Steven Isserlis

Cellist of (and sometimes out of) sorts, Author, Father, Lover of Indian and other food and of the Marx Brothers and other people who make me laugh.

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Alas, Bernard Haitink d otd 2021. On rehearsing:
"I want to create a communication in a way which you have to do during a concert...Words don’t help then...I come with a perception of how I want it, but I leave something open because I don’t know what will come to me."
Wonderful!

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Thought from Charles Ives (b otd 1874):
Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ear lie back in an easy chair...Frequently, if a new work is accepted as beautiful on its first hearing, its fundamental quality is one that tends to put the mind to sleep.

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

@truthspoonx Oh, he's a wonderful man. I don't know about that issue - but I'm sure his attitude is more nuanced than you imply...

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

A very happy birthday to the wonderful Philip Pullman! Such a civilised voice, so beloved - and so wise:
"We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Chuck Berry, "The King of Rock'n'Roll", b otd 100 years ago!
"I grew up thinking art was pictures until I got into music and found I was an artist and didn't paint."
"If you want to release your aggression, get up and dance. That's what rock and roll is all about."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Chopin d otd 1849 - a composer of such magical powers. He could transform a dance into an emotionally profound statement - always unmistakably Polish, aristocratic, noble, full of power and strength; and yet at the same time vulnerable, infinitely touching. Unique perfection.

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Oscar Wilde b otd 1854! Beyond brilliant...
"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much."
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
"Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."
"I don't want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

PG Wodehouse b otd 1881!!!
“He had just about enough intelligence to open his mouth when he wanted to eat, but certainly no more.”
“The voice of Love seemed to call to me, but it was a wrong number.”
“I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.”

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Leonard Bernstein d otd 1990. A thunderstorm of talent!
“Music, of all the arts, stands in a special region, unlit by any star but its own, and utterly without meaning ... except its own.”
“Life without music is unthinkable, academic...My contact with music is a total embrace.”

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Happy 85th to Paul Simon!!!
"I write from instinct, from inexplicable sparkle. I don't know why I'm writing what I'm writing. I let my hands wander on my guitar. And I sing anything. I play anything. And I wait till I come across a pleasing accident. Then I start to develop it."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Vaughan Williams b otd 1872! Fascinating composer, and man. On music and people:
"The composer must not shut himself up and think about art, he must live with his fellows and make his art an expression of the whole life of the community – if we seek for art we shall not find it."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

A very happy 90th to the wonderful Marta Casals Istomin - what an amazing lady she is! So many remarkable achievements throughout her life - and such touching loyalty to both her husbands. She is a treasure!! And I so loved doing this interview with her: https://t.co/yiyO9cFdcI

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Happy birthday to Dawn French! Wonderful.
"If I had been around when Rubens was painting, I would have been revered as a fabulous model. Kate Moss? Well, she would have been the paintbrush."
"People whose lives are about the way they look - fat or thin - are in a dangerous area."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

@madigan_melvyn Daniil Shafran said that he learned the art of legato from Ulanova!

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Guiseppe Verdi b otd 1813! On creating music:
"Let us turn to the past: that will be progress."
"Superior artists judge without being prejudiced by school, nationality or period. If the artists of north and south exhibit different tendencies, it is good that they are different!"

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

@HenryTarquin Yes, and it’s an interesting film - the assassination of the Duke of Guise. We put it on - with brilliantly reconstructed score (by the conductor)- at a French festival in Sheffield a couple of years ago.

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Saint-Saëns b otd 1835! Is there a more undervalued composer? Endless variety - ranging from charming performance pieces (eg Rondo Capriccioso) to the profound (his Requiem) to the monumental (Samson and Delilah) to the hilarious (Carnival of the Animals). And a fascinating man!

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

Kathleen Ferrier d otd 1953, age 41 - what a loss. Bruno Walter: "She was in art and in life a shining example, and whoever listened to her or met her personally felt enriched and uplifted. By her sublime art and by her loving nature she gave happiness and received happiness."

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

@SalCambio Ah, Edith - such a wonderful person herself, too…

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

A very happy birthday to the wonderful Yo-Yo Ma! A true force for good in a world that rather needs it... and as kind and generous in private as in public (not always the case!). A truly special artist and human being. (And, incidentally, a dab hand at preparing a lobster...)

[Steven Isserlis @StevenIsserlis]

@madigan_melvyn He told me that the first pianist he heard in Odesa was Simon Barrere, the second…Julius Isserlis!