Is the Budapest Klezmer Band preparing a new album?
I can?t say much about this recording session because I?ve been commissioned by a renowned performer to write a song to be released in November. I don?t want to spoil the surprise. Which it will be, at least the fact that I?ve written it, because it?s not Klezmer.
It seems those who want good music always find you, whether it?s a crossover music piece, theatre performance or ballet.
Yes, I?m rather fortunate and thankful that I have immediately found a common musical language with people who contacted me. They offered projects I felt I was close to and I got on well with them. They included János Rolla, János Kiss, Iván Markó, Gábor Miklós Kerényi, Imre Kerényi, Tamás Szirtes and Tamás Balikó, and while working together, we managed to develop a close and friendly relationship.
Your current concert schedule is quite busy once again at the end of the summer: you are preparing for a tour in Israel, and you will soon perform your traditional concert at the Jewish Summer Festival.
Yes, fortunately, I cannot complain about that in recent years. I recently played a very important concert for me in my birthplace of Mukachevo, at the Borderless festival. I felt that over twenty years, it was easier to get to play in London, New York and Amsterdam than in my hometown. Yet, that?s where everything originated that I have brought with myself, what?s inside me and what moves me. The experiences I had in my childhood and later as an adult, I took them all as part of my collections and scores.
Would you career have taken a different route, would you be writing different kind of music if you had stayed there and not moved away with your family in the late 70s?
The development of an artist?s career is affected not only by his talent and taste but also the environment he or she occupies. I of course do not want to make comparisons, but had Chagall stayed in Russia, he would have never become Chagall. Had I stayed in Mukachevo, I would have probably not have been spotted by János Rolla or Imre Kerényi. I also needed people who had faith in me and believed that I would be able to fulfil the tasks they offered to me.
Do you think these commissions are targeted at the composer, the genre of Klezmer or both?
I think these people have realised that I?m more than just a musician and I can write not only for the Budapest Klezmer Band but also on a much wider scale. I had some anxiety because János Rolla for instance wanted me to compose a suite, which is not just 3 or 4 minutes long, like the pieces I had written previously, but a work in two movements lasting over an hour. I had the same feeling before writing Purim: The Casting of Fate for the Győr Ballet. I was given a story and notes from the choreographer about the kind of music they wanted but I had to imagine for instance what a Persian court looked like a thousand years ago. I started doing research and going to the library and only once I could see everything to the last detail in front of me did I start to have feelings about how the stories should be expressed in music. By the time I finished composing, my anxiety had vanished.
And ever since, you have been testing your skills in various pieces. If you were given an empty stage and an unlimited budget, plus the promise that you could team up with anyone, who would you choose and what type of work would you prepare?
If I had some more time to think, I could probably give you names and genres, but first of all, the message of a story comes to mind. I am interested in many things but I would most probably adapt a story about acceptance and people?s ability to have empathy and understand each other. The experiences that resulted from the lack of acceptance are very fresh in Europe, yet everything seems to come back to life.
This is an issue that you also explored in The Bride?s Dance.
Yes and that?s why the piece has been so successful, running for six years and coming up on the 200th performance. Yet, it is not light entertainment, and it lasts for three hours. But it affects people, many of them stop me in the street and say thank you for writing it. Some have watched it more than once because they felt it was so human. I could imagine writing a piece like that again, and also to explore why someone needs to leave somewhere in order to become successful. What can create an environment and an atmosphere in which one feels like they cannot stay anymore. Mukachevo is a place like that: it had a great Jewish community in the past, but none are there today. Everyone emigrated during the 70s and 80s and Jewish culture has vanished completely: making the field one flower less colourful. As I said before, the environment we live in is very important for creative work, and that applies to Hungary too. Sometimes I feel it would be great to neglect everything that?s happening these days. But even if I turn off the radio and the television, I go out in the street and learn from conversations that some people are again around who do not feel the need for diversity.
Are you saying that the atmosphere that?s developing here can make you feel that you should leave again?
No, that?s not happening. Hungary still has the right atmosphere and environment for creative work and Mukachevo still does not have it. There is an opportunity for diversity but there are other voices that put a question mark on it and they want to dictate who is who. I am very sensitive about that. My father, who was once subjected to forced labour and returned from the Don Bend on foot, told me that after watching TV a few years ago that he could not believe that the same slogans are being repeated and there are people who are receptive of them.
Do you think the tension resulting from intolerance could be reduced with the help of culture?
Yes, I strongly believe in it. We are tour a lot, sometimes going to place where we are not sure that people will be interested in Jewish culture. I have written a song in memory of the 600,000 Hungarian citizens who were deported from Hungary. We always play that song and audiences respond with a long silence, followed by great ovation. It gives me hope that this happens wherever we go, and music does have an effect on the human soul. The success of The Bride?s Dance and Purim also confirm this, just like the popularity of the Jewish Summer Festival. It feels good to see Jews and non-Jews put on the kippah, sit in the synagogue and feel happy together celebrating the diversity of culture. Klezmer is part of this culture and I think it has magical powers. It carries much sadness and drama, but also a whole lot of humour and fun, and, most importantly, hope. For instance I recently wrote a score for the play Ghetto and it includes a part when the people do not know whether they live to see tomorrow. They come together for a dance and present a great life force that still exists even in that situation. I wrote that scene as a dance of joy and it was expressed through Klezmer.
It seems Klezmer stands closest to your heart but you have also tried yourself in other genres. Are there any left that you have not tries but would be interested in?
I am for instance very much interested in film scores. A few years ago, I wrote the score for a French film called Memory and it was a great experience working with the director in the studio and improvising music for the scenes as we were watching them: work was indeed play. I really enjoyed that and would be happy to do it again. I feel I have a skill to write music for different situations. Until then, there are a number of festivals we?ll be playing at, including a concert with Andrea Rost at the Zemplén Festival where we?ll be playing Pannon Songs. A musical version about the Storm of the Siklós Castle is currently under preparation, with music composed by me. Gábor Miklós Kerényi is also planning a new piece that I?ll be involved in. I enjoy working a lot. I believe if someone has a talent, they should not waste it, and on top of that, I enjoy what I?m doing. The expression ?to go up on stage to play? is quite meaningful. It means this is not work but play.
Interviewer: Melinda Serfőző / Photo: Bence Kovács
