Alexander Krichel in an interview

"My motto: Cold head, cold fingers, hot heart!"

Born in Hamburg in 1989, pianist Alexander Krichel has released six albums, five of them on Sony Classical. He studied in Hanover with Vladimir Krainev and in London at the Royal College of Music with Dmitri Alexeev. His debut CD earned him the ECHO Klassik award for "Newcomer of the Year" in 2013.
Since then, Krichel has been a regular performer on both national and international stages, appearing in concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Tonhalle Zürich, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, and in many other cities.

Classicpoint.net: Can you remember your first conscious encounter with a piano or piano music?
We always had a piano at home, as my mother played it as a child. I myself only ever tinkered around a bit until, as a six-year-old, my boundless energy led me to discover the piano as an outlet for it. It all started when I took lessons with a piano teacher who had just arrived in Hamburg from Saint Petersburg and didn't speak a word of German. I didn't speak Russian either. So she had no choice but to teach me music the way a mother teaches her child their native language: directly, idiomatically, and without detours. From the very beginning, music was a language with which I could express myself!

You passed the entrance exam with distinction into the preparatory class for gifted mathematicians at a university in Hamburg and then decided to study music after all. Why?
As a child, I had many interests. As you say, I studied mathematics and physics alongside school and participated in foreign language competitions and the "Jugend forscht" (Young Researchers) competition in biology. Mathematics has always fascinated me, just like music. However, mathematics lacked a crucial dimension: while the fascination here is purely cognitive, in music, the strong identification with the subject matter itself and the intense emotional connection are the reasons why, in this "head-heart decision," I ultimately had to listen to my heart. I simply knew that I couldn't live without music.

How much mathematics is there in music?
Musical architecture is often mathematical. This can be observed especially in early music, but also in contemporary music. A mathematical approach is certainly advantageous when working on or analyzing pieces, but I try to quickly "forget" what I've learned when I go on stage. So, the moment I step onto the stage, I assume that everything I know and have learned about the piece is "already there subconsciously" and I'm fully in a state where I want to rediscover the music and experience it intuitively and emotionally. My motto: Cold head, cold fingers, hot heart!

To what extent do you still engage with mathematics and natural sciences today?
Admittedly, I deal with mathematics very little compared to my early studies. I frequently use what I've learned, but it's usually in a very general and unconscious way. I often only realize it myself when my friends point out that they can't quite follow my train of thought when I skip certain (mathematical) steps. I'm very interested in natural sciences and still enjoy being surprised by new inventions.

As an analytical thinker, what's your take on contemporary music?
Admittedly, I don't see myself as an analytical thinker at all. Of course, I have a head on my shoulders, but I always make the big, important decisions with my gut (or rather, my heart). It's always important to me to be at peace with myself emotionally, and therefore I live by the principle that I often don't do things when they would actually be analytically correct, but rather when they feel right to me.
I have exactly the same relationship with contemporary music. I find some new developments interesting and am impressed by what people are capable of composing. Especially since I compose myself! Many contemporary composers, however, in their quest for discovery, forget what I mentioned earlier: the emotional message. They feel so much pressure to create something entirely new, something completely original, something no one has ever written before, that they compose things that often don't even bring joy to us musicians – let alone the audience.
I myself once had a telling experience at the premiere of a new work by a not-so-unknown composer: even after two weeks of intensive study, despite all my attempts at emotional engagement, mathematical analysis, and interpretation, I didn't feel I understood it. In situations like this, I ask myself: What is the audience, who generally haven't studied music and haven't had two weeks to immerse themselves in the piece, but are hearing it for the first time, supposed to make of this composition in concert?

Which era do you personally feel closest to, and why?
I'm not one of those musicians who like to limit themselves to a single era or composer as their area of ​​expertise. Even before my studies – and even more so during them – it was always very important to me to learn as much repertoire as possible from different eras, in order to gain a deeper understanding of the composer, the time period, and the development of the music. My studies with Vladimir Krainev and the associated Neuhaus School, which also produced pianists like Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, and Radu Lupu, confirmed this approach. These four great pianists, whom I definitely consider role models, refused to be pigeonholed but followed their curiosity and artistic intuition, and I, too, want to try to follow this path. I can draw something unique from every era, and depending on what stage of life or emotional phase I'm currently in, I tend to prefer one or another. This is reflected in my concert, which I will be playing at the Tonhalle Maag in Zurich (Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner, and Ravel), but also in my discography: from Mozart, Hummel, Beethoven, Chopin, and Liszt to Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Rachmaninoff, all the way to Ravel—it's all there. And I'm far from finished!

You've also composed yourself. Do you still compose, and what experiences have you had with it?
I've always composed on and off, but really only as a hobby. It was an interesting change of pace, not just to interpret, but to create something entirely new from scratch. I've written a lot, especially for string quartet and orchestra, but so far I've only published one composition for solo piano. It's called "Lullaby," which I dedicated to a close friend who was a great fan of film music. This composition has recently attracted some attention, as an American film producer took notice of it, and I've now released my first music video featuring this very piece.

You are involved in projects that give children and young people access to classical music. Can you tell us about these projects?
So-called education projects are essential for classical music! I personally do them at my own festival, in cooperation with many concert halls, but also for "Rhapsody in School": When I have a concert and the time allows, I often go to general education schools in the morning and play a little for the students. We talk about me, my profession, how I became a pianist, and whether I ever get homesick when I'm traveling so much. Once you've warmed up to the children, which usually takes less than five minutes, you realize that they want to know a lot. Most children aren't uninterested in classical music because they find it boring; they simply lack exposure to our world. I see time and again how a large number of these children are then sitting in a concert the very next day. That's exactly where we want to go – to inspire children and young people with music so much that they independently decide: "I want to experience this in a real concert!"

You're still young. What visions do you have for our world?
The world is currently undergoing a transformation; new things are happening in many places, new movements are taking shape. Some things are moving in a very positive direction, others not at all. I hope that everyone, when deciding where their sympathies lie, has the ability to listen to their heart and not be swept away by the simplistic rhetoric of a few. People act with particular strength when they are truly committed, and that is my vision for our world.

What are your hopes for your career as a pianist?
I hope that I will continue to have the opportunity to share my art with my audience in concerts. Furthermore, I hope to continue developing even into my thirties, to learn new repertoire, to discover new things in music, and never to lose the energy I currently feel when I sit at the piano.

Interview by Florian Schär | Classicpoint.net | December 1, 2019 |
Photographer: © Henning Ross