| The American Kronos Quartet and the Finnish Cluster will perform a new joint program On September 7, at the Moscow Youth Palace, the GreenWave agency opens the season with a concert, which can already be called an outstanding event. This is a joint project of the legendary Kronos Quartet and the Cluster group of the Finnish accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen: 80 minutes of Pohjonen’s composition “Unico” in nine parts, and before it a short prelude - three ethnic numbers performed by an American quartet. The Kronos Quartet has been playing classical music in stadiums and rock music in philharmonic societies for thirty years. Pohjonen forced an international audience from conservatory professors to punks to listen to folk songs and dances of Finnish origin. Thanks to the support of the new radio station “Culture”, musicologist Dmitry UKHOV interviewed the founder and first violinist of the Kronos Quartet, David HARRINGTON, and accordion player Kimmo POKHONEN, especially for Vremya Novostey.
David Harrington: Let there be surprises
— The Kronos Quartet’s repertoire includes almost all the music of the world: from Byzantine spiritual chants and oriental folklore to the academic avant-garde and club kitsch with the cabaret group The Tiger Lilies, which, by the way, is greeted with a bang by our golden youth. Is it really possible to treat all of this equally creatively?
- It is possible and even necessary. We are always trying to play better... better than we played before, and with any partners - be it all Alfred Schnittke's quartets in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. Or recordings with Dawn Upshaw, Asha Bhosle or Martin Jacques (respectively, academic soprano, singer of Indian film music, leader of the Tiger Lilies - D.W. ).
-- You will begin the concert with the Balkan “Pannonia without Borders” by Alexandra Vrebalov, which opens one of your last discs, “Caravan,” a musical and ethnographic journey around the world. Your next disc, “Nuevo,” is entirely dedicated to Mexican music. Are you planning to start in neighboring Mexico and stay longer in some countries?
-- No. Mexico is very personal. In 1995, my son, who was only 16 years old, died unexpectedly. We didn't know how we would survive this tragedy. And since we had often been to Mexico before, I decided that with the rest of my family - my wife and daughter - we would spend Christmas and New Year in this country. You know, Mexicans traditionally view death differently than we do. And if it weren’t for these days that we spent in Mexico, I don’t even know how we would have survived our family tragedy. At that time I was especially acutely aware of everything that sounded around me. So for me, “Nuevo” is also a sign of gratitude to Mexico and its culture.
—And yet, do your experiments with exotic crops continue?
- But of course! We've just left the studio. Together with the outstanding Indian vocalist Asha Bhosle, we finished recording an album of film music by Ragul Dev Burman. Amazing voice. I can't wait for people to hear this album, but this album will most likely be released next spring.
— You dedicated an entire disc to new music from the former USSR and made an album of two discs with Schnittke’s quartets, and performed twice in Russia. Have you enriched yourself with anything else?
Yes, definitely. In particular, the quartet “Folk Dance” by Vladimir Martynov. Brilliant essay! We will come to Moscow again at the end of October, for Schnittke’s 70th birthday. In addition to the quartets, we will play his Piano Quintet with Irina Schnittke as a soloist.
—What about collaboration with accordion player Kimmo Pohjonen?
— Last spring, Kimmo visited us in San Francisco, we developed a general strategy, then went to Finland to rehearse. And we work on arrangements together. The latest updates are just before the premiere in Helsinki on the first weekend of September.
— From Helsinki straight to Moscow?
— Yes, Moscow will see this project for the second time, and this is the merit of your GreenWave agency.
- Will he see? So, will there be something to see? Laser show, electronic technologies, as usual with the two “K” - “Kronos” and “Cluster”?
- Two "K" - this is wittily noted! Yes, all this will happen, but how exactly will remain a surprise.
Kimmo Pohjonen: I feel happy
- The first time you performed in Russia was at the opening of the Helsinki Days in Moscow three years ago - September 11, 2001. I remember this well because I covered this event in the Vremya Novostey newspaper. At the appointed seven o'clock in the evening, no one appeared on stage and did not try to explain to those gathered in the Rossiya hall the reason for the delay. Around half past seven, the mayors of both our capitals appeared and Yuri Luzhkov gloomily informed those present that the third world war was almost beginning, two planes had already destroyed the World Trade Center, and two more were approaching Washington. But they decided not to cancel the opening concert.
— I remember watching TV backstage while waiting to go on stage. And then I kept thinking about how good that concert would have been if not for the feelings that possessed us all.
-- Together with many European critics involved in world music, in 1999 I voted for your album Kielo as the world music debut of the year. Not the least role in our decision was played by the fact that you play a folk instrument, so to speak - a button accordion. In Russia we call it “bayan”, and here, as in some other countries - for example, in France and, it seems, in Finland - it is even more popular than the keyboard accordion. It’s interesting that your father played this particular instrument, and you chose another one. Why?
- This is my father's choice. Just because here, like you, the push-button accordion is more common.
- The button accordion is not the only thing that connects the everyday music of our peoples. Unlike Western Europe, minor keys are still more popular here and minor tangos are never going out of fashion.
- And in accordion music this is even more noticeable. The first Finnish song I learned on the accordion when I was ten years old, as it turned out, was also a Russian song. It's a pity I can't remember its name in Russian. In general, the genres of tango and even waltz, which are equally popular with us and with you, it seems to me, came to us not from the West, but from the East, that is, from Russia. This is probably why I am received so well in St. Petersburg, where I often perform.
- David Harrington told me that almost the entire second part is your own project. What unites you more with the Kronos Quartet - the music itself or its concert presentation: amplification, electronic processing directly during the performance and a light show?
- Everything is equally important, but, without a doubt, music is the starting point, then we look for electronic effects, then light, and at the end - the actual stage performance. When they told me that the Kronos Quartet was looking for a meeting with me, I almost jumped for joy. I had ideas in my head before about combining an accordion with a string quartet using electronics. I was so lucky with the Kronos Quartet that even before the premiere I feel happy. After all, these guys can do absolutely everything. They are not limited to the classics and are open to any experiments.
—You don’t seem to be particularly attracted to academic performance, be it classical or new music?
— In music and in sound in general, I am attracted, first of all, by what has not yet happened, by what people have not yet heard, by what modernity and avant-garde coincide.|
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