LAURA GRANERO, FORTEPIANO
Why did you decide to come to Basel?
A couple of years before coming to Basel, I had the opportunity to play for the first time on a historical piano. It was love at first sight. Both my continuo teacher and my harpsichord teacher in Salamanca had studied at the Schola, and they spoke always very highly about their experiences and learnings in Basel and about the Schola. The choice was obvious! I was lucky and was accepted to study at the institution. Of course, as a student there are always some struggles but I remember those years as extremely beautiful, and will always think of the Schola as my Alma Mater. I feel extremely thankful that such a place exists, and to the people behind it.
After all these years, do you want to stay living here in Basel or do you see yourself returning to Spain or another country?
Basel feels like home to me, because of its cultural life, early music scene, friends, nature… For now, I plan on staying here and developing some long term projects. But this might change at some point for work or personal reasons. At the moment, I believe that it’s the right place for me. But of course, I would love to live at some point in Spain, at least for a while.
What do you like most about Basel?
That it has the good parts of both a big city and a small city, and that it feels so international.
How do you see the historical performance scene, specifically the Romantic era, right now? Would you say it has changed in the last 50 years?
Many topics on performance practice of the 19th century were starting to be discussed already decades ago, unfortunately it took quite a lot of time to bring these informations from academia to the praxis. Now changes are happening faster, and there are more and more ensembles and soloists embodying this new style, which is based on written evidence, mechanical instruments, early recordings and piano rolls. The problem is that this new movement questions the interpretation of the main canonic repertoire of the so-called Classical music nowadays (let’s say, from Mozart to Debussy), and many offer a lot of resistance against this historical evidence. It’s really bizarre to think that the way in which most musicians perform Beethoven, Chopin or Liszt nowadays has nothing to do with what they expected in the past, isn’t it? And that modern pedagogy is based on the “intentions of the composers” (basically, to play what is written on the score - which is really not the most essential part, not at all! Quite the opposite…) and on a huge list of major misunderstandings about style. I would have no problem if, instead of speaking about the authority of the composer, they would instead speak about the modern way of playing this music - how they understand it, how they play it, how they like it.
Then, there is the problem that many promoters think that by encouraging a very famous pianist to play a concert on a historical piano (because it’s different and fashionable!), this will result into historical interpretation, and this is enough. Fortepiano and historical pianos are still regarded as some kind of anecdote, and many don’t understand that there is a difference to hire someone who is a true specialist than hiring a famous name who has never played one before or has little experience. Also, not all fortepianists engage on the same level of depth regarding performance practice issues.
I wish that the performers-researchers embodying this movement would dare to be more loud and political, like the pioneers of Early Music. On the other hand, we also don’t want to do like in the 80s and 90s style and bash famous musicians publicly on the newspapers. We want to promote a way of thinking and playing music which is more human. The crucial matter is that these changes are happening, even if slowly and mostly more through independent projects rather than in the mainstream. Still, last year I had the luck to perform as a soloist with Anima Eterna as part of a project on Clara Schumann based on early recordings at a very prestigious venue, the Concertgebouw in Brugge, besides other places. And the public accepted this very daring approach and apparently even loved it!
I’m also regularly asked to give conferences and workshops on piano rolls, early recordings, teach fortepiano masterclasses, etc, at very important institutions all over the world, I feel that there is a lot of curiosity. It’s important to spread the word and open the eyes and ears of the young musicians. The best of this way of playing is that it allows much more space for creativity and individuality than what we are allowing in conservatories when dealing with this repertoire.
My PhD supervisor, Clive Brown, whom I admire greatly, always says (with his best intention) that the younger generations should be the ones pushing to make these changes. I’m not sure if I agree completely, because I see huge structural problems: many young musicians struggling with their careers, with financial issues, with mental health… and really? Should they be the ones to risk everything? Wouldn’t this be easier if the “noise” would come from the stablished one, who have nothing to lose?
We'd like to know a bit more about Laura, what was Laura like as a child?
As a child, I was very shy. I had some close friends but I also enjoyed a lot my alone time, maybe even more… - playing, reading, playing music, daydreaming. As a young teenager I felt much more understood by adults than by people of my age.
My mother always cared to give me her best possible education at home, parallel to school. In school, I was a good student, and always did my homework and exams with ease, obtaining very good grades - something not too relevant to me or to my parents, but that created a lot of jealousy among some of my classmates. This was quite hard, but then I changed to a high school where fortunately no one cared much about what I did.
I would say that I’m still very introverted and enjoy so much my time alone or with my partner instead of socialising with friends and colleagues. Though I used to be very idealistic and naïve person who thought everyone had the best intentions, over time I have become more of a realist, especially after having experience some really ugly parts of the industry first hand. I really struggle with how some colleagues behave in order to access power, how much misogyny, racism and nepotism there is in the Classical music business, and how inhuman, unempathic, self-absorbed many musicians can potentially become, either because of privilege or because of struggle. Music is a balm for the soul, but the music industry definitely isn’t.
I’m starting to understand human and professional relations better, and I try to be less spontaneous and impulsive, but instead more understanding, forgiving, assertive, resilient. And also, less critical of myself and more proud of my achievements - maybe more empowered? Or at least, that’s what I would like to achieve…
Did you start directly with early music or did you start with the piano like many others?
It was never linear. I started with what we call in Spain the Grado Elemental in harpsichord, but I used to play both on harpsichord and on piano back then (actually more piano than harpsichord). Then, I only played piano during my high school years. When pursuing my first Bachelor studies, I then studied piano and harpsichord. Later, at the Schola fortepiano and harpsichord, while doing less piano… Now I play the three of them, though I’m asked to perform on fortepiano most of the times. And in another life, I will hopefully have more time to do more organ too.
How were your beginnings with the fortepiano?
It’s difficult to explain. On the one hand, something just clicked, it was obvious that I felt like I was meant to be a fortepianist and that those instruments were home to me. My hands, my body were made to play on those instruments. I remember a conversation with fortepianist Maggie Coll about how she felt exactly the same for herself. On the other hand, changing my technique took quite a lot of time and commitment, and it was a slow process which is not easy to do when you are already twenty-two. Maybe the reason was that the technique of my former modern piano professor was very unique and unorthodox. But my fortepiano professor is really good at teaching this, and also very patient, mostly.
Who or what would you say have been your biggest influences?
I realise that in the past I was always mentioning the two most obvious, because they were the professors with which I studied longer - Edoardo Torbianelli and Claudio Martínez-Mehner, also some other very important professors at the Schola (Jesper Christensen, Andrea Marcon, Ulrich Messthaler). Nevertheless, even if their influences are so important and undeniable (¡Gracias de corazón!), I have started questioning if there weren’t some others who, at the end of the day, shaped me more as a whole, even if I didn’t notice it so actively. And most of them are women. For example, my mother. She is an excellent musician, understands music and interpretation like no one else, has an amazing structural and harmonic hearing, some of my first profound experiences with music were exchanges, conversations with her, she guided me to discover music. She was the first one to make me listen to fortepiano CDs. She created the basis of who I am as a musician. Then, Nino Kereselidze, who was my piano teacher for many years. There is no day that I don’t think of her. She is like a lion mother to her students, she is a Goddess full of unconditional love for music and for everyone. Also, some women of the past: as a teenager I was obsessed with Clara Schumann. And now, because of my research, I think every day of her, as well as of her student Fanny Davies - For me, those women pianists were just poetry themselves. And last but not least, my partner, Sebastian Bausch, who inspires and teaches me so much daily - as a human and as a musician. He is the most generous person I know. And when he improvises, it’s like a miracle - I feel that the whole world becomes music.
What is your next project?
In March, I have a couple of small but beautiful projects: a concert on the 6th (mimiko at the Elisabethenkirche) with my partner (FANNY DAVIES Ensemble), on the 14th an online lecture recital of historical performance practice, also with Sebastian, for Classics Park (a social media for musicians, check it out!), then a recording with a cellist.
But for me the one which is the most thrilling will take place on the 22nd of March at our Klavieratelier in Binningen at 7pm (Bottmingerstr 35). I’m truly excited about it - we are opening our season at the Klaviersalon with a first inaugural concert. We want to celebrate the beginning of spring, the early music day, as well as Alfred Grünfeld’s anniversary. The title will be “Wien 1900”, a Viennese party! With our Disklavier reproducing piano, we will perform some piano rolls - Gustav Mahler playing his own music, Grünfeld himself, Fanny Davies, maybe also some pieces by Schönberg (another anniversary!), and lots of Viennese waltzes and paraphrases… We will also perform ourselves on the historical Bösendorfer.
What is the FANNY DAVIES Ensemble? What are your goals, and with whom do you collaborate?
I founded the ensemble in 2018, under the name of Marie Soldat Ensemble. In 2022, it became the FDE. It made more sense because the fortepiano is at the center, and Fanny Davies (1861-1934) was a pianist. She studied with Clara Schumann and worked closely with Johannes Brahms. She inspires us a lot: she loved early music, cared a lot about equality and diversity (she programmed a lot of music by women composers and by composers outside Central Europe), she was witty and full of inspiration, both in music and life.
The ensemble has no fixed formation. It works as kind of a lab in which musicians meet and experiment with 19th century performance practices. We have worked (through performance or coachings) with Clive Brown, Kai Köpp, Johannes Gebauer, Leila Schayegh, Jeanne-Marie Lelièvre, Jed Wentz… and some of the more regular members are also Sebastian Bausch, Emily Worthington and the cellists Aldo Mata and Javier López Escalona. In the 19th century, chamber music wasn’t about homogeneous performance. It was about just meeting and playing - everyone would bring their unique musical personalities. They also didn’t rehearse for hours and hours daily, wanting things to be as together as possible. It was much more free and spontaneous… That’s why we keep inviting new musicians and creating new projects all the time.
We are very happy because the Atelier in Binningen will be a home for the ensemble, and that already a big step.
Outside of the musical world, what would surprise our readers to know about you that no one knows?
Well, I will tell you two little secrets. To start (and even if I have the privilege of having a good career as a fortepianist and researcher), as I have already hinted, I have started to become more and more critical of the music industry. Especially of how difficult it is for women, and even more specifically for mothers. I have only started posting on these topics on my social media recently - step by step, I guess I’m becoming more and more of a feminist. I wish that we could create more and more spaces for talking about feminism in music, instead of mere dishonest purple-wash. But also about musicians and mental health in general. We really need it. I would really like that we are there for each other, not competing but making this life more beautiful, or at least… more bareable. We should be kind, concentrate on the art and on helping others, also on finding solutions for creating a more human and empathic industry. Social media can be extremely toxic if it just becomes a showcase of our successes. Classical music can’t be about competitions, marks, reviews on magazines and amount of concerts per year… So, hopefully people will see this side of myself (caring about feminism and mental health) more and more.
To finish, the second secret is that I want to start making space to other important projects in life, besides music. And when this article gets to published, I might be already the proud mum of a corgi dog. Woof woof!