Meet Marc Danel of Quatuor Danel

Quatour Danel will be in Cambridge over the weekend 28/29 November, as they perform three concerts – a cycle of Shostakovich Quartets. We asked their founder and first violin Marc Danel about his childhood musical experiences and who he’d most like to collaborate with.

What are your first memories of hearing music?

I was born into a family with great love and commitment to music. Both of my parents played a bit of piano and spent a lot of their time listening to music, mainly jazz and classical. I remember that every Christmas, there would be Bach’s Musical Offering playing. My older siblings all work as musicians or in music-related positions. The eldest sister played the oboe, my second sister is a violist, and my brother a cellist. As they are all older than me, I would hear them practising right from the moment I was born.

When I was six years old, I attended a chamber music lesson my siblings were participating in. The teacher there, who also happened to be my future violin teacher, started playing a certain melody. I fell utterly in love with this melody, and had attempted since then to find the name of the piece it was from. At ten, I listened to Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Opus 44 No. 2, and thought I’d finally found it. The beginning of the piece was similar, but then another theme started instead. It was only when I reached my 20s that I discovered that the melody I’d been searching for, for years, was Mozart’s Sonata in E Minor.

How did you start to make music – what instruments did you try?

As my three older siblings were greatly involved in music, it felt sort of fate that I’d also become a musician or at least, play an instrument. My parents initially suggested that I play the piano, which I started when I was six. My piano teacher seemed to really believe in me. He thought I was very talented and had a very good ear, and would give me many lessons.

Just a year after I’d started playing the piano, he asked me to listen to one of his concerts sitting in the first row to observe his hands while he was playing. Unfortunately for my pianistic endeavours, I did not look at his hands one bit. The orchestra’s leader was such a beautiful lady that I could not take my eyes off her. At the concert break I went backstage and said to this woman that I wanted to learn to play the violin with her. She looked at me and said something along the lines of: “Oh you are the little blue eyes who kept looking at me during the whole concert! You can come next week.”

From that moment onwards, I became really bad at the piano, not solely because of my infatuation for the leader, but mostly because I realised that the violin really was my instrument. The physical contact with the instrument, the fact that you have it close to you as if the instrument was a part of yourself, how you can create your own sound and adjust it as you like… I loved all these aspects, and it also made sense given I have a sister playing the viola and a brother playing the cello.

My sister actually gave me a one-hour lesson every single day when I was between seven and twelve and she was between fourteen and nineteen. It’s an amazing gift she gave me for which I will always owe her, as it very much contributed to the musician I am today. Additionally, I played some percussion for a year and half. I really enjoyed it, but surely wasn’t very good.

How did Quatuor Danel form?

Growing up, me and siblings always nurtured the belief that string quartet was the greatest form of music. We all loved it, and sightread string quartet pieces just for the happiness of it. I have a fond memory from back when I was a kid of us slowly playing the fugue from Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 3, also known as the third Razumovsky quartet. Hence for me, playing in a string quartet always seemed like the ultimate goal.

At seventeen, I went to study in Cologne (Germany) with Professor Igor Ozim. It happened that the Amadeus Quartet was teaching there and we had the opportunity to practice string quartet with them as students. We jumped on that opportunity with my siblings and received a lot of coaching from them, especially from Siegmund Nissel, the second violin of the Amadeus Quartet, who was an amazingly dedicated and talented teacher. He’s truly one of the greatest pedagogues I have ever met in my entire life.

The story of the quartet’s formation also has a lot to do with the United Kingdom. In 1991, shortly after Perestroika, we had the opportunity to follow a masterclass with the Borodin Quartet in Aldeburgh, specifically on the Shostakovich quartets. I have always been attracted to Russian culture, and as it was difficult to go to Russia in the 80s, we had the possibility to get closer to that music we loved with these wonderful people. During that course, the cellist of the Borodin Quartet, Berlinsky, told us: “I think you can become an amazing quartet, but for that you have to stop everything else and focus your whole attention on it.”

Hugh Maguire is also very much part of that story with a very important role, as he is the person who offered us to do that residency in Aldeburgh for three months with a concert every single week. We were then playing one of Shostakovich’s quartets every week on Fridays, before focusing on another one the next week. It’s pretty much when the quartet formed, and also the moment when Gilles Millet, founding member, joined the Danel Quartet. It hence became the Danel Quartet, as we were three siblings from the same family, with the addition of Gilles as the second violin.

Who has been the biggest musical inspiration in your life?

That is a very difficult question! So many people have inspired me to this day and still do. They range from the great musical names I mentioned above to naturally, some of my colleagues, to students. The violin teacher I had as a student, Jezdimir Vujicic (the teacher who played Mozart’s Sonata from question 2), would spend hours teaching me every week, guiding me through practices I still do to this day, such as open strings. I learned immensely from him, but most importantly, he inspired me so much as a musician and as a human being.

In terms of people I have listened to my whole life, French violinist Christian Ferras, is one of the heroes of my teenage years. He displayed such intensity and sensitivity in his playing. Norbert Brainin, first violin of the Amadeus Quartet as well. The Amadeus Quartet has always been an inspiration to me as well as to my quartet colleagues.

Naturally, I would also mention the crucial role of the members of the Borodin Quartet, especially that of Valentin Berlinsky. By opening us the doors to Shostakovich and Russian repertoire at large, he impacted the trajectory of our quartet. We have attempted our best to honour this invaluable gift when playing this music on stage throughout our career. I would say these few names are pretty much the first of that lengthy list of people who inspired me and somehow had an impact on my life or taught me as a musician.

What attracts you to the chamber music of Shostakovich?

There are many things that have attracted us to Shostakovich’s chamber music. Just like Beethoven’s repertoire, it is a music that feels extremely close to ‘humanity’ I’d say. When you think about the question “why art is so important?”, to me the answer is clearly that it just takes the best out of people to create such deep music.

One comment I feel compelled to make here is that Shostakovich, as a composer, often has the image of exclusively creating dark and grim music, with a great deal of desperation. In fact, there is so much light when you listen to some of his repertoire, such as Quartet No. 6 that Shostakovich wrote for his own 50th birthday. This quartet really has a lot of brightness and optimism. It really exemplifies, to me, how Shostakovich’s music also conveys all the things we love in life and music.

How does this cycle of quartets tell the story of Shostakovich’s life and musical development?

It is commonly accepted to believe that composers generally share the deepest of their souls in their chamber music repertoire, and especially in the string quartets they compose. Shostakovich started writing string quartets when he was 32, and he wrote them till the very last year of his life. When it comes to symphonies and operas in the Soviet context, as these are much more public acts, it might be that he felt more constrained. I think that Shostakovich wrote exactly what he wanted to write in his string quartets, as there was more freedom in how people would perceive and receive that form of music. Hence, it makes Shostakovich’s string quartets a more personal form of expression.

It is also interesting to look at the people he dedicated his quartets to. These were mostly people who were really close to him, a bit like Beethoven did. These people include composer Mieczysław Weinberg, Shostakovich’s third wife Irina Antonovna, the Beethoven Quartet … I’d say Shostakovich’s string quartets are a sort of personal diary for him. Also, when we asked someone from his family what they would consider to be the best available biography of Dmitri Shostakovich, that person simply answered that it would be to listen to all his string quartets, from No. 1 to No. 15.

What are the secrets of your success as a Quartet?

Thank you for speaking about success, I’m very honoured. It is difficult to talk about yourself, but I can share what is important for us. We are incredibly fortunate to have played string quartet for the last 34 years, and to have the chance that our passion became our job. First, we had the chance to be taught by absolutely amazing professors, such as the Amadeus Quartet, the Borodin Quartet, and Hugh Maguire. I know how much Hugh Maguire has brought to the British and Irish musical sphere, he is truly an icon. We really consider him to be a sort of spiritual father to the Danel Quartet. We have also been working really hard, as it is a passion to us, and as we have always aimed to get better. I do hope we will be better in five years than we are now.

I will use football as an example, as Shostakovich also was an avid football fan. In football, you can win or you can lose, but when you are on the pitch, you have to give it all and die on the pitch if necessary. We try to apply that logic to practice, rehearsals, and performances. Ultimately, we try to be as committed as possible to the music we play. We are eternally grateful and fortunate for the chance we have to play such music on stage, for the people, such as here in Cambridge, who are working so hard for months to make these events possible.

What would be on your dream playlist?

Tough question! I could easily give you a playlist that would last for hours, but I’ll try to make it short. Let’s start with composer Carlo Gesualdo. I’d also add Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in C Major, especially for the fugue. I would also include Mozart’s String Quartet in A Major, more specifically the recording of the Hagen Quartet, which I’d recommend to everyone. It is hard to choose between all Beethoven’s string quartets, as every single one of them could be considered to be the best, but I’d certainly pick Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13, Opus 130, with the Great Fugue.

Then let’s take a piece that might not be the top pick for everyone, I’m thinking of Schubert’s String Quartet in C Major, which Schubert wrote when he was thirteen. A truly incredible and inventive piece. I’d add the String Octet in E-flat Major, written by the 16-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. It’s one of my daughter’s favourite pieces, which I promised to play with her.

Next, let’s include Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 6. This quartet really demonstrates how bright, generous, joyful and simply beautiful Shostakovich’s music can be. I would also add some gypsy music, which really is another important inspiration to me. For that, I’d go with Sàndor Lakatos, an amazing Hungarian violinist, whose music and playing is also such an incredible source of inspiration for me. I’d also like to include some Russian Orthodox male choir pieces, which constitute such a fundamental basis of Russian music.

Regarding non-classical repertoire, I would add an incredibly beautiful song titled “Le Déserteur” by French multi-talented figure Boris Vian. This song is absolutely heartbreaking- the declaration of a man who decides not to go to war although he is forced to, and accepts he will be killed, because he cannot bring himself to kill people. I find this song to be really fitting to our times, considering what is happening in the world at the moment. So many things that we thought would not be that likely again, regarding war crimes, dictatorships, the far-right progression, … I think such songs encourage us to keep our dignity.

Lastly, I will add the song “Isn’t she lovely” by Stevie Wonder who shares how marvellous it is to have a daughter, and I can say the same.

Who would you most like to collaborate with on a project?

One of the people I dream to collaborate with is undoubtedly German-American violinist Augustin Hadelich. I admire his playing and the freedom he displays on stage, as well as his love for playing music that is so apparent in his performances and recordings. For a long period of time, I’d also dreamed of playing with Itzhak Perlman.

It always sounded like a dream to me to play with Austrian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaj. She is, from my perspective, an absolute legend and one of the greatest pianists of the century, while also being truly humble and generous as well as one of the most beautiful people you can imagine. And the fact that we get to play with her seven or eight times this coming year… I feel like a boy at school who gets a chance to meet the greatest football player of all time!

What is your biggest non-musical talent?

I would not say I really have any other big talents besides playing the violin, but I do have a great passion for soccer. My favourite club is in Lille, and if you’d like in the future to do an interview about this, I can name you all the players of the club since 1979! I am even proud to say I am now good friends with a former player, who also might be on the list of people who inspired me in my teenage years, although it was more as a personality and athlete than specifically as a musician. If I had not become a violinist, I would also have loved to do diplomacy, since I was quite good at languages and writing, as well as at mathematics. I have a great interest in some of my daughter’s university courses, reminding me as well of the disciplines I had a liking for back then.