I wish people would could into their elbows — it reduces it by 90 percent.
Of course. I remember that I did Bach’s B-minor Mass with Seiji Ozawa, I did Britten’s War Requiem with him, I did Das Lied von der Erde with him, in Boston, and I could not remember that the audience was very bad. Maybe audiences are not used so much to song recitals. I try to entertain an audience, I am not really on stage to educate them. If it’s too much, I think it would be unfair not to say anything. If it’s really getting on my nerves, I will say, “Do me a favor, it’s too much.” And it’s okay, you can do that very nicely. And I try to be nice.
And you are.
Thank you.
You're returning to Boston in February to sing Schubert's Winterreise with James Levine at the piano. You've worked with him before, it seems.
I did Schwanengesang with him, I did Winterreise with him, I played also with the orchestra and him in the Verbier Festival, so I know him very very well, and we are good friends, I like him very very much. I hope he’s okay, I hope he’s getting better, I think also in the last years he did too much. So we’ll see what happens, I’m looking forward to the concerts.
You've sung and recorded with conductors as diverse as Rattle, Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, and Claudio Abbado. How do you negotiate differences of interpretation?
Well, it’s very simple: if it’s totally against my vision of the interpretation that I would like to do, then definitely will discuss it. If you play with really great conductors, they will find a solution. If they are really arrogant conductors, which I have had only one in my life, who is also very famous, especially in the States, especially in New York, then it’s not really fun. With this very famous conductor in New York I will not play anymore in my life. The worst thing is, he is maybe the most talented conductor where the conducting technique is related, and I think he’s one of the most talented musicians. And now, the most important word: But. I don’t think our ways will cross in the next few years. If you play with really great conductors who understand what I want and I can understand what they want, there was no one conductor I wouldn’t find a solution with. But Seiji is a friend, and I love to make music with him, and Simon, we are in many ways brothers in music, in thinking, in living. And Claudio is one of the most admired conductors I’ve ever worked with. So there are a lot. I love Bernard Haitink, I love very very much Christoph Eschenbach. Also as a pianist. There are some around.
In his otherwise appreciative New York Times review of your "American Songbook" recital at Carnegie Hall, Bernard Holland suggested that you didn't have much new to say. What do you feel you had to say?
I’m very sorry, but I’m speaking now very personal to you: I think this comment was very stupid. Give me one, at the moment, one classical musician who’s able to sing jazz, and Mahler, and Bach, and Schoenberg, and so on. Give me one.
