14 Wispelwey

Months have passed since I heard Peter Wispelwey play at the Jerusalem Theater one evening as part of the Israel Festival – the six suites for cello solo by J.S. Bach, and I still hear the sounds of his playing. Wispelwey plays discreetly but also with confidence and elegance. He is one of the greatest contemporary cellists and one of the musicians leading the revolution that was called "authentic" which in essence is a reaction to nineteenth century music and the romantic performing tradition which persisted until the middle of the twentieth century. He plays with a little vibrato, has a rough, warm tone, and refrains from excessive demonstrativeness, however, and a declaratory tone. His playing is free and it seems as if he is talking to the audience without losing the authoritative status of an exemplary artist.

Whoever has played an instrument can not help thinking of such perfection and how it is achieved. I had two excellent violin teaches, Avigdor Zamir and Israel Amidan. They taught me two things: one is absolute concentration on what you are doing. If you can reach the point of concentrating all your ability and strength on what you are doing at the moment and at that time forget everything else – what you can achieve is amazing. The second thing I learned is that nothing is so complicated that it can not be done – there are only complex activities. If one breaks down any task into its component parts and learns to perform every simple one of them, it will be possible to do the complex task step by step when you are master of every detail. What then is the secret of an all but perfect performance (except for the talent)? Concentration and hard work.