Interview with Andrea Zanchetta
You perform both as a soloist and a chamber musician. Is there a particular repertoire that you prefer to concentrate on?
I like to play all styles of music, from Corelli to contemporary music, but my special preference is for Baroque music and all Italian music. I should say also that, since I have moved to Hong Kong, Italian music, with its many singing cantilenas gradually gained an even more special and touching meaning for me, as a dear reminiscence of the beautiful light, colors of my previous life in Venice. So in Hong Kong I try to play as much Italian music as possible!
You perform on both the Baroque and the modern violin. Are there significant differences in the way these two instruments are played?
The baroque violin requires a different bow technique and, of course, we have to try our best to recreate the playing style, which can be done only by reading all of the available treatises, documents of each historical period. Also, from comparing the score of different works by the same composer, we can get many interesting insights. This liberal work is just a necessary condition, which gives us the possibility to recreate the style. After that we need to understand every detail with our heart and express it with our own technical and musical means to give a lively, modern but historically informed performance.
In addition to your busy concert career, you are also a qualified physicist. How were you inspired in this subject, and what is the nature of your work in this area?
Since I was a child, Mathematics has been a very natural language to me. One day, in the '70s, I asked my father what an atom was. My father, who is not a scientist, gave me such an impressive and fascinating description that I was inspired to look for books about Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics. I was 8, perhaps 7, at that time. Only when I was 25 I decided to go to the University and study Physics. As a researcher I gave a little contribution in the study of the wind over the sea, but now I am not doing anything new as I am too "addicted" to my violin.
In the upcoming CCOHK concert you will be playing on copies of the original set of strings found in Paganini’s violin case. Could you tell us a little of the history behind the discovery of these strings?
These strings made out of lamb’s gut were found in an envelope with a manuscript inscription in black ink bearing the words "Antiche corde del Violino di Nicolo’ Paganini". Mimmo Peruffo, an Italian historical string maker and researcher was invited to analyze the sample found and he took all the necessary measures. I think it is important to mention that Paganini was very accurate and demanding when choosing the strings for his beloved violin. There is a letter Paganini wrote to a string maker in Naples, recommending the quality and the characteristics of the strings he was about to order. He even urged a friend to keep an eye on the workers to ensure the accuracy of the manufacturing. If you want to know more about that, please come to the pre-concert talk!
You also have a strong interest in music education and enjoy teaching violin. Tell us more about your work in this area since moving to Hong Kong in 2007.
In these three years I had the chance to meet many different kinds of students: the typical primary school student whose parents want him to go through the grades as fast as possible, the university student who would like to become a professional, the adult amateur, etc... I like particularly the talented students in the HKBU where I am an artist lecturer and I sometimes also coach the Collegium Musicum. Teaching violin in Hong Kong presents many different challenges than in Europe and I am not talking about cultural differences, but about the point that students are far too busy. When I was a child I had plenty of free time to decide when to study, when to have fun or practice piano and violin. Nowadays students function under a rigid schedule and I wonder how this is going to affect their creative potential. I see children nowadays like greenhouse flowers, so I think my mission is to make them play more "wildly" and if you listen to nowadays international top competition prize winners, you will understand what I mean, as many of them play more or less in the same way. Extremely accurate, but I don't feel their inner voice...
More about Andrea Zanchetta
Praised by the Italian newspaper Il Mattino for his “powerful and sweet tone“, Andrea Zanchetta’s specialty is the performance of Italian virtuoso music of the 18th and 19th centuries on both modern and baroque violin. Prior to moving to Hong Kong in 2008, he performed as a member of the Italian chamber orchestra Interpreti Veneziani and was often the featured soloist on many of the orchestra’s tours to Europe, Japan and Australia. A graduate of the State Conservatory of Venice, Zanchetta received high distinctions in violin, string quartet and chamber music performance. He has won several prizes in international competitions including first prize in the Premio Gorizia International Violin Competition and the International Chamber Music Competition in Tortona. His teachers and mentors include the world-renowned violin teacher Zinaida Gilels, Franco Rossi - cellist of the Quartetto Italiano, pianist Eugenio Bagnoli and Henryk Szerying. He has recorded over twelve CDs for the Rivoalto and Nuova Era labels. For more information please browse www.andrea-zanchetta.com
