VANESSA BENELLI MOSELL: ALLROUND PIANIST

 

Like it’s the case with any typical 21st century young artist a lot of personal details about you can be found on the internet (Wikipedia, Facebook, other social media). But let’s try to give that skeleton a bit of flesh and spirit. Going back to the very beginning: you were born 15-11-1987; was that in a musical family?

 

No, it was in a non-musical family; none of my relatives and actual members of my family is a musician. I am the first one. My father is an orthopaedic surgeon and my mother worked in her family enterprise – of mechanical constructions, like lifting machines, lifts, cranes etc. – until I was six, and then she dedicated herself to my education.

 

It seems you had your first piano lessons at the age of three. Was that your own wish or did that happen under pressure from your parents? You had to go to Florence to work with Alberto Alinari. There you started as a child prodigy playing what? Etudes?

 

I started spontaneously, approaching an upright piano at the nursery school and starting to play tunes by ear after hearing them from older children taking piano lessons from a sister. She became my first teacher. Soon after my mother took me to take piano lessons in Florence with a private teacher, Alberto Alinari, and was playing indeed all sorts of etudes as well as Mozart, Bach, Clementi and Scarlatti piano pieces.

 

You gave your first concert with orchestra at the age of nine. Do you remember what you played then?

 

I played the f minor J.S. Bach keyboard concerto.

 

Did you follow also a normal primary and secondary school program? What were your favourite lessons?

 

Yes, absolutely. I did my primary, secondary and high school (Lyceum) regular program in Italy, besides musical education. My favourite subjects at school were history and math.

 

You mention that your career started at the age of 11. Was that under guidance of your parents or did already an agent arrange this? How many recitals per year did you give then?

 

Yes, I had a very early start as a “child performing prodigy” under the guidance of an American agent, that doesn’t exist anymore. At that time I was not giving many concerts per year; around ten, very wisely decided, in order to keep learning new repertoire and attend the school and the Imola Piano Academy.

 

From your early days French pianist Pascal Rogé played an important role in your artistic life. How did that come about?

 

In the summer of 1999 I attended masterclasses by Jean-Philippe Collard and a week later by Pascal Rogé at the Summer Academy in Nice. I was amazed about their teaching and it was a very good learning experience. In the middle of the masterclass with Rogé, he went to speak with my mom, asking if he could invite me to perform the Poulenc piano double concerto in New York with me two months later. I never studied that work before and learnt it during the rest of the summer. In October in New York it was a great success and our professional collaboration lasted four years.

 

Then you had the privilege to go to the Imola International Piano Academy in 2006. How old were you then and who were your teachers? Mainly Franco Scala? But you stayed there only one year? 

 

In Imola I started in 1995 and finished in 2006. So I have been studying there for 11 years! It was certainly there where I grew up. My main teacher was Franco Sala, yes, although in Imola we were used to have the great chance to play for other pedagogues in the Academy, such as Giovanni Valenti (who followed me right from the very beginning), Boris Petrushansky, Riccardo Risaliti and Piero Rattalino. Furthermore we had every possibility every month to attend masterclasses from great guest teachers and artists like Andrej Jasinsky, Michel Béroff, Michel Dalberto, Alexander Lonquich and Leslie Howard.

 

Then you were invited to come to Russia, so the next stop was in Moscow, at the famous Tchaikovsky Conservatory. How did that come about? On which aspect were the lessons of Mikhail Voskresensky concentrated?

 

After my studies at Imola I had the chance to meet Dina Yoffe and took lessons from her in Germany. She opened for me an entire new world of piano playing, learnt about listening while playing and imagination. When I arrived in Moscow then, after the invitation of prof. Voskresensky, I was probably already prepared to receive and understand his magic musical teaching and language, himself hereditary

of the greatest Russian musical tradition from Lev Oborin and Yakob Milstein at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

He obliged me to record all his lessons and then listen to them at home. It was full time learning time, listening to other fellow students back at the conservatory, attending concerts during the evening. The aspects of his teaching are visionary understanding of the overall structural musical forms, yet concentrating on details, sound - attack, projection, dynamics and nuances – inspiring me with the right ‘obraz’ (image) every time.

 

As a kind of finishing touch you went to the London Royal College of music to study with another famous Russian pianist: Dimitry Alexeev. Why him and not a W. European teacher.

 

It was a vry natural consequence for me to continue with a teacher from the Moscow Conservatory in London, and to study with such a great artist as Dmitri Alexeev; he was always a dream for me, and actually the only thing that could actually make me leaving Russia. With him in London I had really the best conditions ever.

 

Did you complete your bachelor and masters according to the European norms, or could you simply skip that process?

 

I actually completed them according to European norms, receiving the Bachelor in Music in Italy, then the Post-grad Diploma in Moscow and at the end the Master in Performance from the Royal College of Music in London in 2012.

 

In contrast with may other young musicians you never participated in the most famous piano competitions (Geneva, Moscow, Leeds, Fort Worth). Why not? Was it simply because you reached your goals without?

 

That was never my priority. I had teachers who considered taking part in competitions as the last chance to advance your career and I shared this thought. I was also lucky to start performing early and had the chance to encounter great artists who gave me their support, so I never felt the urge of competing with other pianists.

 

After all this preparation the musical world lay open for you and you concertized in the USA, Canada, Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Great Brittan, Israel and logically in Italy. Could you detect differences in public appreciation in those very different locations?

 

Yes. In some places audiences are younger, like in Russia or China. Some audiences take it easier, like it would me in a pop event, foremost in Asia. I really don’t mind, actually I love it. Then, for instance in Germany and Israel, one can really feel how remarkable the cultural knowledge and preparation of the listeners is.

 

In 2004 you participated at the Elba Festival on Napoleon’s ex island with violist Yuri Bashmet and conductor Michael Guttman. What did you perform there to win an award?

 

It is a wonderful chamber music festival and to win the award I performed chamber music pieces for piano and cello by Debussy and Saint-Saëns.

 

Was it a great honour to be asked anew by Bashmet in 2012 to replace Martha Argerich to play Chopin’s second piano concerto with his Moscow soloists? Was that for one performance only or did you go on tour? 

 

It was indeed a great honour, and it was followed by other performances with them in subsequent concerts.

 

You also collaborated in chamber music with the brothers Capuçon, David Cohen and several less known Russian musicians. Do you have the intention to form a definite duo?

 

I never thought about that before. For the moment I just enjoy playing chamber music together with the finest musicians that want to cooperate with me.

 

The diversity of your repertoire is well illustrated by your making a speciality of Stockhausen’s 14 (or even 17) Klavierstücke. What was the attraction of those?

 

It is this unpredictable musical language that was speaking to me since the beginning. I was keen to listen to it more and more and I discovered the electronic music from the fifties as a teenager and it drove me away. It is an attraction that involves more widely contemporary arts, architecture and photography.

 

Your recorded nos. 1 to 4 for the radio; Is that recording general available?

 

I am sure one could get it from the RAI archives.

 

What is your opinion of spreading your material by means of Spotify and YouTube? Then you have the advantage of easily spreading it worldwide, but the disadvantage of earning little money?

 

More people are reached, so it is better for everyone, especially for music.

 

How came your connection with Brilliant Classics into being? Were you asked by that firm, or did you offer some tapes to them for judgement? Was it your concert agent that arranged it?

 

I offered them my first master I had for listening, more than for judgement, and they bought it. I didn’t have a concert agent at that time.

 

Are you hoping for a contract with the really important record labels, like DG, Decca, Warner, Sony? 

 

Yes, sure I am!

 

What about Italian piano music? Would you ever propagate that, starting in retrospective with for example Einaudi, Nono’s ‘Sofferte onde serene’ (you only need the accompanying tape), Busoni, Martinucci, Sgambini, Rossini, Clementi, Galuppi and D. Scarlatti?

 

I really love the music of Domenico Scarlatti and I played several of his keyboard sonatas since my young age, and at present I regularly play them in concert.

I often performed some of the transcriptions by Ferruccio Busoni and would also love to play Nono’s ‘Sofferte onde serene’.

 

For the moment you seem to be concentrating on the main body of Central European and Russian repertoire. Is there any chance you’re going to widen that vision to more peripheral regions to include for example Sibelius, Grieg, Field, Albéniz, Granados, Falla?

 

I certainly take the idea to explore areas in music that are still somehow ‘undiscovered’ by me into consideration, and so widening my repertoire, yes.

 

And what about Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Messiaen? Do you play them yet? 

 

I love French music and played already a lot of the music from the composers you mention. Both chamber music and piano solo pieces. I intend to do more of that.

 

How many hours as an average do you practice, study new repertoire daily?

 

I mostly practice repertoire for my next concerts, including old and new pieces, for an average of five hours per day. As I attended the conservatory I used to practice much longer!

 

Is there any chance that you can be heard in The Netherlands in the near future? 

 

Yes, I think there are.

 

Do you have any time left for hobbies, sports, reading?  If so what do you prefer and practice?

 

Sure, I absolutely find time for what I love besides music and, what I’m sure about, it enriches my life as well. For example visiting  art expositions, going to the cinema, to concerts, opera’s and ballets. I love reading, cooking for friends, I do jogging and when I have time I go walking and spend time with horses.

 

And lastly: is here any question you always wanted to get posed, an answer burning on your tongue, but nobody ever asked? Then give both here and now!

 

I would like to be able from now on to help needy and less fortunate people, to give them moral and economical support. It would give me peacefulness to know that in my life I would have been useful and helpful to others.

 

Discography

 

Benelli Mosell, Vanessa: Introduction: Virtuoso Piano Music. Prokofiev: Pianosonata no. 7 in Bes op. 82; Liszt: Rapsodie espagnole S. 254; Haydn: Pianosonata no. 34 in e H. XVI 34; Scriabin: Pianosonata no. 1 in f op. 6. Brilliant Classics 94209 (68’20”). 2011

 

Liszt: Valse impromptu S 213; Capriccio alla Turca S 388; La leggierezza S 144; Hongarian Rhapsodies S 244 nr. 6 in Des, 10 in E, 11 in a en 12 in cis; Liebestraum in As S 541/3; Galop russe S 478i; La danza S 424/9; Grand galop chromatique S 219. Vanessa Benelli Mosell. Brilliant Classics 94357 (65’09”). 2012