Volodos Pianist biography

The ON ON ON in Moscow gave the first Russian concert pianist Arkady Volodos, a star of modern music, known in his homeland by his notes. Before the Moscow tour of the same program that will be in the house of music, Arkady Volodos opened the Lucerne Piano Festival, where he met the musical observer of Izvestia Ekaterina Biryukova. Arkady Volodos: Oh, a difficult question! It is difficult to imagine that Glenn Guld is a representative of the Canadian school of pianism, and Martha Argerich is Argentine.

It seems to me that the concept of "school" was relevant in those days when there were no grames and aircraft. And when you see that half of the Russian professors are working abroad, and people from Russia study in colleges in Germany, it is difficult to determine. All - how to say that? Volodos: Galina Egiazarova. I studied with her at the school at the Moscow Conservatory. I had a very difficult fate.

At first I was engaged in a choral school at the St. Petersburg chapel. No special abilities were found there. They even wanted to expel me more than once. There were ordinary piano classes, which in Russia are always included in a musical education - Piano Complementaire in French. Already forgot how in Russian.

Volodos: Yes. And I decided late that I would be a professional pianist. At 16. I came to a consultation to enter the school at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. And, of course, they told me correctly that there was no level. There was little chance. I even had the idea to become a tuner. I was very lucky what I did. Then I went to study in Moscow - since I did not quite like in Leningrad.

And Egiazarova was the first person who told me: "You will be a pianist." If I had not met her, I would have quit playing the piano at all. And then I left Russia - my father lived in France. I was then 19 years old. Volodos: This is important. I am against this, I hate these contests. It seems to me that this is monstrous. You know, in my opinion, now the era of competition, comparison and labels.

I think this is a mockery of music. There can be no comparison in music. Volodos: by chance. I honestly tell you that I was not hoping to be a concert pianist, I was looking for a teacher’s place in Spain. I was lucky by chance - they heard my cassette and invited. Volodos: Oh, I never thought about it. I was forced to play a lot in America - because from there were my managers. Until I'm tired.

Now I don't play there at all. Volodos: I do not like this standardization, when a person flies to play 20 concerts in a row, wakes up every two days in a new hotel, goes outside and thinks that he is in the same city. I play a little concerts. Now - thirty a year. I think I will even play twenty. Because a person should not only be with royal, but also with nature, books.

Volodos: It seems to me that there is a very good audience. They listen carefully. They say: success, screams of bravo, I don't understand this at all. All this is secondary, fake. The present is when a person listens carefully when there is electrification in the hall. Because, you see, there are many works after which I do not want to applaud. After Sonata Schubert, in my opinion, it is vulgar to applaud and scream loudly.

Today I played a sheet, and I really liked that there was silence between his works. Are there any changes in your repertoire? Volodos: You know, I do not divide the music into virtuoso and not. Now very often they are judged, as they say, by clothing - that is, by the repertoire. If we play Schubert, we are called musicians. If transcendental sketches of the sheet are immediately virtuoso.

And for me, Rachmaninov’s entry, which is played by the “waltz” of Strauss -Tausig, is one of the most brilliant music records that exist at all. It seems to me that when a person is a person, he must be listened to in all styles, and not put it in some classification. Volodos: You know, for chamber music you need to have close friends. How does it usually happen?

You do not know a person, but tomorrow you will play the cellular sonata of Rachmaninov. At 3 o’clock rehearsal, at 8 - a concert. I can't do that. For me, it's all a show. If I ever meet people with whom I will be pleased to play at home, then maybe after that I will play with them on stage. Volodos: Very difficult. In addition, I do not like to record discs, I think that all my records were unsuccessful.

Volodos: I got sick then. I had a very difficult tour of Italy, and I sailed in Venice in a boat and caught a cold. Volodos: Not once. I can’t imagine what kind of public there. Who was in Lucerne, except for Volodos, the piano forum in Lucerne, which opened with his performance, Arkady Volodos, was held for the ninth time. This is one of the three prestigious musical events that the famous festival, founded in the year of Arturo Tuscanini, has multiplied at one time.

This year, on the shore of Lake Lucerns, eight very different pianists could be heard in six days.This is the only place in Europe where they are gathering in such quantities at the same time, but if this is not enough for anyone, then in parallel the festival there is a completely serious Piano Off-Stage program with bar music. The piano hierarchy of alfalfa coincides little with the Russian picture of the piano world.

But it’s nice that we have no disagreements about the most important pianist with the Swiss: tickets for Mikhail Pletnev, who was almost a local resident of his apartment in Lucerne, were sold out before the start of the festival. In addition to him, Arkady Volodosa, Russian piano traditions were to some extent by the Romanian patriarch of the Rub Lupa, who studied at X at the Moscow Conservatory.

The only woman in this review was the fragile Canadian Anniela Hughitt, almost unnoticed at last year’s “December evenings”, who titanically playing his main hit in Lucerne - two -hour Bakho Goldberg Variations, after which the audience without further ado arranged a standing ovation. Another idol - the French romantic Jean -Yve Tiboda is still little known to us, but promised by the Moscow Philharmonic this spring.

And the most exotic favorite of the festival turned out to be a young clockwork Turk Fazil Sai, who sings, sticking out his tongue during the game and speaks with the native of the piano. Once he came to Moscow as a modest accompanist of the Golden Violin, Maxim Vengerov, and at the restrained Swiss received a full hall and a standing ovation with a whistle.