{"id":13355,"date":"2022-03-22T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=164195"},"modified":"2022-03-22T10:16:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T09:16:27","slug":"cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores\/","title":{"rendered":"Cellist Johannes Moser on the changing role of encores"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Charlotte Smith\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 22 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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\u2018For many years I would play a Sarabande from one of Bach<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Cello Suites after my concerto performances. Particularly after, say, the Elgar<\/a><\/strong> or Dvo\u0159\u00e1k<\/a><\/strong> concertos, which have such distinct emotional narratives, it\u2019s better to have calm and quiet in that moment rather than topping up the previous emotional journey with further fireworks, which can distract from the central performance.<\/p>\n\n<p>Now I tend to play an encore with the whole cello section, such as Pablo Casals\u2019 <em>Song of the Birds<\/em> or the second movement of <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/edvard-grieg\/"\">Grieg<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Holberg Suite<\/em> arranged for six cellos. Often a concerto can be more like a symphony with a solo part, so rather than pushing the rest of the orchestra aside in the encore, it\u2019s nicer to be more inclusive.<\/p>\n<p>For recitals I like to play something really obscure which can work nicely as a palette cleanser after, say, a <a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/five-essential-works-brahms\/"\"><strong>Brahms<\/strong><\/a> sonata. There\u2019s a piece by Silvestrov that I like to play \u2013 I\u2019m not sure it even has a title \u2013 and it\u2019s more spatial, which contrasts nicely to the dramatic narrative that has come beforehand. Of course, when I was younger and at the beginning of my career it was more important for me to show my guns off with technically challenging repertoire. So I would choose Popper\u2019s <em>Elfentanz<\/em> or <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/bohuslav-martinu\/"\">Martinu<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s <em>Rossini Variations<\/em>, but I gradually developed the philosophy that the dessert shouldn\u2019t necessarily rival the main course. Certainly, it should offer something delightful, but it shouldn\u2019t begin another story.<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"><div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/six-best-cellists\/"\"><strong>Six of the best cellists<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/artists\/alban-gerhardt\/"\">Cellist Alban Gerhardt on recording encores inspired by Pablo Casals<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/works\/abel-selaocoe-on-the-pieces-of-music-every-cellist-should-play\/"\"><strong>Abel Selaocoe on the pieces of music every cellist should play<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><p> <\/p><\/div> <\/section><p>I think the choice of encores may have changed in recent years as the role of the soloist is changing. There\u2019s no longer that singular, star cult. Instead, the soloist is a kind of magnified communicator between the orchestra and the public, an ambassador for the orchestra. So, the encore becomes an opportunity to make a statement about how you view your role in that context.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays you see eight-year-olds who can play so virtuosically \u2013 in a way that wasn\u2019t possible for adults not so long ago \u2013 so virtuosity has become a ubiquitous normality. Playing the <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/composers\/sergey-prokofiev\/"\">Prokofiev<\/a><\/strong> <em>Sinfonia Concertante<\/em> was at the time only possible for Rostropovich, and then slowly other cellists began to climb that Everest and now everybody plays it at the end of their Masters. So the general rise of technical wizardry has meant that virtuosic encores no longer have that jaw dropping effect. Instead of creating another firework I therefore like to create a moment of intimacy.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><em>Photo: Manfred Esser \/ Haenssler Classic<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>BBC Music Magazine\u2019s <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/magazine\/issues\/april-2022\/"\">April 2022 issue<\/a><\/strong> features an article on the uneven history of encores.<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Charlotte Smith Published: Tuesday, 22 March 2022 at 12:00 am \u2018For many years I would play a Sarabande from one of Bach\u2019s Cello Suites after my concerto performances. Particularly after, say, the Elgar or Dvo\u0159\u00e1k concertos, which have such distinct emotional narratives, it\u2019s better to have calm and quiet in that moment rather than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":13356,"template":"","categories":[1,93],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores.png",1902,1245,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores-300x196.png",300,196,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores-768x503.png",768,503,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores-1024x670.png",800,523,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores-1536x1005.png",1536,1005,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/cellist-johannes-moser-on-the-changing-role-of-encores.png",1902,1245,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Charlotte Smith Published: Tuesday, 22 March 2022 at 12:00 am \u2018For many years I would play a Sarabande from one of Bach\u2019s Cello Suites after my concerto performances. Particularly after, say, the Elgar or Dvo\u0159\u00e1k concertos, which have such distinct emotional narratives, it\u2019s better to have calm and quiet in that moment rather than…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/13355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}