Stefano Molardi
Profile

Organist Profile,Thoughts: Stefano MolardI Life, Experiences

William Hoffman wrote (March 1, 2019):
[Note: The Italian organist, musicologist, harpsichordist, conductor and music pedagogue, Stefano Molardi (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Molardi-Stefano.htm) has recorded Bach's complete organ music on the Brilliant Classics label (http://www.bach-cantatas.com/NVP/Molardi-S.htm). The liner notes (https://www.brilliantclassics.com/media/1297257/95105-JS-Bach-COMPLETE-Organ-Music-Liner-notes-Download.pdf) furnish detailed commentary on the works as well as technical specifications. Below, Molard provides personal, thoughtful and often insightful answers to a wide-ranging series of questions about his life and experiences.]

+ From your personal perspective, where does the music of Bach fit the performance repertory; what performing pursuits are most gratifying, needing more emphasis?
— Bach’s scores contains always music pieces in which all developments of researches made by other composers are clear. Bach contains all: Italian music, with his own brilliant and "cantabile” character, French music with his own sensibility and refinement, German music with clear structures and counterpoint. However it is very gratifying to find in his music several elements which are not written, such as freedom of tempo, inequality of notes and rhetorical poetry, according to several treatise written during 16th-17th-18th centuries.

+ Beyond the Bach repertory you perform, what other works or genres have particularly impressed you. Name other Bach performers whose legacy impressed and influenced you?
— It is very difficult to explain which pieces influenced me, it depends on the “affects” included in each piece and it depends also on the period in which I was studying Bach’s repertory. However I can say that at the beginning of my musical training the Toccatas and Fugues impressed me a lot, because of their opposites characters, with incredible elements of improvisation.

+ Who are some Bach scholars or pedagogues who impacted you; how and why? What is the role of teaching others in your field and how has it evolved personally?
— Michael Radulescu in Vienna influenced me especially on rhetorical meaning of Bach’s music. As I am also harpsichord player and baroque conductor, I have experiences with singers and other instruments players, so that the whole baroque musical field gave me several ideas on interpretation of those pieces.

+ What technical developments or interests have impacted you most; were there some outside the field of music?
— Performing practice according to the original sources is for me a very interesting field. I believe, for a good interpretation of baroque music, one needs to imagine (and all treatises wrote that) that written scores are only a schema, from which a poetical discourse should be find out. Each note is like a single syllable of a text: for this reason the inequality of notes is like the rhythm of a speaking discourse, and like by the literature, it is impossible to write on the score. Performing baroque music is like speaking a language with its own pronunciation.

+ From your perspective, which composers, genres, styles do you find influenced Bach most and vice-versa?
— My main interests for searching the poetry in the music are renaissance and baroque art, literature. There one can find several rhetorical ideas which could be used also in the music. Bach was very interested in other composers: for example Vivaldi and generally Italian music, but he knew perfectly French music. As I said we can find the whole “European music” in his pieces.

+ When did you begin to listen to recordings and how did you develop your listening habits? Did you grow up in a musical family and were there formative activities? What music did you like most; least?
— My first approach was when I was very young (8 years old), the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor, a very surprise for me a that time. Now I am studying the deep meaning of his great chorals, and his music is so incredible that it is very difficult for me which piece is less interesting.

+ What subjects did you enjoy in school and which were most challenging. Did you have special teachers who inspired you?
— My parents surely, but also friends, and several teachers in the Conservatory of music in Italy and at the University. Michael Radulescu, L. F. Tagliavini, Christopher Stembridge, Danilo Costantini, Enrico Viccardi were very important for my training. I didn’t grow up in a musical family, but my parents encouraged me to go on with this art and I started very soon to listen classical music recording. My mother taught Italian literature, so that she gave me a lot of incentives. At school I was very good in humanistic topics and not so much in scientific field…I think that art was my way!

+ What was the musical life of your community like; its assets, challenges?
— In Italy I found always a very developed musical life, especially during 1985-1995 period in the Italian organ field. Italian organ players were very enthusiastic to learn and to find the new performing discoveries from Germany or Northern of Europe.

+ What were hobbies or other interests you developed?
— Outside music my favorite hobbies were (and are) sport: I believe well-being is very important also for work and music. An ancient Latin “motto” was: “ mens sana in corpore sano!” (A sound mind in a sound body).

+ How did you begin to define your particular talents, what special gifts did you explore?
— I decided to pursue music when I heard the D minor Toccata and Fugue! I never had doubts. Later, after Conservatory and University of Musicology, I decided also to pursue harpsichord and ensemble career, because my interests in the baroque field was/is full and I think that other instruments are helpful for the comprehension of baroque mentality.

+ In your early musical life before college, what pursuits did you like most, least? Did you find other vocations that interested you?
— I started to define my musical and technical talent when I bought not only my pianoforte, but also my pipe organ, and later my clavichords and harpsichords (Italian one and French one). I have been working since 2016 also on a viola da gamba, because it is very important for a keyboard player to know something of the ancient bow and gut strings, which influences the organ and harpsichord as well.

+ What musical experiences particularly stood out in your formative years?
-— Especially concerts, but also several [conducting] projects with ensembles and singers.

+ Do you have related academic and research interests?
— Yes of course. For me academic research is very important. I am teaching in the Trapani Conservatory and at the Lugano Academy of music, so that I must be up to date in the new tendencies of performing.

+ What non-musical interests do you most pursue; hobbies, avocations, projects, community service ?
— Hobbies surely, but also projects and of course my family. My wife and my son are musicians and I take care of their training.

+ Do you have a personal motto or saying that has most impacted you?
— For me a motto is: working and playing…

+ What prompted you to do the complete recordings?
— I decided to record the complete recording because I wanted to explore the musical details and “colors” of the original German organs of the 18th century, especially those in the Bach circle. I appreciated a lot the instruments Waltershausen, Dresden, Sangerhausen, Gräfenhain built at the time of Bach. The suggestions of this particular sound are great.

+ How did you pick the organs?
— I spoke with my colleague Paolo Crivellaro, organ professor at the Berlin Academy and he gave me some suggestions. Afterwards I have chosen the organs according to the character of each piece.

+ Do you have second thoughts about the Anh. and Deest works?
— Yes, believe those pieces were written in the Bach circle, with pupils and sometimes sons of his. In other cases some pieces could be written by composers of the Thuringian region.

+ Do you have any insight of the Toccata & Fugue origins?
— Toccata and Fugues are an imitation of Italian “Stylus phantasticus” (according to Mattheson description) used by northern German composers such as Buxtehude and Bruhns. The freedom of “Fantasy” style is typical by Merulo, Gabrieli, Frescobaldi and other Italian composers. Bach was a great fan of Italian music.

+ Which of the seven Bach collections do you enjoy most?
— Surely the Ditter Teil der Clavierübung and the 18 Chorals of Leipzig: incredible music with intensity of the musical material and religious content.

Stefano Molardi: Short Biography | Profile
Bach Discography: Recordings of Instrumental Works