Stepan Dolezal
“I bow my back only above my cello.Art without humanity is nothing.”
Pablo Casals
In my family, music and music-making have always been a matter of course. Everyone deals with music in some way. I grew up on folk songs, I played in a cimbalom band, and I also danced. As my dad was a cellist in an amateur quartet, I had the opportunity to get acquainted with this type of music early in childhood, and since then, chamber music has accompanied all my steps. Playing in a piano trio, a string quartet or a chamber orchestra has always been closest to my heart. Eventually, performing with a quartet became my profession, but it was a long journey…
I have two brothers and a sister. Both brothers play the violin, and the sister plays the piano; as for me, my parents – after an unsuccessful attempt to teach me how to hold the violin and decently thump the piano – chose the cello. I definitely don’t remember having chosen this instrument myself. Though it’s a beautiful instrument whose sound resembles the human voice, it also brings many difficulties. Just imagine travelling on holiday in a small car where your dear cello is enthroned on the front seat, with the whole family thronging at the back. Or when I, as a student, used to fly for a half price, I had to buy the full-price air ticket for my cello. If you have a little baby and need to practice at home, you have to be constantly on your guard… The violinist, say, has the instrument in a safe distance above the ground, but me?
But I have to stress that, in spite of all the difficulties, we cellists like our “bag of tricks” a lot, and we’re duly proud of it. And, after all, it was the cello which brought me to Prague to Bennewitz Quartet and to my dear wife Lucie.
