Conducting marathon. Kaspars Adamsons for defending the thesis
When the team of the Riga film studio chose six-year-old Kaspars Ādamsons among the first-graders of the Gardening School for the role of the little pianist Raimond in Vara Brasla’s film “Christmas Jampadracis”, where he had to play a complicated Chopin miniature in a tailcoat at the grand piano, Kaspars learned it. The excellent working abilities are also useful at the age of 39, adding a professional doctorate in music to the Jāzeps Vītolas Latvian Academy of Music master’s degree in choral conducting, the orchestra conducting master’s degree at the Tallinn University of Music and Theater, as well as the visiting student diploma of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Studied, of course, conducting.
The title of the doctoral thesis is “Specificity of the conductor’s work in the genres of symphonic and stage music”. “As the name suggests, the work was about my work as a conductor in symphonic and stage music. The artistic side demanded that three projects of artistic creativity be staged within three years. It was the premiere of Anitra Tumševica’s chamber symphony “Continuation” with the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Academy in 2021 On October 1, the second was Alexander Rodin’s ballet “Viy. Nights of Horror”, which premiered on the evening of April 20, 2023 in our opera house, and the third form of creation was Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Don Carlos”, which [LNO] took place on both Thursday and Saturday nights last week, but the committee came to the March 30, Saturday performance,” says Adamson.
When at the beginning of 2021 he applied for doctoral studies at the Academy of Music, which after many years had become a reality from a dream, the opera house fell silent, and university students studied remotely.
Adamson remembers: “It was the time of the pandemic, in fact everything had stopped – I had neither concerts nor performances, I could not meet with orchestras or choirs.
The pandemic prompted to go in an as yet unknown direction, and it turned out to be the path of a PhD.”
The creation of the dissertation was supervised by Associate Professor Baiba Jaunslaviete of the Latvian Academy of Music.
“We went to this collection of literature and researched what has or has not been written in Latvia about the conductor’s work in these three genres. A lot has been written about symphonic music, also about the opera genre, much less literature can be found about the conductor’s work in the ballet genre. What I it seemed interesting – the fusion of these genres, my work in each of them,” Adamson says.
There is no comparative assessment of the conductor’s activities in front of a symphony orchestra, opera and ballet orchestra anywhere else in the world, so Kaspar Adamson’s doctoral thesis could be unique.
How does conducting differ in each genre? Adamson explains: “Conducting is definitely different in terms of both gestures and manual techniques, the daily routine itself, the specifics of the work and the forms of rehearsals in each of the genres are different. To put it in simple language, especially in the opera genre, especially when the stage action takes place completely, even a muted musical fragment, which the conductor would conduct with his fingertips in a symphony concert, with extremely small amplitude of gestures, in the case of an opera, must be conducted in the same way as the large chorus in Mežapark – simply to achieve this rhythmic unity with the orchestra pit and the stage.”
The more than 300-page study has materialized the daily life of Kaspars Ādamsons himself, working with both the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra and the White House Orchestra.
Of course, every conductor has his own individual handwriting, and he has also studied this by interviewing colleagues both here in Latvia and abroad. Each conductor has his own “instruments”, how to raise the overall sound of the orchestra or choir to an even higher quality, says the talented musician, who also performed in front of the choir of the last Christmas Eve.
In Mežaparka’s Great Stage, the conductor looks like a small dot below from the rows of choristers. Choirs said that maybe they need red gloves or an electronic wand. Adamsons comments: “Speaking of the big stage and the large collective choir of the Song Festival, of course the number of singers involved and the distance to the conductor are large, everything has already been seen, colleagues have also conducted in white gloves. The most dangerous time is around sunset, then the conductor’s floor is the most difficult to notice. But similar things can also be noticed in the opera genre. Often “backstage” are conducted with these same white gloves so that the orchestra can notice the conductor’s gesture.”
There are three conductors in his family: not only his father Arijs Škepasts, but also his younger brother Arijs, who is a year and a half younger, conducts amateur choirs, while his sister Annie is starting her career in opera singing.
“Ārijs Ādamsons, my brother… he conducts incomparably more choirs than I do, if I have one choir “Sola”, then I think he has as many as four choirs. On the other hand, Annija graduated from the Riga Cathedral Choir School, as if she completed her master’s studies in Stuttgart, referring to various offers in Germany and Austria. Next week, she is going to an audition, where she is offered a state place in one opera. I am also as happy as possible to perform with her. Last week, we were with the choir “Sola” in John’s church together with Annie Kristians Adamson,” says the conductor.
On the other hand, they collaborated with their father Āria Škepast in the Song Festival’s big concert “Tīrums”‘, winning the competition for its creation: “I was extremely proud and excited watching my dad during the last bars of “Tīrums”, listening to the choir, and realizing that this big dream we dreamed is reality, but it will also end immediately. Any big things… including the doctoral thesis defended yesterday – you wake up this morning and there are two feelings – a job well done, but also a feeling of a little emptiness. It is clear that the next things will come…”
Kaspar’s father, the conductor of the “Austrums” choir, Ārijs Šķepasts, on the other hand, admits to Latvijas Radio: pride is not characteristic of their family, so it is difficult for him to praise his son, but he would like to highlight one quality:
“He has always been a supporter of order. Everything should be in order. If something is not in order, then he smiles to himself: well, you do it, but I don’t do it. I will do it in order.
Dad has happened to be a little more airy. He cannot sit on one thing. He will surely say: well, now I have enough, I don’t want this thing anymore. Kaspar will not allow it. A wonderful guy!”
The doctorate was simply about getting things right. Just like the big concert of the Song Festival “Tīrums”, a three-year marathon! And only one dress rehearsal!
Another night after that, they sat at the table, thinking about what to polish. When they realized the next day that the concert was a success, the thrill was huge, but Kaspar was already waiting for the next marathons. The same opera “Don Carlos”, which is both described in his doctoral thesis and also directed to the commission, lasts four hours. On April 21, he is expected to make another important debut at the Latvian National Opera, conducting Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “The Questioning Widow”. At the end of April, concerts with the Symphony Orchestra of the Academy of Music are planned, and already next week – a master class for conductors in London. Of course, he still conducts the choir “Solu”, where his wife also sings. But if there is a moment, he goes with his family to nature, he also tries to use every opportunity to play basketball.
2024-04-06 07:18:10
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