Video Transcript

Ben Zander:

Beautiful. Bravo. Very beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful piano playing. It’s gorgeous, gorgeous piano playing. So this is a very interesting situation, because everybody in the room is probably thinking exactly as I am. “How do we relate to this remarkable voice, which is very beautiful? It’s a beautiful voice. There’s no question about that. But it’s hard to relate to, because we are not sure if you are speaking as a child or as a woman or as a man.

So I’m going to give you a hint, and this has two parts to it. One has to do with how you are being, and the other thing is what you are doing with the music, both of you. So when you described this song and what it means to the audience, you talked about it as if it was a single man speaking. “He,” you said.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

“He has suffered greatly and he is grateful.” I’m not sure it’s about he. I think it’s about all of mankind, that this is a prayer for all human beings thanking music. It’s an amazing idea. And in a way, it’s the most important song that Schubert wrote, because it speaks for all of mankind saying, “Thank you” to music. And it says, “Even in the darkest days of sorrow and suffering and trouble, you have saved me. You, music, you have saved me.” Now, do you think there’s anybody in this room who doesn’t think that refers to them?

Wei En Chan:

No.

Ben Zander:

No. Right. So what Schubert is saying is he’s giving thanks for the most powerful healing element that human beings have come up with, which is music. So it’s a big idea. And therefore, your voice has to take on the spiritual intensity for all mankind.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

Right? No less, right? So that might do something to the way you are singing, because you are singing a little bit as if it was out there, as if it was about somebody else, as if it wasn’t out of your heart. Because you are a preacher in this song, really. You are preaching on behalf of all human beings, right? So we’ve got to find something that is big in gesture, right? So don’t write anything. You don’t need to write anything. This is all going directly_… It is not going through your brain. Do you understand? Music doesn’t live in the brain, it lives in the heart, right? So it’s something to do with our molecules. It isn’t to do with our thought process.

So now, here’s the other thing. You play beautifully, and you have both made a decision, which most musicians and most singers make, which is to play this song as if it was very sad. And because so many singers have sung it in their last concert, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf gave about 25 farewell concerts, and every time she would end with this. And it got slower and slower and slower as she regretted more and more that she was leaving the stage. And of course, everybody follows her. And I’ve heard many performances today even slower than yours.

Now the question is, “What did Schubert intend it to be?” And it’s very interesting, because he says, mäßig, which means moving. And then, he says it’s in two. And you are doing it mäßig in four, which is a whole different thing.

Wei En Chan:

All right.

Ben Zander:

So now you get the difference, right? That means instead_… Just do the beginning, just as you did it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3. Right? That’s a slow cantor, Andante four. Now a two would be_… Should we try that? One then two. Uh-huh. That’s a different story, isn’t it?

Liya Nigmati:

Mm-hmm. Yes.

Ben Zander:

It’s actually like a different piece. That will help you to lift your spirits, and therefore lift your voice, and therefore list the spirits of the people in the world. And this miserable little group of 50 people is only a small percentage of the people who are actually listening to you, because through those cameras, unending tens of thousands of people around the world, including in Singapore, are hanging on your every word, hoping that you’ll lift their spirits. Because things are pretty gloomy these days. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the world is pretty depressed. All right? So we need this song more than we have ever needed it. And I’m not joking. I really mean this. All right? So this is going to help.

So you start. Now, now, the first thing you’ll say. You don’t really need is. I know you said you didn’t have it completely from memory, but the very first words you know, right, Du holde Kunst. “You beloved, noble art,” beautiful, holde is noble. Du holde Kunst. You’re saying, you’re addressing music, “You noble art.” And you’re speaking, remember, on behalf of all human beings. And this helps, doesn’t it?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

Because, “Du holde Kunst,” just say that.

Wei En Chan:

Du holde Kunst.

Ben Zander:

Yes. It’s going to Du holde Kunst. It’s the art. Do that.

Ben Zander and Wei En Chan:

Du holde Kunst.

Ben Zander:

Good. And could you allow your face to react to the beauty of the concept of music? Du holde Kunst. If you were a preacher, imagine you were speaking to mankind.

Ben Zander and Wei En Chan:

Du holde Kunst.

Ben Zander:

That’s better. That’s better. Now she’ll help, and I can help you a little bit. If you make these eighth notes disappear, you see, they’re not, it’s not_… We don’t want to hear. And then a cello. Like that. Do you play the cello?

Liya Nigmati:

No yet.

Ben Zander:

No. But you get the idea.

Liya Nigmati:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

Just try that. So disappeared eighth nodes and then the cello. No, they’re not disappearing.

Liya Nigmati:

Okay.

Benjamin Zander:

Good. Good, good. Now you’ve got to hold Du holde Kunst, “You beloved, noble art. In how many desperate hours of sadness and suffering,” right? That’s the sense. So they’re not the same thing. One is, “You beloved art. In how many hours of suffering and solitude,” and then, you go on to say, “You have saved me.” Right? Good. It’s coming.

Right. Now this is the darkest words in the piece, in which you are surrounded by turmoil and suffering. And everybody in the room can understand what that means, turmoil and suffering and despair and hopelessness, and all the things we are feeling in our world right now. We feel like as so the roof is caving in, right? But we have one thing. All of us have one thing in common. What is it?

Wei En Chan:

Music.

Ben Zander:

Music. Right, right? So when that finally comes, when he really tells that, it’s going to be great. So be in as much as you can, within your voice. And you notice this helps you a lot to create the turmoil. When you get to those words, be sure that you are really deeply engaged here. Okay? So I’m going to get my glasses then we’ll be_… Okay. Here we go. Once again.

You are not quite making the sound of a cello. Can I just show you why? And so on. You get it?

Liya Nigmati:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Zander:

So make that flow. One, two, and_… There we go.

Good. Now it’s worse. Yeah. No, no, it was good, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I was going to say, but now, oh, sorry, “In how many dark hours when you are surrounded by a wild circle of suffering.” Can you get that into your voice? Good. We’ll do it one more time, but it was much better.

Now, how was it? No, no, no. Keep going. I’m sorry. Don’t stop. I’m talking to him while_… You’re doing great. Now it’s getting better and better. Do you see? It has this excitement of motion, otherwise it’s stuck. Right? Here we go. Good.

Now, this is fantastic. “You have taken me to warm love, you’ve kindled in me warm love, and taken me to a better world.” Now your voice has to take on an ecstatic joy, warmth, and embracing the world, right? Isn’t that great?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

So you go from deepest sadness to the most generous, open-heartedness in a few moments. All right? Should we do again? It’s getting better and better. Here we go. That’s stuck. Can I just show you one thing? I think of this, I think, because I’m a cellist. And then pianissimo, very softly.

Now you have to listen, because I’m the composer here. The piano is the composer, so you listen to it.

What a wonderful way of expressing a better world in music. Isn’t that right?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

So it’s all in the hands of the piano. All right? We are getting there. We’re getting there. One more time. Here we go. Imagine this is the last time ever. Here we go. Pianissimo.

Now here it comes.

They’re not actually applauding you, they’re applauding for themselves, because they say, “Yes, that’s what we want.” And that’s why they came from far distances to sit in this room and listen to music as a healing. It’s a healing force.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

You got it?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

You’re getting it. And you’ve got a great pianist here, because she’s completely transformed her way of playing in a matter of few minutes, right? Totally. And so, now she’s helping you tremendously. All right, so I want to do the second phrase. Let’s do the second verse, because we can just go on. All right?

Liya Nigmati:

All right.

Ben Zander:

Beautiful in there. Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful, bravo. Because you did something like that the first time, but since you were in four, it didn’t work. But now, it’s like speaking, isn’t it?

Liya Nigmati:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Zander:

Somebody is pleading and thanking. Do it. Finish.

This is a wonderful idea. He’s speaking to music and saying, “Sometimes, I heard a sigh coming through your harp, the harp of music, a sigh.” Isn’t that a beautiful thing? If you can just say, “I heard a sigh coming through the harp of your music,” like a recollection or a realization to it. And beautifully played, bravo. Do that from there.

Finish. Now listen, listen.

This is so beautiful, “A heavenly chord, a heavenly chord, coming directly from you.” That’s like a whisper. It’s like a secret.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

All right? And one little thing you do, which many people, many singers do, is you cut notes short rather than thinking legato through the whole thing. You’ll be more effective that way. Would you just do off entruckt? So you do the_…

Now through the line.

Here we go.

That’s the idea. Yeah. Beautiful. And do you know, I do know what other people are thinking, but I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. I don’t care whether it represents a woman, a man, or a boy. It represents all of us. Because the way you are singing it, it’s the beginning for you, because I don’t think you’ve realized opera is about drama. Lieder is about the human soul. You are speaking on behalf of human beings, all of them, about love, about sorrow, about loss, about joy, about thank you. The gratitude that you are speaking about there comes from the most innermost place in your heart. You get that? And so, to be worthy of that role, you have to be a great human being. Isn’t that interesting?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

You have to develop your humanity to such a point that the world wants to hear from you. In opera, they just want to hear your voice, right, which is great. And you are acting somebody else. Here, you are acting yourself as a messenger for human beings. And that takes everything that we have. That’s why Lieder is the highest form of art, and why, if I had to choose for one thing at my funeral, it’ll be a Schubert song. All right? Because that, to me, speaks more truly than anything else.

And so, I’m not saying you’ve got it yet, but you are on the way. And you have to have a great collaborator, so don’t ever play with anything that isn’t great. If you sing Lieder, choose the best pianist you can find on the planet. But that’s Schubert sitting at the piano, right? And you’re doing a beautiful job. And the way you’ve changed was absolutely remarkable and a sign that you are a real true musician, because you are not stuck in a single way of playing. You can do whatever the music calls for once you see it. It is very, very beautiful.

Liya Nigmati:

Thank you.

Ben Zander:

All right, so let’s do it one more time through. We just have time. I know you have to leave to go to an important event. But if you could, when you start singing and when she’s playing her introduction, take on a bigger_… You remember I told you to speak to the people at the back of the room?

Wei En Chan:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Zander:

Can you speak to the people at the back of the world? And that means the people who just don’t get it, the people who are cruel and selfish and narcissistic and self-absorbed and greedy, all those people. And speak to them all and say, “This is the truth here. This is the truth. Music will save us.” All right? Now, do you see what a big thing that means to take on?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

And your voice is just the vehicle. It doesn’t matter.

Wei En Chan:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Zander:

Isn’t that amazing?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

So you’ve got a big canvas on which to paint, and that should change your physionomy. All right? And give warmth to your voice. And when you get to those climaxes, the first one is big. The second one is saying, “Thank you, thank you, thank you” to music. And there isn’t one person in this room who doesn’t feel you are speaking for them. “Thank you” for what music has given us. It’s amazing. And Schubert died at 35. Well, 31.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

He was just a child. But he poured his love into the world through music, the gratitude. And in the end, gratitude is the single most important quality that we have, because if we are not grateful, we get to be entitled.

Wei En Chan:

Mm-hmm.

Ben Zander:

Do you understand that?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

But the thing that saves us from entitlement is gratitude. All right? So you’ve got a big job, and you’ve got a wonderful companion who’s going to pour her warm heart into this music. Are you ready? Here we go. I didn’t help. I didn’t help. I want_…

Well done. I’ll tell you something that happened in here. You came in as a young Singapore singer, and you go out a world citizen. You understand that?

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

It’s not enough to be Singaporean or Russian or Asian or Italian or American or anything. It’s not enough. We have to go past those limitations. And it’s very hard to do, because we are brought up from a very young_… Human beings grow very slowly. It’s a long process. And unfortunately, it’s so long that habits get ingrained from a very young age, and they’re extremely hard to break. For instance, Singapore people don’t express their emotions through their face. Jewish people are ridiculously expressive. All right? And all of them, even when they have nothing to express, they express it. All right? So get over being Singapore and become Jewish or Italian or Spanish or something.

Do you see? All these limitations are holding us back as world citizens and world artists. And we need to be so huge to be available for this music because we’re speaking to the very back row of life. And if you could walk out of here as a person responsible, and think of the time of the year. This is the spiritual time of year. And it’s not Christian. Do you understand? It’s not Christian or Jewish, it’s all humanity saying_…

There’s a beautiful article in The Globe this week about the program tomorrow that’s being done by Rob Kapilow. He does these programs, What Makes It Great? And The Globe did a beautiful thing about explaining why all the great Christmas songs are written by Jews. It’s true. White Christmas, and Red-Nosed Reindeer, all the songs, because the Jewish people coming here from pogroms in Poland and Lithuania wanted to belong. They wanted to be part of this. And they not only became part of it, they ran the show. They created the_… Do you think when you sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, that you’re singing a Jewish song? No. Thank goodness we don’t need the barriers. Do you get it?

Lieder Yes.

Ben Zander:

And you have to work really hard, because everything about you is preconditioned by your childhood. And that’s great. I love Singapore. I love there. I love going there. The people are gracious and warm and polite and studious and responsible and all those things. Get over it. All right. You’ve got it.

Wei En Chan:

Yes.

Ben Zander:

And you’ve won a wonderful pianist. I’m glad you’ve introduced her into our life because she’s great. And she’s totally available. She comes from Russia, but it doesn’t matter, right? Isn’t that right? You don’t feel restricted by being_…

Liya Nigmati:

No, I don’t.

Ben Zander:

Not at all.

Liya Nigmati:

No, I don’t.

Ben Zander:

Not at all. So that’s a very important lesson, not to be restricted by who you are, so that you can be big enough for the great work we musicians have to do, which Schubert is celebrating here, giving the world music. Okay, beautiful. Thank you for coming.

Wei En Chan:

Thank you.

Ben Zander:

Beautiful.

Liya Nigmati:

Thank you.

Ben Zander:

Thank you. Beautiful.