– You tour a lot..
Vladimir Spivakov: I don’t love anymore working with foreign orchestras
The Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra is finishing its 40th anniversary tour of Europe these days. About how this landmark tour goes, as well as about young composers, time and art and, of course, Vladimir Spivakov, the founder and permanent director of Virtuosos, an outstanding violinist and conductor, told RIA Novosti correspondent Maria Knyazeva in an interview in Brussels.
– Your European tour is dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the orchestra. How does it go? Are you accepted everywhere as you are in Brussels – with standing ovations?
– Yes, for the time being. We will have ten concerts dedicated to this event. We have started our tour in Zurich, played several concerts in the capital and various German cities, including the country’s best modern hall in Hamburg. We will end up in Vienna, in the Musikverein. So this is a very prestigious tour – not only for the Moscow Virtuosi, for musicians, it is also prestigious from a political point of view, because we have carried the name of Moscow around the world for forty years.
– For me, the main thing is that throughout our musical activity we have played in all the republics of the USSR, now individual countries. For us, in spite of politics, the cultural field is the same as it was, because no matter which of these countries we come to, we are always met with love. The only thing is, of course, that it is difficult now with Ukraine, but I hope that time will pass. Time must be given. And then, I think, it is very important that the Moscow Virtuosi not only made music, but also carried a humanitarian, human note into the world.
– You mean the help the orchestra provided to people?
– Yes. When we were in Japan, we played concerts in support of the hospitals in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, where there were people still suffering from the effects of radiation. In Turkey and Spain we played for orphaned children. After the tragedy in Chernobyl, we came and played – we were the only orchestra that visited Ukraine at the time. Our help did not stop there – we gave a lot of concerts, collecting medicines, paying Ukrainian children to rest on the Black Sea. My foundation has also been working in this direction for 25 years. You can remember the earthquake in Armenia, and we were also the first to arrive after this tragedy, we still saw the remnants of our past lives on the collapsed walls. It is difficult to remember these hard times, how much misfortune we have seen in our lives. But we tried to take part, because a shared grief is like half of grief. Of course, I would have been a happier person to be present at joyous events, which, fortunately, also happen.
– Maybe sharing other people’s grief too, I don’t know how to say it…
– …it gives people the opportunity to regain at least part of the harmony of life.
– Is it difficult to choose the repertoire for such concerts?
– You know, music, art itself has a lot of functions. One of them is comfort. And this is a very important function. And there is also a lot of purity in music. The Russian poetess Bella Ahmadulina wrote this line: «You, a lotus ripping from the stuffy skin». The lotus is a symbol of purity; it is a flower that grows on a swamp, you might say, in the mud. Art calls for moral, for spiritual purity.
– You mentioned Ukraine. Can’t the orchestra go there now, or do you just not want to do it yet?
– This is not the time yet.
– And what are your plans for touring Russia?
– We have many concerts in Russia. We visit not only big cities, but also very small ones, such as Stary Oskol, Novotroitsk, and naturally the Moscow region. Throughout their lives, the Moscow Virtuosi have travelled all over Russia – from Moscow, indeed, to the outskirts: to Siberia, the Urals and Chukotka. We were everywhere.
– Is it interesting to see different audiences, very different audiences in very small and large cities?
– Yes. You can see the unspoilt nature of these people, you can see that it is difficult for them to have a TV in their flat. They are happy when they are communicating with them in a live language, without phonograms. We love to travel around Russia because they are waiting for us. For an artist, this is the most important thing..
– Do you plan to include new contemporary composers in your repertoire in the new season?
– We played a lot and, you might say, promoted, although I don’t like that word very much, the works of Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt, Rodion Shchedrin and Giya Kancheli. I recently played Kancheli’s music, just two days before he passed away. It was his «Silent Prayer». I preceded my performance with the words that Giya Kancheli now needs this prayer. And soon he walked away from us. On our current tour, including in Brussels, we also perform Kancheli’s music.
– He lived in Antwerp.
– Quite right, but Gia probably felt the time of his passing and left Antwerp for his homeland in Tbilisi.
– In one of your interviews you said that it is very difficult to play modern composers, because entrepreneurs want to include famous composers in their posters so that there are fees.
– Yes, it is true.
– Is the trend improving, changing?
– No, it does not change. People are used to selling what they are used to selling. It is difficult to persuade concert organisers to even perform works from the second half of the 20th century, because it affects the collection, from their point of view, plus you have to pay royalties. But still, on this trip, we play Dmitri Shostakovich and Astor Piazzolla, for example. We do, after all, perform works by 20th century composers.
– So that, conventionally speaking, there would be both Mozart and Bach on the poster, but there would also be other music in the concert.
– Yes. And then these composers are our business card.
– And how do you see the situation in Russia with young authors?
– There are many young composers to whom we offer opportunities. I tried to make sure that many modern composers had the opportunity to show their works at the House of Music. It seems important to me that they have their own tribune. We also had significant premieres by young composers.
– Symphonic composers?
– Not only that, they also played chamber music. I think that time should be given for a while. When Schoenberg created his 12-ton system, he too decided that this was the end of the music development. But it wasn’t over and it will never end. So new composers are looking for, writing in their own styles, trying. Maybe there will be some new geniuses, such as they once were.
– And symphonic music for young authors…
– It’s complicated. It’s hard for them to get it done.
– I just have a question about talent and time. It seems to me, for example, that in the 90s people like Dmitry Shostakovich, Georgy Tovstonogov, Anatoly Efros – they would not have been able to realize their talent. If they had been born somewhere in the 70s, had received a good education, had received some experience, it is not known if they could have been embodied, coincided with the time, with today.
– I think these people are individuals, they could be a match. Maybe time itself chooses geniuses. I think that in order for a person to become a person, you need, of course, talent, big examples before your eyes, which have always been in Russia, and big obstacles. There are still a lot of obstacles, too. But they have helped Tovstonogov, Efros, and Dmitry Shostakovich. They are still helping now. For example, to Kirill Serebrennikov: how many things he has created while in unfavourable conditions.
– When you talk about how you rehearse with the orchestra, I have many associations with the theatre director. When, at the stage of rehearsing a play, at the beginning of the production process, the director tries to breathe some life into the actors, some idea, so that then, in the subsequent stages of professional grinding of the play, rehearsals, the ensemble of actors moves in a given direction.
– To be honest, these are very similar professions – as a director and conductor. We have a lot in common.
– Have you taken this from theatre directors?
– Of course, I was very friendly with Georgy Tovstonogov, with Mark Zakharov and with Oleg Tabakov. Their creative work has a slightly different facet. But in general, art is the translation of the mind, thoughts into emotions.
– You play the Stradivarius violin. I’ve always wondered how a man who hasn’t held a single violin in his hand what is a Stradivarius violin?
– A miracle.
– If you had been given two violins without giving their names…
– Of course, I would know right away.
– How?
– Unusual purity of sound, its flight, something quite extraordinary in its timbre.
– Why can’t they repeat it now?
– Because this is a spiritual work, a work of the soul, not a factory production. A lot of violins are produced now, but Stradivarius is alone. He knew how to spiritualise a tree.
– I apologise if this question is not very correct. But you said that you wanted to play as much as possible. Do you still have a need to play on stage?
– Yes, and on our current tour I play a little.
– Do you want to play all the time?
– Yes. We’re going to say goodbye now, and I’ll be studying the violin before the concert.
– You do a lot of touring, you have a schedule for years to come and you are home actually change your suitcases Doesn’t this dull the feeling at home and the feeling at the root?
– No. You know, only the body travels. The soul remains where it was born.
– Does it affect your creativity, your inspiration?
– No. And then I go with my fellow musicians. I love working with other orchestras, even with good foreign orchestras – I don’t feel any pleasure from it.
– Why?
– Because there is a certain short-term training in what they do not know about Russian music. Because a Russian artist is usually asked to play or conduct Russian music. This is hard work for me, it becomes work. I don’t like it when a job becomes a job.
– You once remarked very well that Russian music speaks Russian and German music speaks German. And if, say, a German orchestra plays Russian music, then it turns out Russian music in a foreign language.
– Yes, of course, it happens that way.
– When we now met behind the stage, a young girl was playing on the stage before the concert. I take it that she is a pupil of your foundation?
– In our tour, the soloist is Shio Okui, a Japanese girl who won the Moscow International Vladimir Krainev Competition.
– In our tour, the soloist is Shio Okui, a Japanese girl who won the Moscow International Vladimir Krainev Competition.
– Yes, this is the most important thing.
– And a genius without love and faith in him by his teachers and parents – can he take place or not?
– But every genius still had parents.
– Not all parents like…
– I don’t know about geniuses. I am not a master of geniuses. I just try to make sure that children continue to carry love into the world. They don’t have to become genius musicians.
– It is important for you that they become people first.
– Yes. I can see you have a cross. Nikolai Berdyaev wrote that Christianity does not just mean believing in God, it means believing in man and discovering the divine in him. More than 20,000 children have passed through the foundation in its 25 years of existence – I have such terrible dates all the time, it’s hard to remember and think about them, well, we don’t think about numbers too much. The main thing is that most of these children have become very good people and they continue to help others. A person without mercy and compassion – they can be a danger to society in general.
– You are talking about God. How important is God to you?
– I keep communicating with creations that give me the opportunity to understand that they are. There is no other way. That’s all.