News
01.10.2018
Holidays in Vienna
The season has begun, and our artists are once again engrossed in their work. For them, the summer break is already just a distant memory. However, the holidays were not a period of rest and relaxation for everyone. Many instead used this opportunity to develop their professional skills. Conductor Igor Tomashevsky, for instance, headed for Europe to learn from Viennese musicians.„This summer, I participated in two workshops on conducting, in Vienna and in Budapest. I felt that my work needed an external, critical, professional eye. In Vienna, I signed up for a course with Johannes Wildner. Several years ago, while working on my dissertation, I came across the Finale of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9, which, as we know, was never finished. The composer left only sketches, and there are currently two versions of the Finale, both based on the motifs these sketches contain. I first heard one of them after buying a CD, a recording of Johannes Wildner conducting Symphony No. 9 with a reconstructed Finale. The piece was so enormous it took up the entire disk. I’ve been aware of Wildner’s name since then, and when I saw that he would be running a workshop, I decided to make his acquaintance for real. By the way, Wildner actually attended a performance of L’elisir d’amore at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, and shared with me the wonderful impressions he took away both of the musical side of the performance and of the theatre itself. I also have another memory linking me to the second teacher, from the course I took in Budapest. On my first trip to Vienna, they were giving concerts for tourists at the Musikverein. They were playing Mozart, with the orchestra dressed in period costumes. I went, and am glad I did. When I asked who was conducting, I was pointed to maestro András Deák.“
„Deák had a very diverse group of students. What I liked about him was his ability to vary his approach depending on who he was working with, and the fact that he never insisted on anything. I was entirely free to choose whichever pieces I felt most of an affinity for. I chose Die Fledermaus — and almost immediately realised I was in trouble. He would stop the orchestra every five bars, and we’d go back over them again and again. That’s when I realized how much I’d lose if I gave up then and there. At the same time, though, I can’t say that his conducting style was one I can really relate to. He has a completely different aesthetic approach to conducting: he leads with his eyes, making very few movements, aided by his perfect knowledge of every instruction the composer gives in the score. But the expressivity of your arms and the lyricism and beauty of your gestures, which are a hallmark of Russian conducting, are extremely important to me. Still, it was interesting to try and put these unfamiliar rules of play into practice, and lead the orchestra primarily using upbeats and my own internal understanding of how things should be.“
„The first time I conducted the overture to Die Fledermaus all the way through, I felt it had gone well. Then the professor began to explain what was needed stylistically and how this might be conveyed to the orchestra. I realized that I still had a lot to work on, and I did that work under the watchful eye of a professional. There are all sorts of conducting styles, and some are sure to vehemently dislike his way of doing things, but I found it useful to absorb it, get to grips with it, and try out this new style for myself.“
„I was chosen to conduct one of the course’s closing concerts. The selection process for that was ongoing throughout the course, so it was a kind of competition, which I won, although the competitive aspect didn’t mean a great deal to me. András Deák has one particular tradition of performing Viennese music in his blood. While working with him, I tried to focus on works which I’d had trouble with. So conducting the first movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in the final concert was the most valuable aspect of the competition for me.“
„Every conductor has their own approach to interpreting what the composer has written down, but the composer’s markings should come before everything else. The more insight a conductor gains into a piece and into the history of its creation, and the more they immerse themselves in their work on it, the stronger the foundations of their own interpretation will be, as they have more to go on when shaping their conception. That said, a conductor’s natural ability to determine where the central point of the piece comes, and to imbue it with as much energy as possible, is obviously also important.“
„The more you time spend working with the score, the more coherent it will sound. There is a wonderful book by the French composer Arthur Honegger, in which he describes the process of creating music, moving from the general to the specific. He imagines a typical symphony as an enormous building gradually illuminated by a ray of light: first just one wing, then the other, then the façade, then the roof. A conductor’s vision of a piece of music is much the same. You begin to work with a piece, and part of it gets clearer.“
„In music, the composer comes first. The composer speaks to us in the language of musical notes. We, the musicians, are merely a vehicle for conveying the composer’s creative intent to the listener. I don’t have much sympathy with the idea that the conductor is the most significant person; after all, the conductor doesn’t make a sound. The musicians are far more important: it’s their work that gets heard. The conductor can help them, though, and point them in a certain direction. In the world of music, that is the purpose of a conductor.“
„Every conductor is naturally going to understand a composer in their own way; the whole concept of interpretation rests on that assumption. You shouldn’t be afraid to try and be natural, although certain conductors do attempt to define themselves against something, avoiding imitation and aiming for a different sound. Does a conductor have the right to do that? That’s largely dependent on their intellectual preparedness and overall development.“
„My attitude towards this profession has changed over time. As a student, I wanted to express myself, to set myself a grand purpose for the years to come. But then I realized that meaningful need not mean grandiose. It can be something closer, more human, more natural; it can take a very concrete, objective form. You get joy from your work and your life when you’re able to realize everything that is written in the notes in the score. Any serious, mature musician can do that.“