Interview

Quality is in the detail.

HORST KLEE, AT THE AGE OF TEN YOU`VE STARTED TO PLAY THE GUITAR AND OBTAINED PIANO LESSONS TWO YEARS LATER. HOWEVER, YOUR ACTUAL FIELD OF INTEREST WAS RATHER THE CONCERT GUITAR THAN THE POP- ORIENTATED GUITAR.

There is no use to learn in peace and quite, you have to know what others do in order to remain competitive, and you need to listen to things also that do not correspond to your own conception. This maybe can strengthen your own opinien and your own way.Consequently you educate yourself to self critic which is absolutely essential for every artist. My former teacher Altenburg taught me an excellent base technique and this enabled me to pursue my autodidactic studies. The huge expressiveness of Julian Bream, for instance inspired me. Now there are two possibilities: I only can enjoy it as a listener and leave it at that, or I investigate which technical procedures results in such expressiveness.

The elements of art are founded in the detail. The development of a clear and clean tone production is only the base. Many famous guitarists, even some famous ones, remain at this point and are content about it. They play with a constant boring sound which reminds me of playing a piano in a very poorly way. But the guitar is like a organ with many register and after that there is much more to explore.

WHICH ROLE DID ROBERT BROJER PLAY IN YOUR ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT?

He played a very decisive role, as he had a great personality as a musician. He worked out the musical details with his students. I think he was one of the few guitar pedagogues who had a thorough knowledge about the articulation during the different epochs. He could do without long-winded interpretations of the contents und gave his Instructions very closely to the text -shortly and precisely. His lessons gave me the impetus to a methodical necessity of Interpretation, such as phrasing and part writing. After every lesson with him I conscientiously wrote down all his remarks and tried to acquire knowledge of common nature out of them. Furthermore, I was fascinated by his naturally human and even paternal warmth, which also expressed itself in a certain kind of authority. He was a brilliant musician who was able to handle the various matters. Only a few years later I got aware of the fact why he had this knowledge: Originally, he had been a musician of an instrument which had gone through a historical development and therefore had a pedagogic tradition. He had gained his knowledge from... the violin.