James Inverne: You are about to play Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1, with the English Chamber Orchestra at Cadogan Hall in London – as an Israeli pianist, could one point to an ‘Israeli school’ of Chopin playing?

Alon Kariv: That’s an interesting question. More generally there is a certain pianistic approach that is created from the fact that Israel is a melting-pot of different cultures. As for Chopin specifically, the Israeli school would seem to be about an extreme respect for the text, and an idea that the music has a kind of noble elegance. There was a famous masterclass that Arthur Rubinstein gave at the Jerusalem Music Centre in 1978, where he said that 'Chopin is never pompous, and should never be played pompously.'

So the idea of playing sensitively and emotionally and providing a touching performance, that is how Chopin is talked about and taught in Israel first and foremost. But then you also have a strong Russian influence in the country, that tends to emphasise playing Chopin in a very rich and broad way, about finding emotion in large phrases.

JI: So what is that wider melting-pot of the Israeli piano school?

AK: There was a musical education here for two decades before the state was created in 1948. The first professors in the music academies were almost all Jews who had fled Germanic Central Europe. They came from countries such as Germany, Austria, some came from Hungary and had even studied with Bartók and Kodály. And these influences then continued – to this day, in fact – in Israel. One of the most important figures was a teacher of Hungarian descent, Ilona Vincze-Krausz, who had been taught by Bartók. And she brought incredible attention to detail and strict technique – among her students was Arie Vardi. Vardi in turn has become one of the very major figures of the Israeli piano scene, and is indeed one of my teachers, as well as the teacher of my teacher Tomer Lev at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, so the traditions continue!

Then, in the 1970s and 1980s, the huge influx of Soviet Jews brought to Israel the Russian school, and that added to the Germanic traditions that were already there. So for instance another major Israeli teacher was Rivka Burstein-Arber, very influential on the young pianists of her day. She was of Russian descent, playing with big emotion in big lines. And we Israeli pianists today are able to benefit from both of these approaches, and more. I was a student of both Hanna Barzilay and Hanna Shalgi, both of whom were taught by Burstein-Aber. There is also Viktor Derevianko, who also came from Russia and was a pupil of the father of the Russian school, Heinrich Neuhaus. My teacher Tomer Lev, had lessons with Derevianko alongside his studies with Arie Vardi.

So even without travelling that much, a young pianist in Israel is able to be exposed to many different approaches to piano playing and can then become an embodiment of those very different schools, the Germanic and the Russian. And that very fusing of those traditions has over the years become its own tradition – the Israeli piano school.

JI: And are there pianists you’ve been able to see a lot in Israel who also have been very influential?

AK: Yes, and in different ways. I both watched and have been able to play, many times, for Murray Perahia at the Jerusalem Music Centre, who always emphasises both in performing and teaching, the importance of having something that makes sense as a whole, not just having pretty details! I saw Daniil Trifonov in the Rubinstein Competition and in recital several times, and that was revelatory – the way that he made me, as an audience member, feel part of the experience. It was electrifying, and inspired me to feel the ‘extra dimension of the music’, that is the ability to convey some kind of message through the music and to be in dialogue with the audience, that they will be involved.

Coming back to Israeli pianists, Daniel Barenboim has been a very big presence for us, and he is an idol of mine, the way he always makes the piano sound like an orchestra. He finds the most satisfying balance between making sure every detail is being nurtured but not at the expense of the line and the structure. And he never just ‘floats’, it’s always clear and specific from which point he is leaving and to where he is going.

Also, Barenboim has access to a certain size of emotion, size of gesture, that does seem very Israeli. That is definitely part of the Israeli school. I’m not sure I was blessed with that in abundance, but I’m working on it!

JI: If you had to trace ‘the Israeli school’ to, say, two foundational figures, two approaches, two ‘parents’, who would they be?

AK: Pnina Salzman’s influence is still everywhere. She studied with Alfred Cortot – himself a pupil of Émile Decombes who was a pupil of Chopin – and her style was very ‘French’. I once played the same Chopin piece to both Tomer Lev and to Arie Vardi, separately, and they both quoted Salzman back to me (to play a certain passage 'more worried')! The funny thing is that most people would say that the French school is not represented enough in Israel, but they don’t realise that there is a French foundation, because of Salzman. She is still so beloved, as the Israeli princess of piano.

And the other of course is Rubinstein who, until the day he died, made a point of always playing with various Israeli orchestras around the country, not only with the Israel Philharmonic. With Rubinstein nothing sounded artificial. It was all very honest and natural and clean, and from that came the power of his playing.

He had an intimate relationship with Chopin and he got that across to the audience. Everyone I’ve met who heard him live says that he would melt your heart on stage. And to come back to where we started, that saying that Chopin shouldn’t ever be pompous, came from him and is constantly emphasised by Israeli teachers. And that, again, gives you the freedom to find a subjective, personal approach from what is in the score. So yes, we’re all still playing in Rubinstein’s world, and I for one am very happy about that!

Prize-winning young pianist Alon Kariv plays Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1 with the English Chamber Orchestra, at Cadogan Hall on May 11, conducted by Roberto Fores Veses. For tickets: cadoganhall.com

For more information, visit: alonkariv.com