Page 66 - The Strad (February 2020)

RETIREMENT FROM PERFORMANCE

His own way to keep ngers exible is to practise studies by It is also important to stay t. Cellist John Heley, now 71
composers such as Mazas, Kreutzer, Kayser and Fiorillo, which years old, has taken a step back from decades working on the
he nds to be a more musically satisfying way to keep in shape. front desks of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the
‘Approaching things from the perspective of music and Academy of St Martin in the Fields, opting instead for a more
performance keeps the body and ngers exible,’ he says. ‘relaxing’ life as principal cellist of the Oxford Philharmonic
‘Boring scales and studies will dry up any musical interest!’ Orchestra and the Orchestra of St John’s (OSJ). And yet despite
Giuranna, meanwhile, still performs in ten to fteen chamber having had knee and hip replacements over the past few years, he
music concerts and solo recitals per year, and on days at home he performed Monn’s Cello Concerto as soloist with the OSJ last
practises for at least four hours. ‘I feel better practising than if year and has no further intention of slowing down – even
I go on holiday,’ he says. ‘If I don’t practise, I do not feel at peace though getting around London with a cello and a bad knee has
with myself.’ When his 442mm Domenico Busan viola (Venice, been di—cult. ‘When I sit down to play the cello it’s ne,’ he
1780) became too exhausting for him to play, he switched to a says, ‘but I’m not too ostentatious about standing up to bow!’ To
405mm Lorenzo Storioni – ‘I fell in love with it: it’s a senile help, he goes to the gym four times a week, is vigilant about
passion!’ – that has given him a new wave of inspiration. what he eats and drinks, and looks after himself as well as he can.
Practice in one’s old age, stresses Giuranna, is more ‘Who wouldn’t?’ he says. ‘Ÿe worst thing you can do in this
important than ever before: nowadays, he feels that he has to situation is to sit with your leg up. You’ve got to keep going.’
work hard on even the easiest chamber part. ‘I have to struggle So what does retirement really mean? Giuranna has now
as I would if I were learning a solo concerto in order to keep to been teaching for more than 60 years and performing for even
a standard that I am happy with,’ he says. ‘With age, muscles more, and he has ‘retired’ twice, once from a teaching post at
are not exible or elastic any more, and I have a feeling, the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, and once
especially on the viola, that my hands and ngers are shrinking. from the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Ÿis year he will
We change, and we have to understand that and to cope with retire a third time, from his position as president of the
that di—culty. I am used to my work and I know how much European String Teachers Association. And yet even now he
time I need to achieve something, but old age is like a regression regularly teaches the viola at the Stau¥er Academy, Cremona,
to an ancient youth. I have started to practise in the same way from 9am until 8pm, with an hour’s break for lunch. ‘At the end
that I ask my students to, and that is very rewarding because of the day I’m not tired,’ he jokes. ‘I’m dead! But it’s a tiredness
often everything comes back again.’ One reason for his own that also makes me somehow happy, and that disappears at the
success, he believes, is that he has never found it easy to play the beginning of a light dinner.’
viola, and so his approach to the instrument now is the same as Heley plans never to retire: he expects to ‘keep playing until
it always has been. the bitter end, until somebody says, “For God’s sake, shut up!”’

John Heley performing in
a London concert with
the Orchestra of St John’s

64 THE STRAD FEBRUARY 2020 www.thestrad.com ORCHESTRA OF ST JOHN’S