You Say Somatosensorial and I Say Somātosensorial
Playing with the Speed of Hearing
Fact №1: We hear faster than we can see. It takes our brain at least one-quarter of a second to process visuals and 0.05 seconds to recognize sound—we can sense changes of sound in less than a millionth of a second!
Fact №2: While the eye can be tricked, the ear is a better witness to truth.
(The above, according to Seth Horowitz in his book: The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes the Mind)
So what makes a pianist so cool is that when the glorious sense of touch is combined with the sense of hearing, two parts of the brain become fast friends, and I mean ‘fast’ in the speed of their interactions. And while it is not a contest of speed with the visual arts (it took Picasso nine months to paint Les Demoiselles d’Avignon), music is all about time and sensitivity in and to the moment.
So while the visual world serves up endless metaphors to relate to in music, the world of music takes those images and creates an inter-galactic playground of possibilities. It’s a walk and a dance through time and space.
And for fans of magic, what those fingers can do across the keyboard is part of a secret that has been passed down from teacher to student all the way back to the earliest keyboard instruments—and that goes way back. Maybe even to the first known organs from the 3rd century BCE, when Greek musicians in Alexandria played a hand organ called the Hydraulis, but we digress…
It is fascinating how sense of place along with what is experienced there can become a filter for emotion and musical expression. I’m thinking of a particular artist, the pianist Genny Basso, who is like a walking repository of the sights, sounds, and sensations of growing up in Naples. The gift of his memories write like a dream journal. We really should visit with him and see where he takes us….
Kathy Geisler: What is your current job in the field of classical music and what are you currently working on?
Genny Basso: First of all the daily study, not only conceived to build up repertoire, but also in a broader sense as continuous piano research. In addition, I’m carrying on the activities of performing in concerts, after the closure period we have all been experiencing. I dedicate myself to teaching and lately, in order to spread classical music among young people, with two others I’ve created a new channel about classical music on twitch.tv, called “lamusicaclassica”.
Kathy: Can you elaborate on what you mean by ‘piano research?’
Genny: The research at the piano means everything: first of all looking inside yourself to find an emotional, deep, and sincere connection with the piece. To interpret a piece you have to open “the window inside yourself,” as Aldo Ciccolini said, to find in your own life, in one’s human and life experiences the profound reasons behind the musical choices. For example, working and “researching” on Piedigrotta 1924 by M. Castelnuovo-Tedesco meant first of all projecting myself into a bygone era, in which the city (Naples) was different, people were different. I tried to imagine through reading and watching films what Naples could have been like in those years and what still exists today.
Then it is essential to study from a technical point of view, to question yourself every day in order to grow and learn more and more. The difficulties of the pieces are not solved only in hours of study and repetition, but with a continuous search for the gesture, the movement that can be as functional and natural as possible. Personally, only thanks to this continuous research, I was able to face those pieces that when I was a child I dreamed of being able to play one day, such as the very difficult Trois Mouvements de Petrouchka. Of course, spiritual research and technical research are always intimately connected and are in turn held firm by the search for sound, the ultimate goal, the definitive expression of the musician.
Kathy: Can you describe something about what your teaching has been like?
Teaching is an act of love, like everything related to music. For me, teaching is as important as playing in concert. Getting experience as a concert performer is important in teaching and vice versa. Engaging as a teacher is an experience to get to know the piano and music more and more closely. I learn a lot from my students, they are a precious source of growth for me, piano and human both. My students know very well that they can call me without time limits and I try to transfer all my knowledge to them, without any reservation.
Kathy: What is La Musica Classica?
Genny: Along with Adriano D’Angiò and Cristina Basso, I created the first Twitch channel in Italy entirely dedicated to the world of classical music. It is a great challenge because it is essentially a popular platform for video games, but our goal is to spread classical music to young people and fans. With a constantly growing schedule, we are hosting famous musicians and still unknown talents, scholars, professionals and associations to tell the endless wealth of the music scene. On May the 9th , the great violinist Uto Ughi was one of the guests of our channel.
Kathy: What were some of your early lessons or experiences in classical music?
Genny: I started to have piano lessons at the age of six, but since I was four I played piano by ear in front of friends and relatives. Even if they hadn’t been official experiences, they were very important for me because thanks to them I immediately felt how it was beautiful to share music and joy with the others.
My first contact with classical music dates back to when I was a baby. My mother, who was also busy with work, instead of telling me fairy tales to make me fall asleep, would turn on the radio with classical music programs and let me fall asleep “lulled” by the music of the great composers. She did not have a musical background, but when I was very young she used to play (“strum”) some ancient Neapolitan melodies. This was the first time that I saw hands on the keyboard and was blown away. And so, since I was four, I also started playing by ear. All friends and relatives knew that I played the piano and were eager to listen to me and at any party or meeting with friends, or even in some restaurant on a Sunday, if there was a piano or keyboard they used to ask me to play. I played “mini-arrangements” of the music I listened to as a child, including the Neapolitan songs. I felt their joy in listening to me play, perhaps because they felt mine while I was playing for them. I had felt since then that this would be my path. I had my first music lessons in school when I was in first grade, but I did not like the songs that they made me play in class and against the will of the teacher I played the classical melodies that I listened to on the radio or that my father, who was greatly passionate about music, made me listen to. The school teacher noticed how easy it was to reproduce melodies and advised my parents to let me study music with a real piano teacher.
Kathy: What is one of your favorite places and why?
Genny: There are a lot of places in the world that I really love. One of them is the Montesanto quarter, in Naples, it’s full of life and I feel myself deeply bound to it, because I spent my school years there, from primary school till high school. Moreover, I love sea places…
What binds me the most to the Montesanto quarter is the memory of some shops, like a small delicatessen with very popular prices run by a person who was beloved by the local people for his kindness and humanity; or the old fried food shop where after school I bought ‘zeppole and panzarotti’ (a typical Neapolitan fried speciality) to spoil my appetite before returning home … Or the indelible memory of a tiny workshop of a copper craftsman along Via Montesanto. It lied under the street level. It was almost completely dark, the old “rammaro” was well known in the area, but I never had the courage to approach him and talk to him. He had a face hollowed and marked from age and work. It was extraordinary for me to see an example of Naples of the past that no longer existed. I was less than 10 years old, but I had a great respect for the dignity with which he carried on his ancient profession. A pure authentic expression of the popular class, which created a very strong contrast with the modernity of the shops of Via Toledo, a few meters away. I grew up in a context where extreme contrasts were the order of the day, where everything seemed possible and I believe that this also had an influence on my way of conceiving music.
Kathy: What is one of your favorite pieces and do you have a favorite performer or experience of it?
Genny: One of the pieces I am close to is Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa D’Este by F. Liszt, for a reason linked to my adolescence. I was about 14–15 years old and I was attending Luigi Averna’s Masterclass (my conservatory piano teacher). The masterclass was held in Tivoli, near Rome, right in the place where Liszt wrote this piece. That year it was very popular because M° Zenon Fishbein of the Manhattan School of Music was there. In addition to the pupils of Maestro Averna, there were about 30 pianists who came from Korea (they were all women) and I was the youngest of all the participants. I wandered through the corridors of the school where the courses were held and heard Liszt’s Les Jeux d’eau echoing all day. That music came from every classroom because everyone wanted to pay homage to F. Liszt by playing the piece composed precisely in that place. At the end of the course we visited the splendid Villa d’Este with its spectacular water fountains. We took turns entering the room of F. Liszt with a view of the fountains and the desk on which he composed the piece: it was a very strong emotion for me. Today I love the interpretation of Claudio Arrau.
Kathy: Is there an artist no longer living who somehow made an impression on you?
Genny: For different reasons, I can say all of the great performers I listened had an impact on me and my way of feeling music, from Alicia De Larrocha to Bendetti Michelangeli, from Callas to Pavarotti, from Furtwangler to Bernstein. But perhaps Aldo Ciccolini above all, because I had the great opportunity to stay very close to him during his last years.
I remember one day in particular, when as a boy I listened to Cancion n. 6 by Mompou (from the Canciones y danzas) played by Michelangeli. I was deeply impressed by that performance, it was a sound I had never heard before. In those days my teacher at the time told me that Michelangeli was a great scholar and was able to devote whole hours to the research of a single sound. I was so impressed by that image of absolute dedication to the study and research of sound in particular. It really left a mark on me and it influenced me a lot in the way of researching at the piano that I still carry out today.
Kathy: What is one thing you think will be different about classical music 100 years from now?
Genny: More than trying to make predictions, I really hope that in the future classical music will be part of the cultural experience of every person and it will be enjoyed by as many people as possible.
I believe that young people are the future of music. We need to focus on training (especially at school) from the first grade and even earlier, by teaching them a musical instrument and getting them used to conscious listening (not just classical music). But, while waiting for the institutions and the music system to play their part, classical musicians should get closer to the public, try to establish a more intimate and open dialogue. And above all they should learn to get to know the world of the young more closely and look for a possible meeting point with them.
Kathy: What is something about your work that you think most people have no idea about?
Genny: Maybe not everyone imagines that for a musician today it’s not enough to study, to perform, to teach etc. A musician has to be able to do a lot of different “jobs” and collateral activities, such as self-promotion, mailing, public relations, learning technology, planning activities on the social networks and it’s getting harder and harder to have time to practice.
For example, almost every day I dedicate time on my social networks (I plan publications, create material such as videos, photos, try to be present in the interaction with followers); at the same time, I update my website with all the main activities and news. During the week, I also try to carve out time for self-promotion, which today is essential for a pianist, regardless of the support of managers and concert agencies.
Some periods are more intense than others, for example the realization of my new recording involved many activities in addition to making the master. Together with my manager we defined the concept of the disc and created a document of presentation of the album project, we looked for a label that was interested in the project; then it was necessary to deepen knowledge of the recording world to understand and establish the terms of the contract. Moreover a lot of work involved the creation of the booklet, the choice of the cover, the photos, the graphic choices, up to all the work related to promotion and communication. Being supported certainly helps, but the contemporary pianist cannot completely exempt himself from this kind of activity.
Lately, I have spent some time learning how to use technological tools such as software to make live broadcasts, then optimize the use of equipment such as microphones, cameras, monitors, lights. This opened up a world that I didn’t know before, which is streaming. Even if we have finally returned to live performing after the closures imposed by the pandemic, the tools offered by the web have their own importance, especially in connection with young people, who make large use of them. For example, the experience of a Twitch channel dedicated to classical music is a wonderful experience and we will do everything we can to carry on our exciting challenge without giving in.
Kathy: Did you have any life-changing experiences that put you on the path that led you to be doing what you’re doing today?
Genny: Surely the experience with Aldo Ciccolini in Paris. He taught me that playing is a labour of love and sincerity, not narcissism. This awareness represented a very important step in my artistic path.
I was 28 and had just lost my father prematurely. I was experiencing a difficult moment and despair. After only one month, I met Aldo Ciccolini because I heard that he used to give lessons in Naples from time to time and I wanted him to listen to me. What happened was incredible: after 20 minutes of playing for him, he immediately offered me to follow him to Paris and to accompany him to his next masterclass in Bosa and Riva del Garda. And so it was. That gesture of extreme trust in myself and in my potential as a musician gave me back that hope, that courage, that strength I needed to continue my journey. It was a turning point in my life, not only from an artistic point of view. From that moment on, I had the privilege of establishing a profound relationship with him, thanks to which I was able to get to know his infinite world more closely. We used to listen to music and comment on it together until late at night, especially Puccini’s works. I listened to him studying every day and this is an immense heritage that I will always carry in my heart.
Kathy: Is there anything else you would like to say about yourself, your work, or classical music?
Genny: Classical music can have a very deep connection with present times, its power and strength oversteps ages and generations. All the musicians and whoever deal with the spread of classical music should take this power into account and look for a bond with the present in order to manage involving young people who really need it especially to overcome this hard and uncertain period.
