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After winning the Bice Mizzi Vassallo competition in Malta Stefan Cassar - then 22 - found himself walking through the doors of the Lyon Conservatory.
Stefan Cassar is still based in Lyon, a city famed for its wonderful food. But music is Stefan’s first love and he has made it his life. Stefan is the founder of chamber music festival Piano En Hiver in Brittany in 2001 and graced Malta’s theatres over the past weeks. Stefan Cassar spoke to MaltaToday this week.
What encouraged you to take up the piano and become a musician, any family influence?
Yes, you could say there was family influence. But I must make a distinction between taking up the piano and musicianship. Where music is concerned, looking back, I now realise that what attracted me most, and from a very early age, was the village band. My parents were not that keen on bands, not so my grandfather. He used to play with various bands all over the island. But that was before I was born.
Nevertheless, when I was still not much bigger than a toddler, he used to take me with him to almost all the feasts especially those in the vicinity of the Cottonera area. And this not only on the day of the feast, but on the eve, and on the eve of the eve. For three whole days we followed band marches from early afternoon and in the evening we wouldn’t budge from near the bandstand. No wonder my favourite pastime was banging on upturned pots and pans with a wooden spoon. I still love Maltese feasts and whenever I’m in Malta I wouldn’t miss at least going to one.
The piano was a different matter. A cousin used to study the piano, the instrument was available, help was also forthcoming from the same cousin and hence the piano became the natural choice. With regards to choosing music as a career I was lucky to have my parents’ support, notwithstanding the problems and uncertainties such a career entails, they invariably offered encouragement without being insistent.
You are based abroad, what are the advantages?
Advantages?... Well yes there are advantages. Mostly in the form of greater opportunities. Better contacts, keener awareness of current trends in the different spheres. But perhaps, above all these, is the inculcation of a professional outlook. There is absolutely no room for amateurism, not the amateurism of the unpaid enthusiast, but that associated with lack of proper preparation and a lackadaisical approach to performance and execution of whatever the final product might entail.
In the life of every musician there will always be ups and downs, which have been your high points?
Undoubtedly every concert to me is a high point. I simply enjoy playing and of course I have to confess I also enjoy the warm, prolonged applause at the end of the recital
Low points?
An experience I had quite recently. A tour of German cities with another musician - a musician with whom I’ve been working very closely for quite some time and who consequently has become a friend - had to be called off.
It is not that the tour was called off with hours and hours of practice and rehearsals wasted, but the reason was that this musician was diagnosed with a very serious disease and he had to be hospitalised immediately for treatment. Thank God he’s doing better now. I hope when I go back I find he’s completely cured.
How much work do you put into your music and what do you do with the rest of your life?
There’s no rest of your life. Music takes up all my waking life. Piano practice alone takes anything between six and eight hours daily, building up a more extensive repertoire, teaching, giving master classes... not much time left except for eating and drinking… and believe me I enjoy both... what with the huge number of gourmet eating houses in Lyon. Sometimes, on rare occasions, too rare I’m afraid, I manage to do my own cooking and when I’m really in the mood the outcome could match any of those of the best bistros of Lyon. It provides me with the little relaxation I can afford
How competitive is the music world and what does one have to do to reach the top?
Short answer here: the competition is cutthroat. It comes under all shapes and forms. From the extremely talented to the very rich. Yes money comes into it as well. People come from as far as Japan and the United States to attend a few lessons at the Paris conservatoire; lessons, for example, with the world-renowned professor Germain Mounier. These few lessons cost the thousands of pounds, or yen, or franks or whatever. The demand for these lessons increases mostly before International competitions. It is through competitions that one meets the right kind of people, especially agents. And agents are very often vital to any musician’s career.
What music do you enjoy playing and what do you listen to in your free time?
I always tend to enjoy playing the music I’m working on at any particular moment. I try to listen to as much music as possible and not only piano music. Listening to great singers, violinists, quartets is necessary for me.
I also enjoy jazz music. From the new generation I’ve just discovered an excellent jazz pianist B Mehldau who is already being hailed as the new Bill Evans.
What has been your most memorable performance?
As a student at the Mozarteum in Salzburg I was chosen to give a recital in the main hall of the academy close to the Mirabel Platz. All the musicians and professors of the academy were present. The concert proved to be quite successful. The next morning Germaine Mounier contacted me and on the strength of that performance offered me a scholarship to join her internationally acclaimed class at the Ecole Normale Superieure de Paris.
This was the performance that changed my career drastically.
How have you been welcomed in Malta?
The welcome I get comes mostly from my family and friends. I’ve been away from the Island for fifteen years. During the first years I used to make it a point to give a concert in Malta almost every year, mostly in collaboration with the Janatha Stubbs Foundation who during those years partly sponsored my stay in Lyon. My commitments now preclude me from continuing with this practice. Before last month’s concert at the Manoel Theatre, the previous concert I had given in Malta was as far back as four years ago with the National Orchestra at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
Notwithstanding, all those I came in contact with in the planning of the recital at the Manoel were extremely courteous, helpful and professional in outlook. It would be presumptuous of me to gauge the success or otherwise of my performance. All I can say is that the audience gave me an extremely warm welcome. No artist could ask for a better audience. And for this I am extremely grateful.
Future plans?
Well, I have quite a number of important engagements planned over the next years; mostly recitals and chamber music. But in any music career it is not easy to have long-term specific plans. Actually I hope that in ten, twenty year’s time I’d still be doing what I’m doing right now playing the piano and enjoying doing it and hence life in general.
If you could change three things in Malta what would they be?
I would change the Royal opera house ruins in Valletta into a large music complex. We definitely need a large music hall that can take in a large symphony orchestra for the great works of, for example, Mahler and Shostakovitch. The building could also include some smaller and more intimate halls for chamber music concerts with all necessary equipment and obviously good acoustics. I would also change the gateway to Valletta and of course the piazza adjacent to this from a parking lot into one with fountains, cafes and bistros.
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