Pianist Dejan Lazic returns to İstanbul for musical celebration

Lazic is currently in İstanbul for a concert tonight at the Mustafa Kemal Center (MKM) as part of the İstanbul Recitals monthly concert series.

As the son of a pianist and clarinetist, Lazic’s musical journey began in the very early years of his childhood. Taught by Hungarian artists Zoltán Kocsis and Imre Rohmann, his work has been influenced by Ivo Pogorelich as well as the entire generation of pianists in Croatia in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

Ahead of his İstanbul visit, Lazic spoke to Today’s Zaman in an online interview.

What led you to begin studying music? Have you always studied the piano or did you begin with other instruments?

My whole family is musical. My mother is a pianist, father a clarinetist, even my great-grandfather was a violinist and a concertmaster in Vienna. So observing my mother’s pupils very early on, I started to learn the piano at the age of 6. At the age of 9, in addition to the piano, I picked up my dad’s clarinet, which I played until the age of 23. When I was 10 years old, after watching Milos Forman’s film “Amadeus,” I began to compose.

You completed your own arrangement of Brahms’ Violin Concerto for piano and orchestra just recently. What was your source of inspiration for this project?

I have been working on this project almost for six years. My sources of inspiration were violin concertos by Bach and Beethoven arranged for piano and orchestra by these composers themselves. Since there is no original cadenza left by Brahms, I have composed my own. The world premiere took place on Oct. 1, 2009 in Atlanta with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Robert Spano, and “Channel Classics” recorded it. The CD is just out, and I shall perform the concerto several times in the near future -- next with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London. Currently I am working on an original piano concerto.

What emotions and ideas do you hope to convey through the pieces you write?

Composing is a total different kind of creativity. Being a re-productive artist as a pianist, composing for me is the most honest way toward true productivity, and I believe that only with both combined can an artist find a full balance, satisfy the spirit on a large scale and achieve richness of expression in all fields. Composing my own pieces makes me totally free, and that helps me tremendously as a performer.

You have performed with a number of orchestras. How do these performances change your artistic perspective?

Of course, playing with many different international orchestras, various conductors with different musical backgrounds, but also making chamber music with some wonderful colleagues -- all that enriches you not only as a musician and an artist, but also as a person and a human being. One learns something new with every single experience in a new city or country.

Who are the composers you most admire and love to interpret?

This is probably the most difficult question to answer, since I am really trying to equally perform music from different eras: from Scarlatti and Bach to the newest of the 21st century. But, for me as a pianist and as a composer, besides the great ones like Schubert, Beethoven, Schumann or Brahms, of great influence were 20th century pianists --composers such as Bartók, Britten and Shostakovich.

What other classical performers do you regard as most influential in your musical life?

Of course, both my Hungarian teachers and mentors, Zoltán Kocsis and Imre Rohmann, but also, growing up in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, my countryman Ivo Pogorelich was of great influence for the whole generation of pianists in Croatia. However, I learned very early that music is universal and that a pianist can equally be inspired by a cellist or a violinist. For example, I have quite a collection of Jascha Heifetz recordings -- from the very early ones made in the 1920s, to his last recital recording -- no matter whether on LP, cassette or CD. He was such a unique, wonderful musician -- a great inspiration.

Aside from classical music, what other music forms inspire you?

I am a big jazz fan. I love Charlie Parker, Chat Baker, Duke Ellington ... also Ella Fitzgerald. What an inspiration, what an invention! We classical musicians can learn a lot from them. I think that Mozart, Beethoven and Liszt were quite similar creative spirits -- although one wouldn’t compare Beethoven and Charlie Parker at first glance. But both were masters of improvisation.

You have performed in many different countries throughout the world. How have the audiences differed and how did these differences affect your performances?

As a performer on stage you perform for the public, naturally. One has to be flexible and also go toward the needs of the audience. For example, I am very inspired when playing long, late sonatas by Schubert in Japan -- Beethoven is an experience of a lifetime in Spain – and, yes, my last performance in İstanbul two years ago showed the very special and profound affinity of the audience toward Chopin, it felt so great.

You performed in the same concert series two years ago in İstanbul. What are your impressions of the country?

That was my debut in Turkey, and it was such an amazing experience. I played a rather difficult program, including Schubert’s late Sonata in B-flat major, and the audience was so attentive and overall inspiring. Besides, İstanbul is such a great city where old and new, East and West meet, there is so much history, but furthermore a great future ahead, a true metropolis of the 21st century. I’m very happy that I’ll have one additional free day this time to see even more.

What can your audience expect from your performance here? How did you select the Chopin pieces that you will be playing?

We are, of course, celebrating Chopin’s 200th anniversary this year, and with a selection of some of his best and richest works, I shall open the program and fill the first half with it. I think that enormous variety of expression is one of Chopin’s main attributes, so I have selected an introduction and a rather popular dance (Andante spianato & Grande Polonaise brillante), a poetic interlude (Ballade), a cyclic form (Sonata in B-flat minor with a funeral march) and a virtuosic piece in the form of a vibrant, quick dance to conclude the first half (Scherzo). The second half I shall dedicate to two other great piano virtuosos and composers of the 19th century: Rachmaninov, with his youthful cycle “Moments Musicaux” and Liszt, with his cyclic impressions of his long Italian trip: a “Venezia e Napoli” cycle. A true celebration of perhaps piano’s greatest era so far -- I am very much looking forward to it.