Interview with:
David Ernst Molnar
You were born into a musical family?
My father was the principal cellist of the Gothenburg Opera, while my mother is a violinist, her father was also a violinist, whilst her uncle, Zoltán Vásárhelyi, was a world-famous choir leader, so I guess the answer is yes. It has its merits indeed, not the least since I have been fortunate to meet many great musicians during my childhood and adolescence, without reflecting upon it at that time, but I´m sure that it has had some influence on the way I think about music.
What made you choose the piano in the first place?
That is a question I have pondered a lot from time to time, but I have always reached the same conclusion: the repertory, which is simply the best without any competition, unless you are a conductor, of course. A majority of the great composers have been pianists, writing important parts of their output for the piano, while others, hardly being able to play their own works have also contributed with supreme masterpieces, one of the best examples being Schubert! Conducting would have been a possible alternative, at least repertory-wise.
You are self-taught?
To some extent, yes, if that can be said of anyone, I mean, everyone not living in total isolation is influenced by their peers, and today there is also an extreme abundance of recordings available, from which to learn. However, I think Alfred Brendel might have been right, when he hinted to his own recordings being the best way to learn to achieve the expression you want, and thus playing the piano... If I´m not mistaken, he recorded himself prolifically while practising, learning to hear how his playing affected the sound produced. I can agree with this, studio work has helped me listen more carefully while playing. Naturally, though, a good teacher is very important in learning the basic mechanical parts of playing, or more specifically, learning an economical way of playing, free from physical stress. I have been fortunate to be able to work with some great teachers in this regard, privately and attending masterclasses regularly, perhaps most notably the classes of prof. Baranyay, who taught for decades at the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and himself was a pupil of Imre Ungár in Budapest and later Stanislav Neuhaus in Moscow….but also prof. János Sebestyén, playing the harpsichord, which was a revelation, both musically and from a stylistic point of view. I would say that he taught me more about music than perhaps anyone, freeing the innate musicality from all constraints of technical nature…an absolutely brilliant musician! And a great cosmopolitan, with the broadest understanding of culture in its widest sense.