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"The most difficult thing is to earn the trust of musicians"
Kultura.RF publishes an exclusive interview with six conductors - Pyotr Gladysh and Dmitry Matvienko, Arif Dadashev and Arsenty Tkachenko, Alexander Khumala and Sergey Akimov. They told the readers of the portal about their vocation, about the qualities that an orchestra leader should have, and about the difficulties of the profession.
Petr Gladysh
As a cellist I have worked in various orchestras with many conductors of various levels, ages and nationalities. But there was one conductor's quality, which always immediately won you over. When it manifested, I always wanted to meet halfway, give everything one hundred percent. This quality is solidarity. This is when the conductor feels like a part of the team, understands the specifics of the instruments and the technical difficulties that may be associated with them, empathizes with the musicians, worries about their physical condition, does not bring the orchestra to exhaustion during rehearsals and at the right time gives the musicians the opportunity to save themselves in order to save strength for the performance. When he does not formally, but sincerely sympathizes that someone has a toothache, and someone's child is sick, and understands that we are all living people and we are all "in the same boat." This kind of conductor will be accepted in any team. Such an attitude cannot be portrayed or tried to be copied: musicians feel hypocrisy very well and will immediately figure it out.
I am happy, I am really lucky in life: I work with a conductor who does not divide the orchestra into superiors and subordinates and treats each orchestra member with sincere respect and interest. And the support that the orchestra gives in turn is really worth a lot. Such a sense of comradeship is a rarity both in a musical group and in any other.
In those pleasant moments when you conduct such pearls of classical music as, for example, Adagietto from Mahler's fifth symphony, or the third part of Tchaikovsky's string serenade, or the third part of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, you begin to feel this inexpressibly beautiful sound. It is tangible, you feel how the soft and warm sound of the orchestra flows under your fingers, and you physically feel its density. At such moments, the wand is automatically sent to the remote control.
Third movement of Mahler's Fourth Symphony.
The difficulty for a novice conductor, in my opinion, is as follows. Training in educational institution- this is homework with a score in front of a mirror and conducting in a class with two accompanists. And so, it means that you have been studying for so long, achieved the “ideal gesture” and finally, for the first time in your life, impatiently went out to the orchestra! And ... you understand that the pizzicatos of the strings were not played together at your show, the introductions of the wind instruments are not always obtained together, but the brilliant accelerandos that were so convincing in the imagination at home in front of the mirror - here they are generally performed very reluctantly and cost you a lot of effort . That is, for more coordinated actions in a large team, the conductor needs some other means.
As one great conductor said, "conducting is an experience". Education is sleepless nights with scores in front of a mirror, and classes in the classroom with a professor and accompanists, and conducting a string orchestra, and, finally, working with a large symphony orchestra. The difficulty is that there is a whole abyss between these steps - and a novice conductor must be ready to step there.
Everyone goes through this stage, of course. The main thing is not to succumb to excessive reflection at the right moment and step by step approach the heights in this very difficult, but insanely interesting profession.
Dmitry Matvienko
What qualities should a conductor have?
There are obvious qualities that any person leading a group of people should possess - will, charisma, diplomacy. In the case of the conductor's profession, it is difficult to list everything.
To better understand music, a conductor must be a fanatic of his craft, have a broad outlook, know foreign languages. And another obligatory component is luck. Over the past decade, competition has grown significantly, as can be judged at least by the number of applications for conducting competitions. It is very important to get to the right place at the right time and prove yourself to the maximum.
- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a stick?
I don't think there's much difference between wand control and no wand control. It doesn't matter exactly how and with what help you influence the musicians. It is important that they feel you, breathe with you, then you can not conduct at all. There should be a special relationship, that invisible contact that happens with the closest people, when you don’t need to say anything, but everything is clear.
- What is the most difficult piece to perform with an orchestra, in your opinion?
There is no division in this profession into simple works and complex ones. However, many conductors consider the most difficult piece to be the one they currently have in production. And I understand them. You can study the symphonies of the Viennese classics just as endlessly as you can study the works of composers of any style, be it Bruckner, Debussy or Stockhausen.
If we are talking about the technical side of the issue, then there will also be no division as such: the beginning of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is no easier than the beginning of Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony or Britten's War Requiem.
- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conductor's profession?
In the profession of any musician, and conductor in particular, the most difficult task is the realization of one's ambitions and ideas.
Now is a time when it is extremely difficult to follow the path of a true artist. They try to squeeze as many concerts and performances as possible out of orchestras in a season, so even first-rate conductors are rarely given more than three or four rehearsals per program. Although orchestra players can quickly learn musical notation, for deep dive this is not enough for music. And one often has to ask oneself the question that professor of the Moscow Conservatory Gennady Rozhdestvensky asks applicants: “Why do you want to do this?”
Arif Dadashev
What qualities should a conductor have?
Musical taste, decency, will, objectivity, sense of humor.
- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a stick?
It seems to me that the hands as a whole are a more expressive tool for contact with the orchestra.
- What is the most difficult piece to perform with an orchestra, in your opinion?
I cannot answer this question unambiguously. Every piece of music is complex in its own way. The performance of any composition is a joint creative search conductor and orchestra musicians.
- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conductor's profession?
The most difficult thing is to earn the professional trust of the musicians, because during the performance the conductor and the orchestra must be one. It is at this moment that a miracle takes place - the birth of music.
Arsenty Tkachenko
What qualities should a conductor have?
Of course, you need to be a leader and have charisma in order to interest the artists of the orchestra. And of course, you need to know a lot - after all, it is very important to win the respect and professional trust of musicians.
- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a stick?
In any case, the wand is a continuation of the hand - they can be said to be one. However, conducting with a baton makes gestures more varied and clear, especially at moving tempos.
- What is the most difficult piece to perform with an orchestra, in your opinion?
It all depends on the class of the orchestra and the conductor. I think that with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia the most difficult work will turn into the most interesting preparation for the concert. And the result will be brilliant.
- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conductor's profession?
My credo is to convey to the public our musical ideas and emotions associated with the work with the orchestra. Listeners in the hall should not remain indifferent. In this case, there is a miracle called Music - when without words we can experience the deepest feelings.
Alexander Khumala
Patience, diligence, firmness of character.
- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a stick?
I think that the presence or absence of a conductor's baton is not important for the musicians of the orchestra. But if he conducts without a head - without a clue about what he is doing - it is quite difficult for musicians. So I choose the head.
- What is the most difficult piece to perform with an orchestra, in your opinion?
For me, the most difficult thing to conduct is the music of Mozart. And The Rite of Spring by Stravinsky is a technically difficult work.
- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conductor's profession?
Probably the most difficult thing in the profession of a conductor is to understand that it is impossible to perform a work exactly as the composer intended it to be. And at the same time strive for this ideal at the cost of his whole life.
Sergei Akimov
- What personal qualities must have a conductor?
The ability to love and an impeccable sense of rhythm.
- What do you personally prefer to conduct - with your hands or with a stick?
I perfectly understand people who prefer to conduct without a baton. However, for me, the wand is not only an extension of the hand, but also a “magic pen” with which I illustrate the works.
- What is the most difficult piece to perform with an orchestra, in your opinion?
It hasn't been written yet.
- What is the most difficult thing for you in the conductor's profession?
To be youreself.
Photos provided by the Moscow State Academic Philharmonic.
Literary online magazine The Millions has compiled a list of the 10 most difficult books in history. The compilers of the rating did not stint on such epithets as "10 literary Everests, having conquered which, you will immediately feel your intellectual superiority over the average homo sapiens."
To reading books from this list the compilers recommend approaching with caution, reminding the bold reader that the perception of these works can be quite difficult. Difficulties for the modern reader can be caused by the excessive volume of some of these works, the unusual syntax and the original structure of the text. Also, among the difficulties awaiting the reader, an overly complex style of writing was named, experimental work authors with the language and just the abstractness of the text.
The TOP 10 most difficult books compiled by the site are as follows:
1. "Nightwood" Djuna Barnes;
2. Tale of the Barrel by Jonathan Swift;
3. "Phenomenology of Spirit" Georg Hegel;
4. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf;
5. The Memorable Life of the Maid Clarissa Harlow by Samuel Richardson
6. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
7. "Being and Time" Martin Heidegger
8. Making Americans by Gertrude Stein
9. "Fairy Queen" Edmund Spenser
10. "Women and Men" by Joseph McElroy.
However, our reader (and translators) will not be scared by all these horror stories. Most of of these books is available to our reader. Nightwood by Juna Barnes, The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein, and postmodernist Josem McElroy with his Women and Men have not yet been translated.
Partially translated The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce are probably the most difficult to translate of all the books on the list.
The list itself is probably intended to interest the reader by the method of "contradiction". If a this book complicated - why not master it? At least for himself. Yes, and the usual ratings of the level of “what to read to look well-read” have already set their teeth on edge. The list, of course, is far from complete, and it was compiled for the English-speaking reader. Probably, soon we should expect other lists of the most difficult books to read. First of all - Russians ...
See also:
* 39 books that explained Russia
* One hundred books for Tula schoolchildren
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You were given a life sentence and there is only a piano in the cell? Then we have something for you... From Liszt to Scriabin - 10 of the most technically complex pieces ever written for piano.
1. Franz Liszt - La Companella
The work La Campanella, which means "bell" in Italian, is a piano transcription of the violin piece of the same name by Niccolò Paganini. The etude is considered one of the most difficult compositions ever written for the piano. The texture of "Campanella" includes huge jumps in the left hand, while the right gets complex passages at a very fast pace.
In this video, virtuoso pianist Lang Lang plays this piece so easily, as if it were not much more difficult than "Dance of the Little Ducklings".
- Maurice Ravel - "Night Gaspard" ("Night Visions")
When Ravel was working on the Gaspard de la Nuit suite, he deliberately wanted to make it the most technically difficult piece in the piano repertoire. He said that when writing, he was guided by Balakirev's Islamey, wanting to surpass him in complexity. One of the leading pianists said that playing this piece "is like solving endless quadratic equations in my mind".
- Kaikhosru Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum
Playing this piece is even more difficult than pronouncing its title. Opus Clavicembalisticum consists of 12 actions with a total duration of more than 4 hours. The composer himself described his composition as follows: “The last 4 pages are as disastrous as everything I have ever done - harmony stings like Nitric acid, and the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God.
- Conlon Nancarrow - "Etudes for Mechanical Piano"
The works for mechanical piano by American composer Conlon Nancarrow are among the most deliberately complex, insane musical works in the piano repertoire. They are designed to be played on a mechanical instrument, not played by live pianists. But that doesn't mean no one has tried...
- Fryderyk Chopin - Etude Op. 10 no. four
Unlike Chopin's tender nocturnes, this etude leaves the pianist no opportunity to rest. Marked presto con fuoco (fast, with heat), it requires an extremely fast pace and constant mobility in both hands.
Daria, Jam`s cool piano teacher:
“The hardest part of playing this piece for me was the coda, after which there is a crazy passage all over the keyboard up and then down. By the end of the story, you are usually exhausted, but here the climax falls on the last page. And, of course, like any study, No. 4 took a lot of time to develop the necessary technical skills.”
- Charles Valentin Alkan - Concerto for solo piano
Alkan's concert is rarely played live, and for good reason. An epic 50-minute job requires unprecedented technique and physical endurance. Alkan's melodies are not as pleasant and catchy as those of Chopin or Liszt, but he certainly knows how to best demonstrate virtuoso technique.
- Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 5
Alexander Scriabin's Fifth Sonata makes the most of the technical capabilities of both hands, but the main load falls on the pianist's brain. The sonata was received with bewilderment by many contemporaries. For some of them, it became the line from which they refused to accept the composer's work.
- Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky - 3 fragments from "Petrushka" for piano
3 fragments from "Petrushka" are called one of the most difficult piano compositions. All parts include numerous glissandos, tremolo and fast 2-octave shifts. As they say, it's not for the faint of heart.
- Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2
The second piano concerto is Prokofiev's most dramatic work. Of particular difficulty is the cadenza of the first movement, which consists of three steps and requires the pianist to make frequent and wide leaps with both hands. And yes, it lasts a full 5 minutes followed by 2 more intense parts.
- György Ligeti - "Devil's Ladder"
Well, what is the list of the most complex works for piano without Ligeti. The etudes of this Hungarian composer frighten novice pianists. Of particular horror is the "Devil's Ladder", and not at all because of the name. The work is a masterpiece of dynamics, which develops from pianissimo to 8(!) forte.
Sometimes books leave behind such a heavy feeling that the reader cannot immediately start reading a new book - it takes some time to “digest” the plot twists, the fate of the characters and often the difficult ending. We offer you 10 such books.
A stunning debut novel that is already being hailed as the premier novel of the new century and its author a living classic. The Wind Runner is a heartfelt, penetrating story about friendship and loyalty, about betrayal and redemption. Gentle, subtle, ironic and sentimental in a good way, Khaled Hosseini's novel resembles a painting that can be looked at endlessly.
“On December 6, 1973, when I was killed, I was fourteen years old” - this is how the most amazing bestseller of the early 21st century begins, tragic story, written on an incredibly light note. The Lovely Bones has been translated into forty languages, has sold millions of copies, and will serve as the basis for Peter Jackson's next film project after The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. In this novel, Susie Salmon adjusts to life in heaven and watches from above as her killer tries to cover his tracks and her family comes to terms with their loss...
Beneath the streets of London, there is a world that most people are unaware of. In it, the word becomes a real power. You can get there only by opening the door. This world is full of dangers, inhabited by saints and monsters, murderers and angels...
4. Susan Collins - "Mockingjay"
Katniss survived, although her house was destroyed. Her family is relatively safe. But... Pete is kidnapped by those in power, and his fate is unknown. And then the legend becomes reality. The mysterious District Thirteen emerges from the shadows it has been hiding in for years. The war begins. A war for justice? A war for a better future? Maybe. Katniss is the symbol of resistance in this war. And if she does not want to be a pawn in someone else's big game, if she does not want the life of her beloved to be sacrificed to the interests of others, she will have to become strong. Stronger than the Hunger Games arena...
5. Vladimir Nabokov - "Lolita"
In 1955, Lolita was published - the third American novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the creator of Luzhin's Defense, Despair, Invitation to Execution and The Gift. Causing a scandal on both sides of the ocean, this book lifted the author to the top of the literary Olympus and became one of the most famous and, without a doubt, the greatest works of the twentieth century. Today, when the polemical passions around Lolita have long subsided, we can confidently say that this is a book about great love, overcoming illness, death and time, love, open to infinity, "love at first sight, from the last glance, from the eternal look."
6. Patrick Suskind - “Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer
The best-selling thriller, describing the life story of the brilliant perfumer and murderous murderer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, instantly became a worldwide sensation. The total circulation of the novel amounted to more than 15 million copies, it has been translated into 42 languages, among which there is even Latin!
21 years after the publication of the novel, he continues to excite his readers; it is studied by university students around the world, and students of various faculties and specialties: psychologists, historians, criminologists, lawyers and, of course, philologists. More recently, the novel appeared on lists of "most read works, published by Oprah and InStyle magazines. "Perfume" is recognized as the most famous novel written in German, since the book by E.M. Remarque “On western front no change."
7. Somerset Maugham - "The burden of human passions"
Perhaps Somerset Maugham's most significant novel. The genius with which the writer reveals the dark and light sides human soul, was particularly pronounced here.
And it is in this book that Maugham, with surprising sincerity even for him, reveals his own soul ...
8. Haruki Murakami - "Norwegian Wood"
... In the evenings I sold records. And in the intervals he absentmindedly watched the audience passing in front of the shop window. Families, couples, drunks, yakuza, lively girls in miniskirts, guys with beatnik beards, hostesses from bars and other strange people. As soon as rock was put on, hippies and loafers gathered at the store - some were dancing, some were sniffing solvent, some were just sitting on the pavement. I didn't really understand what was going on. "What is it? I thought. “What do they all mean by that?”…
9. Victor Pelevin - "Numbers"
The protagonist of the novel is businessman Styopa, best friend which is the number 34, and worst enemy- the number 43... Styopa remembered that when he was very young, all the numbers had colors. Then they were erased, only the four had a well-defined green, the seven had blue, and the three had faint traces of orange paint on the central ledge.
10. Leonid Andreev - "The Story of the Seven Hanged"
The prose of Leonid Andreev whimsically intertwines quivering emotionality, a meticulous interest in the everyday life of Russian life and, often, an irrational fear of the nightmares of the Iron Age.
The main theme of Andreev's work "The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men" is love and death, hardness of heart and spiritual fortitude of a person. The novels and stories of this writer became one of the highest achievements of Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century.