It still amazes me how many musicians aren't really interested in engaging with their audience at all. Alfred Brendel, a pianist for whom I have the greatest respect, has described performance as a sacred communion between the artist and the composer. But what about the audience? Music is communication, a two-way street.

Charles Hazlewood

Categorized in : Me Music Communication Respect

I hate playing the piano! And it's so hard to fight for Beethoven's soul! But that's what I have to do!

Charles Hazlewood

piano hate fighting

[As a conductor] there has to be, between me and the orchestra, an unshakable bond of trust, born out of mutual respect, through which we can spin a musical narrative that we all believe in.

Charles Hazlewood

motivation inspiration believe

For too long, musicians have been the greatest enemy of music. Their lack of desire to proselytize is a kind of betrayal.

Charles Hazlewood

betrayal long enemy

All roads for me lead back to Mozart. In his tragically short life, he breathed new life, fire and meaning into every form of music that existed in his time.

Charles Hazlewood

short-life new-life fire

The Southbank Centre Unlimited Festival was a distinct moment in time, an amazing counterpoint to the London 2012 Paralympics. There is no question that a major shift in perspective is taking place, that the world is waking up and greeting - as if for the first time - the extraordinary community of people with disability.

Charles Hazlewood

perspective community people

Music is a lens through which to see who we are. Every phrase of every piece of music is trying to tell a story.

Charles Hazlewood

lenses phrases trying

I want people to hear really exciting music played by the best, but in a context where they can clap when they want to, chase their toddlers, drink beer, take photos, get lost in the music and generally be themselves. And because a field has no rules, it's the perfect place to create unlikely combinations of musical genres.

Charles Hazlewood

best music beer people

I'm a bit of a Luddite, really: I don't use email much, as I started drowning in it. So I said 'screw this' and dumped my laptop, though I've begun to re-engage with it.

Charles Hazlewood

laptop email use said

Mozart, Beethoven - how can you not want to share them with everyone and anyone? This stuff is of as great importance as the food we eat and the air we breathe.

Charles Hazlewood

great you want food

I abhor the words 'classical music.' Few things satisfy me more than a really good cover version.

Charles Hazlewood

words good me music

Purcell is a composer who had a formative influence on British music - even The Who now cite him as an influence. There's an intense, dirty harmony, but there's a Louis XIV kind of elan and style, too. He had the melancholy DNA of our national folk heritage.

Charles Hazlewood

harmony heritage style music

Our pop scene is among the best in the world because there are 300 languages spoken on the streets of London, compared with 200 in New York. Our diversity is our strength.

Charles Hazlewood

best diversity strength world

There's always blood on the carpet when I play Beethoven at the piano. I hate playing the piano! And it's so hard to fight for Beethoven's soul! But that's what I have to do!

Charles Hazlewood

fight hate soul play

When I analyse the music, I can get really extreme.

Charles Hazlewood

really get music i-can

I free-form it, rock n' roll it. I'm a creature of risk, so I don't know how I'm going to explore a Beethoven symphony until I'm doing it.

Charles Hazlewood

rock doing know risk

I think most people's record collections are more interesting than radio generally gives them credit for. You're likely to be as interested in the Grateful Dead as Palestrina. It pisses me off how compartmentalised music is. I used to be in a punk band, you know?

Charles Hazlewood

me you grateful music

For anyone who doesn't have that connection with Mozart, I urge those people to go and find some of his music, because it can quite genuinely make you just glad to be alive.

Charles Hazlewood

go you music people

Somerset is the first proper country county you come to in the West, which isn't dependent on London and isn't full of commuters. Somerset is full of the most fantastically interesting people.

Charles Hazlewood

you country people interesting

I spend so much of my time working away, but I love being here. My family is in Somerset, and this is where my heart is.

Charles Hazlewood

family heart time love

I have loads of issues with the way classical music is presented. It has been too reverential, too 'high art' - if you're not in the club, they're not going to let you join. It's like The Turin Shroud: don't touch it because it might fall apart.

Charles Hazlewood

you music art fall