<Translated from Russian automatically>
Conductor Alexander Vedernikov in a broadcast from the series 'Contemporary Music'
Alexander Vedernikov: Once I read a biography of Wilhelm Furtwängler, in which, among other things, it was written that the young Furtwängler grew up in a family in an atmosphere of extremely high intellectual demands. For myself, I can say that I indeed had a wonderful childhood; my parents had a social circle that had a certain influence on me and, accordingly, on my sort of primary childhood decision that I also wanted to be a musician. Both conductors, fellow performers, and composers, such as Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov, often came to my father's house. Childhood impressions are best retained in the brain. This gave me the opportunity to feel in some sense already prepared when I started studying music. Even when I went to music school, it gave me a big head start. Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov naturally had a great influence on my father, on his musical and artistic formation. We also communicated quite a lot with him, even when I was, as it used to be said, a young specialist. For example, in the West, they like to portray Shostakovich as a fighter against the Soviet regime, which he generally never was. Even if we talk about, say, which of them was more of a Soviet person—Shostakovich or Prokofiev—Shostakovich was undoubtedly a Soviet person to the core. His work could in some sense contradict his views. I can say the same about Sviridov: to portray him as a 'soil-bound nationalist' and nothing more would be a great oversimplification. The difference is also that Sviridov's music was predominantly always connected with the word, with the domestic Russian word, although he has songs set to the poems of Burns, Shakespeare; nevertheless, these are first and foremost domestic poets. He was very interested in the theme of the Russian Revolution due to the fact that he was of mixed origin: part of his relatives were 'Reds,' and part were 'Whites.' Therefore, for him, this was also a sensitive subject. He fought all his life against the symphonic method in music, while the symphonic method was predominant. That is, the main road of development—that's Shostakovich, and Mahler, and Beethoven. And he always put forward those composers who developed an alternative method of developing musical material, such as Schubert, Mussorgsky, Debussy, and some others. His strained relations with Shostakovich are well known. Although I will tell you, when Shostakovich died, the most outstanding words at the funeral service were pronounced precisely by Sviridov. He was, after all, a student of Shostakovich. I know that Shostakovich valued him very highly. His famous remark is known, when he listened to Sviridov's 'Sad Song': 'There are few notes here, but much music'.
When society was tougher at the beginning of the 20th century, conductors were also dictatorial types. Toscanini threw batons, crushed watches, and so on. Now, say, if Toscanini showed up, he wouldn't last more than an hour, because the union would say that people don't behave like that. Is this good or bad? Rather bad, because in principle, for the sake of him being Toscanini, one could probably put up with it. But now people primarily put their own comfortable feelings first; no one is going to suffer because of a genius who is an absolute ghoul in terms of interacting with people. I was personally acquainted with Evgeny Fedorovich Svetlanov. He had a difficult character; he could afford to do such things. Your radio station is called Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty); you won't deny that the personal space of freedom for every person is narrowing in our world. For example, I couldn't work in America, because there, say, meetings with trustees and some active fundraising are definitely part of the conductor's duties. I understand my profession more narrowly; I prefer to do my direct job—study scores, rehearse, achieve some results. If you are seriously working on scores, you simply don't have time to go every day, sit with someone, have a cocktail, and raise funding. For example, there is a maxim that all performing musicians are divided into two categories. Some primarily express themselves through music, while others try to penetrate into the essence of the musical work as deeply as possible and consider this their main task; they don't use music as a kind of pretext for self-expression. I prefer, it seems to me, the in-depth approach. I can give an example. There was the well-known Herbert von Karajan; he was a very big talent and a wonderful organizer of musical processes; something from his legacy will certainly always be found. But he sometimes sinned with a slightly superficial approach. Therefore, it has now suddenly turned out that people have stopped buying his numerous recorded legacies. But, say, a person like Sergiu Celibidache now evokes very lively interest; everyone is chasing after all sorts of archival recordings of his concerts.
As soon as you gain mass popularity, it imposes a colossal number of restrictions on you; you lose a certain part of your private life. For example, the same Anna Netrebko, she became the face of the jewelry company Chopard, this imposes certain obligations on you, whether you want to or not, you have to wear these trinkets, appear everywhere in them, and so on.
I love radio. That's why I am very sorry that, for example, Radio Svoboda has moved away from being radio. Listening to the radio and reading online are two different things. I'm pleased that I now have the opportunity to say—I love shortwaves.
There is a lot of good music. The paths of music for the general public and music for sort of narrow circles have diverged greatly. This was not the case even 100 years ago, 100-150. Therefore, writing music that is serious and at the same time understandable is very difficult now. Literally a handful of people are able to do this. I highly value Leonid Desyatnikov or, for example, a composer like John Adams, whose opera 'Nixon in China' we will be staging next year in Copenhagen. I conduct contemporary music with pleasure as well. It's just that you can't do everything equally well, so I limit myself by not conducting music before Haydn, because that's a completely different specificity. I also do not conduct some specific contemporary avant-garde, which in principle doesn't require special conducting either. I, of course, really love Russian music, and I love a lot of it. I love Glinka's music, for example. I'm sorry that outside of Russia it is not as widely known as it deserves to be. I love 20th-century music; this is not only Sviridov, but also Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and so on. In general, the 20th century, it seems to me, is a very interesting period. I also conduct a lot of the classical period, Beethoven. Now—Wagner, as it happens. It's an entire world when an opera lasts five hours. You have to make sure that they can play it and that they can listen to it.
It would be good to do something; I used to do yoga, now I've stopped because there is no time, but in general, I should resume it. It's good when you don't have excess weight. I lost weight, my working capacity increased. I have a good relationship with food, I don't complain about a lack of appetite. I really love Japanese cuisine, I love Mediterranean cuisine. I'm sorry that Denmark is not the best country for food. I read, for example, that now in Moscow there are many places where the food is very good too. Moreover, you don't even need to go to a restaurant, it's enough to go to some farmer's market, for example, wonderful fish, meat. Now, in connection with import substitution, which of course is a rather contradictory idea, but now very good domestic cheeses have appeared, which was not the case before.
Source
Conductor Alexander Vedernikov in a broadcast from the series 'Contemporary Music'
Alexander Vedernikov: Once I read a biography of Wilhelm Furtwängler, in which, among other things, it was written that the young Furtwängler grew up in a family in an atmosphere of extremely high intellectual demands. For myself, I can say that I indeed had a wonderful childhood; my parents had a social circle that had a certain influence on me and, accordingly, on my sort of primary childhood decision that I also wanted to be a musician. Both conductors, fellow performers, and composers, such as Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov, often came to my father's house. Childhood impressions are best retained in the brain. This gave me the opportunity to feel in some sense already prepared when I started studying music. Even when I went to music school, it gave me a big head start. Georgy Vasilievich Sviridov naturally had a great influence on my father, on his musical and artistic formation. We also communicated quite a lot with him, even when I was, as it used to be said, a young specialist. For example, in the West, they like to portray Shostakovich as a fighter against the Soviet regime, which he generally never was. Even if we talk about, say, which of them was more of a Soviet person—Shostakovich or Prokofiev—Shostakovich was undoubtedly a Soviet person to the core. His work could in some sense contradict his views. I can say the same about Sviridov: to portray him as a 'soil-bound nationalist' and nothing more would be a great oversimplification. The difference is also that Sviridov's music was predominantly always connected with the word, with the domestic Russian word, although he has songs set to the poems of Burns, Shakespeare; nevertheless, these are first and foremost domestic poets. He was very interested in the theme of the Russian Revolution due to the fact that he was of mixed origin: part of his relatives were 'Reds,' and part were 'Whites.' Therefore, for him, this was also a sensitive subject. He fought all his life against the symphonic method in music, while the symphonic method was predominant. That is, the main road of development—that's Shostakovich, and Mahler, and Beethoven. And he always put forward those composers who developed an alternative method of developing musical material, such as Schubert, Mussorgsky, Debussy, and some others. His strained relations with Shostakovich are well known. Although I will tell you, when Shostakovich died, the most outstanding words at the funeral service were pronounced precisely by Sviridov. He was, after all, a student of Shostakovich. I know that Shostakovich valued him very highly. His famous remark is known, when he listened to Sviridov's 'Sad Song': 'There are few notes here, but much music'.
When society was tougher at the beginning of the 20th century, conductors were also dictatorial types. Toscanini threw batons, crushed watches, and so on. Now, say, if Toscanini showed up, he wouldn't last more than an hour, because the union would say that people don't behave like that. Is this good or bad? Rather bad, because in principle, for the sake of him being Toscanini, one could probably put up with it. But now people primarily put their own comfortable feelings first; no one is going to suffer because of a genius who is an absolute ghoul in terms of interacting with people. I was personally acquainted with Evgeny Fedorovich Svetlanov. He had a difficult character; he could afford to do such things. Your radio station is called Radio Svoboda (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty); you won't deny that the personal space of freedom for every person is narrowing in our world. For example, I couldn't work in America, because there, say, meetings with trustees and some active fundraising are definitely part of the conductor's duties. I understand my profession more narrowly; I prefer to do my direct job—study scores, rehearse, achieve some results. If you are seriously working on scores, you simply don't have time to go every day, sit with someone, have a cocktail, and raise funding. For example, there is a maxim that all performing musicians are divided into two categories. Some primarily express themselves through music, while others try to penetrate into the essence of the musical work as deeply as possible and consider this their main task; they don't use music as a kind of pretext for self-expression. I prefer, it seems to me, the in-depth approach. I can give an example. There was the well-known Herbert von Karajan; he was a very big talent and a wonderful organizer of musical processes; something from his legacy will certainly always be found. But he sometimes sinned with a slightly superficial approach. Therefore, it has now suddenly turned out that people have stopped buying his numerous recorded legacies. But, say, a person like Sergiu Celibidache now evokes very lively interest; everyone is chasing after all sorts of archival recordings of his concerts.
As soon as you gain mass popularity, it imposes a colossal number of restrictions on you; you lose a certain part of your private life. For example, the same Anna Netrebko, she became the face of the jewelry company Chopard, this imposes certain obligations on you, whether you want to or not, you have to wear these trinkets, appear everywhere in them, and so on.
I love radio. That's why I am very sorry that, for example, Radio Svoboda has moved away from being radio. Listening to the radio and reading online are two different things. I'm pleased that I now have the opportunity to say—I love shortwaves.
There is a lot of good music. The paths of music for the general public and music for sort of narrow circles have diverged greatly. This was not the case even 100 years ago, 100-150. Therefore, writing music that is serious and at the same time understandable is very difficult now. Literally a handful of people are able to do this. I highly value Leonid Desyatnikov or, for example, a composer like John Adams, whose opera 'Nixon in China' we will be staging next year in Copenhagen. I conduct contemporary music with pleasure as well. It's just that you can't do everything equally well, so I limit myself by not conducting music before Haydn, because that's a completely different specificity. I also do not conduct some specific contemporary avant-garde, which in principle doesn't require special conducting either. I, of course, really love Russian music, and I love a lot of it. I love Glinka's music, for example. I'm sorry that outside of Russia it is not as widely known as it deserves to be. I love 20th-century music; this is not only Sviridov, but also Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and so on. In general, the 20th century, it seems to me, is a very interesting period. I also conduct a lot of the classical period, Beethoven. Now—Wagner, as it happens. It's an entire world when an opera lasts five hours. You have to make sure that they can play it and that they can listen to it.
It would be good to do something; I used to do yoga, now I've stopped because there is no time, but in general, I should resume it. It's good when you don't have excess weight. I lost weight, my working capacity increased. I have a good relationship with food, I don't complain about a lack of appetite. I really love Japanese cuisine, I love Mediterranean cuisine. I'm sorry that Denmark is not the best country for food. I read, for example, that now in Moscow there are many places where the food is very good too. Moreover, you don't even need to go to a restaurant, it's enough to go to some farmer's market, for example, wonderful fish, meat. Now, in connection with import substitution, which of course is a rather contradictory idea, but now very good domestic cheeses have appeared, which was not the case before.
Source
Igor POMERANTSEV, "Over the Barriers", Radio Liberty, May 11, 2018
"I had a wonderful childhood"
