angeles, i'm tavis smiley. tonight a conversation with violin virtuoso itzkah perlman. he's performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world from new york no shanghai. and a 16-time grammy winner, including a life time achievement award. we are honored to have a conversation tonight with itzkah perlman coming up right now. ♪

>> announcer: and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. conductor and violin producer itzkah perlman. he tried to build bridges to people and idologies. he has four emmys and 16 grammys and counting. currently on a world tour and his latest cd is called "eternal echos" which in part celebrates jewish culture through music. let's take a look.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> this is our 11th season. i've waited a long time for this. i'm honored. >> my pleasure. >> to finally have you on this set. >> my pleasure. >> good to see you. >> thank you. >> another world tour. you aren't tired of this yet? >> yes, i am. [ laughter ]. >> everything but the travel is nice. the travel is getting worse, you know, it's not getting better. i was saying the other day to somebody i remember leaving one

hour before a flight from the house and just getting to the airport and getting on the plane, finished. you leave one hour, you miss the flight. so, any way. >> yeah. >> you, you know, it's one of those things you have to just take it with the rest of it. >> yes. i want to get personal with you, and if i'm pushing too hard, you tell me and i'll back up. i didn't know how i was going to get into this. what you said now gives me a wonderful opening. i complain all the time as one who has to travel too much. to your point, i complain because travel is getting so much worse. i was on a flight the other day for like eight hours and didn't serve you anything on a flight that long. >> peanuts sometimes. >> exactly. but then the delays. it's horrific. but how else do you get if you don't hop on a plane, so we have to deal with it. but what hit me literally in my spirit when you said that you love everything except the travel is that here i am completely abled bodied, i'm

abled bodied and i complain all the time. you have to walk with crutches or use your little machine to get around. >> yes, yes. >> and i'm almost -- i almost feel convicted that i'm complaining what i have to go through and you have to deal with that stuff. >> i cannot go through the x-ray machine, so they basically -- they give me the personal treatment. >> yeah. >> that said, do you mind if -- they said, we're now going -- with the back of my mind, i'm going to touch your behind. >> yeah. >> i always wonder, how does the back of the hand able to grab you, you know, you have a funny kind of hand that goes like that. >> yeah. >> exactly. any way, it's one of the things -- i don't know you know, my wife looks at me and says, i don't know how you do that. you have to do it, because if you start complaining, you'll miss the flight. go ahead, check me, so on. the leg braces and all of that stuff. for me, it's more unpleasant actually. >> tell me why you never made

excuses, why you were never bitter when you come to this country, you have a handicap. you can't speak english. so that's a double handicap, i suspect. >> yeah. >> and somehow you were never em bittered by it. gone on to be one of the greatest in the world. >> the thing is, everyone is saying, you're so heroic. look, i had polio when i was 4. so when you're 4 years old, you know, you get used to things very, very quickly. and it wasn't like, you know, if you were 20 or 25 or something and then something happens. that's more difficult. so i mean -- it had to do with my parents. they felt that this was not one of those things to stop me from practicing my violin. you know. it just has nothing to do. it's separate from -- i always say, separate your abilities from your disabilities.

something -- if i could play the violin, i don't have to play it standing up. i can play it sitting down. i never thought about it. all i thought was to do the bestky. if i'm talented, good. you know, i wasn't going to play the violin if i couldn't. >> i take your point at 4 years old age, because this is the way base clu you're formed as a child. >> yeah. >> you get used to it. >> i get that. >> i get that at 4, 24, 54, you can be asking god a lot of questions about why me. >> no. no. you know, i'm really -- i'm never bitter. when i look -- i'm a great sports fan. i love to watch tennis and basketball and baseball and so on. and i never say to myself, gee, i wish i could do that. it never occurs to me. the thing is that i will always consider myself lucky that i can actually cry listening to some music. i think, oh my god, i am -- it's amazing. i wonder if anybody else can feel when you listen to a phrase

and the tears start to come. that makes me special because i can actually react to something like that. that's what i think about. >> i'm just curious now. i'm out on a limb now, not the first time, won't be the last, but i wonder if there's any parallel or parallels in your mind between what you see when you watch the artistry of sport and the artistry of music? >> well, yes, absolutely. >> what is the parallel? >> well, several. first there is, if you want to call it energy -- >> uh-huh. >> when you see a person, whether it's basketball player or baseball player or a tennis player, the kind of energy that they have, you know, whatever it is, whether you hit the ball or whether you, you know, throw the ball or whatever it is that you do, i find another thing is the

shall we say, when you watch michael jordan, for example, you see a ballet dancer. again, that's something that can be a very musical thing and so on. in music, it's energy. it's a lot of it is energy. a lot of it is what you are actually hearing in your ear and then trying to get it into the playing. a lot of the stuff in music, for example, has to do with some people feel very private when they play. they say, what i feel, i don't want you to know. that's my business. well, in performance, if you feel something and you can actually express it to the audience, that's very, very good. now, i don't know how that parallels into sports. i know that, for example, when you think about what makes for a great baseball hitter, for example, is i suppose the ability to see the ball go very, very slowly from the pitcher's hand, you know.

>> uh-huh. >> not to get like that. and so while i suppose a parallel like that could be when you perform a piece that particularly difficult to see -- to actually hear in advance what it's going to sound like, so that you can actually not be surprised. and, you know, i'm now involved, of course, in teaching and so on and i see a lot of kids, sometimes playing. the difference between somebody who plays -- who has a bit more experience is how in advance they can hear what they're about to do as opposed to, you know, some kids came to me and said, i was so nervous and everything just came too fast for me and i wasn't ready. and so i guess there is a parallel being ready for something. >> yeah. i was thinking as you were talking about say golf, for example. golf is one of any number of sports i can use as an example of this. but certainly in golf, for those who play, it's not about how hard you strike the ball necessarily.

it's about your form. and i'm thinking about, yourp form is so -- the form of what you do is so important. >> yeah the form is good. but in golf, i think it's very interesting that as you get older, the challenges not so much how far you can hit the ball. it's the putting. and for me, that's amazing. you know, if you just -- why can't you do it like that? >> yeah. >> but yet that's what goes, at least i'm told that. maybe i'm wrong, that's what i was told, that putting is the first thing to go, rather than the actual hitting. you can still hit the ball. >> the drive, yeah. >> maybe it's the same thing with violin playing, for example. it's the fine motor things, you know. it's making the melody really work perfectly that maybe that's the challenge. >> so, if in golf putting is the first thing to go, when you play the violin for 50-plus years, as you have, what tends to be the first thing to go? >> i wouldn't know. >> yeah. [ laughter ]. >> i love that. i love that.

he said -- >> i wouldn't know. >> i love that. i'm the wrong guy to ask that question of. that was funny. >> you gave it to me. i was prepared for it. see, i knew in advance what i was going to say. >> see that. you watched the ball come very slowly and you put it -- >> very slowly. >> and you put it over the fence. >> it was right there. >> okay. what are you afraid might happen first as you continue to play this instrument? >> well, no, i don't know. everybody is different, seriously. everybody has -- develops differently. everybody ages differently. i could give you a couple of fiddle players that played into their 80s and they were absolutely fantastic, i mean, really great. and then i could tell you somebody who was like 60 and was finished. then i knew 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 and said, okay, i'm retiring and that's it. stopped. so one of the great challenges is to know when things are not right. >> that was my next question. how will you know -- so you are not -- i suspect you won't be, but how will you know that so that you are not one of those persons in that first category, where people say, itzkah probably should have put the thing down ten years ago. >> exactly. first of all, when you play, you're the first one to feel how effortless or the other way it is. in other words, if it's effortless or is it getting more difficult? but then the most important thing is to have somebody that is actually truthful with you to tell you what's going on. that's one of the great challenges in music, especially in instrumental playing, you know, not in singing. because singers have coaches. but also, if you listen to a recording, i mean, how truthful

are you with what you're listening to? do you say, oh, this is wonderful. or are you saying, this is time to quit. so for me, that's a challenge. you know, i mean -- and i would hope that when the time comes with me, you know, that i would recognize it and say thank you so up. i'm finished. >> i'm laughing on the inside. you're right. it's good to have somebody you can trust to tell you the truth. but when your itzkah perlman, who dares to tell you. >> my wife. my wife will never, ever -- when something is not so she tells me. the thing is that she knows that i can take it. as a matter of fact, i ask her, i look at her -- after a concert, i look at her face and i know if i played well if it was okay. the thing is that 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's not below a certain

level, that's the goal. >> yeah. >> that's what you want to do. that's why you practice and so on. >> in each of our lives i suspect it is the case that while -- i know it is the case whether we acknowledge it, admit it or not, we all want to be loved, respected, acknowledged, affirmed, paid attention to every now and again for something that we attempt to. i think that's human. in introducing you, i ran a lot of -- listed a lot of our accolades, honors, awards you've received over the years. are the things that have truly meant something to you that speak to what you've been able to accomplish? set your humility aside for a second. it's one thing for me to say this that or another. playing at presidential inauguratio inaugurations. >> that was great. >> i'm sure it was. >> that was amazing. >> what does itzkah perlman say about those honors and accolades and what really has meant the most to you?

>> well, look, honors are really wonderful. >> right. >> you know, i love -- people are looking at you and saying, you've really accomplished something and so on and so forth. but that's one thing. the other thing is that you've got to be able to say to yourself, i am really out there doing the best that i can and i'm doing it well. you know, if i don't feel that i'm doing it well, all the honors don't mean anything, you know, you're wonderful. i said, then why do i feel that i'm not operating at my top level and so on? so for me, honors is very, very nice. but i still feel that the challenge of anything my age, you know, can't believe i'm saying my age, is not to be bored by what i do. and you see, that's the thing. because after a while i've done -- how many times have i played the violin concerto?

and yet i just played it yesterday, you know. and i felt new things in it and i said, that's great. that's absolutely great because otherwise you play -- i always say the same thing and i tell it to my students. don't play the way it goes. play the way it is, you know. and the way it is every time you play it, it's slightly different. look for something. >> so that's the challenge. not to be bored. >> speaking of your students, i wrote this down and want to get it right and want to read a quote that you said. i think i get it but i want you to sort of unpack it for me. before i do that though, your comment about the honors are nice but what really matters is what you think of your work. i think of a quote from frank sana tra that once said, never let anybody tell you -- he was talking about his recording studios experiences. never let anybody tell you that something is good when you know it can be better.

>> it's nice to hear that you think it's good, but you have to not forget that you can do it better. that's absolutely true. >> so this quote i wrote down that i want to get you town pack for me, speaking of your students, it's a quote from you. you can play the music. now you have to speak the music. >> right. >> you can play the music. >> yes. >> now you have to speak the music. >> uh-huh. >> unpack that for me. >> well, playing involves mechanical things, you know. what sounds good. especially violinists. it's a pain in the neck to play the violin. so many somethings can go wrong, you know, intonation. for example, if you put your hand on the piano and you play a note, it's in tune. the bow, where do you put the bow? put it a certain way it sounds better than a certain other way. there's a lot of mechanical things. after a certain point, when somebody knows a piece, i said to them, okay, it's finished now. you're trying to play the violin

is now finished. you know how to do it. now you have to really listen to the music and to express what it is. >> uh-huh. >> and what i do, which is -- i find is kind of -- for me i think it works very well. i take a book. i open any book, you know, whether it's a magazine or anything like that, and i open to a photograph. let's say the photograph will say, an amazing thing happened to joe two mornings ago. i said, how would you read that? and they said, an amazing thing happened to joe two mornings ago. you wouldn't read it that way. you would say, an amazing thing happened to joe two mornings ago. so, the word amazing, our you're not just going to say amazing, it's going to say amazing. how do you compare it towards playing music? you have harmonies. the the harmonies are amazing,

you can play it amazing. you cannot say, that's nice and just play it through. that's what i was saying about you have to talk it. you have to listen to what you're hearing. you said, this is something very, very special that doesn't just sound major/minor. it gives you a question. question mark, got to it. another example, like going to a museum and seeing nice paintings and then you see the mona lisa and you just go buy. you can't go buy. look, oh my god, this is something. same thing with harmonies. if you see something that har monically is interesting, express it. that's what i'm saying about talking to music rather than just playing through. >> so is that the process that you used when you're working, say, with john williams on schindler's list and -- do you need to see the words on the page, the screen play? do you need to see the film? what's your process. >> i just need to hear. i just need to hear. >> hear what? >> harmonies. harmonies. >> yeah. >> how do i -- so another thing

that you really do when you play, that you're supposed to do is colors. you cannot play with one color. if you play with one color, again, it's like watching a beautiful painting, a drawing. but it's all in blue or it's all in red. maybe very nice but not very interesting. so you look for colors. how do you get the colors? you get the colors by reacting to the harmonies. maybe somebody was not into music would not understand it. i think i'm pretty clear. you have to react to harmonies. it's like reacting to a vocabulary in a book. you cannot just go and say, blah blah blah blah blah. you got to see a word that's -- it's a special word, like a word like heroic. you're not just going to say, this is heroic. i'm not going to say that. you say, this is heroic. what i'm saying is very subtle, but it's still expressive. >> since i mentioned your work with john williams and mentioned steven spielberg and schindler's

list. this latest project of yours i mentioned earlier is called "eternal echos" songs and dances for the soul. i don't want to color this question too much, but speak to me about your appreciation, the value that your culture holds for you. >> well, this recording is basically i would call it -- also call it from my childhood. growing up in israel, on the radio on saturdays, you know, used to have an hour of concerto music. so a lot of this stuff that is on this recording is stuff that i heard when i was 7, 8, 9 years old. that's one thing. another thing, this is about being reactive to a great voice. so this concert i heard him sing and said, oh, this is something. so the voice plus the material of my childhood, i said, i've got to be involved in that.

especially since this is something i grew up with. and it's like a part of what you hear. you know, it's not like i have to study how stuff goes, you know. it's right in the back of your brain. and it's like -- the same thing, there's some cleanser in there as well. again, it's something from my childhood that came naturally to me. i've got to record this. >> speaking of childhood, in the course of this conversation, which i hate it's just about up, i could do this for hours, you referenced by my count, three or four times the teaching that you do with these young people. why has that been so important for you, the teaching? >> well, it's like i always say, when you teach others, you teach yourself. it's very, very simple. and i've been teaching many, many years. and this particular -- you know, we have this program called the perlman music program that my wife started -- this summer it will be 20 years. and i've been teaching at the

jewel ard school as well. knowing is better for my playing than teaching. because when you teach, you have to think. and you have to listen what other people do. then all of a sudden you play yourself and you say, i don't need a teacher, i'm a teacher. then you can react immediately. it really improves. i do three things, teaching, conducting and playing. each one of those sort of helps the other. >> yeah. you've express what had the teaching does for you. >> yeah. >> as an artist. what does the conducting do for you as an artist? >> conducting is a form of teaching or maybe you don't have to use the word teaching, you can use the word coaching. again, it involves listening. it involves musical -- listening to a phrase. listening to the way people play the song. that all is connected. so one thing is connected to the other. so, for me, it's just basically

doing one thing in three different ways. >> yeah. i think if there were a moral to this story or take away from this conversation, it's this notion of generous listening. >> generous listening. and the thing is that as i get older, it gets better. that's the thing. you know, we always say about, what are they going to lose when you get older. let's not talk about that. let's talk about what you'll gain. i find i can hear better which is nice. it's very funny. it would be nice to hear better and also to play better at the same time. but the playing better, that's more of a challenge. >> yeah. >> but i think i'm doing okay. >> yeah. i think -- [ laughter ]. >> i think that's an understatement. you are doing and have done better than just okay. his name, of course, itzkah perlman. the latest project from him is called "eternal echo songs and dances for the soul." that's not why he's here for the project. i've been asking him forever to

be here. we couldn't get the date thing worked out. >> i'll be here tomorrow. >> come on back. >> no problem. >> i can do another show all the stuff you've accomplished, i've scratched the surface tonight. it's a great joy and delight to have you on this program. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. that's our show for tonight. thanks for watching, and as always, keep the faith. ♪ >> announcer: for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley on pbs.org. >> join us for a conversation with the wonderful ang las lands barry. that's next time. we'll see you then. ♪

♪ >> announcer: and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪

. new troubling information from the san bruno explosion. >> pg&e misled the federal regulators by providing them inadequate and sometimes doctored documents. >> high tech. it's not booming for everyone. a lack of adversity and calls for change. plus, a san francisco artist makes the surprising decision to give away his art. we'll find out why. >> we'll probably make some people happy. who knows.