BD: How can we get the older audiences to be more adventurous?
JFO: They should make the effort. [Both laugh] So that was this morning, for these kids. This afternoon I went to a music school. They just weren’t for families or adults. It is very interesting and very, very rewarding to play in these places.
BD: Every time you go to a new place, you encounter a new instrument. How long does it take before you make that instrument your own?
JFO: Sometimes it takes just a couple of minutes. It depends how it goes. Sometimes you get a wonderful instrument that immediately is like an old friend, or it’s immediately like someone new that is really talking to you in a new language. Sometimes it’s an enemy for life!
BD: I hope that’s not too often.
JFO: Luckily, no. But that’s the fate of pianists. On the other hand, we don’t have to carry any instrument. Sometimes I play with a friend of mine that’s a cellist, and we go with his instrument. I don’t have to deal with that. I get all these wonderful surprises, and then maybe not so good in others. But that’s all right.
BD: Do you spend more time getting acquainted with the instrument if you’re playing a full recital, as opposed to just a concerto?
JFO: Sometimes. It’s really getting acquainted, sometimes, not so much with the instrument but with the place and the acoustics, and what you’re going to do. I don’t think that much, really, of the instrument because if you start really working on what you want the concert to be, automatically you are adjusting with the instrument. You’re really not aware that you’re searching. Or if it’s a new instrument or an instrument that you don’t know, it’s more or less quite immediate.
BD: Are there are times when all of a sudden it just seems like the instrument and you are one?
JFO: Yes, that’s the idea, really! You’re not thinking about it. It’s just really trying to convey the musical meaning.
BD: When you’re playing the piano, how much is the music, and how much is just the technique of playing?
JFO: The technique has to be there, like the means for the end. That’s for the artistic end. At the time of the performance, I try not to be aware of any of that; that’s really the work I have to do previously. I have to be ready. It’s like an actor knowing his lines. It doesn’t matter how much feeling he has for the work if he doesn’t know what to say; then he’s lost, and the same with the music.
BD: So the music tells you what to say, but you still have to decide how to say it?
JFO: Yes. That’s the way to interpret. Not every time, but you more or less know the work you are going to perform. You must have an idea of what you want. All the preparation enables you to be freer at the time of the concert. Maybe new ideas come; the music should sound fresh — that’s really the important thing.
BD: If you’re playing a concerto soon that you have played last year or a couple of years ago, do you start from scratch and re-learn it or do you just build on what you have already done?
JFO: As an artist, as a human, you’re changing constantly. So every time the work changes, I think. It’s not that you want to change the work, but it’s just the way you see it. You see new things; you see things sometimes in a more mature way. Sometimes you realize that maybe your tempos really weren’t what you wanted, or it’s not at this moment what you think it should be. It’s not that it wasn’t a valid interpretation before, you understand. Sometimes it’s difficult to get to the objective. You always think that what you’re doing is really the best thing, and sometimes you hear a recording of a previous performance and realize that maybe it was not too bad!
BD: Is there such a thing as an ideal performance, or even a perfect performance?
JFO: I don’t think so because music lives in that precise moment. So really, perfection would be trying to catch the essence of the work every time and for me it is more important to seek perfection that you never attain. But that should be your aim.
BD: You are always striving for it?
JFO: Yes, striving for that.
BD: Do you strive from different angles, then?
JFO: Personally, I always strive from the score, to see really what is there, what is written between the lines. That’s what I really try to do, because that’s my job as an interpreter.
BD: Do you ever feel that in a live performance you’re competing against your own recording of that work?
JFO: No, never. Sometimes you think it would have been nice to have this moment of performance in the record. But sometimes things happen just once or twice, and you can’t put them on a record. It doesn’t work; it’s just that precise concert, that evening, that it happened.
BD: Do you ever feel you’re competing against other pianists, the shades of Horowitz or Rubenstein?
JFO: There’s no way you can compete with them! They’re an inspiration. When I was younger and I was going to competitions, you are more aware of what this one or the other one did. But no, I don’t feel that, really. When I’m playing, no. There are other things to be thinking about! [Laughs]
BD: The things that you’re thinking about — are they different when it’s a solo recital as opposed to a concerto?
JFO: No, in a way it’s the same. For a recital, sometimes the preparation is different. You go through so many different moods within the works and everything that you perform. You have to build up and change from one piece to another and from one composer to the other — sometimes suddenly — which you don’t in a concerto. But essentially for me it’s about the same. Although I like both experiences tremendously, I especially like the recital. I like to be on my own there with the piano. It’s a wonderful feeling!
BD: You are the show, as opposed to a concerto, where you have others being also part of the show.
JFO: Mm-hm, mm-hm. Also playing chamber music is very important for me; it’s very exciting. It’s not that you’re not as free as in a recital, but you have to be aware of what is going on around you with really acute listening when you’re playing chamber music.
BD: Do you get much opportunity to play chamber music?
JFO: I try as much as possible.
BD: Good. I’m glad, because that’s very important in a career. And it’s very important for your musical health.
JFO: Exactly, yes, because you get someone there who is really listening to you also, and very critically. It’s enjoyable, but also you’re learning constantly from the others.
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