Nimrod Borenstein, composer

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

During my formative years, from the time I started to learn music when I was three years old to when I became a young adult in my early twenties, I would say that my most important and significant influence was my father who is a great artist. I learned from him not only the discipline and dedication necessary if you want to create something new, but also the revolutionary spirit and the importance of reason. We did not always agree on everything but this was an advantage, enabling endless discussions.

In parallel to my father’s influence and help, I have always journeyed with my “gods”, the great composers whom I admire so much for the magical worlds they create. If I had to pick three composers that I always return to, they would be Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. It is not a matter of influence of a style of composing – as otherwise I would have chosen people closer to our time like Prokofiev, Stravinsky or Debussy. I think that maybe this is not about style but way of composing. In Beethoven the way of developing small motives/ideas, in Bach the counterpoint and in Mozart the lightness and heavenly melodies with also a lot of counterpoint.

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

So far in my life I would say there have been two greatest challenges. The first one was to try to invent my own style, something that would be unique to me and that I would find beautiful and strong. This was a challenge that I felt strongly in my twenties. The second challenge is something that I feel now that I am starting my fifties, it is the need to keep evolving. I understand that a composer creates essentially one new world in a lifetime and that a thity years old Beethoven and fifty years old Beethoven writes a music that is essentially…Beethovenien…but there are still some differences. I am at present in the middle of writing my opus 100 and have in mind this need of constantly enlarging my musical palette.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

For me there is no difference between writing a piece that is commissioned or a piece that is not. I would go even further by saying that there should not be any difference. I mean that one should aspire at creating the most beautiful music regardless of any performance in view. However, on a personal level, I really appreciate long term musical relationships and am excited when I write new pieces for friends with whom I have collaborated for years. To give you an example, it was a very special occasion for me when last year I conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to record with Clelia Iruzun the piano concerto I had written for her.

Over the years, Clelia has performed over ten of my pieces and I can not count the number of times that we had diners together with my wife and her husband!

New relationships with wonderful musicians I admire are also very special to me. Even if I think that my thoughts about the performer does not affect the way I write my music, who knows, maybe the unconscious should not be ignored here!

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?

I like to work and collaborate with people that I appreciate both as human beings and musicians and hope that we all work to create metaphysical beauty in this world. I find that conducting my own works can be an incredibly moving experience. It is difficult to describe what you feel when you perform together with over 50 people and sense that everyone lives the music and gives all their heart to it. For me music is when ego disappears and the great musical experiences gives you exactly that. So, in general, I would say that I am very lucky to work in music!

Of which works are you most proud?

This is a little like choosing between your children! However, maybe I could attempt to answer your question in a different way. Sometimes I give myself some long term challenges. For example I thought that I would try to write several concertos and during the past ten years I am proud to have managed to compose a large quantity of them including a violin concerto, a piano concerto, two cello concertos, a bassoon concerto, a saxophone concerto, an oboe concerto, a mandolin concerto and a viola concerto. In a similar manner I have a project to write twenty-four Etudes for solo piano over fifteen years. I am not there yet but the first 15 have been written, performed and published and the first 12 were recorded by Tra Nguyen a few months ago and just released on the Grand Piano label. So, not yet time to open the Champagne for the 24, but I am on the way!

How would you characterise your compositional language?

I think that there is no point trying to imagine someone’s music without hearing it first so I would love for the people who are reading this interview to listen to a few of my pieces before reading what I am about to say. I tend to do the same myself if I read a novel and there is an introduction written by a scholar, a translator or even the author: first I read the original work and then I come back to read what other people thought about it. However if I had to give a few ideas about my style I would say that some of my friends musicians say that my music is highly intellectual and emotional at the same time. When I compose I aspire at creating beauty and an absolute. For me the two can not be separated.

How do you work?

I try to work as much as I can. Some days are more productive than others but I try my best to be disciplined. I tend to compose chronologically: by that I mean that I try to find what comes next after what I wrote, like there was only one solution and I had to discover it.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Thinking that what you composed is good and being moved by your own music as if someone else had written it.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?

My advice would be to follow their ideas and their heart and write the music they truly believe in. It will most probably make their career more difficult in the short run but they will be happy to do what is right and I myself feel that being true to oneself is one of the most important things in life.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

I love watching tennis, and also playing tennis, and I have noticed that in tennis matches most of the audience is made up of people who play tennis as a hobby. So I think that it is important to find a way to have more amateur players. Most pieces that you hear in concerts are far more difficult than grade 8 so I think that realistically our aim should be to bring a lot of children to a minimum of grade 8 because unless you can play at least some of the pieces that you can hear in concerts much of the benefit is lost.

What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?

I personally find the term “music industry” upsetting. For me music, like any other art or even intellectual activity (like mathematics) should be done for the love of truth, knowledge or beauty. It does not mean of course that musicians do not need to find a way to earn a living. One of the main problems we have at present is the need to grow younger audiences. Maybe I would start by fighting the term “classical” music. After all, we do not call Picasso “classical” painting so there is no reason to do so with Stravinsky. I think that this an important point worth fighting for.

What next – where would you like to be in 10 years?

I have now written many concertos (3 more to be premiered during the next year!), chamber music, solo instrument music, vocal music and even a ballet. In the coming years I would love to add to this a few symphonies and an opera. I recently decided to conduct more often and have various conducting projects underway in Spain, Israel, Hungary, Italy and Finland so I would very much like to develop this part of my musical life as well in the future. Mixing both my conductor and composer hats is my latest project, started just a few days ago: the Borenstein Ensemble. It is a group of outstanding musicians from various countries. The Ensemble’s nucleus is made of a string quintet (two violins, viola, cello & double bass) to make it possible to perform works written for string orchestra. It often contains a piano as well and is sometimes joined by other solo instruments. The group is dedicated to the performance of my music but also strives to perform chosen masterpieces of the past. So if I had a crystal ball I would love to see where this project takes me in ten years time!

Piano Works by Nimrod Borenstein, performed by pianist Tra Nguyen, is out now on the Grand Piano label, and via streaming

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Nimrod Borenstein’s website: https://www.nimrod-borenstein.com/

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NimrodBorensteincomposer