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When fate is knocking at the door Maris Jansons Interview

A concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of writer Daniil Granin will be held at the Grand Philharmonic Hall tomorrow. The program includes Sergei Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Maestro Maris Jansons will conduct the Academic Symphony Orchestra. We asked the world-famous conductor about his friendship with the writer, contemporary music hardships nowadays and his attitude to opera.

– Maris Arvidovich, it was a surprise to see your name in the concert’s playbill. Were you acquainted with Daniil Granin?

– Yes, we were friends, knew each other well, celebrated New Year’s Eve together; and his birthday was on January 1. We occasionally did host small concerts at home. He attended all my performances held at the Grand Philharmonic Hall in recent years. Daniil Granin was a very interesting person, modest, thoughtful. He didn't talk much, but his remarks always hit the bull’s eye. He was very observant, studied people and life, looking at it with great optimism. I remember he recalled that waking up every day, he was grateful for having one more day to keep up living. That optimism, faith in life gave him the strength - thanks to which he lived for so long. And he witnessed the most difficult years in the country’s history. Of course, outrageous things happening all around Daniil treated accordingly, that is, he was disgruntled. He did not stay as a grumpy old man in our memory though. He was always open to the new.

– Is the program of the Grand Hall concert somehow linked to the music that Daniil Alexandrovich favored?

– He had a special attitude to Shostakovich’s music, whom he knew personally. But I thought it would be right to perform Beethoven, whom he also highly appreciated, especially the Fifth Symphony with its famous theme “Fate is Knocking at the Door". It’s finale sounds in optimistic C major. Such drama was conventional for Daniil Granin, who has endured all the hardships that life has confronted him with.

– Denis Matsuev will play solo in the concert. Do you perform with him often?

– I can't say very often. In any case, not as often as Valery Gergiev does. But we have recorded a CD with Matsuev, been on tour with my orchestra. That is, we maintain creative contact. Denis, without a doubt, is a great talent. His incredible mastery of the instrument is astounding. He is very interested in everything that happens around, what I find out when we converse on different topics. He knows a lot, he always has his phone next to him which is a source of different information. Denis is a big patriot of Russian music, especially Rachmaninoff. It is a great pleasure to perform with him.

- You will conduct the so-called second orchestra at this concert – the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonia. You conducted the Distinguished Orchestra of Russia at Maestro Temirkanov’s anniversary concert. Do they retain Mravinsky’s orchestra spirit, the signature warmth of the strings?

– Yes, the quality is very high.

– Are these orchestras competitive in the global World context?

– Absolutely competitive. I am confident their repertoire has enormous success abroad. The only thing I can’t judge is how diverse the repertoire is in terms of playing different style music equally well. Take the four leading orchestras – the Vienna Philharmonic, Bavarian, Berlin, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam – they have an incredible repertoire and they all play great. Richard Strauss or Anton Bruckner is no obstacle for them, neither is Mozart. If someone wants Mozart to sound in the tradition of an authentic performance, everything will be done; no problem will arise. Even if just a few musicians in these orchestras are big fans of authenticity, they all still know what it is and how to play it.

– Philharmonic orchestras’ repertoire often lacks good contemporary music, most of which, however, has long been a classic. Ignoring contemporary music is like trying to impede evolution.

– It seems to me that modern repertoire can be their forte. Musicians in these orchestras are tech-savvy, quick-thinking, so there will be no problem. The potential here is high. I must say though that the most difficult thing for all orchestras is the music of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven. It is the basic repertoire of a high-quality symphony orchestra. Just as you can't imagine an instrumentalist who can't play Bach, everyone should be able to play him – that's the basis. I looked at the Philharmonic programs and feel sure they are quite interesting and varied. I wouldn't criticize too much. They play huge repertoire just as in Mariinsky Theater. Another matter: quantity is no quality. Yevgeny Mravinsky had his list of performing music compositions. In the 1970s, for a short period, he began to conduct more often – Honegger’s "Liturgical Symphony" was born at the time among other works like Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Stravinsky’s "Petrushka". There certainly was no ban on Bartok, Honegger and Stravinsky.

– Who was banned then, do you recall any?

– As they say, formally there was no ban on anyone, which may well be true. But, for example, if on November 7 you would play someone's Requiem, it just would not do any good for you. Dodecaphonic music was definitely disliked, you could have been scolded for it.

– For the last few years music lovers are being surprised by the strange attitude to the works of Alfred Schnittke, not only in Russia but also in Europe. His music is performed very rarely. What's the problem here?

– His name is very significant. During Schnittke's lifetime his music flourished all over the world and was played everywhere – here and there. He was at the level of a leading composer. And today he is almost forgotten. To be honest, I didn’t perform him much. Frankly, he is not my type of composer. I have a similar remote relationship to, say, Nielsen's work, although he has good music, but my heart is not in it. I adore Honegger, for example. I like Britten very much, I love his works...

– And what do you think about the work of last year’s jubilee Krzysztof Penderecki?

– I think well of it. He is a serious, deep musician. I conducted a Violin Concerto with Anne-Sophie Mutter and communicated a lot with Krzysztof. I hanged out with Luciano Berio as well, also a true composer, a great professional. I conducted his wonderful piece "Folk songs" in Rome. I like Rodion Shchedrin very much – he is a talented person and interesting composer. His hearing of the orchestra is brilliant, and editions are at the highest level. When I heard that "Carmen-Suite" is not his music, I replied: "Try doing the same with Bizet’s music." I recorded a CD of Shchedrin's music.

I conducted Ustvolskaya, Andrei Petrov, Falik, Uspensky, Tishchenko (his Second Violin Concerto is a very powerful work), Basner, Arapov in Leningrad. There were times when a lot of modern music was performed, when it was a must to perform Soviet music, my father Arvid Krishevich Jansons performed it extensively. He was a favorite of composers – grasped and conducted quickly, was a champion in this matter. I have so many scores left from my dad's past that I can't play them in one lifetime.

 

 

When I worked in America, I had to play modern American music there. If you didn't do it, the critics would peck you, tear you up. Frankly speaking, there were few works that would resonate with my soul; I just fulfilled a professional duty. I always try to get into the music, so as not to create the impression that I just stand there and wave a baton. Tried to find something that would spark me up. It worked in some cases... For me, the doors to modern music are rather open, but I treat it a little cautiously. Our Bavarian orchestra plays more modern music than other orchestras in Germany because they have a festival organized by Hartman Musica viva. There, debut or forgotten works are being performed 5 times a year. Sometimes they play such kind of music, which can make you go crazy, but they have to keep playing.

– "Crazy" because it’s too avant-garde?

– Bad! One composer's piece lasted 11 minutes and was just loud the entire time. 11 minutes of rumbling – it's terrible.

– But it's probably impossible to do without modern music. Composers continue to be taught in conservatories; they need to go out into the world, find themselves. It poses a big challenge to receive even a training symphony orchestra at conservatory nowadays – not to mention access to a prestigious full-fledged orchestra.

– Miserable modern composers. It was common to play new music in Soviet times. Composers had hope that what they write would be performed at least once. Or twice – for the first and last time... And now they have stopped writing for big orchestras because they know that almost no one will perform their music. There was a wonderful St. Petersburg composer Boris Tishchenko, whom nobody plays anymore today. His music was rarely played in his time as well. But Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s music is now beginning to be resurrected. Shostakovich was very supportive of him at the time.

– Tchaikovsky's "Queen of spades" at the Salzburg festival brought you huge success but, as it is known, drained lots of energy. Does opera still attract you?

Opera takes a lot of time, which I’ve never had; I have been with the two orchestras all my life... I decided to stop working myself to the bone. To turn to Wagner, for example, was not possible. In order to do it, I had to really read about him, live with his music for a long time, and enter its world. By the way, same thing happened to me with Bach's music, where from the conductor’s standpoint it is seemingly the easiest thing. But if you do not live in that world, then you should not take up music. Everyone keeps telling me that I should conduct Verdi as well...

I would make a good opera conductor, because I feel the stage, the action, I follow the principle, which, in my opinion, is the only true one: the conductor in opera is a musical director. This is when you musically empathize and live with each performer. I'm good at that. I love opera, I grew up in opera house, from the age of three began to visit opera, where my mother brought me to. Now my granddaughter Nastya works at the Mariinsky, where she sang from 5-6 years, and the second granddaughter took over the baton there. Nastya knows 60 operas inside out, the theatre is her only living; she is not interested in anything else.

I have always adored theater, grew up inside it. I love drama theater; I go there at every opportunity – Dodin’s Maly Drama Theater or Tovstonogov’s Bolshoi Drama Theater. I can watch plays from morning till night. I remember the time when plays were broadcast on radio, but not anymore now...

– What is happening to the world today?

– The world is degrading in terms of morality and culture. It reminds me of “Titanic” that is slowly sinking to the sea bottom. The world turned upside down completely. I don't know where all of this is heading to. Somewhere. Come what may. What can we do? Our job is to do our job well. Evgeny Mravinsky was once explaining a concept to musicians, to which one bassoonist replied: "you know, Eugene Aleksandrovich, our job is to have a shot and a bite after".

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