Newsletter Quarta Corda
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Quarta Corda Year IX n.1 - february 2006 - Genoa for Paganini - Premio Paganini 2006 - Let me introduce you... Azio Corghi - Pleased to meet you... Syncopations - Q&A Volker Biesenbender - Paganiniana 2005: give youth a chance! - "I voli di Niccolò" by Luca Francesconi - The Paganini for Paganini: Q&A Carla Magnan - After the Premio - Download Quarta Corda Pdf Format (4 Mb) |
Paganiniana 2005: give youth a chance!
The "Paganiniana", a series of concerts focused on the figure of Niccolò Paganini, opened in Genoa on October 12th. The young violinist, Julia Fischer, accompanied by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Berlin Radio (RSO) conducted by Marek Janowski, inaugurated the festival. For the occasion, they performed the Brahms concerto in D major op. 77 on Paganini's violin, the precious Guarneri del Gesù of 1743. Fischer demonstrated self-confidence and mastery, not only in her technique but also in her interpretation, with great success among critics and the audience.
This year there was an important première in May, with two recitals by Leonidas Kavakos, winner of the "Premio Paganini" in 1988 and Lenuta Ciulei also a winner of the Prize in 1976. The Festival continued with two concerts by Lilya Zilberstein and Viktoria Mullova, two internationally renowned soloists who performed a new repertoire for the Genoese audience accompanied respectively by Sergej Krylov (violin) and Ottavio Dantone (harpsichord).
These two concerts took place at the Carlo Felice Theater, while the Paganiniana season transferred to the auditorium of the Casa Paganini starting on October 26th. This space was recently restored and given back to the City.
The audience thus had the opportunity to appreciate the acoustic qualities and the architectural beauty of the complex of S. Maria in Passione, situated right in the heart of the medieval quarter, just a few steps away from the Church S. Maria in Castello and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Genoa.
At the Casa Paganini the protagonists were the young violin virtuosos, winners of prestigious violin competitions: Barnabas Kelemen, Baiba Skride and Nicolaj Znaider (ed. note: for health reasons, he was substituted by the very young Chloë Hanslip). Moreover, the world première of a new piece I voli di Niccolò composed by Luca Francesconi, inspired by Paganini, took place in a performance by the Arditti Quartet. But that is not the only new element, because there were also performances of pieces expressly composed and played by students from the "N. Paganini" Conservatory of Genoa on the program. The vocation of the event may be described thus: to increasingly have Genoa identified as Paganini's city par excellence, giving space to young artists, both recognized composers (Luca Francesconi) or those with degrees from the Conservatory of Genoa (Carla Magnan, Andrea Campora and Stefano Guarnieri) or ambitious violinists with great talent (Sergej Krylov, Barnabas Kelemen, Chloë Hanslip and Baiba Skride), to offer the audience wide possibility of choice in music and a unique experience under the sign of Paganini. It should be remembered that the Festival, one of the most important cultural events of the city, is now biennial and alternates with the International Violin Competition "Premio Paganini" that will take place in 2006. The "Paganiniana" is integrated with other cultural offerings in the city, especially with the Mozart program of the Carlo Felice Theatre (from October 21, 2005 to April 4, 2006). We asked Julia Fischer, Sergej Krylov, Baiba Skride and Nicolaj Znaider a few questions. With the exception of Znaider, all started their musical careers in their family. In fact, their parents were professional musicians who encouraged them to learn to play an instrument, as was the case with Baiba Skride: "In my family music has always been a very important part of life, so for me it was natural to become a musician. My sisters and I always performed together, so we also had a lot of fun and we all encouraged each other. But it is not absolutely necessary to have musician parents, as long as the parents can understand the wish of a child to do music and encourage him or her as much as possible. For example, bring the kids to some concerts, or listen to some music together at home." Krylov adds: "For those who do not grow up in a musical environment, it ends up however being more difficult to get close to the world of the arts and they take more time to get into the music even if they are accompanied by a good teacher. A musical family is for me a bit like a circus family, where everybody, grandparents, parents and children share the artistic atmosphere 100%". In terms of age, the four violinists belong to the same generation. What were their musical influences? Sergey Krylov says: "My parents represented the biggest musical influence for me and even now I have a lot of dialogue with my mother, unfortunately my father is no longer living. During my training, Abraham Stern and Salvatore Accardo were two fundamental guides and more recently Mstislav Rostropovich, from whom I have had extraordinary music lessons when I performed the Beethoven concerto in Madrid under his direction and the Caikovskij concerto at the Zurich Tonhalle. The contribution of my musician friends with whom I speak and discuss music daily is also very important for me, creating an exchange of ideas that is useful in terms of study and working on my own musical thought." Nicolaj Znaider also considers meeting the great Rostropovich as fundamental, as much as meeting Barenboim. But from the musical point of view, who influenced him the most was his teacher, Boris Kuschnir, who was also a member of the very severe jury of the 50th "Premio Paganini". For Julia Fischer many things have influenced her musically: " My mother, who is a pianist. My teachers, Helge Thelen, Lydia Dubrowskaya and most of all of course Ana Chumachenco. Then there were the recordings of David Oistrakh and also Glenn Gould, which were very important to me. And later on of course some great conductors with whom I had the chance to work regularly - Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Marek Janowski and Yakov Kreizberg". For Baiba Skride, brought up in Latvia, her teachers were very important: Ludmila Girska in Latvia and professor Petru Munteanu in Rostock where she studied. "But it is always very important to listen to many recordings and not only for your own instrument. It is also important to let other things in life not connected to music influence you". Each of them has participated in and won some of the most important violin competitions. What suggestions would they give to a young violinist who wants to participate in a competition? Julia Fischer (winner of the "Yehudi Menhuin" in 1995) is the first to answer: "Don't take it too seriously! Competitions aren't objective - they are in fact VERY subjective. It is nice to go because you prepare well and learn a lot and secondly because you'll meet many other nice young violinists. Everything else is irrelevant." Baiba Skride (winner of the "Queen Elizabeth" in Brussels in 2001) adds: "The best thing about a competition is that it is a great opportunity to prepare a big repertoire and an amazing stage training, but always keep in mind that you are there to play music. Don't be scared to be a personality, to show your ideas. It seems to me that nowadays more and more young musicians are trying to be perfect and forget a little that the music is always the most important thing, you have to live it, experience it and let others enjoy it. Even in a competition. Of course you have to prepare the best you can, and the amount of practicing you do will always pay off, whatever happens. But remember that it's all about the music." Nicolaj Znaider (winner of the "Carl Nielsen" in Odense in 1992 and the "Queen Elizabeth" in Brussels in 1997) agrees too: "I would suggest that the most important thing he should do is to focus on the music… and not on the competition." Sergej Krylov (winner of the "Fritz Kreisler" in Vienna in 2000) deals with two important themes: the approach to the competition and to its preparation. "Among the numerous suggestions that could be given, the first one is this: to have the self-awareness that you enter a competition to compete, to win and not only to participate. The spirit of competition is the soul of the contest and placing in the finals to then try to win with all your might must be the main goal. It is very dangerous to do the opposite, to enter only to participate, because once they are eliminated it often happens that young people fall into long periods of depression. I believe moreover that the teachers play an important role in deciding who from among their pupils and in which moment of their studies can enter an international competition. A second suggestion regards the program: it is a fundamental instrument to be worked on with great care and intelligence so that it brings to light the best qualities of the competitor. Unfortunately, 95% of the candidates make a mistake in their choice, trying to reveal technical or artistic capabilities that actually they do not have complete mastery of." But what are the elements that help the career of a young musician? According to Fischer the approach of this question is wrong. "What is helpful for a career is that it is always about the music and not about the career. As soon as a young musician decides for certain reasons to have a career instead of using musical reasons, I can guarantee that it will be - if it will be at all - a short career. I truly believe that if someone wants to spend his professional life with music, he will - either as a soloist, orchestra member, teacher, concert promoter, or agent - in the end it is unimportant. One should choose to become a musician because one believes that the world needs music and without music, the emotional life of human beings is going to die. Everything else will come with dedication and hard work." The same concept is expressed by Znaider, who emphasizes that the most important factor is: "The dedication to development of musical ideas and the constant focusing on the music, NOT the career." For Baiba Skride as well, the most important thing is working hard, learning all that there is to learn, stay yourself and the rest will follow. Krylov underscores that "The possibility of making records is the only way to leave a concrete trace, make one's own mark. As regards a recording contract, I think it is strategic and very efficient from a promotional point of view to be supported by an important recording company. The case of Lang Lang seems emblematic to me in this sense: he is a pianist who would not have reached the wider public so fast if he had not benefited from a massive promotional campaign for his recordings on the part of Deutsche Grammophon itself." According to Julia Fischer a contract with a record company can be bad for a career, if the record company doesn't know the difference between entertainment and art. These young artists are very busy: they are all engaged in concerts as well as in the recording studio. Julia Fischer is going to record the Brahms Double Concerto with Daniel Müller-Schott (cello), Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and Yakov Kreizberg (conductor). Krylov will be at the Opera House in Cagliari with Paganini's First Concerto. One of the big projects for 2006 is the commitment with Vladimir Ashkenazy and the English Chamber Orchestra to perform the Mendelssohn Concerto. Nicolaj Znaider, besides playing some recitals with Robert Kulek in Italy (Bologna, Milan and Rome) and abroad will be busy recording the Johannes Brahms Complete Sonatas for violin and piano with Yefim Bronfman. Baiba Skride will be playing concerts, hoping to "continue to work even more than up to now and to bring lots of interesting music to audiences." We can only echo this sentiment as a wish for all of them.