tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with itzahk perlman, truly one of the world's greatest musicians. over the course of his career, he has performed in virtually every main orchestra in the world. he's also a four-time emmy winner, all four documentaries airing right here on pbs and a 16 time grammy winner, including a lifetime achievement award. we are honored to have a conversation with itzahk perlman coming up right now. ♪ ♪

>> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. tavis: conductor and violin virtuoso itzahk perlman combines outstanding musical artistry with a commitment to human rights and education, employment is to build bridges between disparate people and political ideologies. his honors include the national medal of the arts, four emmys, and 16 grammys. his latest cd is called "eternal

echoes: songs and dances for the sole." let's take a look. ♪ ♪ ♪ this is our 11th season. i have waited for a long time for this. i'm honored to have you on the set. another world to wear. you aren't tired of this yet? >> yes, i am. [laughter] everything but the trouble is

nice. the travel is getting worse. it is not getting any better. i remember leaving one hour before a flight from the house and just getting to the airport and getting on the plane. now if you'll even one hour, you missed the flight. , it is one of those things. you have to take it with the rest of it. tavis: i want to get personal with you, and if i push you too hard, tommy," got. what you has said now gives me a wonderful opening. i complain all the time as one u.s. to travel too much, and to your point, i complain because travel is getting so much worse. i was on the flight the other day for like eight hours. they didn't serve me anything on a flight that long. >> peanuts or something. tavis: then the delays. it is worth it. how else do you get there if you don't hop on a plane? whenhit me in my spirit

you said that you love everything except the travel is that here i am, completely able- bodied, and i complain all the time. you have to walk with crutches or use your machine to get around. almost convicted on complaining about what i've got to go through. >> i cannot go through the x-ray machines. give you the personal treatment. as they say, do you mind -- they said, with the back of my hand, i'm going to touch were behind. i always wonder, how does the back of the hand, how is it able to grab you? >> why the back of the hand? [laughter] >> it is one of the things. my wife looks at me and says, i don't know how you do that. if you start complaining, you will miss the flight. just go ahead and check me. the leg braces and all that stuff. it is one of those things.

for me, it is a little more unpleasant actually. >> tell me why you never made excuses, why you were never bitter. country,came to this you had a handicap. you could not speak english. that is a double handicap, i suspect. somehow, you were never bitter to buy it. >> everybody is saying, you are becauseote -- so heroic of the polio. look, i had polio when i was four. when you are four years old, you get used to things very quickly. it wasn't like if you were 20 or 25 or something and something happens. that is more difficult to get used to. it had to do with my parents. they felt that this was not one of those things to stop me from practicing my violin. do -- ihas nothing to

always say, separate your abilities from your disabilities. i i could play the violin, don't have to play it standing up. i never thought about it. i only thought about doing the best i can. if i'm talented, good. i wasn't going to play the violin if i couldn't. tavis: i take your point, at four years of age -- this is the way you were formed as a child. you get used to it. 54, you could be asking god a lot of questions about, why me? no, i'm really never bitter. i am a great sports fan. i love to watch tennis and basketball and baseball and so on. i never said to myself, i wish i could do that. it never occurs to me. i will always consider myself lucky that i can actually cry listening to some music.

i think, oh my gosh, it is amazing. i wonder if anybody else can feel the music when i listen to a brahms piece and the tears start to come? that makes me special. i can actually react to something like that. tavis: i'm just curious now -- i'm out on a limb -- i wonder if there is any parallel or parallels in your mind between what you see when you watch the artistry of sport and the artistry of music. >> yes, absolutely. there are several. first, there is if you want to call it energy -- when you see a person, whether it is a basketball player or baseball player or a tennis player, the kind of energy that they have, whether you hit the ball or whether you throw the ball,

whatever it is that you do, i , when- another thing is you watch michael jordan, for example, you see a ballet dance. that is something that can be a very musical thing. is energy.t a lot of it is energy. a lot of it is what you are actually hearing in your year and then trying to get it into the plane. a lot of the stuff in music, for some people feel very private when they play. they say, i feel i don't want you to know. is my business. in performance, if you feel something, then you can actually express it to the audience. it is very good. i don't know how that parallels into sports. for example, when you think about what makes for a great baseball hitter, for example, i

suppose it is the ability to see the ball go very slowly from the pitcher's hand. not to get like that. i suppose it parallel like that could be when you perform a piece that is particularly difficult, to actually hear in advance what it is going to sound like, so that you can actually not be surprised. i am now involved in teaching and so on. i see a lot of kids sometimes playing. the difference between somebody is has a bit more experience how in advance they can hear what they are about to do, as opposed to -- some kids come to me and say, i was so nervous. everything came too fast for me. i wasn't ready. there is a parallel in being ready for something. tavis: i was thinking, as you were talking about playing golf -- golf is an example of this --

in golf for those who play, it is not about how hard you strike the ball necessarily. it is about your form. i'm thinking about your form, the form of what you do is so important. >> the form is good. i think it is very interesting that as you get older, the challenge is not so much how far you can hit the ball. it is the putting. for me, it is amazing. why can't you do it like that? yet that is what goes. maybe i am wrong. that is what i was told. putting is the person to go, rather than the actual hitting. maybe it is the same thing with a violin playing. it is the fine motor things, making the melody really work perfectly. maybe that is the challenge. putting is thelf first thing to go, when you played the violin for 50-plus years as you have, what tends to

be the first thing to go? >> i wouldn't know. [laughter] tavis: i love that. he said, i have lost nothing yet. [laughter] >> i wouldn't know. tavis: i am the wrong guy to ask that question. that was funny. [laughter] >> you gave it to me. i was prepared for it. i knew in advance what i was good to say. tavis: you watched the ball come very slowly, and you put it over the fence. >> it was right there. tavis: what are you afraid might happen first as you continue to play? >> no, i don't know. everybody is different, seriously. everybody develops differently. everybody ages differently. i could give you a couple of fiddle players that played into their 80s, and they were absolutely fantastic. really great. then i could tell you somebody

who was like 60 and was finished. one of the great fiddle players retired at the age of 62. he felt something was going to happen, didn't want it to develop. he said, ok, i'm retiring. that is it. one of the great challenges is to know when things end. tavis: how will you know? i suspect you won't be, but how will you know see you are not one of those persons in the first category where people say, put the thinghave down 10 years ago. >> exactly. first of all, when you play, you're the first one to feel how effortless or the other way it is. is it effortless or is it getting more difficult? the most important thing is to have somebody that is actually truthful with you to tell you what is going on. that is one of the great challenges in music, especially in instrumental playing. not in singing.

singers have coaches. if you listen to a recording, how truthful are you with what you're listening to? do you say, this is wonderful, or do you say, it is time to quit? for me, that is a challenge. i would hope that when the time comes with me that i would recognize it. tavis: i'm laughing on the inside. you are right. it is good to have somebody you can trust to tell you that truth, but when you are itzahk perlman, who dares to tell you? >> my wife. so, sheething is not tells me. the thing is, she knows that i can take it. as a matter of fact, i asked her -- after a concert, i look at her and look at her face and notify played well. the thing is, what you try to do when you play is you try to play not below a certain level.

in other words, it can be a special day where it would be phenomenal, but if it is not below a certain level, that is the goal. you know, that is what you want to do. that is why you practice. tavis: in each of our lives, i suspect it is the case -- i know it is the case whether we acknowledge it or not -- we all want to be loved, respected, acknowledged, affirmed, paid attention to. i think that is human. in introducing you, i ran a lot of -- listed a lot of your accolades, honors, awards you have received. are there things that have truly meant something to you that speak to what you have been able to accomplish? set your humility aside for a second. i can talk about playing at presidential inaugurations and all of that. >> that was great. tavis: what does itzahk perlman

say about those honors and accolades, and what really has meant the most to you? >> look, honors are really wonderful. honors mean people are actually looking at you and saying, you have really accomplished something. that is one thing. the other thing is you got to be able to say to yourself, i am really out there doing the best that i can, and i am doing it well. you know, if i do not feel that i am doing it well, all the honors don't mean anything. people can say, you are wonderful. why do i feel that i'm not operating at my top-level? nice,, honors are very but i still feel that the -- ienge of anybody my age can't believe i'm saying that -- is not to be bored by what i do. you see, that is the thing. after a wild, how many -- a

while, how many times have i laid -- played the beethoven violin concerto? i just played it yesterday, and i found the things in it. that's great. otherwise, i always say the same thing, and they tell it to my students -- don't play at the way it goes. play it the way it is. isry time you play it, it slightly different. look for something. that is the challenge, not to be bored. tavis: i wrote this down. i want to read a quote that you said. i think i get it, but i want you to unpack it for me. before i do that, your comment about the honors are nice, but what really matters is what you think of your work -- i thought about a quote from frank sinatra who once said something like, never let anybody tell you something is good when you know it can be better. >> ok. that sounds good.

tavis: the producer says, that is really good. frank says, that's doing -- let's do it again. to not forget that you can do it better. that is absolutely true. tavis: this quote and wrote down -- you can play the music. now you have to speak the music. you can play the music, and now you have to speak the music. unpack that for me. >> playing involves mechanical things. what sounds good, especially -- so many things can go wrong. intonation, for example. if you put your hand on the pni when you play a note, it is in tune. if you put it on the violin, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. there is a lot of stuff. the bow, where do you put the bow? there are a lot of mechanical

things. after a certain point, when somebody knows a piece, i say, ok, it is finished. you are trying to play the violin, and you are not finished. now you have to really listen to the music and to express what it is. find -- forhich i me, i think it works really well -- i take a book. i open any book, whether it is a magazine or anything, and i open it to a paragraph. let's say the paragraph says, an amazing thing happened to joe two mornings ago. i say, how would you read that? they say, an amazing thing happened to joe two mornings ago. i say, you would not say that. "amazing" -- you will not just say amazing. how does that compare to playing music?

you have harmonies. , it isharmony is amazing amazing. that is what i was saying -- you've got to listen to what you are hearing. this is something very, very special. it doesn't just sound major- minor. it gives you a? -- a question mark. another example is going into a museum in seeing nice paintings, and then you see the mona lisa, and you just go by. same thing with harmonies. you hear something that harmonically is interesting, express it. that is what i'm saying about talking to music rather than just playing through. tavis: is that the process that you use when you are working, say, with john williams on "schindler's list"? do you need to see the words on the page, the screenplay? do you need to see the film? >> i just need to hear it.

tavis: hear what? >> harmonies. dother thing that you really when you play is colors. you cannot play with one color. if you play with one color, again, it is like watching a beautiful painting, a drawing, but it is all in blue or red. it may be very nice but not very interesting. how do you get the colors? you get the colors by reacting to the harmonies. i know -- maybe somebody not into music would not understand that, but i think i'm pretty clear. you've got to react to the harmony, just like reacting to a vocabulary in a book. you cannot just say, blah, blah. you have to see a special word, a word like heroic. you will not say, this was heroic. what i am saying is very subtle, but it is still expressive.

tavis: since i mentioned your work with john williams, steven spielberg and i mentioned "schindler's list," this latest project of yours is called "eternal echoes: songs in debt -- and dances for the soul." speak to me about your appreciation, the value that your culture holds for you. >> this recording is basically -- i would also say it is from my childhood. growing up in israel, on the radio on saturdays, we used to have an hour of choral music. a lot of this stuff is stuff that i heard when i was 7, 8 years old. that is one thing. , this is thing is another thing about being reactive to a great voice. i heard him sing,

and i said, this is something. the voice plus the material -- i said, i've got to be involved with that. especially since this is something i grew up with. it is like a part of what you hear. it's not like i have to study how this stuff goes. it is right in the back of your brain. it is something from my childhood that came naturally to me. i said, i've got to record this. tavis: speaking of childhood, in the course of this conversation, you have referenced three or four times the teaching that you do with these young people. why has that been so important for you, the teaching? >> it is like i always say -- when you teach others, you teach yourself. it is very simple. i have been teaching for many years. theave this program called

music program that my wife started. i have been teaching at the juilliard school, as well. nothing is better for my playing than teaching. when you teach, you have to think, and you have to listen to what other people do. all of a sudden, you play yourself, and you say, all my goodness. i don't need a teacher. i can react to what i'm doing immediately. i do three things. i do teaching, conducting, and the playing. each one of those helps the other. tavis: you have expressed what the teaching does for you. what does the conducting do for you as an artist? tavis>> conducting is a form of teaching. you don't have to use the word teaching. you can use the word coaching. again, it involves listening. it involves listening to a phrase, listening to the way people play.

it is always connected. one thing is connected to the other. for me, it is basically doing one thing in three different ways. tavis: if there were a moral to this story or a take away from this conversation, it is this notion of generous listening. >> generous listening. as i get older, it gets better. that is the thing. we always say, what are we going to lose when we get older? let's not talk about that. let's talk about what we gain. i find i can hear better, which is nice. it is funny. it would be nice to hear better and also to play better at the same time. you know, the playing better, that is more of a challenge. i think i'm doing ok. [laughter] tavis: i think so. that is an understatement. you are doing and have done better than just ok. his name is itzahk perlman. the latest project is called "eternal echoes: songs and dances for the soul."

i have been asking forever to get him here. we couldn't get this worked out. >> i will be here tomorrow too. tavis: come on back. i have just scratched the surface tonight. it is a great joy and delight to have you on. >> my pleasure. tavis: that is our show for tonight. thank you for watching. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next time for a conversation with as we preview the upcoming state of the union address. that is next time. we will see you then. ♪

♪ >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs.

next on "kqed newsroom," governor jerry brown touting california's turn-around. >> a budgetary surplus in the billions. in the billions. [ applause ] >> and reaction from around the state as election season heats up. alternatives for getting around town and commuting generating friction. and filmmaker ken burns on why we should all memorize the gettysburg address. >> four score and seven years ago -- >> our fathers brought forth on this continent -- >> a new nation. ♪