GOING TO EXTREMES

A combination of earthly force and a sense of the sublime give Beethoven’s music its power, says the Palestinian-Israeli pianist Saleem Ashkar. Owen Mortimer reports

Wherever you go, even if people know nothing about classical music, they have heard of Beethoven,’ says Saleem Ashkar. ‘It’s really amazing.’ Ashkar has recently performed several Beethoven sonata cycles in cities across Europe, including Gateshead, Prague, Duisburg and Berlin. He has two more cycles coming up in early 2020 (Copenhagen and Milan), and is in the middle of recording all 32 sonatas for Decca.  is deep immersion in Beethoven’s music has prompted Ashkar to think deeply about the composer and his work. ‘ ere is something about him that has captured the popular imagination,’ he says. ‘He is a man who struggled and fought, was a revolutionary and su ered, but ultimately overcame or transcended these challenges. It’s a very hopeful and inspiring image – and very Romantic.’ Each of Ashkar’s cycles spans eight longish concerts, averaging four sonatas per recital. ‘It’s a huge emotional undertaking,’ he explains, ‘because the music is psychologically very demanding. Beethoven is not a composer who lets you go: he grabs you by the throat. ‘ Everything is on a knife edge. I  nd his music among the most di cult repertoire to play. It’s absolutely unforgiving.’  is may sound exhausting, but Beethoven’s music o ers ample compensations that make the e ort worthwhile. ‘It’s music that is so deep but soars very high,’ says Ashkar. ‘ ere’s a constant sense of tension between these extremes. With Beethoven, even when I’ve prepared and thought deeply, it feels open-ended.  e question always remains: how do I navigate this music and strike a balance between its contrasting demands?’

Ashkar’s three Decca recordings to date re ect this deep thinking, in particular his reading of Sonata No 32, whose closing bars transport the listener to a near-metaphysical realm.  is extraordinary moment is the end of a long journey that has taken us to extremes. It has the power to move because it o ers ‘a combination of earthly force and sense of the sublime,’ says Ashkar. ‘ e trills in the last movement of Opus 111 are like the vibrations of the universe before we existed.’

 e sound of Ashkar’s playing is also very distinctive, not least because he has chosen to record his cycle on

a C Bechstein D 282 concert grand – the company’s  agship instrument, employing all the latest advances in technology, materials and craftsmanship. It’s a decision he thinks Beethoven would have endorsed, given the composer’s openness to playing di erent pianos in his pursuit of the ideal sound for his music.  e challenge, however, is to convince audiences to open their ears to novelty. ‘When Beethoven received his Broadwood from London, he loved it,’ says Ashkar, ‘but the public in Vienna hated it.  e audience there was used to a brilliant, Viennese sound, and did not appreciate the Broadwood’s other qualities – strength and depth. Challenging such expectations really takes courage. It’s not just about  nding a sound that you as an artist like: you also have to consider the audience, critics and venues. If you present something di erent, they don’t know what’s what.’ Ashkar also says he is taking ‘a principled stance against monoculture’ in the piano world. He worries that despite the range of options available there is a tendency to limit ourselves, which has a detrimental e ect on creativity. ‘If you look back at the history of piano-playing, there used to be a huge variety in terms of instruments, which fostered strong relationships between composers, pianists and manufacturers. Today, that dialogue between musicians and instrument-makers is virtually nonexistent. In the past, it was central to the development of many compositions.’

His relationship with Bechstein began after a performance which prompted Ashkar to contact the company and suggest some improvements. ‘Maybe they saw in me someone who was open to communicate,’ he explains. Several years later, he was invited to try their latest instruments and ‘was very impressed by the development they had achieved.’ In particular, he loves the mellow sound of the D 282, which he describes as ‘woody’.  is, says Ashkar, makes it ideal for performing Beethoven – though ‘it’s very di cult to choose a single piano for all the sonatas because they are very di erent, and Beethoven’s language evolves so much.’

Ashkar was born in Nazareth, Israel, where despite his family owning a piano, music was not initially part of daily life.  at all changed when he was around seven years old: ‘My father acquired some piano records because I was so interested, and they really grabbed me. I couldn’t play but felt a deep desire to connect physically with the music.  e  rst thing I did was to create choreographies to go with the music, as a game. It was clear I needed to play the piano.’

His interest was so infectious that Ashkar’s younger brother was prompted to take up the violin and went on to become a member of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.  e brothers now run a music education initiative together in Galilee. ‘We have a conservatory and music outreach project for schools.  ere’s even a small chamber orchestra. As a family we’ve brought about a classical music renaissance in Arabic society. I am very moved by this’.

www.international-piano.com Does his work in Israel also have a political agenda? No, says Ashkar, swiftly rejecting this suggestion. ‘I don’t think music has a political function. Rather, it has social and political value. I see it as an important responsibility to o er equal access to music education for everybody – that’s what has political meaning. Not just the act of playing together.’

Returning to the idea that Beethoven’s music combines ‘earthly force’ with a ‘sense of the sublime’, Ashkar is awed by the power of music to connect with each individual’s humanity while recognising its limited value as a force for good. ‘Music has an incredible human power. You can sit next to someone at a concert who is very di erent from you but has a similar emotional response, triggered by the feelings of the composer who lived more than two centuries ago.  at’s an extraordinary pan-human experience which proves there is a common humanity. Yet music can also be used in very di erent ways. You only have to look at history to see how music has been appropriated.’

While there is certainly a case to be made for using music as a humanistic tool, Ashkar says ‘one has to be clear-headed and realise it has been proven it can do the absolute opposite.  ere are people who are incredibly sensitive and have felt music profoundly, yet are racists and murderers. Humans seem to be capable of such profound psychopathy.  at’s the mystery of this stupid animal called Man: we are constantly contradicting ourselves.’ IP

‘I don’t think music has a political function. Rather, it has social and political value’

Saleem Ashkar is recording Beethoven’s complete piano sonatas for Decca, the  rst three volumes of which are now available. His upcoming appearances include two cycles of the Beethoven sonatas in Copenhagen and Milan, and a recital at London’s Southbank Centre as part of this year’s International Piano Series. saleemashkar.com