying if I said I remember the first piece of music I heard. I came from a super poor, very working-class background, I lived on a council estate, and we just had a little upright piano in the house – I’m not sure why, although eventually my Mum gave piano lessons to small children. I think I just went to the piano myself and wasn’t pushed. I obviously just had this clear talent that needed to find its way in, naturally. I guess that’s the best way, isn’t it? Every bit of spare money my parents had they saved for recordings of opera, little opera arias, so I grew up with that – the sound of the voice. I remember hearing those recordings.
Q: In what health is piano as a school of study, and in terms of the quality of the musicians coming through?
I think now there are hundreds, thousands probably, of young talented pianists and finding their niche is difficult. The whole market in Asia has absolutely exploded; Japan was always quite strong, and now China and South Korea are unbelievably strong. These are countries with excellent work ethics and amazing talent in huge numbers.
It’s really important that young people realise why they want to be involved in music. They have to know if music really speaks to them, because once they’re out the other side, it’s fierce! We want to help them to fulfil their dreams but also to help them to think about the realities because, ultimately, it’s about having a fulfilling life in music, and that means in all aspects of the music profession. Of course, I like my students to have a good understanding of core repertoire, but I want them to be curious, to go to concerts, go to everything, go and hear a symphony, go and hear jazz and sitar playing! It doesn’t have to have a piano in it – just hear the colours, because all that feeds into your music making.
Q: You have announced that you will step down from live performance from December this year – was that a difficult decision?
It’s not like you reach 65 or whatever retirement age is these days and you quit; that’s very unusual in this profession. A lot of musicians go on until they die, or they can’t play. Pianist Menahem Pressler was still playing until he was almost 100 years old, and Martha Argerich, one of the greatest pianists alive, is in her 80s and still playing tons of concerts.
I somehow knew that I would always ‘call time’, but I can’t answer why I knew that, and I didn’t know when that would be. Three years ago, I began to think about it on and off. I stopped performing concertos when I was 60, so that’s five years ago, but I was as busy as ever with everything else. I lost a couple of friends quite early who were younger than me, and I thought, ‘Wow, time’s really going on’. I have a grandchild and I heard myself saying similar things to her as I’d said to my daughter: ‘I can’t do this. I’ve got to practice.’ To do what we do is the most unbelievably disciplined life and that’s sometimes very difficult for students to understand – not for everybody, some of them get it straight away, but you simply have to go and practice and cannot expect anybody to buy a ticket to hear you perform if you felt like lazing around for a couple of days! I always liken it to sports, and in particular tennis; that when Federer was playing, he’d always done his training and you knew he hadn’t just taken days off. Actually, I love practicing, but I’d now like to remove that discipline from my life.
Q: Where will your focus go once you step away from performance?
Into education, into more of what I’m doing at the RNCM and more coaching in other places. One of the other great joys I’ve had in my life is being an Artistic Director. I’ve enjoyed that role in various guises on and off since 1995, in the UK as well as in Australia, Italy, and Norway. I love creative programming. I have a strong interest in where music can take me, a curiosity, a wilfulness to make things happen, and I’ve got a big energy.
One example: The French composer, Gabriel Fauré, is a composer who I have personal links to through my teachers, and I couldn’t understand why no one was celebrating this composer. In 1995, I sat at my kitchen table thinking, ‘That piece would be nice… that would sit nicely with that’, and the next minute I’d created 12 concerts. I made those 12 concerts happen, I stood outside and handed out leaflets, I got the BBC Philharmonic involved with four of them and eight of them happened at the RNCM – and that’s creative wilfulness, I was just determined to make it work. When you believe in something so strongly, I’ve always believed you must do your utmost to share it. I try to help my students feel inspired, I want to enable them to stand on their own two feet; one of the things I say on repeat is: ‘I’m helping you like mad here, but I’m trying to also help you to become independent.’
I’ve had the most wonderful life as a performing musician but now it’s time for some space and new challenges.
Event Info
The Planets: Kathryn Stott (piano) and RNCM Pianists
Tuesday 19 November 2024, 7.30pm
Concert Hall
21 October 2024
