Following in the footsteps of parents and grandparents - and balancing between two orchestras.
In the "Family Stories" series, ten musicians, two members of the management team and Music Director Paavo Järvi talk about their parents, siblings and children.
They reveal the music they grew up with and how they organise everyday life as a musical couple. In the second part, Maxine Stucky, Paavo Järvi, Gilad Karni and Elisabeth Harringer-Pignat give an insight into their photo album.
"My grandfather André Raoult was principal oboist in the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He always talked a lot about that time, about the tours, about everyday life in the orchestra. So even as a child, it was clear to me that you go to the Tonhalle to work. However, I never wanted to be a musician, my place is behind the scenes; I like making things happen, contributing to concert life.
It's a coincidence that I'm now working at the ticket office in the Tonhalle. I love classical music, but also a lot of other things. This undoubtedly has to do with my family: My father Marco Raoult is a bass player with Pirelli and the Pancakes and Jean et les Peugeot, among others. And my mum is the jazz singer, yodeller and accordionist Erika Stucky. We had all kinds of music on at home, from Bob Dylan to French chansons and AC/DC. But everything was considered music: a dripping tap, the clattering of crockery. If you happened to make a particular noise, my mum would always say: "Do that again!" She then recorded it as inspiration. This musical openness, this thinking in terms of sounds and structures, as well as the understanding of quality, has already shaped me. I know how much work goes into making something good, regardless of the style.
My first musical love was the soundtracks of the Disney classics: such great orchestras, such great singers! Today I'm travelling after the K-pop band BTS, who I thought were great long before the hype surrounding them. And who knows, maybe one day I'll learn to play an instrument after all. I never used to want to, but I'm gradually gravitating towards the electric guitar."
"There are hardly any adults in the Järvi family who are not musicians. My father Neeme Järvi is still very active as a conductor; he recently toured China again. At the age of 87! My brother Kristjan is also a conductor and my sister Maarika is a flautist. And then there are many more, cousins, aunts, uncles - in summer, at our festival in Pärnu, about 25 Järvis meet on stage. Only my mother is not a musician; she was responsible for everything else at home, for the children, the colour of the curtains, all the practical matters in general; but also for the decision to leave Estonia, or rather the former Soviet Union, and emigrate to the USA. To live a disciplined life, to be thrifty: I learnt that from her.
It was always clear to me that I would become a conductor like my father; I never thought about other options. He introduced me to great composers as a child: Dmitri Shostakovich, for example, or Arvo Pärt, who was 'Uncle Arvo' to me. I then started out as a percussionist, just like my father, which is a good start: you can help out in orchestras at an early age and therefore have plenty of time to observe this special relationship between conductor and orchestra. You realise what works and what doesn't, how to ask for something and how to ask for something.
When I started out as a conductor, my father warned me about certain passages: "Watch out, this passage is tricky! To this day, we often talk on the phone and are in close contact. Sometimes he also sits in the audience when I conduct - that always gives me extra motivation.
Incidentally, contrary to family tradition, my two daughters did not become musicians, although they both have artistic potential. But they learnt to play the piano, which was important to me: not because I wanted to push them in that direction, but because it trains discipline - and because you experience how satisfying it is when you get to grips with something."
"My mother was a needlework teacher, my father worked in diamond production, but it's no coincidence that both I and my two sisters studied music. We played a lot of chamber music at home, often until the early hours of the morning; I remember hiding in the hallway as a small child to listen. My mum played the cello as an amateur, but often together with professionals. She encouraged us very skilfully - without pressure, but purposefully. I also inherited musical genes from my father, he plays the harmonica and sings, preferably French chansons. And then there was an aunt who was a singer, a pupil of Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. She had a huge influence on me, and I will never forget our joint performance of Brahms songs at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
There are musicians everywhere in my family - some are professionals, others are dedicated amateurs. My wife Eugenia is a concertmaster in Fribourg and Basel, my son Gerald is a violist and conductor; my daughter Yasmine works in biotechnology but has kept music as a hobby. One niece is a talented violinist, another sings pop, a nephew is studying musicology and plays the oboe. As my sisters and I are and have been active in various countries, we have a very extensive network. This means we can support the younger generation when it comes to making contacts.
And of course we make music together, not just at family celebrations: I have a trio with my wife and my mother-in-law, who is a pianist. And last year, perhaps the most beautiful family concert took place in my home country of Israel: My son conducted, my wife and I played the solos in Mozart's Sinfonia concertante. It was the first time that the three of us were on stage together - a very emotional moment."
"My husband Xavier Pignat and I got to know each other thanks to a quick defeat by Roger Federer in the quarter-finals of the French Open. I was in my rehearsal year in the orchestra at the time, he was an intern with the cellists, but we never had any direct contact with each other. Then there was a tonhalleLATE, he wasn't scheduled and wanted to watch the tennis match instead. Since it was so unexpectedly short, he came to the concert after all - and we exchanged a few words for the first time on the dance floor. That's how it started.
Later, he occasionally played with us as a guest and continued to study with our solo cellist at the time, Thomas Grossenbacher. in 2006, he could have come on our tour of Japan, but at the same time there was an audition at the Zurich Opera House - and even though I would have been extremely happy if he had travelled with us, I didn't want him to miss this opportunity. I would probably still be able to find the phone box in Fukuoka from which I called him the evening after the audition ..
The fact that he got the job at the opera house was a huge stroke of luck for us. He could have ended up somewhere else entirely. Now we both have a job in Zurich, but not in the same orchestra, which is ideal for us. I couldn't imagine what it would be like if we always had the same experience at work. And when the children came along, it was also easier because of the different rehearsal times. At the opera house, the orchestra always has Mondays off, so I was able to play my parts in a very relaxed way. And we covered the concert evenings with babysitters. Nevertheless, it was often tight, I was often travelling very quickly by bike between home and the Tonhalle. But now the boys are 11 and 14 years old, it's much less stressful.
We enjoy the time with them, we also consciously reserve rehearsal and concert-free periods. That's necessary - with two full-time jobs and various chamber music projects, we're pretty busy. That's why we hardly get to play as a duo at the moment. But that will happen again!"
We use deepL.com for our translations into English.
