CELLO. 3−DIMENSION

Text:  Sergey Khachaturov
Photo: Sergey Karpov, Denis Kuznetsov, Dmitry Chuntul

The vii Vivacello festival, organised by Boris Andrianov and the U-Art foundation, according to long standing tradition has brilliantly revealed the potential of this noble instrument to communicate in different areas of the artistic world

The cello has formally travelled around many art-venues in Moscow: The opening and closing ceremonies were held in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, from whence programs were performed in the best conservatory and museum halls of the capital.

A concert of chamber music, featuring the grand octet for strings by George Enescu performed with phenomenal drive by the best of the best soloists: Alena Baeva, Andrei Baranov, Nikita Borisoglebsky, Rodion Petrov, Fedor Belugin, Daniil Grishin, Boris Andrianov and Kristina Blauman, took place in the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. An evening with cellist, composer and virtuosic improviser Stephan Braun was held in the Multimedia Art Museum (formerly the House of Photography). In the Vrubels Hall of the Tretyakov Gallery an evening of sonatas was held with performances from the headliners of today’s performing arts: Jing Zhao, Alena Baeva and Vadim Kholodeno who performed in a manner that corresponded to the refined atmosphere of the gallery’s genius loci.

Both classics (Ivan Monigetti) and teenagers (violinist Rennosuke Fukuda, born in 1999) participated in the concerts.

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Art Director of the Festival Boris Andrianov	Cellist Narek Akhnazaryan	Japanese violinist Rennocuke Fukuda

The cello’s ability to accumulate the potential of the difficult, inspiring and talented was clear in the very program of the festival. Thus at the festival opening ceremony the theme of Wandering the World with the Violin and Cello was declared. The baroque concertos of Antonio Vivaldi became a blessing for the journey, and the culmination of the festival took the form of opuses by the classics of modernism Alfred Schnittke and Gia Kancheli. The symphony orchestra of Moscow the “Russian Philharmonia” under the baton of Dmitri Jurowski accompanied Narek Akhnazaryan, Timothy Park, Rennosuke Fukuda, Alexei Lundin, Nikita Borisoglebsky and Fedor Amosov.

Boris Brovitsyn (violin), Boris Andrianov,art-director of the festival and Dmitri Yurovsky,conductor	Ivan Monigetti – cellist, student of Mstislav Rostropovich	MOSCOW VIRTUOSI

At each concert, whether it featured Vivaldi, Saint-Saëns or Schnittke, the union of violin and cello fostered a broad understanding, in each nuance of harmony and timbre, of why the style of the18th Century was called the “Line of Beauty” and why the 20th Century was defined by Kazimir Malevich as possessing the quality of the “additional element”. This refers to the era of ideological phenomenon which was “caused by a response to the existing structure of feelings.” The audience embarked upon a journey through different styles and in each case the musicians, the “additional element”, demonstrated refinement and beauty of the epoch.

A separate remark, the “Quiet Prayer” by Gia Kancheli, was performed with the orchestra by Boris Brovtsin and Boris Andrianov. Refering to the non-official fine art of the 1970s contemporary art theorist Boris Grois introduced the term “romantic conceptualism”, suggesting the presence of living and suffering intonation (often emanating from the eternal hero of literature, the “little man”) in the arrangement of patterns of tough normative language systems. It is probably possible to talk about Kancheli’s music as an example of “romantic minimalism”. A recording of a child’s voice singing naïvely and childishly literal words about the world, the sun and God becomes the structural axis of the concerto. The violin and cello parts, accompanied by the orchestra, create a mighty flow of emotions swirling around the childish voice. An open, uncontrollable, avalanche of emotion is humbled into meekness. Consciousness believes in the promise of harmony and enlightenment.

The cello is an example and instructor of the multidimensional complex understanding of the musical world. The corner stone of this festival can be considered to have been the “Rococo Variations” by Tchaikovsky which was performed, in various interpretations, three times. In the Multimedia Art Museum Stephan Braun used the Variations as material for his multimedia improvisation in which the cello took on the voices of the other instruments and was heard in different genres of musical culture. At the festival closing ceremony in the Tchaikovsky Hall the version of the “Rococo Variations” as edited by K.W.F. Fitzenhagen was exemplarily performed by laureate of the XV Tchaikovsky Competition Jonathan Roozeman.

The 2015 festival closed with the world premiere of the “Jazz Rococo Variations” for cello and orchestra by Alexander Rozenblatt. Boris Andrianov performed the solo part accompanied by the “Moscow Virtuosi” chamber orchestra. The filigree development of each theme in the improvisation by Braun showed that the cello can indeed mimic the voice and appear in different forms and genres, from the jazz guitar to a percussive rhythm section. In general, Braun produced a searing, very complex lyrical message akin to the ballads of a hero of the past festival Edin Karamazov. He understood the text of Tchaikovsky’s “Rococo Variations” on a very deep structural level.

It seems that Rozenblatt was more attracted by the chance to use Tchaikovsky’s cello variations as sound decorations in a cozy retro style; similar to that of the film by Karen Shakhnazarov “We are from Jazz”. In this context the “Rococo Variations” became a channel for popular, mass culture.

Indeed, the passionate and genuine, technically perfect performance of the “Variations” by Jonathan Roozeman and the “Moscow Virtuosi” under the baton of Sergei Smbatyan stripped away the mothballs and allowed us to hear the classic anew. In this way, one subject from Tchaikovsky’s opus enabled the cello to become a channel to three dimensions of culture: popular, classical and experimental art house.

At the opening concert of the festival musicians performed Mozart encore

The concert on the 22nd of November took place in one of the most beautiful venues in Moscow, the Vrubels hall of the Tretyakov gallery

The closing ceremony concert of the festival. Ivan Monigetti and the “Moscow virtuosi” under the baton of Sergei Smbatyan perform the Concerto for cello and orchestra in a minor by Robert Schumann

The Multimedia Art Museum was the ideal setting for jazz improvisation by Stephan Braun

American cellist Timothy Park and violinist Alexey Lundin

Composer Alexander Rozenblatt in the last minutes before the concert

30 April 2016

Innovation and сonservation

The 11th exhibition of the finalists of the Innovation contest, the all-Russian contemporary visual artists competition, opened recently at the National Center for Contemporary Arts in Moscow. In my particular case, the event is especially interesting to review, since I can resort to double optics: that of a casual observer and that of an insider.

26 April 2015

The X Ceremony of Awarding the Winners of the INNOVATION, All-Russian Competition. Moscow. Gostiny Dvor, 2015

AN ANNIVERSARY AWARD IN THE FIELD OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS IS GRANTED IN MOSCOW The X ceremony of awarding the prize of the State Centre for Contemporary Arts Innovation took place in Gostiny Dvor. The environment in which winners were awarded became a work of art itself.

12 March 2015

Anniversary exhibition of Valentin Serov

An exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Serov opened in the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. More than two hundred and fifty paintings, graphics and sculptures selected for the exhibit named “Serov, other than a portrait painter”, make the audience take a fresh look at the artist’s creative development. The exhibition is hosted under the

6 March 2015

Anniversary exhibition of Valentin Serov

An exhibition dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Serov opened in the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. More than two hundred and fifty paintings, graphics and sculptures selected for the exhibit named “Serov, other than a portrait painter”, make the audience take a fresh look at the artist’s creative development. The exhibition is hosted under the auspices of UNIDENT group of companies and “U-Art: You and Art” fund.

12 January 2015

Edin Karamazov: The most beautiful music is silence and sounds of nature

Edin Karamazov, Bosnian musician, came to one of the Vivacello festival concerts. Seemingly, there is nothing unusual in this sentence – musicians of world renown tend to give concerts in various countries of the world. But as it turned out, this story is full of surprises.