Kent Nagano opened the Trans-Siberian Art Festival with a program that reflected his impressions of Siberia
On the 9th of March Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra under the conduction of Kent Nagano performed in Arnold Kats State Concert Hall the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." Vadim Repin performed together with the collective Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra by Bruch. Fantasia for piano by the choir and orchestra of Ludwig van Beethoven was performed by Konstantin Lifschitz, the orchestra and Novosibirsk Choir Chapel.
«It was a great challenge and a great honor when Vadim invited me to become a participant of the fifth festival. At that moment, I realized that the program of my concert should be very special. Each piece chosen for the program reflects the impressions of my first visit to Siberia, - told Kent Nagano at a press conference before the opening of the festival. - Strauss's symphonic poem "Also Sprach Zarathustra," inspired by Nietzsche's poem, contains the idea of a tense relationship between the individuality and the overwhelming power of nature. Having visited Siberia for the first time, I was most impressed by its enormous scale and the strength of its nature. It was very cold, and I felt that this region could be not only beautiful, but also cruel, and severe. Bruch's concert for violin and orchestra for me is again the image of the individual and the context, but now this role is not nature, but the urban community, the urban image. This is what also impressed me in Novosibirsk on my first visit - I could not imagine how great and rich this city is. The third composition, Beethoven's Fantasy, ends with a text performed by a solo and a choir. Its main idea can be formulated as follows: if we can find a harmonious way for teamwork, the reward will be joy. For me these words are a metaphor for the Trans-Siberian Art Festival. I understand that I may seem unnecessarily romantic, but I was thinking about these three images choosing the concert program: the powerful nature, the vibrant city life and this extraordinary feeling when Vadim Repin and his friends around him make something very special here”.
Kent Nagano also noted that, in his opinion, the success of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival rests on the great cultural traditions of the Siberian region. “Vadim has a vision of how to emphasize these traditions and bring them to the world level - this is very important and promising. This is what makes this festival unique, unlike any other. We live in the modern world and see how many bright and interesting ideas are dying after several years of life. The Trans-Siberian Art Festival symbolizes for me a reverse trend: it grows and develops. My first visit to Siberia was due to our friendship with Vadim. And now, after returning here after few years, watching how much more this project has become, I continue to feel friendship as its basis. That's why I'm sure that the festival has a great future”.
“One of the main ideas of the festival was and remains the construction of a bridge between the East and the West," said Vadim Repin, artistic director of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival." Developing the project, we never set a framework for ourselves, but rather fantasized far into the impossible. I think this installation has been going on since my time in Novosibirsk: you need to jump above your head. Building the impossible ideas, the ability to follow them and in no situation to lose excitement, drive, devotion is one of our strongest qualities. I really like the versatility of the festival program, the fact that very few in the world there are analogues to our project, if they exist at all”.
The artistic director of the festival admitted that for the third year of the project's existence, it seemed to him that it was developing even faster than planned, and now this pace has become natural and familiar. "Reality overtakes the most daring imaginations. Whenever could I imagine that Sofia Gubaidulina would write a composition for me personally? This happened a few years earlier than I would have expected," Vadim Repin admitted.
“The festival expands its borders both in Russia and abroad, and for us it is also extremely important that this year it significantly expanded its borders in the Novosibirsk region," said Igor Reshetnikov, the interim minister of culture of the Novosibirsk region." This year, the events of the festival for the first time will pass in two remote areas - Krasnozyorskoe and Karasuk, located 350 and 500 kilometers from Novosibirsk. The second most important component of the festival for us is an educational project. After all, we are essentially working for the future audience, educating our talents through the festival. The stars who come to participate in its programs will give master classes. Each festival introduces something new, this new project this year will be the Academy of Art Journalism, which, like master classes, will be held on the basis of the House of Culture “Energia”.
"This year, within the framework of the festival program, almost 20 master classes will take place, 70 young musicians, including those from Italy, will take part in them. The new project of the festival, the Academy of Art Journalism, will bring together 75 participants from all over the country - from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, - said Oleg Bely, director of the festival. "Of course, we are proud of this and the great program that we were able to present in Novosibirsk and the region. It is extremely important for us that this year in Novosibirsk the festival will end with two performances of the Bolshoi Theater "The Lady with the Camellias" on the stage of Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. This is a unique event, since a large number of years the Bolshoi Theater has not toured in Russia, and Novosibirsk will be the first city where its performance will be taken out in full. Moreover, this production of John Neumeier since the premiere in 2014, has never left the walls of the Bolshoi Theater".
Kent Nagano is one of the most visible and influential world conductors. His recordings of Prokofiev's Pete and the Wolf with the Russian National Orchestra, the opera "Doctor Faust" by Busoni in the Lyon opera and "Love from a distance" by Saariajo with the German Symphony Orchestra of Berlin were awarded the Grammy Award. Since 2015, Kent Nagano has held the post of artistic director and chief conductor of the Hamburg State Opera. In 2006-2013, he headed the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where under his direction were the operas of Mussorgsky, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Poulenc, Messiaen, Wagner, George Benjamin; On the order of Nagano, new operas were written by Jorg Widmann, Wolfgang Rim, Ynsuk Chin.
The first festival concert was preceded by two events, along with music representing other types of art in the program of the forum.
In the City Center of Fine Arts, the exhibition of the young artist Maria Kononova "Symphony of Colors" was opened. In the foyer of the Arnold Kats State Concert Hall, the audience of the opening concert was presented with an exhibition of the official photographer of the festival Alexander Ivanov "Through the camera’s Eye: 5 years with you!"
On March 10th on the stage of the Arnold Kats State Concert Hall, pianist Konstantin Lifschits presented a unique solo program based on a combination of Bach's English suite and Leonard Bernstein's music. On March 11th in the same hall a chamber program composed of works by Schumann and Dvorak was performed by violinists Vadim Repin, Clara-Jumi Kang, violist Maxim Rysanov, cellist Pablo Ferrandes and pianist Mari Kodama. On March 12th it will be represented on the stage of the Palace of Culture "Rodina" in Berdsk.
The concerts of the fifth Trans-Siberian Art Festival, headed by Vadim Repin, will be held from March to July 2018. The festival program in Novosibirsk will end of 2nd April, though the Russian part of the Festival will last to May 13 and will include Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg and Samara in its route. By tradition, small towns of the Novosibirsk region will not be left without attention, the list of which has expanded significantly this year: Berdsk, Krasnozyorskoe, Toguchin, Karasuk.The foreign part of the route will take place in the USA and Japan in June and July.
The key point in the geography of the festival is Novosibirsk - the hometown of the artistic director of the project. One of the key participants in the project is Novosibirsk Philharmonic Orchestra. Vadim Repin repeatedly stressed the decisive role played by the collective in implementing the idea of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival. The main venue of the festival always remains the Arnold Kats State Concert Hall - the new Philharmonic Hall opened in 2013 and, according to Vadim Repin, has become one of the necessary conditions for the implementation of the idea of the festival.
The festival is supported by the Government and the Governor of Novosibirsk Region. Also the festival is supported by: the official sponsor of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, JSC Russian Railways, sponsor of the Trans-Siberian Art Festival PJSC SIBUR Holding.
