Noah Bendix-Balgley

Yes, nice to be here. Nice to talk to you.

Mhm, yeah, recently in, uh, with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, we did a new chamber orchestra version.

Well, um, it's—I think it's mostly through my dad. You know, he's—he's sort of a—he's been a dancer, dance teacher since he was very young. I think he got into it in his teenage years, in his twenties. Um, and he was mostly doing at the time, Eastern European folk dancing, Balkan dancing. Um, and he went to those countries when he was younger. You know, he went to Bulgaria, the former Yugoslavia, and researched, um, these dances, learned traditional dances. Um, and I grew up around a lot of that music because he was teaching it at, at, uh, workshops and festivals and such. And then later on, he got involved in, um, Yiddish dance, too. That was a little later in his development, but, um, when I was a kid, he was very involved in learning the traditional Yiddish dances, and so that brought me into contact with that music. Um, and the bands, you know, the people who were playing it. So, I mean, you were talking about your dad learning from, from Dave Tarras, who of course, um, is one of the—the—the masters of klezmer clarinet from, from a while ago. Um, I grew up with people who were involved in the sort of klezmer revival, um, in the '70s and '80s—people from bands like The Klezmatics, Brave Old World, etc., etc., because these—these musicians were often involved in these, uh, workshops and festivals where we would go as a family, where my dad would be teaching. And, um—

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's Alan Bern. He's somebody I've known for a long time.

Um, yeah, wonderful, wonderful pianist, accordionist, composer, improviser, um, who also actually lives in Berlin, so I've had the chance to collaborate with him, um, some more now that I'm—I'm living here as well. So he was a big influence. Also, the—the violinist/vocalist from that group, uh, the Brave Old World, Michael Alpert.

Um, and then the other—other person who is, I think was a big influence, was Alicia Svigals, um, the—the violinist, former violinist of The Klezmatics. Um, and she's just, for me, she was—she's a—she's a wonderful klezmer fiddle player, klezmer violinist, somebody—someone who really has a really special sound and, and way of approaching the—the—the melodies and ornamenting them. And so I learned a lot of tunes from—from those people and, and was lucky at a young age to be playing with them and jamming with them, and, and that's how I got into it. Um, you know, I was—I was a kid learning the violin from age about five, um, learning classical violin, but already a couple of years later, I was starting to pick up this—the klezmer stuff and, and do that as well. And that just developed over the years.

Well, that's how I sort of sketched it out. You know, I—I got this, um, in—in a sort of surprising way, um, ended up with this—this commission from the Pittsburgh Symphony, um, to write this piece. And the story behind that was that, you know, I was concertmaster there in Pittsburgh and wanted to commission a piece, you know? Because that's something you do as a concertmaster, you get often solo opportunities with the orchestra. And so, I wanted to commission a new concerto and, and I wanted it to be a concerto with klezmer influences. Um, and I've been sort of looking around at possible, um, composers and listening to things, but I hadn't quite, you know, as they say, um, bit the bullet and, and decided on someone, even though there are a lot of, you know, wonderful composers out there who—who do write with those influences. And then, a few—kind of from a couple of different directions, I—I got sort of the encouragement to try to do it myself. And so, that's—that's sort of how it started.

Um, and, and, you know, since—since I'm not composing full-time—not—not, that's not the main part of my work—I didn't feel like I would be up for the—the orchestration part of the, um, concerto. And I was very lucky then to—that I got to know Samuel Adler, and then he—he was, uh, very enthusiastic to jump in and, and join me in the project and, and orchestrate it. So what I wrote was basically a violin and, and piano reduction, so to say, with some notes on orchestration. And Samuel Adler then, then very, I think really brilliantly, um, orchestr—orchestrated it for the—the full—full ensemble in—in a very colorful way. Um, and so it was a collaboration that was a lot of fun.

Um, when I was—I, you know, when I was quite a bit younger, when I was a teenager, I was—I was composing a bunch. I did take some composition lessons when I was at school in Indiana University in Bloomington.

And, you know, I always do things on the side. I'm always composing my own cadenzas, um, writing other things here and there. But this—this was the, the sort of biggest project that I'd taken on. Um, but it felt like a very natural thing in terms of the genesis of it, because I was really thinking—I mean, the—the approach was really thinking, what—what are the, what's the music that I want to play as, as a klezmer violin soloist with orchestra? How do—how do I, how do I imagine that taking place? So, so that's what I worked out.And, and I think what—one of the first things I decided, um, was whether—whether to take existing traditional klezmer melodies and set those, or whether to try to write my own. And, you know, I—I took the tact to write my own melodies that are, of course, influenced by the—the traditional ones I know. And then some other things found their way in, that we will discuss later.

That's a good question. Good question. I mean, I think a lot of it was just fiddle—you know, for me it's—it's fiddling around, so to say. [Shapiro laughs] Both—both—both on the—the violin and also on the piano, you know, trying things out. And, right—

Yeah, the tunes, I mean, are—they're my own klezmer tunes, klezmer dance tunes. They're different klezmer dances that I use as inspiration. Um, slow Hora in three um, in the second movement. The last movement is a string sort of a medley of Freylachs. Um, and there's a lot of other things, some Balkan-influenced things in there, and—and they sort of all string together by these improvisatory sections, Doinas,

which are written usually with the violin in conversation with another solo instrument in the—in the orchestra.

Well, I think—I think, you know, all the different kinds of music that we play, you know, each—each is a—sort of like a different language that you have to, right, you know, learn, and style and such. And of course, the—the—the language of if you're playing Haydn or Mozart, um, is very different than if you're playing Bartók or Stravinsky or Richard Strauss. And the same thing, if—if—if I'm playing something klezmer or something, you know, I have a group that does, um, non—non-classical genres, if I'm playing a swing tune or something, um, Hungarian, Gypsy and stuff. There—you have to find that particular language. What does that mean in terms of sound, in terms of phrasing, in terms of ornamentation, um, timing, all those things, you know?

So, so that's that's—that's a lot of what I'm doing when I'm switching gears, and that's one of the exciting things, is to be able to, you know, try—try to inhabit those—all those different worlds in, in, in—in my musical life. Um, and I feel that they enrich each other. That—that—that what I'm doing in a more improvisatory spirit in the klezmer world or with, with my group for Philharmonics, is—is the spirit of that is actually helping me when I get into the concertmaster's chair and play a Beethoven symphony or—

Mm.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, it was sort of a chance thing that just developed. I mean, the premiere of the—the piece of the klezmer concerto was on a program that featured Mahler Fifth—Mahler's Fifth Symphony on the second half.

And, you know, of course, playing Mahler a lot in—in—in orchestra, I've always noticed all those—those klezmer-y things, you know? Of course, it's—it's quite overt in the First Symphony, because it really—it feels like there's a klezmer band that—that—that barges into the third movement, and, and with the instrumentation and the rhythm.

But I, you know, I hear it in so many other places. I was, for example, just a couple of weeks ago, was playing the Fourth Symphony, um, and the concertmaster of course has a—has a fiddle solo in the second movement with with this tuned-up violin, um, also sounding—often very klezmer. And, and of—and then in the Fifth Symphony, this—this beautiful theme that comes in various ways, um, is always, to me, has always sounded very Jewish. I mean, it's always felt very—

And, and the funny thing about that, you know, I played it a couple of years ago with JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic, and she knew, you know, she read the program notes, and then she said to me, "But that's also—you know, that's also the same—the same theme as Bei Mir Bistu Shein."

And I, and I realized, yes, it is. It's exactly, you know, the same thing. Da-di-da-da, I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, pam-pam, pa-da-da-da-pam-pam-pa-da, and it's the same thing. So, you know, of course, it's—it's how you—how you interpret it rhythmically, where you put the—the—the ornaments and such. But I just had a lot of fun putting it, you know, the original idea was to make this big climax in, in, in—in the last movement with a full orchestra playing it as a Freylachs. And then I went back and started to, to sprinkle it a little bit already in, in the second movement with a little clarinet,

and here and there.

So, yeah, and then, of course, at the very end, there has to be a—a—a stop and a slow down, you know, so you can speed up one last time. [Shapiro laughs]

I mean, that's—that's sort of my experience being around the dancing and, and you know, knowing how they—they—they string—the dance string— Well, the men would go like this: people who don't know the Orthodox background that we're referring to, the men danced alone, and women were on the other side of a curtain, if they were, or a rope or something, but the men danced alone and they hold each other like this, and—and then they— they stomp at one point, and then it speeds up and it gets—

Well, I think, you know, I think what makes Mahler's music and his symphonies come alive is the— how, you know, how a complete—it's a complete world and—and it has, you know, every—it has—it has, you know, the—the—the most pristine, um, otherworldly, heavenly music and slow movements; it has things that are just absurd and even ugly, and—and he uses every instrument known—known to the orchestra, and a lot of them not known to the orchestra. And he uses Jewish folk music and Austrian folk music, and all of these things come into this—this—this sense of it being a— um,

Yeah, it's a whole cosmos, and, and—and I think, so, all of those elements need to come through in a really vivid way. Um, and of course, that—that definitely applies to the—the—the klezmer Jewish elements, but also to the other things, too. Um, that—that—the things that are supposed to be really raw and violent are really raw and violent; the things that—that are—that are pristine and, and, um, you know, I think of the—the Adagietto of the Third—the Fifth of the Fifth Symphony or, as you said, the third movement of the Fourth, or, you know, that he has such extremes of, of, of—of experience. And so—and you know, he writes it very clearly in the score, too. You—

—don't have to do much. You don't have to do much that's not already in there, but you do have to go to the endpoint of what—what—what is this particular character sound that he's asking for right there?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It has to—it has to be a little bit nagging. Yeah.

Yeah. [Laughs]

Well, I think—I think—I think it was, uh, just to—to tell people in the orchestra when they see these things that it's not a classical, well-articulated trill. You know, these—these are vocal gestures, the kretsh, the—the—the cry, which—that's the sort of the hardest one to explain. Um, kretsh, I love that. I—you know, I've never seen in—in—in—in—in a, uh, orchestral score the word kretsh. And my father would have— And the question is—the question is, how to notate it, because it's—it's a stopped note. It's like sort of like, you know, your—your voice breaks while you're singing it, uh, um, it's sort of al—it cries out. And so, that's—that's a particular technical thing that clarinetists do and fiddle players. And so I wanted—yeah, yeah, yeah. And, and so I wanted to—to encourage people to, to go for that. Um, and—

—you know, one of—one—one—one of the fun things about the concerto is it, it, it, that I enjoy doing with new groups I don't know, is that there are a lot of opportunities for particular solo instruments in the orchestra to have a moment in, in, in—in the limelight together with the soloist. Um, and so I encourage them to really kind of go for it and, and change things, and—

Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's fantastic, yeah.

Michael Rusinek, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

I mean, there are things—I'm—I'm sometimes very tempted to add that kind of thing. But um, I try—I—I try to keep—keep to the—the—the notes in the score, but—but do—do it with the style—with the sound, with the—the—the phrasing, the accentuation, things like that, so that—that—that it has—has the—the color and the flavor of, of, of, you know, klezmer fiddle—fiddle solo, as like for— Fiddle—Fiddle Fantasia.

Yeah, it's—it's—I mean, it's literally that—that—the voice breaks out of a, you know, of the intense emotion, I think. Yeah.

Yeah, and I mean, and you know, in that specific solo, I was just—I'm just playing it, and you know, he writes it for a violin tuned up a whole step. And that first note, da-da-da-dam, that is a—is a concert F-sharp, which ends up being a— uh, leere Saite—an open string, when you tune up the violin. So it's always—I've always wondered why so many people try to finger it, because the whole point of the turning up the violin like that is to give it this otherworldly, kind of creepy thing. And so, if he's giving you an opportunity to play that—an F-sharp string, it's going to sound really naggy and, you know, a little bit—a little bit not like a—a real violin. Um, I try to take that and, and, and—and, uh, you know, en-enjoy that—that—that, that, uh, leere Saite. [Laughs]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Quite something, yeah.

Um, you know, I—I've done now for a number of years, that when I started I was quite young, in Pittsburgh, um, and at the beginning, it involved really learning the repertoire, you know, getting to know the standard orchestral repertoire. And, and, you know, of course, as a concertmaster, you don't just know it—the notes—you need to know what's everything that's going on. So, the—the first years were a lot of study, a lot of, you know, learning scores, listening to recordings, um, you know, fi-fi-finding my own ways of, of doing bowings and in ways I want to lead the section through my bowing technique.Um, and one thing I remember very vividly when I was starting that first job, talking to a, um, another concertmaster who, you know, I was asking for advice, he said, "You know, always let the playing do the talking." You know? That, that, that if there's—if there's a message you can get across in the way you're playing, the sound you're creating, the way you're showing with your physical movements, if you can get, get as much information to your section and to the rest of the orchestra across that way, um, and only stand up and, and say something with words if absolutely necessary. And I think that's good advice. I mean, you, you want to—

—I, I try to try to lead by example, lead, lead with my sound, how my—my bow division, um, physically, you know, mirror what the—mirror and support what the conductor's asking for and, and get that to as many people as possible in, in the orchestra. I, I think of it as a constant give and take, you know? I'm, I'm—I'm constantly giving impulses around me to other section leaders, um, and also reacting in the moment to whatever could be happening that's unexpected, and getting that information—

—across, and then making necessary adjustments in the moment. And that's the exciting thing about it. It's—it's always, you know, from night to night, it's always a different challenge and a different experience. Um, yeah, you can't—I can't say that there's like a, a formula to make it work, and sometimes I feel it works better than other times.

But it definitely keeps me on my toes, and I like that. And I like the challenge, of course, of, of, of trying to be a positive influence for, for the, the whole ensemble, for this whole organism, to, to successfully come together to, to, for a, um, you know, an exciting, unified concept of, of a piece.

Yeah, I mean, you know, that's one of the things, things that I really enjoy about my—my orchestra, about the Berlin Phil, is there's that sort of approach for everything. It's, even though it's a big ensemble, everybody comes with that, their own opinions and the activities and such. So, it's not a piece I would attempt with many other orchestras without a conductor, but, um, but it—it—it was a nice challenge to do it, um.

Thank you, great to talk to you about, about some—some music that is very dear to both of our hearts, so I—I really enjoyed it. Yeah, thanks.