Limitless absolute pitch. In memory of Alexander Vedernikov
On October 30, 2020, conductor Alexander Vedernikov passed away by coronavirus. He was 56 years old. "It happened in the 52nd Moscow hospital. One hundred percent lung damage, "said Vladimir Urin, general director of the Bolshoi Theater.
It is incomprehensible, because Alexander Vedernikov "embodied health and energy," wrote pianist Nikolai Lugansky on Facebook: "It could be someone but him, I have never imagined this could happen...."
But these are — alas, often — "existential" (let others write about medical) features of covid19: unexpected and irreversibile.
Lugansky called the passing of Vedernikov a terrible tragedy "for the whole music community." And it's hard to argue with that. And no one argues: Vedernikov's death was suddenly responded to, tears in the eyes. Even by those who happily forgot about him after he left the Bolshoi and went conducting in Denmark. Although Vedernikov came to Russia all these years and performed with major orchestras - with the Russian National Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the State Orchestra named after E.F Svetlanov: not so often, but these concerts were not isolated - they were rare and precious. But these are - alas, often - the "existential" features of the media: their attention, with some exceptions, is fleeting and it often reminds a magpie carried away by every glittering trinket. However, human attention is not immune from corrosion (with a few exceptions, of course).
“Over the past decade, the artistic career of one of the most Russian in spirit conductors has successfully developed mainly in Europe, where the administration hierarchy supports, rather than undercuts, the artistic activities. Among numerous concerts around the world with first-class symphony groups and opera productions in famous theaters, Vedernikov managed to prepare and successfully perform a concert version of the entire Wagner’s "Ring" tetralogy, with conducting a not nearly metropolitan grade orchestra in Denmark. After the premiere, Vedernikov was immediately invited to the post of the Danish Royal Opera artistic director, where in the next 12 months he was supposed to stage “Parsifal”, related Vladimir Tarnopolsky, composer, teacher, head of the Contemporary Music Center at the Moscow Conservatory, interviewed by “MO”.
Family and schooling
Alexander Vedernikov is the son of a pianist, organist, professor at the Moscow Conservatory, head of the organ and harpsichord department Natalia Nikolaevna Vedernikova (Gureeva) and the famous opera and chamber singer, bass, soloist (in 1958-1990) of the Bolshoi Theater Alexander Filippovich Vedernikov (1927–2018). However, Vedernikov Jr. has never presented this as something giving the right to any public privileges. It was rather a unique and not transferable (personal) experience of a «private person» living (the artist's identity).
“I didn’t suddenly realize that I was the son of the singer Alexander Vedernikov, because I was in some orbit of what my father was doing. And his social circle was in some ways very interesting to me, because he mostly communicated with composers or painters rather than with his fellow singers. So we had some interesting people coming for a visit”, the conductor told in an interview with Elena Polyakovskaya on Radio Liberty (2019).
Alexander Vedernikov Jr. studied at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating it in 1988 as an opera and symphony conductor: Vedernikov's mentor was Leonid Nikolaev (1940-2009), who at that time led the orchestra of the Music School at the Moscow Conservatory (in 1974 this orchestra participated in the Herbert von Karayan Foundation International Competition for Youth Orchestras in West Berlin and won the First Prize, as well as the Golden Medal).
Then Vedernikov trained with Mark Ermler (1932–2002), one of the most significant conductors of the Bolshoi Theater.
Steps to the Bolshoi Theater
In 1988-1990 A. Vedernikov worked at the K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko MAMT Theater. In 1988-1995 he was assistant chief conductor and second conductor of the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the State Radio and Television (since 1993 — Grand Symphony Orchestra named after P.I. Tchaikovsky) under the direction of Vladimir Fedoseev.
In 1995, Vedernikov founded the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra (until the famous default in August 1998 belonging to the TV-6 television channel, then it was abolished, and in 2001 it was re-established and included in the asset list by the Moscow government). Alexander Vedernikov has been its artistic director and chief conductor trough 2004.
A year earlier (2003), Vedernikov became a member of the conducting board of the Russian National Orchestra (RNO), touring with it in France, Germany and the USA, and in 2004, during the RNO tour in nine cities of the United States, he made his debut at New York Carnegie Hall and Washington Kennedy Center.
In 2005, Alexander Vedernikov debuted at the Paris National Opera (Opera de Bastille) — as the musical director of the new production of “Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky (directed by Francesca Zambello).
He conducted at La Scala, La Fenice and other famous opera houses all around the world.
The conductor's great heights
All this happened in parallel with Vedernikov working at the Bolshoi Theater, where he was invited in 2001. Until 2009, Vedernikov was the music director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, and it is worth enlarging on this period in more detail.
"He brilliantly knew opera scores and all the subtleties of the art of opera conducting. He had a talent of huge scale and vast knowledge. And besides that, Alexander was characterized by those rare qualities that are so lacking in our country for many managers — long-term planning and daily painstaking work to move towards the goal.
However, these qualities are completely incompatible with the administrative leapfrog and with the aimlessness that reigns in the upper echelons of cultural appointees. Therefore, the “broad public” can only admire the most famous productions of Vedernikov, such as “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Eugene Onegin”, “The Flying Dutchman” or “The Fiery Angel”, but only unbiased specialists can recognize Vedernikov's strategy for the development of the Bolshoi Theater, its structural “Europeanization” and realize the full scale of this personality"— told the "MO" Vladimir Tarnopolsky
This "Europeanization" of the Bolshoi conceived by Alexander Vedernikov concerned the reforming of the theater company, the repertoire, "the management system, and the financing system": “... I realized that the main problem of the Bolshoi Theater were its institutional principles. And until they remain unchanged, all changes would be subjective and non-systemic..., "- said Vedernikov in the already mentioned last year's interview on Radio Liberty.
For all his determination, Vedernikov was radically non-chaotic in his actions. " He was by no means an inconsiderate rhetoric, and his own vision of the Bolshoi's strategy and mission was both balanced and circumspect, and - when necessary - conservative," wrote Sergei Khodnev, an art critic and music critic, in “Kommersant” on account of Alexander Vedernikov's decease.
All these qualities as the musical director of the country's largest theater did not prevent Vedernikov from "rushing headlong" into musical and stage experiments on the Bolshoi stage. Vladimir Tarnopolsky has listed some challenging performances inspired by Vedernikov: "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka (2003; concert costume performance of the original author's version, for which authentic instruments were purchased), "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner (2004; the first edition staged for the first time in Russia; director Peter Convichny), "Fiery Angel" by Prokofiev (2004; the first production at the Bolshoi Theater; director Francesca Zambello) and "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky (2006; director Dmitry Chernyakov). And, of course, we should mention “Children of Rosenthal”: an opera by Leonid Desyatnikov, libretto by Vladimir Sorokin, commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater.
The world premiere of the Eimuntas Nekrošius production took place on the stage of the Bolshoi on March 23, 2005. For the 229th Bolshoi theater season, the “Rosenthal Children” was performed 6 times, and in 2006 at the Golden Mask the play received the Special Jury Award: the Bolshoi Theater was awarded "for its initiative in the modern Russian opera development".
Leonid DESYATNIKOV:
"The myth of the Great Conductor evokes in our (sub)consciousness a vague image of a white cisgendered boss, the image of a beautifully waving, domineering and artistic Narcissist. The titan of the console, according to Stravinsky's snide remark.
There was no such glamorous pathos in Vedernikov at all. He was certainly a professional of the highest standard. With him, I felt like I was behind a stone wall. And, of course, I was amazed by his exceptional kindness — a quality that distinguished him from many of his guild fellows."
Vladimir TARNOPOLSKY:
"Exceptionally good-natured, with a wonderful sense of humor, Alexander may not have been the world's leading "sprinter" performing seven programs a week, but he was certainly a wonderful "stayer" who was able to count on running the longest distances and achieve the highest artistic result at the same time.
Everything that Vedernikov failed to reorganize in the Russian opera, someone will still have to do it — a decade earlier or later. It depends on the pace of development of our country: both structural and purely human development."
According to director Dmitry CHERNYAKOV, the online media OperaTime.ru wrote: "after Sasha left the Bolshoi in 2009, there were a few conductors at the stand of our "Onegin": but no one, although there were many young conductors, could give the freshness of reading, sincerity and theatricality, like Vedernikov did.”
Life after the Bolshoi
So, Alexander Vedernikov made the Bolshoi Theater world glory in the 2000s and his strengths as the musical director are still remembered today. After a difficult, to put it mildly, parting with the Bolshoi, in 2009 Vedernikov headed the Odense Symphony Orchestra existing since 1946. From 2018 he has been chief conductor of the Danish Royal Opera and the Danish Royal Orchestra (with this orchestra, one of the oldest in the world, Vedernikov performed twice in Moscow, in June 2018).
Vedernikov also conducted the Russian National Orchestra in June 2017 (Alexei Volodin performed the Chopin piano concerts at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall), the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2019 (Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, soloist Andrei Korobeinikov, Pastoral Symphony by Glazunov and Second Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky), the Russia State Orchestra named after E.F. Svetlanov in December 2019 (concert in memory of Alexander Filippovich Vedernikov, the Great Hall of the Conservatory: Third concerto by Rachmaninoff with Nikolai Lugansky, "Little Triptych" and "Snow is Coming" by Sviridov and "Polovtsian Dances" by Borodin).
Since 2019, Vedernikov has been the music director and chief conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theater (St. Petersburg). The sudden pass interrupted this activity of Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov, which - whether it was worth repeating - was far from filling up his entire life in recent years. He was "a genuine conductor, a magnificent specialist in the opera and symphony repertoire, a charming, sweet tempered person" (as described by cellist, artistic director and chief conductor of the Moscow chamber orchestra Musica Viva Alexander Rudin), an active and concerned person who have never lost hope of reforming musical theater in Russia and, moreover, offered concrete steps for this (in particular, the cooperation of theaters that lack funds for their own full-fledged performances).
The last performance conducted by Alexander Vedernikov was the opera "Rural Honor" on October 4 at the opening of the Mikhailovsky Theater opera season.
Alexander Vedernikov was said last goodbyes in a narrow circle of friends and loved ones on October 31 in Moscow.
On November 10, the Mikhailovsky Theater hosted the play "Rural Honor," dedicated to Alexander Vedernikov.
Vladimir SOROKIN — In memory of Alexander Vedernikov.
Especially for "MO"
I met Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov during the staging and at the rehearsals of the opera “The Children of Rosenthal”. The staging was quite intense and stormy. Everyone understood that it was turning out something that is difficult to calculate logically to the end, so a grain, or rather, the flavor, the spirit of unpredictability hovered over everything and everyone. This was also fueled by an external scandal unleashed by pro-government obscurantists. Nekrošius, Desyatnikov improvised a lot with the singers, with the direction. I also had to adjust the text so that it could be sung more easily. We were all inspired by the feeling of creating something new, that had not been staged in this theater for a long time, and this feeling was transmitted to everyone - both singers, choir, mimes, artists, and the theater administration. But a person was surprisingly calm among this group of people excited by unpredictability — Alexander Vedernikov.
I do not know if he was completely calm within himself, as it seemed at the time, but his calmness, the highest professionalism and confidence that we were doing everything right amazed me. There was a feeling that our fantasies, improvisations, along with many purely technological issues, were resting on his shoulders. And these shoulders were truly heroic. His stature, despite the amazing plasticity of this man at the console, had a certain metaphysics of static on which one could rely, and this incredibly helped all of us.
The premiere was stormy. We got to know each other better. And Alexander struck me again. That time, I was amazed by his non-academic attitude towards the cultural field, towards the ocean of culture, towards literature. Everything was in motion in him. He was a surprisingly mobile, open and direct person. When the premiere died down and all the scandals subsided, we saw each other after a while, meeting by chance at a concert. After learning that Ira and I used to visit our friends in Pereslavl-Zalessky, he invited us to his dacha that turned out to be not far from this beautiful town. We went to visit Sasha and Lena. It was one of the most wonderful and unforgettable trips. Actually, the Vedernikovs did not have a dacha there, but a real rustic house, in which all the simple peasant atmosphere had been preserved. Yet Sasha and Lena, urban people, quite naturally existed there, organically inhabiting and animating that place. Sasha cooked fish in a Russian stove, baking it on salt. We were sitting on a starry summer night in a rustic house, drinking, eating, talking about music and literature. It's impossible to forget. Sasha was the life and soul of the party. His booming laughter was envious. There, in that rustic house, I realized that with all the responsibility that laid on the shoulders of this bright, already famous conductor, inside, he was incredibly free. It was captivating. I remember asking him about the limits of absolute hearing, whether it helped or hindered a musician. I have always been interested in the question of so-called “non-musical sounds”, their recording and existence in the score. Naturally, in modern music, “non-musical sounds”, such as the rustling of paper or the grinding of iron, are not recorded in notes, but are indicated by special symbols. So, I said, “Sasha, look, if you just take a cup and”… I picked up an empty cup and hit it with a wooden spoon, it turned out a blurry sound. And Sasha immediately named the chord of that complex sound. I have always been fascinated by such pure and hard-hitting professionalism.
Vedernikov had an imperceptible, composite quality, a symbiosis of music, freedom, high culture, hard-hitting professionalism and quite a dour ethics of a hereditary Moscow intellectual. At the same time, he was not at risk of misanthropy. He knew how to respect people and himself. Not every great musician is able to boast of this. Alexander Alexandrovich was an amazing person. He radiated warmth, charm and gifted us with the formidable and noble noise of the musical ocean. His unique world is always with us. And the music he created. And his laughter. And his attention. And the warmth of his heart. And he will always be missed.
Photo by Alexander TYAGNY-RYADNO
Source.
It is incomprehensible, because Alexander Vedernikov "embodied health and energy," wrote pianist Nikolai Lugansky on Facebook: "It could be someone but him, I have never imagined this could happen...."
But these are — alas, often — "existential" (let others write about medical) features of covid19: unexpected and irreversibile.
Lugansky called the passing of Vedernikov a terrible tragedy "for the whole music community." And it's hard to argue with that. And no one argues: Vedernikov's death was suddenly responded to, tears in the eyes. Even by those who happily forgot about him after he left the Bolshoi and went conducting in Denmark. Although Vedernikov came to Russia all these years and performed with major orchestras - with the Russian National Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia, the State Orchestra named after E.F Svetlanov: not so often, but these concerts were not isolated - they were rare and precious. But these are - alas, often - the "existential" features of the media: their attention, with some exceptions, is fleeting and it often reminds a magpie carried away by every glittering trinket. However, human attention is not immune from corrosion (with a few exceptions, of course).
“Over the past decade, the artistic career of one of the most Russian in spirit conductors has successfully developed mainly in Europe, where the administration hierarchy supports, rather than undercuts, the artistic activities. Among numerous concerts around the world with first-class symphony groups and opera productions in famous theaters, Vedernikov managed to prepare and successfully perform a concert version of the entire Wagner’s "Ring" tetralogy, with conducting a not nearly metropolitan grade orchestra in Denmark. After the premiere, Vedernikov was immediately invited to the post of the Danish Royal Opera artistic director, where in the next 12 months he was supposed to stage “Parsifal”, related Vladimir Tarnopolsky, composer, teacher, head of the Contemporary Music Center at the Moscow Conservatory, interviewed by “MO”.
Family and schooling
Alexander Vedernikov is the son of a pianist, organist, professor at the Moscow Conservatory, head of the organ and harpsichord department Natalia Nikolaevna Vedernikova (Gureeva) and the famous opera and chamber singer, bass, soloist (in 1958-1990) of the Bolshoi Theater Alexander Filippovich Vedernikov (1927–2018). However, Vedernikov Jr. has never presented this as something giving the right to any public privileges. It was rather a unique and not transferable (personal) experience of a «private person» living (the artist's identity).
“I didn’t suddenly realize that I was the son of the singer Alexander Vedernikov, because I was in some orbit of what my father was doing. And his social circle was in some ways very interesting to me, because he mostly communicated with composers or painters rather than with his fellow singers. So we had some interesting people coming for a visit”, the conductor told in an interview with Elena Polyakovskaya on Radio Liberty (2019).
Alexander Vedernikov Jr. studied at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating it in 1988 as an opera and symphony conductor: Vedernikov's mentor was Leonid Nikolaev (1940-2009), who at that time led the orchestra of the Music School at the Moscow Conservatory (in 1974 this orchestra participated in the Herbert von Karayan Foundation International Competition for Youth Orchestras in West Berlin and won the First Prize, as well as the Golden Medal).
Then Vedernikov trained with Mark Ermler (1932–2002), one of the most significant conductors of the Bolshoi Theater.
Steps to the Bolshoi Theater
In 1988-1990 A. Vedernikov worked at the K.S. Stanislavsky and Vl.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko MAMT Theater. In 1988-1995 he was assistant chief conductor and second conductor of the Grand Symphony Orchestra of the State Radio and Television (since 1993 — Grand Symphony Orchestra named after P.I. Tchaikovsky) under the direction of Vladimir Fedoseev.
In 1995, Vedernikov founded the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra (until the famous default in August 1998 belonging to the TV-6 television channel, then it was abolished, and in 2001 it was re-established and included in the asset list by the Moscow government). Alexander Vedernikov has been its artistic director and chief conductor trough 2004.
A year earlier (2003), Vedernikov became a member of the conducting board of the Russian National Orchestra (RNO), touring with it in France, Germany and the USA, and in 2004, during the RNO tour in nine cities of the United States, he made his debut at New York Carnegie Hall and Washington Kennedy Center.
In 2005, Alexander Vedernikov debuted at the Paris National Opera (Opera de Bastille) — as the musical director of the new production of “Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky (directed by Francesca Zambello).
He conducted at La Scala, La Fenice and other famous opera houses all around the world.
The conductor's great heights
All this happened in parallel with Vedernikov working at the Bolshoi Theater, where he was invited in 2001. Until 2009, Vedernikov was the music director and chief conductor of the Bolshoi Theater, and it is worth enlarging on this period in more detail.
"He brilliantly knew opera scores and all the subtleties of the art of opera conducting. He had a talent of huge scale and vast knowledge. And besides that, Alexander was characterized by those rare qualities that are so lacking in our country for many managers — long-term planning and daily painstaking work to move towards the goal.
However, these qualities are completely incompatible with the administrative leapfrog and with the aimlessness that reigns in the upper echelons of cultural appointees. Therefore, the “broad public” can only admire the most famous productions of Vedernikov, such as “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, “Eugene Onegin”, “The Flying Dutchman” or “The Fiery Angel”, but only unbiased specialists can recognize Vedernikov's strategy for the development of the Bolshoi Theater, its structural “Europeanization” and realize the full scale of this personality"— told the "MO" Vladimir Tarnopolsky
This "Europeanization" of the Bolshoi conceived by Alexander Vedernikov concerned the reforming of the theater company, the repertoire, "the management system, and the financing system": “... I realized that the main problem of the Bolshoi Theater were its institutional principles. And until they remain unchanged, all changes would be subjective and non-systemic..., "- said Vedernikov in the already mentioned last year's interview on Radio Liberty.
For all his determination, Vedernikov was radically non-chaotic in his actions. " He was by no means an inconsiderate rhetoric, and his own vision of the Bolshoi's strategy and mission was both balanced and circumspect, and - when necessary - conservative," wrote Sergei Khodnev, an art critic and music critic, in “Kommersant” on account of Alexander Vedernikov's decease.
All these qualities as the musical director of the country's largest theater did not prevent Vedernikov from "rushing headlong" into musical and stage experiments on the Bolshoi stage. Vladimir Tarnopolsky has listed some challenging performances inspired by Vedernikov: "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Glinka (2003; concert costume performance of the original author's version, for which authentic instruments were purchased), "The Flying Dutchman" by Wagner (2004; the first edition staged for the first time in Russia; director Peter Convichny), "Fiery Angel" by Prokofiev (2004; the first production at the Bolshoi Theater; director Francesca Zambello) and "Eugene Onegin" by Tchaikovsky (2006; director Dmitry Chernyakov). And, of course, we should mention “Children of Rosenthal”: an opera by Leonid Desyatnikov, libretto by Vladimir Sorokin, commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater.
The world premiere of the Eimuntas Nekrošius production took place on the stage of the Bolshoi on March 23, 2005. For the 229th Bolshoi theater season, the “Rosenthal Children” was performed 6 times, and in 2006 at the Golden Mask the play received the Special Jury Award: the Bolshoi Theater was awarded "for its initiative in the modern Russian opera development".
Leonid DESYATNIKOV:
"The myth of the Great Conductor evokes in our (sub)consciousness a vague image of a white cisgendered boss, the image of a beautifully waving, domineering and artistic Narcissist. The titan of the console, according to Stravinsky's snide remark.
There was no such glamorous pathos in Vedernikov at all. He was certainly a professional of the highest standard. With him, I felt like I was behind a stone wall. And, of course, I was amazed by his exceptional kindness — a quality that distinguished him from many of his guild fellows."
Vladimir TARNOPOLSKY:
"Exceptionally good-natured, with a wonderful sense of humor, Alexander may not have been the world's leading "sprinter" performing seven programs a week, but he was certainly a wonderful "stayer" who was able to count on running the longest distances and achieve the highest artistic result at the same time.
Everything that Vedernikov failed to reorganize in the Russian opera, someone will still have to do it — a decade earlier or later. It depends on the pace of development of our country: both structural and purely human development."
According to director Dmitry CHERNYAKOV, the online media OperaTime.ru wrote: "after Sasha left the Bolshoi in 2009, there were a few conductors at the stand of our "Onegin": but no one, although there were many young conductors, could give the freshness of reading, sincerity and theatricality, like Vedernikov did.”
Life after the Bolshoi
So, Alexander Vedernikov made the Bolshoi Theater world glory in the 2000s and his strengths as the musical director are still remembered today. After a difficult, to put it mildly, parting with the Bolshoi, in 2009 Vedernikov headed the Odense Symphony Orchestra existing since 1946. From 2018 he has been chief conductor of the Danish Royal Opera and the Danish Royal Orchestra (with this orchestra, one of the oldest in the world, Vedernikov performed twice in Moscow, in June 2018).
Vedernikov also conducted the Russian National Orchestra in June 2017 (Alexei Volodin performed the Chopin piano concerts at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall), the Russian National Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2019 (Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, soloist Andrei Korobeinikov, Pastoral Symphony by Glazunov and Second Piano Concerto by Tchaikovsky), the Russia State Orchestra named after E.F. Svetlanov in December 2019 (concert in memory of Alexander Filippovich Vedernikov, the Great Hall of the Conservatory: Third concerto by Rachmaninoff with Nikolai Lugansky, "Little Triptych" and "Snow is Coming" by Sviridov and "Polovtsian Dances" by Borodin).
Since 2019, Vedernikov has been the music director and chief conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theater (St. Petersburg). The sudden pass interrupted this activity of Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov, which - whether it was worth repeating - was far from filling up his entire life in recent years. He was "a genuine conductor, a magnificent specialist in the opera and symphony repertoire, a charming, sweet tempered person" (as described by cellist, artistic director and chief conductor of the Moscow chamber orchestra Musica Viva Alexander Rudin), an active and concerned person who have never lost hope of reforming musical theater in Russia and, moreover, offered concrete steps for this (in particular, the cooperation of theaters that lack funds for their own full-fledged performances).
The last performance conducted by Alexander Vedernikov was the opera "Rural Honor" on October 4 at the opening of the Mikhailovsky Theater opera season.
Alexander Vedernikov was said last goodbyes in a narrow circle of friends and loved ones on October 31 in Moscow.
On November 10, the Mikhailovsky Theater hosted the play "Rural Honor," dedicated to Alexander Vedernikov.
Vladimir SOROKIN — In memory of Alexander Vedernikov.
Especially for "MO"
I met Alexander Alexandrovich Vedernikov during the staging and at the rehearsals of the opera “The Children of Rosenthal”. The staging was quite intense and stormy. Everyone understood that it was turning out something that is difficult to calculate logically to the end, so a grain, or rather, the flavor, the spirit of unpredictability hovered over everything and everyone. This was also fueled by an external scandal unleashed by pro-government obscurantists. Nekrošius, Desyatnikov improvised a lot with the singers, with the direction. I also had to adjust the text so that it could be sung more easily. We were all inspired by the feeling of creating something new, that had not been staged in this theater for a long time, and this feeling was transmitted to everyone - both singers, choir, mimes, artists, and the theater administration. But a person was surprisingly calm among this group of people excited by unpredictability — Alexander Vedernikov.
I do not know if he was completely calm within himself, as it seemed at the time, but his calmness, the highest professionalism and confidence that we were doing everything right amazed me. There was a feeling that our fantasies, improvisations, along with many purely technological issues, were resting on his shoulders. And these shoulders were truly heroic. His stature, despite the amazing plasticity of this man at the console, had a certain metaphysics of static on which one could rely, and this incredibly helped all of us.
The premiere was stormy. We got to know each other better. And Alexander struck me again. That time, I was amazed by his non-academic attitude towards the cultural field, towards the ocean of culture, towards literature. Everything was in motion in him. He was a surprisingly mobile, open and direct person. When the premiere died down and all the scandals subsided, we saw each other after a while, meeting by chance at a concert. After learning that Ira and I used to visit our friends in Pereslavl-Zalessky, he invited us to his dacha that turned out to be not far from this beautiful town. We went to visit Sasha and Lena. It was one of the most wonderful and unforgettable trips. Actually, the Vedernikovs did not have a dacha there, but a real rustic house, in which all the simple peasant atmosphere had been preserved. Yet Sasha and Lena, urban people, quite naturally existed there, organically inhabiting and animating that place. Sasha cooked fish in a Russian stove, baking it on salt. We were sitting on a starry summer night in a rustic house, drinking, eating, talking about music and literature. It's impossible to forget. Sasha was the life and soul of the party. His booming laughter was envious. There, in that rustic house, I realized that with all the responsibility that laid on the shoulders of this bright, already famous conductor, inside, he was incredibly free. It was captivating. I remember asking him about the limits of absolute hearing, whether it helped or hindered a musician. I have always been interested in the question of so-called “non-musical sounds”, their recording and existence in the score. Naturally, in modern music, “non-musical sounds”, such as the rustling of paper or the grinding of iron, are not recorded in notes, but are indicated by special symbols. So, I said, “Sasha, look, if you just take a cup and”… I picked up an empty cup and hit it with a wooden spoon, it turned out a blurry sound. And Sasha immediately named the chord of that complex sound. I have always been fascinated by such pure and hard-hitting professionalism.
Vedernikov had an imperceptible, composite quality, a symbiosis of music, freedom, high culture, hard-hitting professionalism and quite a dour ethics of a hereditary Moscow intellectual. At the same time, he was not at risk of misanthropy. He knew how to respect people and himself. Not every great musician is able to boast of this. Alexander Alexandrovich was an amazing person. He radiated warmth, charm and gifted us with the formidable and noble noise of the musical ocean. His unique world is always with us. And the music he created. And his laughter. And his attention. And the warmth of his heart. And he will always be missed.
Photo by Alexander TYAGNY-RYADNO
Source.
Anton DUBIN,
"Musical review", № 12 (470) 2020
"Musical review", № 12 (470) 2020
