In contemporary music, the challenge for me is to make the recorder sound as naturally expressive as, for example, the violin - without doing it too much and forcing the instrument. It is very easy to be overly expressive on the recorder, and finding the balance is quite difficult.
To me, the advantage of the recorder is that it is so natural. I love the fact that it is just a piece of wood, that there are almost no mechanics involved.
When you play the oboe, the flute or other wind instruments, there is something between you and the breath; there is the embouchure, the reed, etc. But with the recorder, I receive an immediate response from the instrument. This is something that attracted me to the instrument, that I could immediately feel the response of what I was doing.
In concert, I often try to feel the audience and feel their way of hearing. If I feel that there is no contact between the audience and the music, I try to look stronger within myself, hoping that this will lead to a better contact.
If you ask me about music and how things should be played, I believe that music-making is the combination of having learned how to do something right, what one feels is right to do in the moment, and the way the audience is listening.
Each composer has their own language, and I try to meet the challenges, even if at first sight, they appear impossible.
It is not very natural to make dynamic changes with the recorder. When you play a long note and want to make a diminuendo, the pitch will fall, and vice versa. So you need to adjust these with your fingers.
I think that today, in Europe at least, people don't tend to think so much about the instrument that is producing the music; they are more interested to see if the musician actually has something to say.
Composers often think in terms of music and not of an instrument itself.
When I was very young, Denmark was a very small country, and we still are, but it was then very provincial and everybody knew everybody. Now, we are very much like the rest of the world, especially with the arrival of the internet.
It was quite unusual to use the recorder as a concert instrument. But my mother, a pianist, actually helped me a lot by assuming that anything done on the piano can easily be done on the recorder! She helped me with technique and was just as critical about my playing as she was with her own. I think that has been one of my fortunes.
My father is a violinist and my mother is a pianist, so I've been hearing music all my life. I started playing at three and had my first music teacher at five.
I have always personally preferred to think of what is more difficult for my instrument, and not what is the most natural or the easiest. I enjoy the challenges - especially those that come with composers who have written contemporary music for the recorder.
Many people used to call me a child prodigy, but I never thought that. I knew that I had learned everything, that I had very good circumstances.
You need to express things stronger today, more so than in the Baroque time, and you need to expand the expressiveness of the instrument.
Of course, the recorder will never have the repertoire of the piano or the violin.
Looking for inspiration in expression, I have actually always looked to singers and violinists. I have never really looked only at the recorder as a remedy for my expressions.
I've always been very inspired by people who can make their instrument sound very natural.
Denmark is, of course is very much like Germany: in terms of culture, the same kind of thinking, etc.
It is important to note that the world changes and that perception of music changes as well.
