Mitsuko to NY Times: ‘I don’t self-analyze’
NewsThe paper’s cultural reporter learned the hard way that Mistuko Uchida does not play the game any way but hers.
A scholarly artist, Uchida was intent on testing my musical knowledge, stopping the interview several times to quiz me on the German Renaissance, the invention of musical copyright, Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and the deaths of Schubert and Webern. Unimpressed, she at one point suggested I leave my job for a year to study music full time.
Sample quotes:
– Do you think I am navel-watching every day, or what? Excuse me, I am a musician. I am not anybody that important or anything.
– I love not to travel.
– I never have revelations in my life. Or if I do, I won’t tell you.
– Somebody told me a long time ago, “Ms. Uchida, you don’t commission that many new pieces.” And I only said, “What am I to know what that schmuck is going to do?”
Full interview here.
The reporter, Javier C. Hernandez, has earned a name-check.
Just read the entire interview. I’m surprised how short it is, given the interviewer said he spent 2 hrs interviewing her. Felt more like he got that entire interview out in 20 minutes. Or perhaps he cut the more interesting bits…even if they were…testy…
Who is she kidding?
Heard her throw a right diva tantrum before now…. “don’t you know who I am???” Etc when not let the auditorium at Proms early to avoid ‘those people’. Many of whom probably pay good money to hear her.
Attitude borne of success and overreaching self-belief.
Ms Uchida is a force of nature and quite wonderful and obviously does not suffer fools gladly and why should she?
Exactly!
She is a great pianist, but … yikes.
It’s not just that she was rude to Javier Hernandez, she was rude to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and the Ojai Festival as well.
Q: Tell me what excites you about the Ojai Festival.
A: You think I go to Ojai because I get excited? No.
I go because there is music that I might want to do …
and I might do it for the people who are involved.
Q: You mentioned that part of what drew you to Ojai
was the opportunity to work with the Mahler Chamber
Orchestra.
A: Opportunity, no. I shall have lots of opportunities.
But for them, it is an opportunity. They wanted
to go to Ojai. I do it for them.
You left the same comment after the Times article so I’ll leave the same reply.
I think you’re looking for things to be offended by. How was she being disrespectful to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra? She has many opportunities to play with them. She doesn’t need the Festival to accomplish that. However, they wanted to play at the festival and she made it possible for them to do so. I think she’s showing them enormous respect. It was the questions that were clueless.
People like her are simply living in a safe, cozy bubble very far removed from us “peasants.” She is the daughter of a former Japanese diplomat, so it’s safe to say that she doesn’t know what it feels like to go hungry or worry about how to pay next month’s rent. What would reset her self-consumed brain is two months of work with a road construction crew laying asphalt on a highway in 95 F heat.
Generally great answers to less-than-great questions.
Unfortunate comment from Mitsuka Uchida on why she rarely commissions new works:
Somebody told me a long time ago, “Ms. Uchida, you don’t commission that many new pieces.” And I only said, “What am I to know what that schmuck is going to do?” It is so dangerous not to know what the heck the piece is going to be. So I’m perfectly happy not to be the first person to do it.” – – “that schmuck” = the composer. Too bad she thinks this way.
Honestly though, with the state of modern “composition” as it is, she’s probably right most of the time
Why? Vast majority of compositions that were composed in the last 70 or so years will never get a second playing and absolutely deservedly so. As an orchestral musician I’ve played my fair share of “new” music and I can’t remember a single piece. One should really wonder why the only people that compose actual music with melodies and harmonies are pop stars, meanwhile our glorified composers have resorted to composing deconstructed avantgarde BS that amounts to little more than “noise”. I salute her for saying it as it is.
It is certainly true that when you commission a new work from a composer you could get anything! It does depend upon the composer of course, but if you give them complete freedom then you might end up with a piece you hate. And it is so rare that the piece you premier is ever performed again much less recorded. Rostropovich commissioned cello concertos from every composer he’d heard of and most have never risen from the abyss (but it was worth it for the Lutoslawski). Ms Uchida is very particular in her personal taste and I daresay has no interest in playing a piece she dislikes.
Her position on the issue is understandable, but I’d think that most musicians in her position would have enough tact to phrase the answer as something like, “Well, when you commission a piece, you never really know what you’re going to get until it’s almost performance time. I’d really rather play music that’s already been completed and performed a few times so that I know exactly what it is I’ll be playing when I choose it.”
I was really disappointed to read this. I admire her greatly, but I really dislike when people don’t respect that a reporter has a job too and is only trying to put the spotlight on her talent. A little bit of patience on her end would’ve been well applied.
Well bless her heart. She seems lovely.
What a wonderfully grumpy interview! No wonder: that interviewer’s questions were insipid and inane. Quite like her description of Mozart’s music – for once, none of that nonsense about it being “heavenly”. She gets it: it is sensual, picaresque, erotic, playful, naughty. It is as far from “heaven” as you can possibly get. Any musician who mentions heaven in the context of Mozart I know has utterly failed to understand him, and their interpretation of Mozart will suffer accordingly. But back to La Uchida: glad she doesn’t suffer fools. The NYT hardly sent their best, and she was right to be annoyed. How could she not be when she could be communing with Mozart instead?
Communing with Mozart? Don‘t you mean Wolfgang Amadeus Schmuck?
“Unimpressed, she at one point suggested I leave my job for a year to study music full time.” I find Mr Hernandez’ articles among the best and most interesting in the NYT. However, Uchida’s remonstration could certainly be suggested to most of the other music critics the Times employs, and we can throw in “New York Classical Review” too. They don’t know much in my opinion. Bring back Allan Kozinn and John Rockwell!
John Rockwell reviews for the Financial Times, at least occasionally.
Allan Kozinn moved to Portland, Maine some time ago.
The NYT has some contributing reviewers I’d like to see them use more often, in particular Oussama Zahr and Anastasia Tsioulcas. And if Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim or Anne Midgette wanted to return, I for one would be happy to see them.
The single dullest concert I ever attended was Uchida performing Schubert sonatas at Alice Tully Hall 20 or so years ago. That said, I got a good nap in the middle of the borefest. I know she has a large coterie of followers, but that’s my opinion.
I congratulate you for having a pair of ears.
You’re not wrong. I have always found her playing prissy, cloying, and dull.
Yes. There are many people in this profession that don’t belong.
Sounds (meaning, “reads”) like she was having a bad day.
Gad, could Central Casting have come up with a more insufferably smug and pretentious figure of fun? Who could make this up? This dialogue like one of the gawdawfuls described to hilarious effect by Bertie Wooster in a PG Wodehouse novel.
Love that Schoenberg record with Boulez, though
This wonderful musician is as meticulous with language as she is with her music-making. The critic, overseen by an editor, can have his “mistakes” corrected. The critic, as well, is there to provide the usual “pap” that one reads these days about everyone, from politicians to movie-stars.
Uchida is on a higher plane of imagination and professional effort. She is the noblest of musicians and a gracious artist. The article makes her sound “testy” which she might very well have been towards the superficiality of the questions and trust of the interview. Good for her for being honest and forthright.
Yes, this! The interview is a brilliant textbook example of cultural dissonance. Hernandez clearly cannot even begin to comprehend what lies behind Uchida’s responses to his feeble line of questioning. She is playing him off the court — game, set, match. I disagree with her on one point, however: rather than submitting himself to 1 year of catch-up education he should do the whole damn 4 years.
Javier Hernandez isn’t a critic, for whatever it’s worth. He’s a reporter.
Correction: from comment above, the next to last sentence..the “thrust” of the interview…
“I am not anybody that important or anything.”
Anyone who does what she does (and the way she does it) is way beyond important!
She’s my hero for this interview. Finally someone sees through the crap classical coverage at the Times
I agree, facile and culturally tone deaf questions. The Western cult of ‘the self’ now reaching its apogee never sits well with traditional Japanese culture, especially when it is simply assumed they must simply think the same way.
I’ve never had a particular interest in Uchida in comparison to others who perform a lot of the same repertoire so well (e.g., Perahia in Mozart or Bach), so nothing from the quoted interview segments, or the comments above, changes that disinclination, although she is indeed a great talent.
(All of which is completely separate from what I think of the subject matter and editorial tone of arts coverage at The New York Times.)
A vastly overrated artist. Wire-thin sound, flat tone, everything so over-phrased and fussy, and her technical limitations are painfully obvious. Some years back at Carnegie hall, she had the nerve to re-write the coda of the 2nd movement of the Schumann Fantasie – she simplified it to fit her limitations. And she totally got away with it, so 2 years later she came back and did it again! For God’s sake – if you can’t play it, then DON’T PLAY IT! Yet the audiences continually fawn over her – Well, honey, you can’t fool everyone… A case of the Emperor’s clothes.
This interviewer is terrible lol…those seem like questions for a teenybopper magazine
Uchida is the female version of Andras Schiff: a niche pianist with a testy attitude, a bigger ego than their limited repertoire.
Many commentators praise that Uchida “doesn’t suffer fools”, but her answers were, and she appeared, just as foolish:
– of the pandemic, her biggest gripe was that the food at high-end Tokyo hotels were terrible
-of living composers, she calls them schmucks (but quite frankly, if she was a pianist of a higher caliber, people would dedicate pieces to her without her needing to commission them)
If you get commissioned to write a piece, you get paid and the piece is likely to get performed a little. If you dedicate, you get nothing, on top of it she can refuse the dedication and ultimately never play it…
An unyielding diva, snob, and great artist with the most beautiful tone.
I have a lot of sympathy for music journalists, especially given that the market for arts journalism is much smaller than it was a generation or two ago. Mr. Hernandez earns my respect as a yeoman reporter whose beat is concert advance stories and interviews; he’s not a NYT reviewer.
Interviewing requires homework – researching the subject and designing questions that you hope will spark an engaging conversation with someone you’ve never met. You must be ready to move in unanticipated directions wherever the interviewee wants to go. And over time, you encounter those who are absolute joys in conversation as well as the other kind.
In another lifetime, I did what Mr. Hernandez does. Mostly, the conversations went swimmingly because interviewer and interviewee were interested in the same things. I say without hesitation that my absolute favorite chat was with pianist Shura Cherkassky, who was the most delightful conversationalist, going on about everything and nothing in particular.
But sometimes, you get one who’s a terror. For me, it will always be the patrician violinist who spoke non-stop for 30 minutes, never allowed an opening for a second question and declared the interview over when he was done talking.
Most of the time, though, it’s fun. You have to be sympathetic – as with the jet setting composer who, exhausted after rounds of previous interviews, clearly didn’t have another one left in him; I ended it mercifully short. And sometimes, it becomes a surreal game, as with a tres avant garde French composer whose abstract musical vernacular was entirely his own.
If Mr. Hernandez has done his job here, he’s shown Ms. Uchida for who she is – or at least, who she was during those two hours together.
A very disappointing interview despite the efforts of the writer to probe with honest and respectful questions.
It’s an inane interview, and for comments like “what that schmuck is going to write”, the journalist would have done well to note that she had must have said so tongue-in-cheek. The meaning is clear: “I don’t want to risk committing to performing a yet-unwritten piece that I might not like”; the lady is busy, likes to devote her very limited time to things that interest her, and would feel insincere if she had to promote a piece she did not enjoy, just because she commissioned it.
She is not as rude as comes across here (she generously allowed this guy to interview her for 3 hours in total! Perhaps hoping for a more insightful result. Case in point about commissioning new pieces, sight unseen…); she is sarcastic and truthful. For example, nothing about that Ojai comment is rude, only the way the journalist framed it. I am convinced that likely she bristled at his use of the word “opportunity” (which is something enjoyed by a beginning-stage performer, not a world superstar), so she corrected the interviewer, implying that if it were her choice, she wouldn’t want to schlep to some far-flung locale, were it not to give the MCO an opportunity to perform there with someone of her stature; rather generous of someone of her age and health, all things considered. Had the writer understood anything about a musician’s lifestyle, he would have relayed that nuance.
“for comments like ‘what that schmuck is going to write’, the journalist would have done well to note that she had must have said so tongue-in-cheek”
Has Mitsuko Uchida ever said anything tongue-in-cheek in her life? Not that I can remember …
“The meaning is clear: ‘I don’t want to risk committing to performing a yet-unwritten piece that I might not like’”
Had she said exactly that, no one would be criticizing her.
“implying that if it were her choice, she wouldn’t want to schlep to some far-flung locale, were it not to give the MCO an opportunity to perform there with someone of her stature”
You don’t think that’s rude?? To say about the institution that’s paying you that you wouldn’t want to be bothered dealing with them except that you’re doing these other musicians a favor? Let alone saying it right before appearing at the institution that’s paying you (rather than safely afterward).
The implication that the Mahler Chamber Orchestra is of an inferior stature is insulting as well. In Europe, i dare say they’re now more prominent than she is.
I once knew a European conductor who was very outgoing in public. Whether interacting with young audiences, meeting with donors, or giving media interviews, he always seemed very extroverted. However, one time I encountered him in a private setting, and he was like a completely different person. He was very introverted, sensitive, and even sharp-tongued, appearing cold and unwilling to engage with others.
Of course, this has nothing to do with his artistry. I believe we have set our expectations for musicians too high. We should focus on their musical talents, rather than expecting them to be pianists, conductors, philosophers, and life coaches all at once.
I’ve always tried to avoid close encounters with artists whom I admire. They are human and they have good days and bad days and even a brief and trivial encounter can go bad in all sorts of ways. I would just as soon not have a lifetime’s investment in the work of a particular artist be compromised because we rubbed each other the wrong way in a 30 second encounter.
Insufferable comes to mind. Like many at the top she is all about herself without question. You have to expect that but we don’t have to respect it. A life with no family or seemingly no students / proteges seems hollow and a bit one dimensional which is what she seems to want and is her business. I first heard her in a recording of Debussy Etudes over 25 years ago and was so impressed I purchased her Schubert and Mozart series. I gave them the library after one listen.
“…she is all about herself without question.”
Where do you get that? If anything she seemed quite reluctant to talk about herself at all which is rarely the sign of someone who is all about herself.
Also, the criticisms of her personal life and character seem ill informed and malicious. Apparently you are holding some sort of a grudge. What did she do – fail to give you an autograph?
Hey at lease she didn’t give yes or no answers like this celeb I knew LOL.
How about publish the UNEDITED version of the interview, and next time send an interviewer of the caliber of Charlie Ross?
As for Uchida, she obviously detest interviews and should refrain from giving them like Kirill Petrenko. Just play your music, don’t socialize with people, and go home to your glass house.
Her 1980’s Mozart sonatas set is still my favorite benchmark of these works. I do agree with her on new compositions, I hear them at almost every concert and they’re absolutely a horrid waste of money and time. If I were to commission a new work, I would tell the ‘schmuck’ exactly what I want before if they want to get paid — must have beautiful melodic themes, easy on the ear, not too complicated with lots of birds and nature sounds.
Always interesting to read everyone’s views.
If only the whole interview were able to be seen and heard…..
Music journalism was my game back in the mid-70s through the mid-90s. I had the opportunity to interview dozens of big name artists and was fortunate to encounter very few jerks. Some were reticent, some were loquacious; some were serious, some were funny and wicked smart (looking at you, Alfred Brendel). Only once did I entirely botch an interview; with a pianist who was briefly a hot item in the ’70s. But surliness was not the problem. He charmed me so thoroughly, that until I typed up the transcript I didn’t realize he hadn’t said a damned thing of significance . I had a hell of time making an article out of it.
So excited to listen to Avishai Cohen in Moscow this week:
https://moscowjazzfest.com/artists/avishai-cohen-trio/?ysclid=lx9dh4ec4m605266098