Liene Jakovleva: The beginning of the year is very intense for you. “Bird Opera” has returned to the stage, and you will meet birds, animals and people in this production not for the first time. Have new accents appeared in the “Bird Opera”?
Andris Veismanis: There are undoubtedly new accents because there are new soloists. The old generation of soloists are probably already babysitting their grandchildren. (laughs)
Or have taken on other roles!
Yes, in other roles as well. I am glad that the opera is back, because it is very bright, thanks to the stage solution and the music, which is very well written specifically for the children’s audience.
Perhaps this work is one of the best in the world, because I know many children’s operas written abroad, and this, in my opinion, is one of the best.
The first performances of the renewed production have already taken place. Are children the same as ten years ago?
The strangest thing is that – yes! At the premiere, at the end of the first act, in which the evil Dornton performs, several children started crying and their parents carried them out of the hall… But it’s very impressive, I also feel the whispering and intrigue that reigns in the hall. And in the end, the standing ovation at the premiere showed that not only children, but also parents liked this show.
Your student at the Music Academy, Artūrs Schwartzbach, has just received the Music Academy’s Annual Award. It is also a satisfying assessment for you as a teacher.
This is undoubtedly an assessment, but I think that the students themselves are also self-sufficient – we can see this from the success of Krista Auderes and also from my previous students who have received this award, including Anastasija Kildiš. They themselves are already very strong personalities with very good opportunities to become artists in the future. (..)
Aivis Greters is also your student in a sense, as are Ainārs Rubiķis and Jurģis Cābulis – you could call and call here. Can you say it’s heredity too? Are all of them Imanta Kokar’s grandchildren or great-grandchildren? Because there is something in you from all your teachers, right?
This is the principle of sitting on the shoulders that goes back a long way. (..) It is possible that educators at some point start from nothing, they have had nothing to build on. Because all the named musicians, who are now famous not only in Latvia, but also outside it, have other teachers – it’s a symbiosis. But there is an impulse that I give. Until recently, Aivis called me about interpreting Mozart, it was very important for him to talk – I even went to Saulkrasti and we talked for quite a long time.
I understand that he will also make his opera debut, at the conductor’s desk of “Don Juan”.
He was also an assistant when we made the last premiere.
Just like Arthur Schwarzbach is your assistant in “The Bird Opera”.
Yes, I took it, I just had no options.
Can’t split, my avatar can’t be in different places at the same time…
And how symbolic! If we believe in history, then on January 15, 1969, the first rehearsal of the chamber choir “Ave Sol” took place. So the 55th anniversary year of the choir has begun. You used to be a singer in it. And then – heritability.
Imants was an interesting personality. He was focused on himself, so students were not for him as self-affirmation. Of course, he took the very best who had already achieved something before the Music Academy, but at the same time he was proud of the performance of his students, which I read in Laima Muktupávela’s book. Together with Brother Guido, they discussed a lot of things, they had an opinion about the characters of the students, their ability to do something or not do something. Everyone who studied under Imanta knows that he was very strict. He was also very strict with his sons, especially with Uldi. As far as I understand from what I have been told – strict in terms of requirements: no discounts, no easier treatment, there is an equally strict and demanding way of serving. But the fact that he left a very significant accent in our choral music – you can already feel it by the love that Latvian choir singers – and not only choir singers – have shown, remembering him and thinking about him.
However, sometimes we tend to glorify and legend these people. I don’t want to ask you what Imants Kokars couldn’t teach, but what exactly were his strengths as a musician? Because everyone cannot be equally strong in all musical genres and deviations.
Imanta had one thing that is perhaps even unsurpassed – very good manual technique. He had wonderful hands.
Can it be taught?
Yes, he worked on it: in his connection we see bright examples of manual technique, including his student Mārtis Klišanas, in some sense also Sigvard Kļavas, although Sigvard followed his own path, carefully creating musical plastic. But it is the single most powerful thing. And the second thing – Imanta’s adventurism in a good sense. He has always tried to look for new music, commissioned a lot of new works from our composers, and they are very often very good, including the works of Peter Plakids. Of course, Jānis Ivanovs. Paul Damby’s huge contribution. “Ave Sol” is a symbiosis in which one helped the other. In connection with the choir’s anniversary, I am now studying the records, especially the works of Ādolfs Skulte – he has remained a bit in the shadows. Knowing Skulte’s work – and he was one of the best students of Jázep Vītolas – I am now a bit attached to it.
Will you agree that, for example, ancient music and baroque, which are your great love, were not Imantas Kokar’s strong point? Because I remember well – when we staged Handel’s “Messiah”, Imants was a little distracted. He didn’t really know what to do.
But it can already be understood, because at the time when he was studying, sacred music was not played here at all, accordingly, this whole part of the music was hidden from him until 1988, when we could play Lucia Garuta’s “Dives, tava zeme deg!”, which he very bravely, in spite of the party’s position, staged it in spite of everything.
It was a huge shock to the public and to us as well. Singing “Our Father in Heaven” for the first time was very moving and Imant handled it very well. Knowing that the recording, which has been preserved from the wartime and in which Lucija Garuta herself also participates as an organist, is unfortunately not of such high quality to be able to [publiski atskaņot]Imants knew what to do with his previous years’ experience, and the result was both the fundamental tuning and a lot of concerts in Latvia.
You already mentioned the anniversary of “Ave Sol”. There will be concerts, there will be concert series. What can you sketch a little bit of it all?
We have one big anniversary concert, but the whole year is a bit of an anniversary. We have planned the big anniversary concert in the hall of the University of Latvia in November. It is meant to be similar to “Ave Sol” – that there are premieres, there is a lot of new music and a little basic repertoire. I listened to the recordings from the 25th anniversary concert of “Ave Sol”, where American music and English are played alongside the choir accompanied by a trio.
We will not have that kind of entertainment event, but there will be a serious choral music concert, where various new compositions will be premiered. I hope that in the summer I will get myself together and write a new composition.
Let’s wait! On January 20, the Choral Music Awards will be presented for the first time. You are one of the representatives of the jury, together with Ainārs Rubiķi, Jānis Ozola, Selga Menci and Orest Silabriedi. You can’t reveal anything at this point, but can you tell me if there were enough applications? And how was the evaluation? Did you come together in a group or was it an individual work?
It was a completely individual effort that resulted in results that we discussed afterwards – if there was a point of contention, like two votes against two votes. And then we had a discussion.
I like that we agreed – it is the first prize for amateur art. I am happy about it, because the traditions of the Song Festival show that we need such an award – we need to appreciate our artists.
Yes, there are a lot of them and they have a lot of competition. Despite what Kaspars Putniņš said about the Song Festival – that the result is not important and that Estonians have a cooler, sweeter feeling as long as we are only fighting for the result, I still think that the choral culture that exists in Latvia will not be so at a high level. In any case, the achievements of youth choirs, the finale that we see in the Song Festival Choir Wars, is like no other national choir wars in the world.
We will be waiting with interest for the day of the award presentation, because the representative of the Song Festival Society, Ints Teterovskis, has already informed us that there are 116 applicants in 9 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. We will find out on January 20. But, Andri, can you say that the chorus in your life is wave-like? At some point, retreat to the side of the orchestra, to the side of the opera, to the choir. What is your current status with choirs? Last summer, you made your debut as chief conductor on the stage of the Song Festival.
When I was [tikai] choir conductor and I work a lot with choirs, internally and maybe also genetically (my father used to lead a brass band in Saulkrasti), I had an internal inclination to be interested in instrumental music that is not related to the choir, although everything was prepared. But when I started working more with orchestras, I always had this look over my shoulder – how nice it was when I had my own choir, because there are again some other principles of how to act, how to think. And when there was an opportunity to become the manager of “Ave Sol”, it was a big challenge for me.
You have been here for ten years already.
And it was a great pleasure for me to have such an opportunity! At one time, “Ave Sol” was a target choir that many would have wanted to conduct, but Imants did very wisely – he never let anyone else conduct, he conducted alone, only in the end he invited his son Uldi to start conducting this choir. But the rest of us never made it to the choir – there was no such possibility.
2024-01-15 11:48:30
#artists #Conversation #conductor #Andri #Veismani
