“I want to find ways to be excited about music all the time” Cellist Wolf Hassinger interview
Born in Berlin, Wolf Hassinger studied his Bachelor and is still in his Master's degree at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin. Wolf was invited to a lot of festivals and academies including the mmcj Masterclass in Yokohama, Japan, the Bach festival 2014 in Frutillar, Chile, the Davos Festival in Switzerland, the Trenta Musikforum in Slovenia (from Wiener Philharmoniker), and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. He plays in several orchestras including Staatsorchester Kassel, Sinfonieorchester Schleswig Holstein, and Orchester of the Komische Oper Berlin. But his main passion is for chamber music. With his quartet (Vox Quartet), he was coached from members of the Artemis Quartet, won several prizes, participated in masterclasses, and played concerts regularly. He also regularly plays at Berlin-based concert series “Classical Sundays” hosted by Shasta Ellenbogen, where he familiarized with amazing new chamber music repertoire and meet amazing new audiences and the musicians.
I interviewed him on one sunny day afternoon in September.
When did you start playing the cello?
I started when I was 7, but I started the recorder and piano before. My mother had a lot of musical instruments because she studied music therapy. When I was young, my father, sitting on a gymnastic ball with me on his lab, used to listen to Haydn or Mahler. I saw cello on the video and I said “I want to play this” and started to play.
Did they buy a cello for you?
You can rent it from the music school. There are different sized from 1/16, 1/8, 3/4, full. I think I started with half cello. Then I got ¾, then I got full cello from my mother. She already had a big one.
When did you know you will play for long? Did you know that you’ll become a cellist?
I didn’t know. To be honest, I always enjoyed it, and I liked it. There were other things I liked. I didn’t have forceful parents who made me practice and play every day. My mom was very relaxed about practicing. I enjoyed the music and I somehow it was clear that I have talent. I was quick on learning the rhythm and music. But I wasn’t practicing every day. So I didn’t know I would be a cellist. I continued doing it. It was fun, more and more fun. At 16, I wanted to study it. And then I started to practice more for preparing for small auditions and competitions.
What kind of musician do you want to become?
I want to always grow. I want to get older, and still find ways to be excited about music — to play with new people, keep going searching, keep on learning the instrument. What I don’t want to become is someone who is bored with the cello and doesn’t care anymore about what he does. As an orchestra musician, you have a tendency to become like that. They think like, “it’s just a work”. I don’t want to be like that.
Do you sometimes put emotion, something not your rational?
I play a lot of orchestras where you don’t necessarily need to put an emotion. Of course, I get emotional too sometimes, also in the orchestra, for example at the end of Puccini's opera “la Bohème”, especially the first times I played it, I got very emotional, it’s just such a sad story. When I play solo or chamber, I always play with emotions. It depends also a lot on the piece and the situation I’m in (playing for who/where/when). I guess for me first comes the rational things, to play the right note, play the right intonation. And then when I’m at that level, then I can put emotion, then the music is right. I can let myself free. But there are people who are different, who just play with emotion, and don’t care so much they play the right note. And it’s admirable, but it’s not who I am.
What’s your attitude towards cello? What is cello to you?
I love playing the cello, of course. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have chosen it. For me, it’s my profession. It feels very natural to just keep going. It gives me confidence. Some people say “you’re good.” Then it gives me confidence. Of course, I have my issues. But it just goes. It goes on.
It’s part of me. It sounds strange, but after so much time, I cannot imagine life without it. It’s possible for a couple of days (to imagine without it). For a long time, it’s very strange. I notice there is a standard answer for it, it says “it’s my best friend” and some musicians even have names for it. I don’t. It’s a box of wood actually, rationally speaking. But it’s just always here. It’s not like everywhere I walk, I’m physically with the cello. But mentally it’s a huge ground. I know, even if so many terrible things happen, I can play. That’s why it’s sad for a musician to have an injury so you cannot play.
It also can give me help. If I don’t play, I immediately feel a bit sick. It always happens. If I don’t play it for a long time, I get slowly sick mentally but also physically. It’s very strange. I don’t know why.
Do you bring the cello when you go for a vacation?
I don’t need to bring it, but I think last year, I was never longer than 10 days without the cello. At least there was always a possibility to rent a cello. There are musicians who do breaks, like going hiking for 3 weeks. I can do for example 10 days hiking -if it’s hiking I wouldn’t get sick. But just be inside and be in front of some kind of screen for weeks without cello is not good for your brain or your health.
What do you want the audience to feel?
I care a lot. I care 100% of the audience. I want them to feel just some kind of reaction, emotion, remember something from childhood, or landscape. Even something bad. Some fight, if the music is aggressive. And get some mind open or realize something that they never realized before.
What is your dream concert?
It’s a mixture of different things. Actually, the setting and the audience of Classical Sunday is very nice. It feels friendly, in this kind of circle, cozy, and at home. It’s a huge space with artwork. I just hope that sometimes the door stays closed or to put the phone off.
To play chamber music in quartet or trio, you need to be prepared and practice the piece. If you know the piece and know each other, you can let freer and enjoy yourself. If you don’t rehearse, somehow you’re very stressed inside and hope everything hopefully goes ok. It matters you know the piece or not. So it’s a combination. Some high-level chamber music in a welcoming hall is my ideal concert. I can play solo, but I feel lonely. I like to play with other people. Chamber music at a high level at a great hall is just amazing.
Who was your most memorable audience?
It’s always difficult to say. Class recitals in the university are sometimes memorable because all my connections from Berlin are invited, and sometimes I see faces which I haven’t seen for a super long time.
There are some concerts I remember, especially when I graduated from a bachelor’s degree. It was my bachelor concert, and I played two sonatas in a row. They were pretty long pieces. And because it’s pretty long, I had to play -50 minutes just for myself. People came to me and said it was nice. It’s one of my most memorable audiences.
Now I’m so influenced by the Berlin concert series Classical Sundays because I did it so many times. It’s so many people. And sometimes, these people have nothing to do with classical music, but these people can help a lot with musicians. It’s always surprising who’s there and the feedback you get from them. You can talk with them. I like that about Classical Sunday. I mean it’s a close connection to the audience, it’s nice.
When I used to play for my grandma when she was still alive, it was also memorable. I was still a kid. She was a very musical person. She was playing recorder and piano. She would be happy to see me now.
Are you happy with your life?
Yeah, I’m happy. I think there are always things in your life that you could have done differently. But I think everything works out fine, you will find the way inside of you. I think in the end, there is always the best solution. I’m very happy but I realized I don’t like to be in one space. That’s one thing I hope. I hope that I get to meet new people and visit new places. The orchestra makes me a little bit afraid that I work with the same people all the time. I’m happy that things are coming to me. I try not to think too much.
Why do you think you do music?
I think music is huge, like a mystery. Sounds are in the air, they never stay, and something new also comes. Of course, you can record it, but live music never stays. I think it’s amazing to have this kind of art. It’s always going, to you need to be concentrated all the time. And it’s away. I want to show to people this kind of experience.
Amazing music was written by musicians and composers, and I want to honor them, and show it to the people to make their brains more open and rich. I’m like a medium for that with my cello. That’s why I do it.
There are standard answers. “I want that audience to feel emotions, happy, sad…”
It’s also true, but from all the art forms, writing, painting, making sculptures, it’s all there, you can see it, touch it. But as for music, you cannot see, you cannot touch. It’s there, and it goes away. You can touch the CD, you don’t touch the music.
Music is a very special way, a very special thing, it’s magic. It’s human magic.