Miklos Perényi in an interview

"His game was still very powerful."

The Hungarian cellist Miklós Perényi is one of the great cellists of his generation. Since 1974, he has taught at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he has held a professorship since 1980. His solo career has taken him to all the world's major music centers.

You received your first cello lessons at the age of five. Do you remember that?
The cello was my father's favorite instrument. Before I was even born, my father had already met my first teacher. He had promised him before my birth that he could teach me. Private lessons began when I was five. At seven, I passed the entrance exam for the preparatory course and entered the music academy. At that time, Zoltán Kodály was still the jury president.

After you won the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition in Budapest, Casals invited you to his masterclasses in Puerto Rico in 1965/66. What was Pablo Casals like?
Pablo Casals was already 87 or 88 years old. But he still played for us while teaching, to demonstrate exactly what he wanted. His playing was still very powerful, which impressed me greatly.

You were subsequently invited to the Marlboro Festival several times. Which musicians did you play with back then?
I played a lot with Felix Galimir, but also with members of the Emerson Quartet and the Guarneri Quartet, with Edith Beinemann, Michael Schwalbé, and many others.

What do you remember most about those Marlboro Festivals?
The opportunity to play with so many great musicians was wonderful. Playing in the orchestra under Pablo Casals was also an impressive experience.

You have been teaching at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest since 1974 and were appointed professor in 1980. Looking back on almost 40 years of teaching, how has your teaching style changed?
Through practical experience, I have built up a wealth of knowledge. This makes it much easier to address the needs of individual students. It's a lot of fun to continually explore compositional structures with the students.

Over these 40 years, have you noticed any general differences among the students? For example, has their level, learning ability, receptiveness, etc., changed?
At the beginning of my teaching career, the students had a much more individualized playing style. Today, students play in a much more adapted and uniform style. A noticeable difference in skill level became apparent in the 1970s. Parallel to the emergence of new compositions, the way technical problems are overcome has also changed.

Besides your concert performances and teaching, you also compose. When and why did you begin composing?
I started composing 30 years ago. I compose every day. I enjoy finding the best solutions, even if it sometimes requires a lot of mental effort.

Do you compose with the cello, at the piano, or without an instrument?
I compose mainly at the piano, but also at the cello or without any instrument at all. My music is based on twelve-tone music with a certain tonality and harmonic stability.

You maintain a close collaboration with András Schiff. How did this collaboration come about?
In 1975, through a concert agency, we performed our first duo recital in Budapest. We have performed together every year since 1989. Lately, I've also been performing often as a soloist under his direction.

What do you do outside of music?
I tend my garden and water the trees regularly. I also enjoy short bike rides, and I love hiking.

Interview by Florian Schär | Classicpoint.ch | November 2, 2012