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Interview with pianist Beatrice Berrut


We had a pleasant and sincere conversation with Beatrice Berrut, who is a perfect synthesis of technique, speed and emotion, about her career and our life.

Report: Mine Alpan  

Can we get to know you better?

Yes, It’ll be a pleasure to share a few thoughts with you.

What is your definition of success as a musician, an artist?

I used to think that success was to spend 5 days a week playing on the world’s major stages. But as time passes by, it seems that this is a shallow vision of what is “being an artist”. What is most important for me now is to be faithful to my artistic and human values, and not to allow myself any compromise. If external success comes, it is only a bonus, but not a goal to pursue. As Carl G. Jung said : the most important things happen inside, and not outside. I do think this is one of the most clever sentences in the history of mankind !

In our world, as marketing takes an ever growing importance, it is not always easy to stick to such rules. But I am convinced that at the end, when you look back at what you have achieved in your life, you can be proud of such integrity.

You have achieved many successes in your artistic life. Can you tell us about your art adventure?

I started playing the piano because my mother is a great amateur pianist, and every evening, after we were sent to bed, she would play the piano and we would fall asleep listening to Mendelssohn and Schumann. Very quickly I became fascinated by this strange wooden box that could produce such amazing sounds, and tell stories without the use of a single word. That’s why my parents sent me to a local teacher. From the beginning I was pretty fond of piano playing, but I wasn’t yet considering making a living from it …but that’s before I stumbled on Brahms’ 2nd piano concerto. I was eleven then, I and clearly remember listening to it for the first time. My parents owned a fair collection of CDs, and among them was Krystian Zimerman’s version of Brahms 2. This discovery changed my life forever. I never imagined that humankind was capable of such beauty, and I couldn’t sleep for nights after it. Brahms opened the cosmos for me. After it, it was clear that my life would be dedicated to serving music.

Even though Brahms always was a very important figure in my life, the composer that became the essential one for me is Franz Liszt. I have now dedicated a fair amount of years trying to defend his music at the best of my abilities, and I will always fight for his genius to be acknowledged as it should. I somehow feel like I speak my mother tongue when I play his music, and that is both a very comforting feeling and a very strange one.

My most recent album is featuring his late works. When I started learning this repertoire, I felt a bit reluctant about it and even wondered if it was a good idea to record it, because one has to admit, the music he wrote in his last period is strange and sometimes difficult to seize. But after spending months with it, it gently took form in my ears, took every spare bit of space in my heart, and I grew to love it more than everything. I started feeling very close to the pains of an old soul, ready for his last journey. The music of his last years is visionary and spell-binding, but his contemporaries didn’t appreciate it, and he died with the bitter feeling of not havingbeen recognised at his true value. That’s why I’m willing to do everything in my power to ensure that this music gets the admiration it deserves.

Do you have your own technique? How did you develop this ?

My teacher Galina Iwanzowa in Berlin taught me everything I know. We spent six years working two to three times a week together, building a healthy technique that would allow me to play every kind of repertoire without hurting myself. She was a student of Heinrich Neuhaus, and like all others descending from him, sound was at the middle of our work and preoccupation : Whatever you are trying to achieve technically has to be guided by a musical thought. I think that’s the most important lesson I learnt there. After my studies, I of course evolved and somehow adapted what I learnt to my own body and musicianship. I took me a few years to find my own sound, my own esthetics and my own relationship to composers. But this was all made possible thanks to her teaching : she taught me how to become independent, and I think that’s what great teachers do.

Are you still excited on stage? Can you share your unforgettable concert memory with us?

Even after years of doing it, going on stage is never totally “normal”. The day it would feel “normal” would be the right day to retire I think. This is the magic of live music : you never know what is going to happen and how the audience will react. Over the years I started thinking that our relationship to stage-fright was to be understood in a subconscious way ; you never truly understand why sometimes you freak out in smaller places, while you feel perfectly at ease on a big stage. This is weird and you have to accept not understanding every bit of your soul…

Because of this, every concert memory is unforgettable! I do however hold a very special memory: after a 6 months break due to the second European lockdown, I eventually played a concert for a packed hall in Monte-Carlo. For this first concert, I played late works by Franz Liszt, music it took me a whole year to fully understand. I was so engrossed in this spiritual and almost ethereal music I had the feeling of leading a religious ceremony at the concert. The presence of other human beings in the hall, and their total concentration on this very music made this concert a blast. For many listeners, it was the first live music to be heard after months, and everyone was extremely emotional about it.

Beatrice Berrut

Do you have any thoughts of doing a concert in Turkey?

I would love to play in Turkey again. In 2016 I was lucky to play a recital at Albert Long Hall of the Bogazici University, and I had the chance to meet many young and interesting people there, who were also eager to meet someone from another culture. I learnt a lot and keep a very tender memory of my time there.

What are your exciting plans for the upcoming period?

In this season I’ll be playing again at the Konzerthaus in Wien, and making my debuts at the Brussels Piano Days, and the Cadogan Hall in London with the English Chamber Orchestra under Giovanni Guzzo. I’ll also release a new album in February. This album is very special for me, as it features my paraphrase on Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht as well as my transcriptions of excerpts of Symphonies by Mahler. It took me years to write them all, and I went through many doubts and a lot of discouragement sometimes. So it is very fulfilling to listen to the finished master and think back of the long path it took me to get there. Even if some might say the journey is more important that the destination, it is sometimes nice to sit back and relax while listening to your new release ( laughing )

Mine Alpan

One Comment

  1. Eric Winchester Eric Winchester September 29, 2021

    Well said. A lot of people live in a prison of the mind for choosing success over personal satisfaction. We should not live according to how we want others to perceive us. That is an impossible task.

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