The XI Trans-Siberian Art Festival continues in Novosibirsk and other cities

The XI Trans-Siberian Art Festival, headed by violinist Vadim Repin, continues in Novosibirsk and other cities of Russia. The forum first took place in April 2014 and has now entered its second decade, which has come during even more turbulent times. Among the best pages of Transsib are still world premieres and chamber programs. Tells Ilya Ovchinnikov.

Six years ago, during the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, a tragedy occurred in Kemerovo. Instead of a jazz evening by the world famous bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff, a concert-offering to the dead took place, where, at the invitation of Vadim Repin, festival guests and other musicians who found themselves in Novosibirsk took the stage. Quasthoff performed as the headliner, singing only four numbers, and did not forget to remind about simple things, for example, that human life is more important than big politics, and horizontal connections between people from different countries can do more than the efforts of diplomats. This time, due to the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, a number of festival concerts were postponed, and regardless of the intentions of the performers, some of the program’s compositions were inevitably perceived as a reflection of what happened. First of all, Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 performed by the Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dimitris Botinis.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of Bruckner’s birth, and therefore it is performed more often than usual. Including his last symphony, the Ninth, recently in Moscow Teodor Currentzis and Philipp Chizhevsky even presented it in two halls on the same evening, although Bruckner’s work is far from the easiest to understand. Of course, it was planned in the festival program long before the March events, but it turned out to be surprisingly in tune with them. Maestro Botinis, well known to the capital’s public for his work with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, presented the Ninth as a genuine tragedy – in complete unanimity with the orchestra. Bruckner worked on the symphony until the last day, and the music spoke about it without words, especially the third movement, Adagio; the author did not think of it as the final one and left the drafts of the fourth, but the third became the last and in this capacity is perceived as couldn’t be more convincing.

Here, the great 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen, who was born 12 years after his death, surprisingly echoes Bruckner. In a commentary to his latest work, “Glimpses of the Otherworld,” the Russian premiere of which will take place today in Moscow, Messiaen said: “I imagined that I was in front of a curtain, in the dark, trying to comprehend what lies on the other side: Resurrection, eternity, new life. What awaits us, I try to catch in “glimpses” – we are talking, of course, about Christ, whose light will shine on those who will be resurrected.” It was these “glimpses” that were clearly audible in Botinis’s interpretation – the several times repeated episode of Bruckner’s Adagio, when an otherworldly light shines on the hero, as if asking: “What is there?” A surprisingly bright moment for such a gloomy symphony, and the conductor and orchestra managed to convey this contrast of moods superbly.

Another number on the program, Kuzma Bodrov’s Violin Concerto No. 2, also turned out to be quite gloomy, adding to the festival’s collection of world premieres. Over the past decade, new concertos by Sofia Gubaidulina, Alexander Raskatov, and Ilya Demutsky were written and performed for the first time for Vadim Repin; Arvo Pärt created a new version of his “Shroud,” and Mark-Anthony Turnage created a concert for two violins and orchestra. A year ago, there were concerts by two such unexpected authors as Polad Bul-Bul ogly and Mikhail Pletnev, and now, following Demutsky, another Russian author from the generation born in 1980 and later wrote a concert for Repin.

As Bodrov said before the premiere, he started work with only one limitation – to complete it in about 20 minutes. When the first part turned out to be about a quarter of an hour long, the composer decided to put an end to the second: “The listener expects that there will be a third part, but in fact there is no, the music suddenly comes to a large coda. For me, it has to do with how a person lives and thinks – I still have a lot, a lot of things ahead. But it turns out, no – it ends here and now. Like now? And like this. Here and now”. The concept is convincing and even partly rhymes with Bruckner’s symphony, whose image, according to Bodrov, inspired him when working on the composition. Equally convincing and integral is the first part – the “song of anxiety”, during which a nervous, gloomy mood is constantly intensified in the monologues of the soloist, and in the mournful chords of the brass, and in dissonances, and in minimalist repetitions.

With stricter restrictions, the concert could have ended here – among the listed premieres there were also more laconic ones – but, as the author promised, the music reaches a major coda. However, if this, according to the composer’s plan, should embody the transience of life, then the second part turns out to be surprisingly optimistic, ending loudly and in a major key. Yes, the listener does not expect this – not because there must necessarily be three or four parts, but due to a lack of logic, as if some necessary link was missing in the composition. Perhaps the point is in external circumstances, which today are not too great, or in the fact that any new composition is worth listening to and thinking about more than once or twice: here it’s up to the performers. It is also possible that someday the composer will decide to expand his concerto, and it will sound differently; such cases are known. In the meantime, the premiere made a strong impression, becoming the main event of the first days of the festival.

Among his successes traditionally remains the “Vadim Repin and Friends” program, also presented in Krasnoyarsk; here Repin acts as a hospitable host, gladly yielding leadership in the ensemble to his partners. Among the friends this time were pianist Vadim Rudenko, violinist Pavel Milyukov, violist Hayk Ter-Hovannisyan, cellist Gabriel Ureña, flautist Maxim Rubtsov, and it was the numbers with Rubtsov’s participation that turned out to be brighter than others. The crown jewel of Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1 was the middle movement with its continuous flute solo, and Doppler’s Nocturne for flute, violin, cello and piano was an example of the pure joy of ensemble music-making that was transmitted to the audience. The main program of the festival will last until April 7 in Novosibirsk and will continue in Moscow.