In memory of Tomas Dratva

Tomas Dratva, how did it come about that you started playing the piano and eventually became a pianist?

My parents were not musicians - my father is an engineer and my mother a chemist - but music always played a big role in our family. My mother played the piano and my father the violin. My mother's cousins were musicians, one of them a very successful composer and bandleader, so I was exposed to music from an early age. I was taken to concerts and experienced a rich cultural life. I had a piano at home, which I played all the time. My parents quickly realized that I should take lessons and so I had piano lessons, first with my mother and later at the local music school with Verena Haller.

I took part in many competitions and won several prizes. At the age of 13, I gave my first real concert in the concert hall of the radio studio in Basel; I played Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte. In 1991, at the age of 23, I made my debut at the Tonhalle Zurich: Honegger's Concertino is such a humorous and jazzy work with a fine orchestration - that was a wonderful experience for me.

Where did you study piano?

Jean-Jacques Dünki was my piano professor at the conservatory in Basel; I studied with him from 1987 to 1991. I later continued my studies for two years in London with Peter Feuchtwanger and finally graduated in 1995 in Lucerne with the Czech pianist Ivan Klánsky.

Are there any particular aspects that are unique to Swiss pedagogy?

I don't think so. But children are offered many opportunities to make music from a very early age. The first piano lessons are more free and playful than serious.

What do you think about competitions?

As a child, I enjoyed taking part in competitions. Later, during and after my studies, I did take part in some international competitions, but I was not ready to join the international competition circuit. I preferred to prepare concert projects in my early professional career as a concert musician.

As far as my students are concerned, I support them if they want to take part in competitions on their own initiative, but I don't push them to do so. Some regularly take part in competitions because they are very motivated to prepare for them. Others have no interest at all.

Peter Feuchtwanger is a good friend of mine. So I know that you have an excellent piano technique and I assume that you never have any pain when playing and that you know how to avoid it.

Fortunately, I have never had any pain while practicing or performing. One of my most important beliefs at the piano is to master a healthy and relaxed technique. That's what I try to convey. As soon as pain occurs, there must always be a way to change the playing technique to avoid chronic injury. This is a very important task for a teacher.

I know that you have a great fondness for contemporary music. Please tell us more about it.

I have performed a lot of contemporary music as I think it is important to play the music of the present and to see what the language of today has to offer. For example, the Swiss composer Esther Flückiger, who lives in Italy, writes in a free contemporary atonal/tonal style, rich in jazz rhythms and including many aspects of extended piano techniques. I have premiered some of Esther's pieces and released her music in a double album on Pianoversal, my web platform and music label for piano music.

Actually, you founded Pianoversal...

I played in the piano trio Animæ for 17 years, from 1993-2010, with whom we performed over 100 piano trios throughout Europe with the same line-up. We also toured South America several times. Every year we commissioned a new trio. For example, we played an exciting triple concerto that Peter Breiner, a conductor, composer and pianist living in London, had composed especially for us.

Another major project was the posthumous premiere of the piano concerto by the Swiss-Hungarian composer János Tamás with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, a wonderful concerto that was never performed during his lifetime. Tamás died in 1995, and a group of friends took care of his musical legacy. I have recorded all his early piano works as well as an album of chamber music. In fact, a large part of my 20 CD recordings is dedicated to 20th and 21st century music.

I am sure that you share your passion for contemporary music with your students.

I usually teach this music in groups because it is so new, challenging and complex. Students need to contextualize this genre, and together they can better explore and understand the sounds and colors. The group helps them not to feel lost and alone when working with contemporary music. I also teach classical music in groups, as I firmly believe that students benefit greatly from listening to each other. By playing in a group, they motivate each other.

I regularly organize educational projects, such as "Bartók's Echo", which was dedicated to Bartók's music and contemporary composers who emulate Bartók. The last project was called "Schwankende Quinten - Musik von Frauenhand" and dealt with female composers from the Romantic and Impressionist periods as well as contemporary music.

Did you play a lot of classical music, or did you concentrate mainly on the contemporary scene?

I have a passion for discovering new music, regardless of the era, and also for pursuing projects on individual composers. For example, I performed three previously unknown piano concertos by Koželuch after researching in music libraries and studying original manuscripts in Vienna and Paris. I became a specialist in Janáček and played his complete piano works, including the Concertino and Capriccio. Before I recorded all his piano music, I visited the Janáček Archive in Brno and received all the original manuscripts for preparation and study. It was also fascinating that I even played on his piano, a very beautiful Ehrbar concert model from 1876. I was also lucky enough to be able to record Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage on Richard Wagner's piano in Bayreuth: Steinway & Sons from New York had donated it for the first Bayreuth Festival. As it is in a museum, I was only allowed to play and record on the Steinway at night, so I spent the nights in Haus Wahnfried, the Wagner family home. That was a strange but wonderful experience.

Obviously you are also fascinated by old pianos.

That's another one of my passions, the old days of piano making, the ones by Blüthner, Bechstein, Steinway, Gaveau, Erard, Pleyel and others. I love playing these old pianos. The fascinating thing about them is that each piano has its own character, whereas modern pianos are built in a rather uniform way.

You perform a lot, and I wonder if you've ever had that "peak experience" when the music just flows and you're kind of outside of it?

Playing always requires inner and outer control. I don't believe in "forgetting yourself" on stage. On the other hand, I often have this kind of experience when I play the piano at home, especially when I improvise. But I wouldn't call these moments "outside of it", on the contrary, they are rather "inside of it".

May the memory of Tomas and the good he did encourage us to carry on the love of music and its transmission. À Dieu, dear Tomas, we bid you farewell, but we will always remember you with gratitude. We all know what we have lost.