About souls and trolls

Alexander Rudin and six cello concertos in gift wrapping

Formally, the evening was the opening of the Moscow Philharmonic’s subscription series entitled “Masterpieces and Premieres.” And this is one of Rudin’s favorite names - outwardly absolutely neutral, it is strangely meaningful and directly corresponds to the practice of the cellist and artistic director of the Musica Viva orchestra. Masterpieces are well-known music, if not hit music, then at least repertoire. In Rudin's performance it always sounds like new or at least very fresh. Premieres are not the result of strictly scientific musical research. Thus, in the field of Rudin's concerts, along with never-played, mostly old scores, an element of enlightenment enters, although no one specifically insists on it. Rudin does not push ideas, concepts, or ideologies at all. An excellent musician, one of the most respected masters and virtuosos, an ensemble player of the rarest class and an intelligent conductor, a connoisseur of instrumental styles and composer eras, he was never known as either a destroyer of foundations or a guardian of Atlas at pretentious buskins. Rudin never attributed even the stylistic subtlety and precision of both his own playing and the manner of his orchestra to “authentic” motivations and intentions. He seems to be shy and restrained when he explains about “historically informed” performance - just as calmly as about a masterpiece-premiere line of repertoire choice. It seems that Rudin's ideas are almost a compromise - due to a lack of various kinds of opportunities (tools, funding, etc.). In fact, no amount of funding would have forced him to go completely into, say, “authenticism,” just as fame did not force him to settle into concert romanticism. The fences of the ideological camp would interfere with the quiet freedom of relationship with the music that the musician actually professes. And earnestly. And despite the emphatically correct manner of avoiding not only confessions, but also sermons. And no label was stuck to him for his creative career. Just as the messianic image of a medium or teacher did not take root, which is typical of many glorious colleagues. Meanwhile, it is Alexander Rudin who, for a huge number of his peers and younger musicians, is something like a talisman, a guarantee of the possibility of healthy and honest relationships with art and partners. The opportunity to love your job without losing over the years either critical ability, performance skills, professionalism, liveliness, or sincerity. Rudin, at 50 (the subscription concert was his anniversary), is one of the leaders of the generation: an excellent musician with quiet fame, unobtrusive obsession and such a wide repertoire that few of the available messiahs could master.

In the anniversary concert, Rudin wanted to play seven cello concertos, but settled on six. The program ended at eleven, and the initially full hall, of course, thinned out, but there were enough of those remaining for the final Dvorak for a full standing ovation. We started with the First Concerto of Haydn, our favorite composer (no one plays him so much and so well as Rudin and his orchestra). They continued with Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach - no less passionately beloved than Haydn. The concerts proceeded at an extremely fast pace, which sometimes presented some difficulties for the orchestra: it slightly blurred the articulation at the turns between pathos and gallantry. But the solo parts (aka conductor’s parts) did not lose either plasticity, or details of whimsical phrases (seemingly not well-groomed, but somehow clearly thoroughbred, even when almost careless), or place in a fluid form.

The concert by Georg Christoph Wagenseil (hereditary Viennese imperial composer) became the promised premiere - very beautiful music, tender, flexible and twilightly theatrical. With a masquerade cello cadenza with birds, thunder and the sound of the wind. The first part was completed by the masterly romantic Antonin Kraft - with great concertism in the material and with great skill, even, it seems, played a little ironically.

The second section is for the strong in spirit. An anniversary according to Rudin is not a celebration with guests and offerings, but an occasion to force loved ones to accept difficult gifts from the birthday boy. Shostakovich's Second Cello Concerto was designated as such a gift (it once served as a gift to Shostakovich himself and was first performed on his 60th birthday) - as different from the First, repertoire-wise, as night is to day. Scary, transparent, cold music, an icy reflection on the troll field. The audience was asked in advance to refrain from applause, warning that Sibelius would follow immediately. Two pieces for cello and orchestra, both about the soul (another Russian premiere) - and here it is, almost a consolation, the trolls are sleeping. Both the stony Shostakovich and the warming, although not without his own trolls, Sibelius - everything was played without pressure, everything was precise in intonation, everything was extremely attentive in sound. Then the famous Dvorak for dessert, not given to every young competition laureate with such ardor and so freely. They even sang with the conductor (Alexander Vedernikov, who appeared in the second part at the podium), despite the obvious difference in temperament. It is known that Rudin is a unique ensemble player, capable of imperceptibly leading even a conductor with him or easily abandoning these intentions, giving his partner the freedom, for example, to entertain and slightly shake the Musica Viva orchestra, which coped remarkably well with the role of accompanist that evening, and no other was required . The orchestra has strong parts ahead. His season is impressive: three 18th-century operas in concert performance (Handel, Haydn, Cimarosa), Vivaldi’s oratorio Judith Triumphant with a baroque casting of soloists, work with Christopher Moulds, Nikolai Lugansky and others, including at the happily resumed Dedication festival "

Yulia BEDEROVA