What is not taught at the conservatory

Theodore Krentzis and Musicaeterna tested a new tour in Moscow - a creative residence. In addition to concerts under the control of Kurentsis himself and Fedor Lednev, their four-day visit included master classes, a lecture, discussions and film screenings of the film “Death in Venice” with a subsequent discussion. Events unfolded around the main character of the tour - the fifth symphony of Mahler, from which, as you know, the masterpiece of Visconti glorified. In particular, the new essay of Alexei Retinsky “Anaphora” was written for the huge Maleovsky composition of the orchestra with the addition of several atypical instruments like an electric guitar, semanthons and water whistles. The main haven of the residents was the Moscow Conservatory, for the students of which Krentzis also held a master class on opera conducting. Colta.ru asked for musical youth to share their impressions, answering five questions. We tried to preserve the style of answers as much as possible.

1. How difficult was it to get to residence events?
2. What was there that they are not taught at the conservatory?
3. What are the most vivid impressions?
4. What was not enough?
5. Do Cuentsis and its musicians correspond to legends about them?

Elizaveta Korneeva, III course, department of opera-symphonic conducting

1. I can say as a participant in the master class on opera-symphonic conducting that we had a selection. We sent our videos. How many students sent the records, I do not know. But in all courses we have about 25 people. I know the story of how a person learned about the master class, sitting at the concert, and accidentally saw how the seated person drove an event into the calendar ahead. But, going to the site, I found that registration for a master class on conducting is already closed. But the last concert was launched by student - it was a real gift! I was very surprised and happy.

2. To conduct precisely the singer so that there is visual contact, show the singer Portmento, breath, give him the desired “wyb” in the style “even if you do not sing it badly, you are still the best singer in the world!” They do not say that you need to fall in love and fall in love with the singer you work with. What you need to feel freedom and give the scope of intuition.

3. Musical contact with a master who opens and fills the soul. The play by Mark Andre (conducted by Fedor Lednev), both plays of Alexei Retinsky and, of course, the symphony of Gustav Malera. For the first time in my life, I cried at a concert. Guess, from which part?

4. There was enough! And it takes time to live it. But if the master classes were with the orchestra! ..

5. And what legends go? I can say that these are incredible professionals, open, sincere and musical guys, young and energetic. Love and magic? This is all really present! I felt this at the master class and in the concert hall. When they begin to sing and play with completely new paint, without saying a word in advance, and you feel how the flowers of the Provence are fragrant.

Mikhail Kalitsky, II course, department of opera-symphonic conducting

It was quite easy to get to the events, with the exception of concerts, which were simply impossible to get to.

There was an open rehearsal of the orchestra, but it was practically unable to hear from the balcony what Theodore says.

I also had a chance to visit the quality of the listener at the Kurentzis master class, where I found a new idea for myself. In the conservatory - at least it seems to me that - they do not teach to conduct solo singing, imposing all responsibility on the vocalist. Theodore, on the contrary, said that the vocalist can sing differently every day, and therefore it would be more correct to “dictate” with his hands how to sing.

The most vivid impressions ... I think that the most vivid impression was made by impromptu corridors near the entrance to the BZK, where they checked the presence of a ticket and a QR cod , my own machines for the orchestra, which this is not the first time I see at Musicaeterna performances, as well as a huge amount of protection everywhere. Unlike other conductors, Theodore is apparently considered inviolable.

There was not enough live communication with Theodore, which, of course, is impossible, given the number of people. But some of his lectures with the ability to ask questions-it would be simply gorgeous as a format. If I already arrived at the conservatory, then why not share not only information from the master class, but also with general information related to the profession. Give the parting words to young conductor so that we understand what we have to go through. What can be passed through, and which is better to avoid, from the point of view of Theodore of Cuentsis.

I know only one legend about him - stop the concert after the phone call in the hall. It may well be. He is an unpredictable personality. And the musicians ... Yes, ordinary people with their problems, what is the legendary in them? They played great, but this is not a legend, but a fact.

Mary Cheminava, II Course, Department of Opera-Simphonic Conducting

1. They did not want to let Cuentsis a master class in the presence of registration-due to the fact that the printed tickets were not enough for everyone. When in the end they put it, they put them at the very end of the hall due to the lack of a ticket, although only the organizers were to blame. As a result, they didn’t go to the dialogue, it was unpleasant.

I got to the lecture without problems. At the open rehearsal of Kurentsis, those who compiled lists mixed up the courses, eventually found my last name in a different list, launched, but not immediately. Lednev came to the rehearsal without problems.

For the first time in my memory, concerts made tangible benefits for students - promotional codes for tickets with an affordable price, went on tickets without questions.

2. At the master class there was individual work with a vocalist and conductor, in the conservatory there is no such practice, and there is no practice of immersing in the work of symphonic conductors with soloists until senior courses.

3. Perhaps the music program of the concert on October 2. And the composition on the "Anaphora" of Retinsky.

4. A conductor of master class with an orchestra, at our department an acute lack of such events. Adequate throughput system for a master class. And I would not refuse to visit meetings with conductors and musicians of the orchestra.

5. I have no idea what kind of legends, I prefer to monitor facts and posters).

Christina Dzhishkariani, V course, musicology

1. It was easy to get.

3. The premiere of "Anaphora" of Retinsky.

4. It seems that there was enough.

5. I do not know legends, but the performance of the works was objectively at the level.

Louise Pletneva, IV course, undergraduate "Music and Musical and Applied Art"

On October 3, a concert of the Musicaeterna orchestra under the leadership of Theodore Krentzis took place in the Great Hall of the Conservatory. The musical world spoke about this concert in advance, everyone was looking forward to the arrival of the conductor. To my surprise, I was able to get to him. On the last day, when it became clear that not all tickets were sold out, Krentzis made a 50% discount on the remaining ones, and also allowed the students to let the students. For the first time I saw the turn to the entrance (still on the street). Before you get into the hall of the Great Hall, it was necessary to show your QR code , which was carefully checked, verified with a personal document (passport / driver’s license). Only after that could the listener receive a “holy” bracelet to get inside. Then you pass, as usual, security, show tickets for a concert. Many tried to run without a QR code , but the guard of everyone unfolded in the direction of exit. Some people even had to hand over tickets to the cashier. At the concert I met students of the Moscow Conservatory, graduates of the DMHSh "Vesna", teachers of the AMU at the MGK named after P.I. Tchaikovsky. The concert was supposed to begin at 9 pm, but due to a long check of documents, everything was delayed. The music began to sound 20 minutes later. The concert consisted of two departments. I was lucky to sit in the stalls. The first compartment sounded the work of the modern composer of the Retinsky “Anaphora” for the symphonic orchestra, in the second - the fifth symphony of Mahler. Krentzis could not start the work because of the loud behavior of the audience: long-term seedlings, noise, shuffling with his feet, sneezing, etc. The conductor had to turn to the public three times to wait for the deepest silence. And suddenly the music sounded. The skill of the orchestra cannot be described in words. A huge work done is visible. All elements of musical fabric were subtly and clearly expressed: strokes, shades, intonation, and character. At the end of the first branch, everyone was violently applauded by the composer Retinsky, whom the public managed to see on the stage at the end of the performance of “Anaphora”. In the second department, the orchestra generally played standing. It's just amazing. For an hour and a half to stand on stage ... But, it seems to me, it’s easier to depict emotions, so this is a completely correct stir of conductor. For a long time I have not heard the lively of such a qualitative performance of the symphony of Gustav Maler. The only thing that I did not have enough at the concert was the bees. It seems to me that it was possible to play one work after the first and second compartments. The public would be very pleasant. After all, at the end of the concert, the whole hall stood up !!!

Tatyana Yakovleva, musicologist, graduate and teacher of the RAM named after Gnesins

I managed to go to two events of the Musicaeterna residence: evening concerts with the participation of Fedor Lednev and Theodore Krentzis. For one of the concerts, I purchased a ticket during the discount, at the other, my friends helped me at the last moment, sharing the invitation.

Many fans of the collective are unsubstantially awaiting the music of the resident of the house of Radio-composer Alexei Retinsky, who surprises in French flowering texture. But also - the continuation of the Malera saga of Kurentzis: after all, for several years he has been erecting his canvases one after another. I ended up among the listeners of the Kurentsis - Malera in 2016, when at the Diaghilev festival I visited almost all the rehearsals of the sixth symphony: I watched how theodore intonates the musicians of the topic, listens to the nuances of combining timbres and echoes, works on the breath of the form, and the musicians embody this with relaxed ease. Now, in the performance of the fifth symphony, all this preparatory work has been embodied on the new material in the equally detailed detail.

Without embarrassment of love for “poppies”, I will say that the greatest effect was produced by a replicated adagito, which included in the film “Death in Venice”. In the context of the whole community of the symphony, this gapyon of exposed sincerity, delicate languor was preserved by the other parts untouched among the raging passions. The famous freezing pauses of Kurentzis were here at the very day. And no matter how we want to hide from such an open emotion under the armor of cynicism or irony, the moments of the attenuation of sound and the barely noticeable appearance of new motives forced to melt the strongest gates.

Nevertheless, the real shock caused an essay from another residence program - the play by Mark Andre “3 plays for the orchestra”. In this program, Fedor Lednev was a lot of rarely sounding classics of the twentieth century, but Andre's essay for me was one of the most powerful musical impressions from concerts in a long time. If you turned out to be helpless with Adagisitto, but at least I understood what you were dealing with, then from the first moments you seemed to fall under hypnosis and did not realize what was happening. You can try to verbalize this and tell about unexpected timbre mixtures, about elastic resonances of sounds and pauses-state, about the feeling of fragments gathering into space, and about much more, but this will hardly explain the revolution. Musicaeterna musicians in Andre's composition managed to show dark matter, the existence of which we do not even suspect. The difficulty was only that it was necessary to listen to the concert further: it was like for several minutes to be in four -dimensional space and then return back to three -dimensional.

With the Musicaeterna team, you are already automatically waiting for such revelations, very often they take place at their concerts. Do they correspond to legends about them, I do not know, but this is definitely the team for which I often try to postpone other things.