Michael Hofstetter: The Music Between The Notes

Stillness and intuition play pivotal roles in the heartbeat of a performance for conductor Michael Hofstetter. His insights shed light on how the music industry has evolved over the last 40 years and why maintaining a deep connection to the art form is essential for both conductors and performers alike. He engages us with personal anecdotes from his life, revealing how childhood experiences ignited his passion for music and shaped his career.

Diving deep into the emotional landscapes of Baroque and Classical periods, Hofstetter shares the profound impact these composers had in exploring the human psyche through music. The discussion also highlights the ability of music to resonate beyond mere notes, creating a dialogue between musicians and their audience. With a unique blend of humor and sincerity, Hofstetter passionately illustrates the significance of cultivating stillness, encouraging all musicians to embrace their individual journeys and find their voice.

Join us for an enlightening conversation that promises to inspire both seasoned musicians and those new to the art form alike. 

Chapters

• 0:15 Introduction to Sula Parasidis
• 20:32 Interview Begins with Michael Hofstetter
• 1:09:37 Market Changes and Industry Evolution
• 2:31:34 Understanding Stillness in Music
• 6:39:36 Personal Journey into Conducting
• 19:22:52 The Love for Music

Transcript

Soula Parassidis: 0:15

Hi, I'm Soula Parassidis, and this is, behind the Curtain, our podcast by Living Opera. And today I am absolutely thrilled to speak to one of the most wonderful conductors in the opera business and also a friend of mine, michael Hofstetter. And Michael, your reputation precedes you. You have had an illustrious career over nearly 40 years. I think I can say at this point you are a specialist of the classical and the baroque period. You've conducted in all the major opera houses. He's like stop it, stop it. No, we have to continue. You're also the artistic director of the International Glück Festival and the first dirigent. Is that correct?

Soula Parassidis: 0:54

First, First Entschuldigung of the , which is a wonderful choir. So, michael, welcome and thank you so much for being here today thank you for the invitation so do you ever sleep?

Soula Parassidis: 1:09

in the trains and in the airplane no, I mean, uh, when I was, when I was kind of I know you privately but when I was looking at all your stuff professionally to prepare for this, I was kind of going like that is a whole lifetime or maybe two lifetimes and I was wondering, from your perspective as a veteran basically of this industry, what are the greatest positive and if you want to elaborate on the negative changes in our industry from when you began? Yeah, it's just a it's an easy question to start with that, but that is a significant question I know because there is a huge change.

Michael Hofstetter: 1:47

When I started, like in the mid 80s, there was no facetime or x or twitter any. You couldn't get any likes or anything. The only people who would like you or dislike you were the people whom you directly worked with, whom you directly collaborated with, so it all was in the internet. Somehow you could get lost on social media or something, and so I still grew up with this pure concentration just onto the score, onto the partners whom you are making music with, and maybe that's the most important I grew up with was this awareness of stillness, and so there's stillness inside you, and this is, in the end, where the music comes from.

Soula Parassidis: 3:08

The stillness comes from the music. That sort of echoes a famous quote by Mozart.

Michael Hofstetter: 3:12

Yes, I know the quote. They doubt it is really from Mozart.

Soula Parassidis: 3:15

I don't know.

Michael Hofstetter: 3:16

But if it's from Mozart or not, it doesn't matter. It is true and this quote says the music is not only in the notes, it is in the stillness between the notes. And this is somehow so true. This is, like you know, conducting, and this is why this experience of stillness was, and always is for me so important. Yes, we talk in the rehearsals, we speak, we talk with the musicians, we say this is louder, this is not so loud, how should you play this?

Michael Hofstetter: 3:46

But then comes a moment when you do it with a gesture, in the evening, in the performance, in the show, you can't talk. It is a non-verbal communication which goes by far deeper than just organizing a traffic. It is a non-verbal communication. And when my radar is really open, then I usually can also sense a millisecond before a singer needs my attention or needs my help because he or she would need a cue or something. I mean, singing on stage is terribly difficult. They are running around and having to do the most acrobatic things, physically and vocally. So this is, and sometimes you know, you always want to be with a singer, but then you are with the orchestra. You always want to be with a singer, but then you are with the orchestra. But when your radar is really open you can sense who or where what needs your attention and needs your help in that moment.

Soula Parassidis: 4:55

That's amazing, but I mean that must have been a process that happened over time, to cultivate first stillness and then, secondly, cultivate the openness in order to almost in a spiritual sense sense, okay, I have like potentially 100 people down here, I have, it could be like 50 people up here. If the chorus is there, then I have the soloist. How do you know? Well, let me ask you two-part question. First of all, I want to go back to how does one cultivate stillness, because I have a feeling you're going to give us some really meaty answer. But just on a technical level, how do you know? Like the other night, because we're working together right now in the Greek National Opera.

Soula Parassidis: 5:37

I've done this role a bunch of times, but you knew tonight she needs a cue. How on earth would you have known that? Because I was backstage and I came out and suddenly I and I did. I it's the one time really I've ever really needed it and you knew how did. Giving that as an example, how did you know that? And and generally, how do you know that? And then let's talk about the stillness.

Michael Hofstetter: 5:57

I think this knowledge, if you want to, is something you can't create, so and it's just when you are connected with your inner intuition, then it might be there and you just go with the flow and then it's there. But I've made this kind of experience when I was a child, and that was the moment, I think also when I was a child, and that was the moment, I think also, which was an initial moment for, yes, that's something I want to do, maybe in my life, what I could do, and I was six years old maybe.

Michael Hofstetter: 6:39

I had piano lessons before I went to school, because I urged my parents that I want to learn the piano.

Soula Parassidis: 6:43

Yeah.

Michael Hofstetter: 6:44

And so they allowed it it and I had piano lessons. I don't know, I remember it was five or six maybe a year or? Half a year before I went to school I started the piano and then, at the moment, I went home from my piano teacher and I had to wait at the traffic light to cross the road. I had to wait and I traffic light to cross the road. I had to wait and I thought, oh, that's boring waiting and I opened my piano book.

Soula Parassidis: 7:13

Do you remember the piece?

Michael Hofstetter: 7:15

It was a children's piece. I know still where it was, on which page, on which side. I looked at it and I could hear it. I looked at it and I could hear it, but I mean hearing, not like loud like you would hear a fire brigade or something.

Michael Hofstetter: 7:33

I could completely understand it, which is not so different from when you read the newspaper. Once you have learned to properly read and you need to use a newspaper or a book and you're concentrated a newspaper or a book, and you're concentrated, you deeply understand it. And then that was for me the same, but it was a bit of a surprise. I didn't expect it. I was just like bored and opened that and waiting for the traffic light, and that was beautiful. And from that moment on I understood that, and this is what a conductor does.

Michael Hofstetter: 8:08

You know, we are starting our work in silence when we sit down to read the score, and then you read it over and over again until this amount of music, which has several aspects rhythm, melody, harmony and so on Slowly but surely it finds a place within, I would even say within your body Also. This experience in the end is a physical experience, and that's what I also sometimes said to my students, also for singers just repeat the line or the text until your body has understood it, because then you know it's yours and then you don't need to think about interpretation or something, because then it can come as a natural thing from yourself and before. It's always interesting to listen to different singers, other conductors, other orchestras, because it widens your, your range of knowledge. But then there comes this moment when you sit, even in silence, and then it becomes part of you and then you can go out there.

Soula Parassidis: 9:30

But you know that also yeah, but I think we all, we all approach it really differently, and the way you're describing it is something I mean I do relate to that myself.

Soula Parassidis: 9:40

I feel it yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because sometimes you know I'll open a score and say well, what do I have to add to this? At this point we have the definitive recording of this. We have probably the most historic interpretation of this. So what am I going to say about that today? And I'm wondering, you know, given your love and appreciation and specialization in Baroque and classical pieces, and particularly Gluck like how do you find something new? Or is it important to find something new? Because I'll say, for me it is.

Soula Parassidis: 10:17

I need to find my stamp on it, because I can't, although I love to listen to colleagues and recordings and super inspired, of course, by Calas and Caballé and all the predecessors, and I mean it's just like wow. But I think when you want to achieve some measure of greatness, you want to find your own way in that and of course we're here right now. We all have our individual voices, you have your own individual expression. But how can we cultivate that individuality in something that's been done a million times? And I want to know about that. But I also want to know about why you have this tremendous focus on this period of music, and maybe it's connected, I don't know for you to start to answer your first question.

Michael Hofstetter: 11:00

I would come back to this idea that the, the music text, is like a text and when you read it you can like understand it, yeah, mentally, and like somehow physically, and then it is as if you would just read a text and then you say it maybe it's a drama by Shakespeare and thousands of actors have said that before since Shakespeare's time.

Michael Hofstetter: 11:26

But then comes the moment you say it right and what I sometimes said when I still had been teaching. I always said don't just think of the text which you have learned by heart. When you're on stage, only listen to what the other says, and then you answer. But till the moment that you really say it, you don't need your answer, Because you've learned it well. Your body knows it anyway.

Soula Parassidis: 11:54

So it will come. You don't need your answer, because you have learned it well your body knows it anyway.

Michael Hofstetter: 11:57

But but don't just bring a phrase on stage which you have learned by heart. This process you have gone through already. Now it's the real thing, in real time yeah and you just listen to what the other said and then you, yeah, tell what you have to say to this yeah, yeah, yeah.

Michael Hofstetter: 12:18

And I think that the Baroque period and that's maybe your second question is a very theatrical period, absolutely so. I love the 18th century and, as you said, the specialization of Gluck. Well, one of my greatest pleasures was that in the 90s I could be part of those conductors who rediscovered Handel for the stage yeah, and now it is such a gift that, after so many years which I have spent in theatre, I really discovered Gluck, and I think it is. For me, it's a sensation and I can't explain why.

Soula Parassidis: 13:02

Please.

Michael Hofstetter: 13:03

In the Baroque, basically, the music is concentrated on what is called in German affect. As an affect you present a certain affect, which can be furiosity and hate, or love and sweetness, but it's focused on a certain effect, which means in the Baroque opera you can really take one aria which is a hate or a love, or a sadness or a sweetness aria and give it to another singer, even from another sex. It can go from a male singer to a female singer, it doesn't matter. Yeah, because it is about sweetness or about curiosity.

Soula Parassidis: 13:45

It's about a universal theme.

Michael Hofstetter: 13:46

Yes, and you can exchange that, and this is what composers anyway did.

Soula Parassidis: 13:50

Yeah, yeah, it's true.

Michael Hofstetter: 13:51

And then came a time after many decades of this. This is typical for this Italian opera seria Handel, vivaldi. And then there came a time Handel hasn't composed opera series since long. He wrote his church music.

Michael Hofstetter: 14:10

Vivaldi has been dead by then and this opera serie became a little bit of an empty thing, like still a form ABA, with these repeats in the arias and all of this, but a bit of an empty. And the only pleasure then in the end was to show the vocal virtuosity of a singer which is brilliant too, the vocal virtuosity of a singer which is brilliant too. But if it's just to this, people were a little bit fed up. It was a bit of a moment of emptiness. And this moment came to look, and what he did is the amazing thing which, with he opened the big gate to the 19th century. And zwar also, he started with the effect because he was a famous composer in Italy doing opera series.

Michael Hofstetter: 15:01

But what then really was the thing which he had to bring on earth, let's say, is this moment when he put the psyche on the stage. So not only this is sadness, this is this, but the human psyche looking deep into the personality. And suddenly nothing could be exchanged anymore and you could explain it like a change of direction. Before you would say look at this picture, this is sweetness. Look at this picture, or this sound or this aria, this is furiousness. Look at this, it's sadness. And suddenly he says look into yourself. And this is where it happens. And I think this is an extremely important message.

Michael Hofstetter: 15:56

First of all, it enabled the romantic composers and the romantic arts it also enabled, like, for example, caspar David Friedrich, this painter the same, he paints pictures from inside. It enabled Freischütz Weber, weber.

Soula Parassidis: 16:20

It's okay, freischütz, we get it.

Michael Hofstetter: 16:25

It enables Wagner. There's no Wagner, these big mythological tellings the ring cycle without Gluck opening these doors without Gluck opening these doors.

Soula Parassidis: 16:33

Do you think that's partly because he started to pioneer through composition, I mean with these accompagnato recitatives, or do you think it's beyond that?

Michael Hofstetter: 16:42

It's beyond that. The form follows the function, the function is the. What do I want to tell? And he wants to tell about the authenticity of the human psyche, and the form follows the function. So he can't have an aria securitrativa and aria securitrativa. He needs storytelling which starts with the first note and then it is a flow and goes through the last until the last note.

Soula Parassidis: 17:12

I'm just thinking about, you know, especially Ife Genie en Teuride, because it's you know, we've both had such a strong experience in opera this energy.

Soula Parassidis: 17:20

And I'm just imagining what you're saying within the context of that piece, especially because I feel like it's the epitome of what he made in his opera. You know, it's unbelievable and so close to the theater. I'm so glad that you touched on that because I think it's extremely important for people to think progressively this way, because I also think about, for example, the relationship as a singer now about. You know, if you sing a lot of Mozart, then you might excel, for example, in Strauss, but nobody talks about. If you sing a lot of Gluck, you should perhaps then look to Weber and then to Wagner, and it will help you progress your artistry over time, and I'm actually living it personally right now as I study some roles. So this is.

Michael Hofstetter: 18:04

I want to ask you one more question before we end, I will just add one little thing to this, just one little extra because you said it was very good what you said about, about from Mozart to Strauss, but no one thinks of Gluck, and I think for the emotional development of a young singer. The Gluck can be a very important experience, whatever it is. But if you look deep into this music it can open also emotional dimensions.

Soula Parassidis: 18:41

And that can be very important for. But okay, so you intuitively tapped into the last thing I wanted to talk to you about.

Michael Hofstetter: 18:44

That's really funny.

Soula Parassidis: 18:45

We're just we're so connected, you know that's true um, I'm gonna get so many cues tomorrow on stage anyway, no but um um, given you know, 40 years of experience within a changing art form, how have you upheld that? Because I don't think people realize the pressure. Well, every life has pressure, every job has difficulties, all of that, but to maintain at that high level for decades, decades. What's your secret?

Michael Hofstetter: 19:22

There's no secret. I think the only uh, if it's a secret is that I love what I do.

Soula Parassidis: 19:25

Bravo you couldn't have given a better answer. Yeah, no, but it's true and it goes back to you know, when you were six years old. You opened the score because you were bored, but I believe you were filling in the gap. You were filling in something that needed to go into your heart and that you would exude that for the next 40 years to come. Beyond that, and I think that's very important that we fill our lives with things that we can pour out in love to others, and you exude that through your art and it's. It's very clear when you're down there that you are completely enamored with what you do. And I know you said you're coming close to the end, but I'm just going to put this out there.

Soula Parassidis: 20:08

I think we need at least another 10-15 years, please just for me, just for me, you know, and we will explore all the the intricacies of Glück and Faber, and then maybe a denouement with a bit of. Wagner. I'm just putting it out. It's now out in the world let's see.

Michael Hofstetter: 20:28

I don't promise anything, but I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow's performance.

Soula Parassidis: 20:33

I am too, and but the things beyond, I will keep pressing behind the scenes. Thank you so much for being here today, michael.

Michael Hofstetter: 20:42

My great pleasure.

Soula Parassidis: 20:43

I also have to thank this beautiful Hotel de Grande Bretagne here in Athens for allowing us to film in such a beautiful space and, of course, daphne Valente for this gorgeous dress. What can we say? It?

Michael Hofstetter: 20:57

is wonderful, you know she's a genius, it suits. We say it is wonderful, you know she's a genius, it suits you and you are too.

Soula Parassidis: 21:00

Thank you, Michael.

Michael Hofstetter: 21:01

My great pleasure. Thank you very much for the invitation. Thank you.