Teodor Currentzis and the MusicAeterna Orchestra triumphantly accomplished the XII International Christmas Festival of Arts with the 7th Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich
The concert of Teodor Currentzis and the orchestra MusicAeterna in Novosibirsk is a joint project of Moscow and Novosibirsk Philharmonics. The tour is organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation in the frames of the project "All-Russian Philharmonic Seasons".
The tour covers several cities: Novosibirsk, Perm, Tyumen, Krasnoyarsk, St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Concert on December 24 was the first performance of Teodor Currentzis in Novosibirsk since 2011, when the conductor left the post of musical director of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater.
At a press conference there was a question: why this particular piece was chosen for the performance at the Christmas Festival?
- This is the canonized composition of the Russian spirit. And you do not need to hide from it! And you need to try again to rethink: who we are? In our interpretation of this symphony the main thing is that love will win! - said Teodor Currentzis.
- The 7th Symphony by Shostakovich in the program of the forum is a very important point, - continued Vladimir Kaluzhsky, artistic director of Novosibirsk philharmonic society. - Christmas festival is not "Jingle Bells". It's a beautiful and very different music, which we perform at Christmas, on New Year's Eve. And we are grateful to the maestro and his orchestra for breaking the stereotype of this festival. There should be not only "music of the New Year's fireworks". This is an interesting challenge! And we hope that in future the image of the festival will change.
Also the conductor said that he has the warmest memories of Novosibirsk, where he was the music director and principal conductor of the Opera and Ballet Theater (from 2004 to 2011) and where in 2004 he founded the musicAeterna orchestra. Today, according to the unanimous opinion of the leading music critics, this is one of the most popular Russian bands.
The conductor shared his thoughts of the choice of this or that piece for performance:
- It seems to me that I managed to see something new in this symphony of Shostakovich. And when it seems to me that this "new" will be interesting to other people, if I feel an urgent need to share this feeling, I perform the work. And sometimes it's a very personal statement, which, I think, will not touch anyone except me. Then I do not take this composition. I have no such ambition: to play this symphony, because everyone is playing it.
Before the concert, music critic Lyalya Kandaurova gave a lecture on the structure of Shostakovich's 7th Symphony, about the "keys" to understanding this music and the peculiarities of the interpretation of the score by Teodor Currentzis and his orchestra.
The concert of Teodor Currentzis and the orchestra MusicAeterna became a bright, triumphant point in the program of the Christmas Festival. Listeners who were lucky enough to get to the concert (and almost all tickets were sold out in the summer), saw on the stage the full composition of the team: 120 musicians came to Novosibirsk with the maestro.
For the first time Novosibirsk audience saw how unusually Kurrentzis arranged musicians on the stage: on the principle of an amphitheater. Some groups of instruments (wind, percussion) were on special podiums, and, for example, the violinists of the orchestra played the entire concert standing up.
Concerts of the XII International Christmas Festival of Arts were held at the venues of Novosibirsk Philharmonic from December 7 to 24. For 18 festival days there were 19 programs with the participation of leading Russian and foreign performers.
The project is supported by the Government of Novosibirsk Region, the Governor of Novosibirsk Region and the Ministry of Culture of Novosibirsk Region.
General sponsor of the orchestra MusicAeterna is Sberbank.