Tulisan oleh Ananda Sukarlan (Kepala Divisi Piano Klasik)
Sobat KlasiKITA, kali ini kita mau ngintip buku hariannya Anthony Hartono nih. Eh, eh, masih ga kenal nama ini? Lupa ya, kita kan pernah ngomongin cowok pianis keren ini waktu dia konser di Singapura di mana dia tinggal saat ini di sini https://kitaanaknegeri.com/yuk-ikut-sebar-harapan/
Nah, sebagai pemenang Ananda Sukarlan Award tahun 2014, Anthony Hartono dapat beasiswa penuh untuk kursus musim panas (summercourse) di Nice Summer Music Festival, sebuah kota yang sangat indah di Perancis tahun 2016 lalu. Ananda Sukarlan Award memang bekerjasama, dan pemenangnya selalu mendapat beasiswa penuh dari Institut Francais d’Indonesie.
Di sana dia nulis semacam diary gitu deh, nah sekarang boleh dibaca oleh siapapun. Ini pasti bikin kalian lebih giat lagi belajar piano, biar gratis jalan-jalan (eh harus ikut kelas piano juga sih yang repertoire-nya cukup berat loh!) ke Perancis, apalagi belajar dengan Phillippe Entremont, pianis kawakan yang juga adalah teman baik dari Igor Stravinsky jadi memang beliau benar-benar bagian dari sejarah musik abad ke-20.
Nah simak deh tulisan Anthony Hartono,kalau memang kalian kurang mengerti bahasa Inggris, ya pakai google translate aja. Pokoknya, enjoy!
Personal reflection:A week in Nice, France, August 1-8, 2016
by Anthony Hartono
Warm weather is always related to summer months; June, July and August. It is the season where most people have their holidays and barbeques. However, for musicians, we have different lives and our own ways of spending summer months. Often times, we like to meet new musicians and share music together, and that can be done through attending a summer music festival.
As a musician, I am completely aware that one should gain as much experience as possible in order to become a complete musician. And for many years, summer music festival has become one of the most important platforms for musicians to gain experience and exposure. Musicians around the world gather in a academy to share their passion in music and to learn from each other. In addition, attending a music festival is also a great way to connect to new people that have the same common ground, and this definitely creates a sense of unity and bonding, making those memories powerful and unforgettable.
I gratefully acknowledge and thank Institut Français d’Indonésie (IFI) and Mr. Ananda Sukarlan for their support and generosity so that I was able to attend one of the most prestigious music festivals in Europe, namely Académie Internationale d’Eté de Nice, in Nice – France, last summer in August 2016. Nice, a city with Mediterranean weather is truly a beautiful place. I was stunned by its natural beauty and beaches. It is undoubtedly one of my most favorite places in Europe that I’d like to visit again for the second time.
The journey to get there was an adventure in itself. Upon my arrival in Nice, I was shocked by the fact that my baggage has gone missing! What made matter worse, was that the airline company estimated that it might take them a week to locate where my baggage was. This had caught me off guard because all the music scores that I was going to use throughout the festival were inside my baggage. At that time, I was hoping for nothing but to get my baggage back, even though they could not guarantee anything about it at that time.
Taking a step out of the airport, I then headed to the address where I would be staying; Montebello Residence. It is actually a dormitory for high school students. But since it was a summer holiday at that time, the residence was used for all the participants to stay at. Once I came in, I was warmly welcomed by a guy who took care of my registration and other stuff concerning my attendance. He then gave me direction to get to the venue and making sure that I didn’t get lost. The venue is located relatively close to Montebello and has an easy access to it. It is a modern conservatory of music building where all the master classes were held. Once I got there, I made some new friends and quickly adapted myself with the situation and surrounding.
The next day was when it all began. The master classes started on 1st of August and all the participants were given a brief instruction about how everything worked. Throughout the course, I was assigned to Prof. Philippe Entremont’s class. He is one of the most sought after French pianist that has international reputations and has won numerous international piano competitions throughout his career. Since the number of students in Prof. Entremont’s class was not really big, each student got 3×45 minutes lessons throughout the week. In his class, we had 7 students comprising from many different nationalities, including Japan, Portugal and Tunisia. We had an introductory class on the first day where everyone
gathered to meet Prof. Entremont and discussed about the lesson schedule for the whole week.
Just in time right before I had first master class with Prof. Entremont, finally I got my baggage back! I was glad that the airline company handled the situation professionally, so it wasn’t a problem anymore for me. For the first master class with Prof. Entremont, I had a chance to play Rachmaninoff 1st piano sonata. Arguably, this piece has been considered as one of the most underperformed works by Rachmaninoff that doesn’t receive much recognition. But it was really clear that Prof. Entremont seemed to be quite familiar with the music, not to mention his ability to demonstrate some parts of the music! He gave me a lot of useful insights that I have taken into account. Some of them were concerning about how I should build the tension more coherently and how the piece should be better structured.
For me, this criticism is very useful in this context, as the sonata is very long in length that could easily end up having a lot of mess if not being thought strategically beforehand. We had a chance to talk more into depth about the Rachmaninoff piano sonata during our second master class and I decided to play Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Rondo in A minor in my third master class with him. Overall, I find it interesting to learn from him particularly about a new way of approaching music. He has some unique ways when it comes to interpreting music, which I never think about.
On a separate note, it was also as important for me to be part of the audience and observing other people’s playing. What strikes me the most when I was listening to them was to see their enthusiasm towards music! Some of them are really talented and the pieces that they worked on were really difficult! And I was really happy to be able to witness their playing and how Prof. Entremont taught them. One of the things that I enjoyed the most during each masterclass is to see how the Prof. Entremont interacted with the students and having an experience that allows the audience to share in as well.
In conclusion, aside from the fact that Nice is a beautiful city, I personally feel that this summer festival has played an important role for my artistic growth. Not only by having inspiring master classes from Prof. Entremont, but also through discussing about music with my fellow musicians that enriched my musical knowledges. It was definitely a lovely experience and I would love to come back in the future. À la prochaine!
Anthony Hartono
