Gidon Kremer’s project “Dedication to Ukrainian people,” realized together with maestro Roman Kofman, was held at the National Philharmonic Society with the assistance of the Embassy of Latvia in Ukraine (it was dedicated to the 96th anniversary of proclamation of the independent Latvian state) – and enjoyed a full house. On the eve of the concert in the Column Hall there was a “morning full house”: everyone who couldn’t get the tickets, could be present at the open rehearsal and listen to the program.
In the first act the Kyiv Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Roman Kofman, performed the fragments from The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. At some point of time during the performance other kinds of art respectfully retreated before this music, because it says everything. It was strange to imagine that this could be left unperformed and unheard by us, like the movement of time in Canon No. 2 by Oleksii Kolesnyk (violin) and Artem Poludenny (cello). In the middle of the cycle the Fugue for organ, performed by Valeria Balakhovska, sounded wonderfully and reminded of the favorite instrument of the Leipzig cantor. Playing Bach’s Aria from his Suite No. 3, the musicians and conductors carefully and lovingly brought every sound, getting it from the eternity.
The second act was opened by the Topic with variations for violin and cello with orchestra by Hungarian-American composer Miklos Rozsa (1907-95), an author of the music to more than a hundred of Hollywood films and a winner of three Oscar awards. The solo was performed by violinist Gidon Kremer and cellist Giedre Dirvanauskaite: like a wizard and poet, they were telling with their performance about soul. Cello entered and from the first sound the human voice of the instrument defined the sense of the dialog: rephrasing Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the luxury of music communication was ruling on the stage, and the members of Kyiv Chamber Orchestra flawlessly built an expressive picture that glittered with sounds.
The choir Shchedryk, Gidon Kremer, Giedre Dirvanauskaite, Kyiv Chamber Orchestra were present on the stage, Roman Kofman – at the conductor’s stand, and Gia Kancheli – in the hall. Is this miracle possible? Yes, it is possible during the premiere of Angels of Sadness for violin, cello, children’s choir, and string instruments.
This turned out to be the music about present-day Ukraine: how the rumbling of cannons breaks mother’s lullaby, how helpless a person may be before the cruelty of the war – and how precious mercy and kindness in our life are. It is not just the sounds of music that Kancheli creates – he is able to create silence. The tender solo of young Khrystyna Svyshch turned the melody into prayer. In the final the sounds of children’s voices were floating and vanishing, the pizzicato of violin and cello of the soloists was ringing like silver – the hope for peace and paradise remained. If music is able to change life, this was the very kind of the music (at the rehearsal Kancheli told the choir singers, “When I asked you to sing quietly, I didn’t expect that I would be so amazed. Your singing is perfect.”).
The ovation didn’t stop, people gave flowers to the musicians and the composer, who when he was on the stage, appealed to the audience, “Fantastic children sing in the Shchedryk choir. I have never seen angels, even in my dream. But today I’ve heard them, for the first time in my life. Besides, I have felt that I have three homelands: Georgia, Latvia, and Ukraine. When I was introduced to students during the meeting at the National Music Academy of Ukraine, they said that I am a People’s Artist of the USSR – that is true, that I am a People’s Artist of Georgia – that is true as well, and that I’m a People’s Artist of Russia – that is a lie. However, I regretted for the first time that I’m not a People’s Artist of Russia – I would refuse from this title now.” The audience of the philharmonic society hall burst in applause after these words, and Kancheli offered to listen to his short play called Reg-Gidon-Time, “so that sadness vanished and a bit of joy remained.” Gidon Kremer and Giedre Dirvanauskaite performed this miniature, composed specifically for them, easily intertwining humor and virtuoso performance.
“INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE KILLED, BANDITRY BECOMES LEGAL, I FEEL RESISTANCE BECAUSE OF THIS”
The Day asked the guests of Kyiv to share their contemplations connected with the project “Dedication to Ukrainian People.”
Gidon Kremer is one of the most famous violinists of the world, his prestigious international awards include “Una Vita Nella Musica,” which is considered to be an analog to the Nobel Prize in music.
Mr. Kremer, you have performed many times in Kyiv, and it is the first time when your concert was held in Ukraine during an unannounced war. With what thought do you go on stage of the Column Hall?
“Since my youth I have wanted that what I do spread good over the world. I’m involved in music and today, in the time that is difficult for your country, I want even more to serve to positive values and support everyone who is experiencing this tragedy. I am with you with my soul.
“Living in an ‘ivory tower’ – the attitude taken to what is going now – is strange to me. The horror of what is going on must not leave anyone indifferent. The tragedies that happen around me don’t turn me either into a soldier, or into a politician, but they make me ponder over the values and above all the value of human life. The fact that this highest value, given to every one of us, is neglected seems to me awful, unfair, and outrageous. Everyone who is responsible for this shouldn’t sleep calmly, in spite of any slogans, calls, excuses, and explanations. Innocent people are killed, banditry becomes legal, the aggressors don’t use the notion ‘terror,’ but speak about some other, imaginary values – I feel resistance because of this. Therefore I see my task in bringing a positive note, hope and compassion into the hearts of people who listen to us by serving to the authors of the music.”
The premiere of Gia Kancheli’s work Angels of Sadness took place a year ago in Berlin during the concert organized by you “To Russia with Love,” where the Shchedryk Choir, the Kremerata Baltica Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich, other well known musicians took part. The goal of the concert was to express solidarity with the victims of violence and human rights abuse in Russia.
“I turned to the values of Russian culture and authors, composers, artistes, and writers, who are dear to me and who embody true Russia for me. These are the real roots of Russian culture, not that lack of culture that is moving our everyday routine. The work by Kancheli was dedicated to innocent victims. For the moment of the premiere such innocent victim was the person, to whom this work was dedicated, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, not by definition of court, but the definition of conscience. Today, to prove that music is stronger than dedication and the word, this sad work has become a requiem to all innocent victims who were so numerous at Kyiv Maidan that it is impossible to walk along the streets nearby the Philharmonic Society and Conservatoire without emotion – I have a feeling that I’m surrounded by the angels of sadness. And the quiet music sounds like a conversation about the reasons why their lives were interrupted. It is the music about those who sacrificed themselves in the name of something higher, who resisted to bandits killing not only life, but thought, freedom, and justice. Therefore every note of this score is in harmony with our inner state.
“I’m happy to meet on the stage with my partisans, such as Roman Kofman, who is a dear friend of mine, and I have been working with him for decades, as well as outstanding composer Gia Kancheli, whose works are the most appropriate to this situation, and my colleague in the orchestra Kremerata Baltica and partner in life Giedre Dirvanauskaite. The fact that I’m surrounded by these people helps me say – not alone, together – the words for which we have come to Kyiv. I have long-time harmonious relations with the choir Shchedryk, which has many times attended my festival in Lockenhaus, which I have headed for 30 years. Shchedryk was invited to the first performance of Gia’s works, and, naturally, namely with Shchedryk we are performing Angels of Sadness in Kyiv.”
It will be noted that in spite of the tight schedule, Gidon Kremer and Giedre Dirvanauskaite have visited Kyiv-based Mikhail Bulgakov Literary Memorial Museum. After the tour held by the leading scholarly associate Svitlana Burmystrenko, the maestro wrote in the billboard of the museum for honorary guests: “What an amazing house! What an amazing world! Thank you for sharing it with us. Gidon Kremer.”
“THE ENTIRE CIVILIZED WORLD IS RESISTING PUTIN’S AGGRESSION, BUT THE WAY WILL BE EXTREMELY HARD AND LONG”
Conductor Roman Kofman wrote about his friend, one of the most outstanding contemporary composers, Gia KANCHELI in his new book Ode to employers, which will be published by Laurus Publishers in 2015, “When I got to know Gia closer and understood that he thinks in paradoxes and expresses his thoughts in aphorisms which should be engraved in stone, and, the most important thing is that while working on his large compositions, I made sure that he does not always imagine the category of movement in a standard way, but as a continuous development of small fragments of material. In Kancheli’s opuses huge layers of different, sometimes diametrically opposite matters collide, and each of them contains, it would seem, an exhaustible set of self-sufficiency, but the exchange of these huge stones creates a special, unusual, and enchanting type of movement. This is the way it happens in the sky: a huge pile of heavy clouds is hanging and showing no signs of movement; but once you look up in a half an hour, you see them in a different corner of the horizon. This is what Kancheli is like. His music is hypnotizing both for the audience and the performers.”
ROMAN KOFMAN AND GIA KANCHELI (IN THE RIGHT) ARE UNITED BY A 50-YEAR-LONG FRIENDSHIP
Mr. Kancheli, the premiere of your work has taken place during the dramatic events in our country. How will you comment on them?
“I care about you very much and I am with you in my thoughts. The destiny of Ukraine resembles the destiny of Georgia, the same Russian program, ‘Divide and rule,’ is realized. When in Georgia they needed to turn out more than 200,000 Georgians from Abkhazia, there were people who helped do this. With the help of such people who long for the Soviet Union, this plan is successfully realized. And our land with ancient Georgian churches of the 14th-16th centuries is a satellite of Russia today, and the Kremlin wants to do the same with Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
“There is a famous expression by Marquis de Custine, ‘The kneeling slave fills his dreams with visions of world domination.’ This phrase expresses my attitude to what is going on now. The entire civilized world is resisting Putin’s aggression, but the way will be extremely hard and long. And this greatest tragedy that is going on in your country, I think, will yield positive fruit in the future, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. The actions of the ‘kneeling slave’ will help Ukraine find unity and become a European state.
“Recently at the International Festival ‘Contrasts’ in Lviv my author’s concert took place. I dedicated it to people who died for the independence of Ukraine: I asked the host to announce this from the stage. The performance of Angels of Sadness in Kyiv is dedicated to tragic events in Ukraine, with compassion and immense pity for those who left their lives in this war, and, by the way, compassion to those who are blinded by the deceitful Russian propaganda, therefore we can pity them, I think they are people who lost their way. On November 13 Kakha Bendukidze died. We have met only twice with him, but I have always felt that he was a very light person with a bright individuality, and I wanted to dedicate the Kyiv performance to his memory.”
Did you compose the Angels of Sadness specifically for the choir Shchedryk?
“Yes, for 50 years we have been friends with Roman Kofman and his wife Iryna Sablina. I knew for whom I was composing, I knew that the first performance in Berlin would be with Kremerata Baltica, that this would be the realization of the unique violinist Gidon Kremer’s idea. At Berlin’s premiere I was impressed by the beauty of the sound. Young children were singing my very sad music with heroic devotion. I think the performance in Kyiv these days is filled with a special meaning.”
In 2009 the premiere of your work Lulling the Sun premiered in Kyiv: Shchedryk performed the lullaby where the word “sun” was sung in 27 languages. What languages are present in Angels of Sadness?
“The choir sings the texts in Sumerian, English, and Georgian. And ‘Lullaby’ is in Ukrainian, written at my request by Roman Kofman.”
When are we going to see you in Kyiv?
“In spring next year (May 6) my author’s concert will be held at the National Philharmonic Society which I love very much. The choir Kyiv and Kyiv Quartet of Saxophonists will perform the works Amao Omi – War is nonsensical – this is the title of the poem by Vazha-Pshavela, a genius Georgian poet. And Kyiv Chamber Orchestra will performNight Prayers for saxophone-soprano and string orchestra, and it will be conducted, to my joy, by Roman Kofman.”
