In her new recording, "Homage to Heifetz," Dueñas pays loving tribute to one of the greatest violinists who ever lived, Jascha Heifetz, in collaboration with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra.
“The colors are the end … the top of the mountain.”
Spanish violinist María Dueñas was led into the world of music through the passion of her parents. Born in Granada in 2002, she and her two sisters were lucky that there was such love for classical music at home. While her parents are not musicians, there was always music in the house. And it followed her on trips in the car. She realized that when she heard the playing of the great violinists, she could recognize them by their distinctive, individual sounds. Jascha Heifetz. David Oistrakh. Yehudi Menuhin. (Never underestimate the effect of a radio broadcast on a child’s universe!)
María’s mom had a passion for the violin and joined her as a student for the first lessons. But it didn’t take long before her mother gave the instrument up, while her 6-year-old grasped and internalized the fundamentals at uncanny speeds. María was so precocious, in fact, that the whole family pulled up its roots and moved to Dresden when María received a scholarship to the Weber Academy at age 11. After that, it was another family move to study with Boris Kuschnir in Vienna. María still seems awestruck that her family would make such sacrifices and take such risks for her. She’s deeply grateful.
María is 23 now. She speaks Spanish, English and French fluently, and she’s learning Russian. She’s won a lot of prizes, including first place at age 18 in the Yehudi Menuhin Competition and, that same year, first prize at the Getting to Carnegie Hall competition. In 2022 she signed with the prestigious recording label Deutsche Grammophon, with whom she’s made a live recording of the Beethoven Violin Concerto (with cadenzas she wrote herself) and a second recording of the brilliant and treacherous Paganini Caprices.
Now, her third recording is being released: Homage to Heifetz pays homage to Jascha Heifetz, the violinist she considers a role model. He is her “constant source of inspiration.” The disc offers the two concertos that Heifetz recorded in the early 1950s: Korngold’s kaleidoscopic and lush concerto, which includes some of the juicy themes of his film scores; and Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, full of Spanish fire as seen through a French lens. It’s a continuation of an ongoing collaboration with conductor Gustavo Dudamel, which has given her great joy. And vice versa. María also includes some of the signature gems that Heifetz was known for by Debussy and Poncé. Featured are the astonishing Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and pianist Itamar Golan.
It was wonderful chatting with María Dueñas about her plush, warm sound; her approach to playing Heifetz’s own violin; and even her big vinyl pop collection.
TRANSCRIPT:
[MUSIC: Lalo - Symphonie Espagnole]
Cathy Fuller I'm Cathy Fuller. What a joy it is to barge in on a little bit of the private time of the wonderful Spanish violinist, María Dueñas. María, thank you for offering a bit of your time.
María Dueñas Thank you for having me.
Cathy Fuller You know, the last time and the first time that you were here, there was a packed house in Boston at Symphony Hall, and you were playing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic! Vivo Performing Arts was presenting you, and I'm hoping that Boston left a good impression on you.
María Dueñas Yes, definitely. I mean, it was one of the best halls I ever played in.
Cathy Fuller Oh, that's nice.
María Dueñas And it was a very special tour with this piece and yeah, with Los Angeles. So great memories for sure.
Cathy Fuller Well, you have a recording—and amazingly it's your third recording already—that's coming out next month. I just wanted to catch people up with you a little bit. You started the violin when you were 6 years old. So it seems like maybe you have a memory of the first time you kind of tucked it under your chin. Do you remember your very first moments with the violin?
María Dueñas Yes, I certainly remember the first time seeing it on stage because before, since my parents are not musicians, I was only listening to it on recordings. But when I saw it on stage, it was really something I wanted to pursue for sure. And I remember my first lessons. I was actually going there with my mom because she was so passionate about violin and she decided to start with me as well. But I remember she gave up very quickly because I was really fast, you know, at making all the technical things happen, and she was struggling a little. So she realized that she was a bit of a burden [Dueñas chuckles] for my development with the violin. So then I was just by myself after that.
Cathy Fuller Daughters do that to their mothers, and that's okay. [Fuller and Dueñas laugh] Well, you know, you had a big breakthrough year in 2021. You won first prize and audience prize at the Yehudi Menuhin [International Competition for Young Violinists], lots of other prizes too. And now you're lucky to be involved with Deutsche Grammophon. You've made 2 recordings, and now a third one is coming out, and you've decided to dedicate it to Jascha Heifetz. That is a magical name, and he was a magical man, who lived really right square in the 20th century. Can you tell me what excited you when you were first hearing these old recordings of Jascha Heifetz?
María Dueñas Well, I wanted this recording to be really close to how it started. Like, we were talking about me starting the violin, and I remember I was listening not only to Heifetz, but to so many other violinists like Menuhin, Oistrakh, Christian Ferrar, so many. But then as I grew older, I actually started identifying them, like telling them apart. I could recognize who is playing by listening. They all had a very personal sound. And I think what really fascinated me more about Heifetz was, if you look at him or if you listen to him speak or just by the way he poses at photos, he seems like a rather cold person. And it really struck me that when you listen to his music, it's so warm. So I think that he has a really honest way of playing. He was really showing himself, his soul. So I, with this recording, I really wanted to honor that feeling. It's not at all about me trying to play like Heifetz. I think that's impossible. I think no one can ever imitate him. But it's more about just honoring the legacy that he left us, not only recordings, but so many arrangements. And I mean, he even wrote a pop song. So he was such a multifaceted artist, and that's very inspiring to me.
Cathy Fuller And that's what you are, too. And I have to say, you know, a lot of people who go to review your concerts or talk about your playing, they land on these adjectives that are sort of Heifetz-like: "radiant" comes up a lot, Maria. Also "luminous" and "silky." And I guess it's all based around that warmth. How do you get that warmth out of the violin? Some of it must have to do with the violin, of course.
María Dueñas Yes, I think it's mainly the way I understand music. Like, for me, especially when I approach a new piece of music, the first impulse is what counts for me. Like, the first time I play through it, even if not all the notes are correct, but the feeling of it, like the very first one, is very important. I don't really like to listen to recordings when I'm starting to learn a piece because I don't want to be much influenced. Of course, when I reach a deeper working point, when I'm kind of working on detail, then yes, I love how do people play it, what historical background is there to the piece, to the composer. But the first impulse is really important, and I like to call it just an honest play. It's just whatever I'm feeling in the moment. And yeah, that's a little bit what I hear in Heifetz too.
Cathy Fuller The violin is a magical thing. I think of pianos this way too. What you imagine in your head, somehow the instrument finds a way to give it to you. Is that how you feel?
María Dueñas It is. And you were talking about violins. Yes, each violin offers unique possibilities because you can't really play the same on different instruments, because they also have their personal touch, their sound, so many differences. So you also have to adapt to the violin, and at the end, it's just such a growing process from both sides. And well, I think of course it's very important to have a very solid technical base in order to achieve the colors. The colors are like the end, like the top of the mountain. So to get there, there are lots of steps required.
Cathy Fuller Well, you know, I have to tell you, your recording starts with Lalo, and then it's the Korngold Violin Concerto. I still get goosebumps. I still remember the first time I ever heard that piece. Just the opening is so luscious.
[MUSIC: Korngold - Violin Concerto]
And then there are all those Hollywood melodies. [Korngold] actually took Hollywood tunes that he had written for various movies.
[MUSIC]
Is it possible to overdo something like Korngold? I mean, do you have to be careful to stay focused and don't over-exaggerate the romanticism?
María Dueñas Yes, definitely. I think especially in this concerto, which is so hugely orchestrated, so many things happen at the same time. There are so many details in the orchestra part which need space. So I think, yes, you have to be able to sometimes give the orchestra the spotlight and also appreciate the breaks, like whenever there is silence, for example before the cadenza or during the cadenza. Because of course I was listening to the original soundtrack of the movie, and when you give the melody to the violin, there is a certain intimate feeling that is quite different. And I think it's very nice, you know, to keep it— not keep it very big, but just as a voice.
[MUSIC]
Cathy Fuller You have perfect pitch, and it's really an unimportant thing in some ways, but I've always been convinced that people with perfect pitch—because I know many musicians who do—they just have this special kind of inner hearing. I mean, it's like there's furniture in there and shadows and there's like a whole universe in there. So do you find that, for instance, if you're learning a piece like the Korngold or the Lalo or any new piece like Ortiz, do you spend a lot of time practicing only in your head?
María Dueñas Well, not really. I think it doesn't really make us a difference among violinists. Like when you're preparing a piece, I think it's, for me, somehow very easy to memorize a piece because if I listen to it once, I will more or less already have like a structure in my head. And that also actually happens visually. Like I have a very visual memory, so I'm able to really see the notes on the score and see some colors. So I think, yeah, sometimes this perfect pitch is not amazing. I mean sometimes at night I just can't fall asleep because there's just music in my head. [Dueñas chuckles] So it depends.
[MUSIC]
Cathy Fuller The second movement of the Korngold is such a beautiful and haunting thing. I wish I could have seen you working with Gustavo Dudamel. I know you love working with him. When you got together to record this, did you work with him alone first and figure things out together?
María Dueñas Well, not much. It kind of happened in the moment, I would say. And also regarding the orchestra, I think most of the talk happened in preparation for the recording, like much, much, much earlier, which is when I presented this project to him. And I mean, it wasn't very certain yet. It was just you know, like my first ideas in it. And I think he really realized how important, how personal it is to me, because he really added lots of personal things for himself as well, like working with his orchestra, Simon Bolivar, and with all these young people which he has such a strong connection with. And that was really important and emotional for me because, of course, I was 100% involved in the project, but him too. And he was working until the very last second to make the best out of it.
Cathy Fuller Wow. That's audible. The Lalo, I remember when you did the Menuhin competition, that became sort of a viral video of you playing Lalo.
And of course, that was during the pandemic. That was an online competition. But the Lalo, it must be really under your skin now. That must be a piece that you could play anytime.
María Dueñas Yes. I mean, I first played it when I was I think 11 years old. So the piece has definitely grown a lot since then. And yes, until now, I found so many details, and I also view it differently because it has a lot of Spanish influence, but Lalo is still a French composer. So I really try to keep—especially in the second movement or in the finale, in which there is a part in between which is like very waltzy—I really tried to keep the elegance that I connect with French music, the finesse.
[MUSIC: Lalo - Symphonie Espagnole]
So yeah, the pieces... we've definitely grown together, yeah.
Cathy Fuller That's interesting, the French reserve and Spanish fire. Is there a goosebump moment in that piece that you love?
María Dueñas Well, there is many. I think my favorite one would be at the end of the fourth movement, because until then, the piece is very much very fiery.
[MUSIC]
And the fourth movement, it very much represents a funeral. So you actually hear in the orchestra this regular beating, like the beats of maybe steps.
[MUSIC]
The end of the fourth movement for me is like the soul ascending, like the soul leaving the body, and it just goes higher, higher, higher, and reaches the sky.
[MUSIC]
Cathy Fuller It must be so convincing, what you're feeling and what you're sensing, what you're seeing maybe, in a moment like that: the march and the soul leaving the body. Is it ever hard to stay in control of the violin and not get carried away by the meaning of what you're playing?
María Dueñas Well, I think it's good to get carried away. [Dueñas chuckles] I mean, at the end, the music is the important thing and the artist is just transmitting it to the audience. So I think it shouldn't be about me, really.
Cathy Fuller Do you find, as you've done now three recordings, do you miss the presence of the audience when you're in a recording studio, or are you just able to make that transference in your head?
María Dueñas Yes, so actually the first recording I made was a live recording of the Beethoven [Violin] Concerto. It was with audience because I do find it to be a really important essence of live music and of playing. And yeah, I mean when you record in a studio, I think it gives you lots of thinking time. So you're kind of by yourself, alone—I mean, not in this case because it was with orchestra, but for example, my second recording of the solo Paganini Caprices, it was a very spiritual moment, I would say. So I really liked how all three recordings were very different because this last one was so joyful with these young people from the orchestra. There was lots of life in it. So I certainly enjoy recordings in general.
Cathy Fuller That's what we feel, this incredible sense of living music. It's so nice that you decided to add these pieces as well as the two concertos. You've got some of the signature pieces of Jascha Heifetz. I love the Debussy. How was it to record those? You had a wonderful pianist, for sure.
María Dueñas Yes, I've been working with Itamar Golan for a long time now, and he has just the perfect sound for these kind of little pieces. And well, of course, they're Heifetz signature. Like, when we think about Heifetz, I personally think about these little encore pieces that were so special by themselves. Definitely wanted to present this as well.
Cathy Fuller Right. And so there's "La Fille aux cheveux de lin," "The Girl with the Flaxen Hair."
[MUSIC: Debussy - La Fille aux cheveux de lin]
And "La plus que lente," which is a sweet and wonderful piece.
[MUSIC: Debussy - La plus que lente]
And what about the Manuel Poncé, the Mexican composer? That's a very popular sort of encore piece for violinists, isn't it? The "Estrellita."
María Dueñas Mm-hmm it is, yes. And it's very interesting because most of these pieces are all inspired on poems. So I think, yes, they have a very poetic feeling, and most of them— well, no, actually all of them are Heifetz's own arrangement. So I think he was very much inspired by literature, by voice as well. There are many voice pieces that he arranged. And "Estrellita," of course, feels a bit closer to home. I mean, because it's by a Mexican composer, I'm from Spain, so this one was so special because I recorded it on Heifetz's own violin. So it added just so much magic to the whole process. So it was a very personal, beautiful experience.
[MUSIC: Poncé - Estrellita]
Cathy Fuller There is a wonderful video of you just holding the violin. And you say in that video that you kind of didn't want to prep too much for that because the magic of him sort of in that violin, you didn't want to sort of disturb that. Am I saying that right?
María Dueñas That's right. Yes. I felt that if I would practice too much in it, that it would become mine. And of course, that's great. But for this recording, I really wanted to kind of preserve the fantasy, you know, of Heifetz. So I think it worked so well.
[MUSIC]
Cathy Fuller I imagine that your bow makes a huge difference too. Were you using a bow like his? I guess it has to be your bow, right?
María Dueñas It was my bow, yes. It's actually quite a special bow. It's made by James Tubbs.
Cathy Fuller Is that the bow that you always use?
María Dueñas Well, I play on several bows, but this is, yes, definitely the one I've been playing the longest as well. Some years now.
Cathy Fuller I think the average person doesn't know how important the bow is, but it's kind of everything, right? It's like— it's how you speak with the violin.
María Dueña Yes. Each instrument sounds completely different on different bows and also with different strings, with the right setup, the bridge... There are so many things that you can adjust.
Cathy Fuller You're just 23 now. You know, I know some musicians who are like decades older than you who still kind of check in with people who they trust who still play. Do you still check in with anybody?
María Dueñas Yes, I think it's important, you know, for someone to give you an honest opinion and an honest review. So yes, I have some people, some musicians which I trust. And of course, for myself, when I reach like a very high preparation of a piece, I always I just like to play it for them because I know I totally trust what they'll tell me.
Cathy Fuller I think those people are really important in the world because you can kind of get lost in your own world. Well, do you think that in 20 years or something, do you think that you'll be returning to recordings like this, to maybe doing the Korngold again or doing the Lalo again? And do you think you will have changed then?
María Dueñas Oh, that would be very interesting. I think I will definitely have changed because I I already could see now from playing Lalo over, like, 10 years, it was such a huge difference. So of course, I think art is all about life, like, about experiencing life, and you bring so much life into the music you make. So for sure, in 50 years, I will have seen a lot. [Dueñas chuckles]
Cathy Fuller Yes.
María Dueñas In life, it will be very different. I would love to, yeah.
Cathy Fuller You're a joyful presence on the stage. I hope that you find personal joy, do other things besides playing the violin. I get maternal. The older I get, the more maternal I get [Dueñas and Fuller chuckle] about young players. I just want them to go out and have a joyful life. Do you get out and listen to other kinds of music, dance and stuff like that?
María Dueñas Yes, I love listening to— I actually don't listen to a lot of classical music. Like when I have time, I listen to lots of pop music. I have a huge vinyl collection of, of course classical, but also mainly pop music.
Cathy Fuller Vinyl pop?
María Dueñas Yes, vinyl pop.
Cathy Fuller Ah, that's great.
María Dueñas Yes.
Cathy Fuller Well, and that kind of probably sets you free in a different way than classical music does.
María Dueñas Yes, I really enjoy very unique voices like Whitney Houston or Aretha Franklin or Barbra Streisand. It's kind of the same approach, you know, to classical music. They all have very recognizable voices.
Cathy Fuller Yeah. And I'm sure that I can recognize your playing. I know that that's important to you, that you have this kind of signature sound. Well, you got one, and it is just gorgeous. It is radiant, as it is so often described. And I hope that you go on to find some great new pieces too. I know people love to write for you because it seems as though you are happy to take on new pieces. So we look forward to that, and we look forward to you getting back to Boston.
María Dueñas Me too. Yes. Thank you very much.
Cathy Fuller Have a great day. Are you at home?
María Dueñas I am at home. I'm having a day of interviews today.
Cathy Fuller Okay. All right. Well, just keep drinking coffee. [Fuller chuckles] Thank you, María. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.
María Dueñas Thank you. Thank you. All the best.
