It’s been a hell of a week. There are a lot of cultural events and celebrities compete with each other for the attention of the public and the press. “You don’t know where to go,” complains a colleague. Without collusion, we make a choice in favour of the Moscow Virtuosi, as well as 500 more Chelyabinsk citizens who filled the Prokofiev Hall from and to.

Continuation of the soul

The issue is always resolved in favour of music. To be honest, it is completely incomprehensible to me how one can be indifferent to it. Music acts directly on emotions and feelings without the mediation of words and secret meanings in the theatre, without forms and complex signs in painting or sculpture. Even everyone’s favourite dance is secondary to music. Emotional deprivation, which has infected the majority of our population, has recently been simply depressing. The problem has already entered the category of diagnosis. However, we have been distracted by our leisurely thoughts.

Last Wednesday’s concert brought back to joy the journalist’s brain exhausted with unanswered questions, the soul tormented by doubts and the body tired of the fruitless work routine. The great power of art manifested itself at the “Moscow Virtuosi” concert.

I confess – I have loved Virtuosos since childhood, thanks to my teacher, they can be listened to endlessly. They play Mozart’s Divertissement regularly, almost every time they arrive. And every time they manage to stay on top of it.
– How they sound, how they sound – a neighbour, a very good Chelyabinsk musician, sighs softly.

Miles of reviews have been written about the standardity and accuracy of the sound of this group. I will not be original.
– Maestro, how do you manage to achieve an ideal sound? – I am torturing the conductor after the concert.

– I know which hall to play in, I can feel it,” Spivakov shrugs his shoulders. – We rehearse before the concert, of course, when the audience arrives the acoustics slightly change, the sound of the orchestra is corrected. The hands should be heard by the conductor, if not, the orchestra does not have sound. And hands are the continuation of the soul.

Emocio or diet

Mozart’s and Boccherini’s music brought back a long-forgotten feeling of joy of being, of the fullness of life, and carried a completely different, forgotten world view of life when man was the crown of creation and the creator at the same time. Shostakovich’s tragic elegy flashed like a cloud in the sky, defused by jumping, laughing and giggling in a polka.

– Are you more attracted to emotional music than to intellectual music? Were Mahler and Bruckner at least not on the programme?
– Do you know what a masterpiece of music is? – puzzles the maestro with a counter question. – It is a logical ecstasy.
And yet it is emotionality that makes an orchestra’s concerts recognisable on the one hand, and unique on the other. Shostakovich’s humour, Mozart’s joyous awe, Piazzolla’s Argentinean passion multiplied by the professionalism of the musicians and the artistry of the maestro himself caused the audience to ricochet many times – the audience demanded encores again and again.

– How is your “Lyubasha” (Stradivarius’ violin so lovingly calls Spivakov)?
– Well, I saw her today and worked with her. I will have a concert in Moscow on the 14th, where I am performing.
– But we did not see you with the violin.
– But I can’t fit everything in one concert. We brought the lead singer of the New Opera.

A chance for beginners

Traditionally, the maestro takes care of and nurtures young talents. Working with him is a great school, and an even greater chance for beginners to be noticed. […]

– How do you feel about the fact that singing lessons have been cancelled at schools?
– I treat it very badly. I think that will change somehow with the arrival of the new Minister of Education. I had no respect for his predecessor, and not only because of that, but also for the USE.

– Tell us about your children’s foundation. Is it harder now to find talented children?
– There are a lot of talented children, and the conditions are hard enough. There is no possibility of receiving help abroad now, it is not good. At the same time, sponsors can easily donate, for example, a watch with diamonds. They are strange people, they think that only this can make a person happy. It makes me sad, and I have never worn such things and I will never wear them, I don’t like them. It was, by the way, a real case when one person wanted to give an expensive watch with some stones, with some ruby glass, the administrator said: “He won’t wear it, he’ll throw it on the wardrobe” – Really?! And what will make him happy? – That is if you could help the children’s foundation. And he helped.

A little bit about prime number theory

– They say you cancelled the concert in Paris?
– The concert was to be held in the presence of two presidents, Hollande and Putin. Because the French president behaved strangely, how strange was it that Vladimir Vladimirovich thought it impossible to come to the opening of Shchukin’s exhibition. By the way, this is an amazing exhibition from the Sergei Shchukin collection, which he acquired in the late 19th and early 20th century. I must say that I have seen with my own eyes how the French cry at the paintings of Matisse, Gauguin and early Picasso. They were collected and preserved for the future by a Russian man. As it happened, I thought it was impossible for me to play this concert. We played another concert on 21 October with another programme.

– Do you think that an artist should be aware of political events, should he show his political will?
– It depends on the person, first of all. And secondly, I think that everyone should mind their own business. Because it’s always awkward when a politician starts talking about some professional moments in music, and a musician talks about politics without knowing the many pitfalls that we have no idea about. It’s like I came to the Faculty of Higher Mathematics at MSU or Baumansky and started talking about the theory of prime numbers with people who know this topic a hundred times better than I do. That’s the same thing.

In his farewell, the maestro congratulated the Chelyabinsk Philharmonic on its anniversary – this season the employees will be celebrating their 80th anniversary.

– It has a beautiful, clean room, wonderful acoustics, we are happy to come here, and we always remember your city with great love. I wish you further prosperity, good luck and raise good children – this is your creative future.

Victoria Oliferchuk