Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Rachmaninoff for days

I spent the morning watching the opening ceremonies and first performances of the 2022 Rachmaninoff competition now taking place in Moscow. I can't think of a better way to start the day. I'd like to share my thoughts. 

Path I - If you want to bypass all talk about the music and the composer and the unavoidable discussion of the political implications of holding an international event in Moscow these days, click here and go to the YouTube presentation. Jump ahead to minute 37:00, the Symphonic Dances, and then jump ahead again to minute 1:45:50 where Denis Matsuev is introduced and plays Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Symphony.

Path II -  For a little background information on Rachmaninoff, and my view of the political context in which this competition is taking place:

Some composers have both loads of fans and people who can take them or leave them, but ain't nobody don't like Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, in my experience. His unabashed romanticism is unmatched, leading many to complain his compositions are best suited for romantic Hollywood movies - a cheap shot if ever there was one. (If you're inclined to think in that direction, let me suggest you first listen to his Third Piano Concerto.)  One of my music tutors over the years clucked that I would one day give up my passion for Grieg and come to appreciate Richard Strauss (he was partially right - I came to appreciate Strauss, but I didn't give up on Grieg.) And I've encountered no end of opera snobs who insist that bel canto or verismo style operas are for plebeians and prefer either Wagnerian bombast on the one hand or Alban Berg or Hindemith and the like, on the other, music which I think is written for the head and not the heart. I'll take old fashioned melody and harmony any day.

Not that music has to enter only through the heart. Just as the Japanese understand that food should be enjoyed by the eyes as well as the tongue and palate, I think melody and harmony are greatly complemented by demonstrations of genius in competition and virtuosity in performance. I love music competitions where, to win, artists have to practice for months to stand a chance of being selected by a jury not of their peers but of the most accomplished of their lot, including former competition winners.  I spent the better part of October last year holed up and listening to the competitors in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and I continue to follow the winners to this day.  One of the highlights of the entire year 2021.

This Rachmaninoff competition, which is set to run from the 14th to the 27th of this month,  was originally promoted by Russia's best-known classical and jazz pianist, Denis Matsuev, but it's a three-part production. Officially, the title is the Rachmaninoff International Competition for Pianists, Composers and Conductors. Matsuev heads the pianists' group, Yuri Simonov the conductors', and Alexander Tchaikovsky (no relation to you-know-who) the composers' group.

It is striking - at least it was to me - that the two people chosen to introduce the opening event, did so in English as well as Russian. I know that English functions now as the primary international language, but somehow I assumed that considering the war in Ukraine, some hostility to English might have wormed its way into the events. Both Denis Matsuev, and Valery Gergiev, Russia's best-known pianist and orchestra conductor respectively, are known to be outspoken Putin supporters, and both have run into hostility in Europe. Gergiev was asked to leave his job as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic and as honorary conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic. He has also been dropped by the Met in New York and performances under his baton have been cancelled in Switzerland, Scotland, and in Hamburg, and apparently Milan has him on its drop list, as well. So much for the career of "one of the world's leading conductors."  Matsuev has run into similar difficulties after going on record in support of Putin's invasion of the Donbas and the annexation of the Crimea.

There is little doubt that the competition has been profoundly affected by Putin's war on Ukraine.  It has been sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture - a branch of it known by a name only a Russian bureaucrat could come up with: the Federal State Budgetary Institution of Culture, or "ROSCONCERT" for short.  Putin spoke at the dedication and made all the usual claims of its being a vehicle for international understanding. Which it is, of course, even though in the piano sector (the others did better) one contestant was from Brazil, two were from China, and the other ten were all Russians.

Forgive the quibbling. I should not be detracting from the brilliant performances and the evidence that life goes on, despite tyranny and the war.

It's just that looking at the devastation in Ukraine, the fact that it has taken over a hundred days for the Germans to get off their buns and deliver the weapons they promised while 200 Ukrainian soldiers are dying daily, and the fact that Russians - such extraordinarily wonderful people in the grip of oligarchs and a would-be modern-day czar,  are getting a real bad rap. That breaks my heart, and I couldn't pretend it's not the elephant in the room when an international music competition takes place in Moscow.

I won't list the links to the concerts. You can find them by typing in rachmaninoff competition 2022 to YouTube.

If you do, hours of glorious music - not just Rachmaninoff, but especially Rachmaninoff - await you.







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