“Sinfonietta Riga’s Season Finale Concert: Viennese Classics, Discoveries, and a Brilliant Soloist”

But along with worries there are also happy events. On June 3, the final concert of the season is expected, which highlights the main lines of the orchestra’s repertoire – Viennese classics, discovery and a brilliant soloist. Pianist Behzod Abduraimov’s return to “Sinfonietta Riga” is highly anticipated, this time in the music of Sergei Prokofiev, who was close to Normund since childhood.

The conductor also talks about the rich concert plans for the summer and the first concert together with the Estonian grandmaster Nemi Jervi at the Pärnu Festival, the opportunity to return to Gérard Grisé’s opus “Vortex Temporum” in the “Summer Evening Chamber Music” concert series at the “Zuseum” art center.

Ilze Medne: Let’s start with the good news: the professional collectives have united and founded the Association of Latvian Professional Music Collectives. It is wonderful that such a merger is happening, the goal is beautiful and necessary. At one time, in 2005, Vilnis Strautiņš expressed concern about how young musicians should be – whether and how many opportunities there are to work in Latvia, what opportunities there are to fully realize the education they have received. Has anything changed in this regard? Maybe the problems are different?

Normund Schne: Yes, it has definitely changed. But when it comes to the musicians’ relationship with the potential workplace, it largely depends on the musicians themselves – future young artists. Because when they enter the Music Academy, they should have a clear vision of what they want to achieve in this art with their instrument or voice or their knowledge, what is their place, what is their genre, where they feel best, what is music, what they like. Because in life you should do what you like, and not spend your time doing what is not really in your heart.

In competitions for musician positions in orchestras, including in the “Sinfonietta Rīga” chamber orchestra, we see really very good musicians, but they have one serious shortcoming – that is their attitude and knowledge of playing in an orchestra.

And I would like to draw attention to the fact that in 99% of cases, all musicians who learn the profession of a musician will have work related to either an orchestra or playing in an ensemble. Although I wish everyone a career as a soloist, it is impossible, because this market is so extremely saturated in the world that one really has to smile at great luck for a musician to be able to make a living as a soloist. Therefore, the work will mostly involve the orchestra. And this is where some problems begin. After the first round, where you have to play a Mozart concerto and a piece of your choice, there is a second round, where you have to play excerpts from orchestral parts.

Unfortunately, for some reason young musicians usually think that orchestral parts are of secondary importance, although in reality it is the most important thing for us, because it shows how much attention the musician pays to details and what is written in the notes, how he orients himself in the stylistics and musical language of the composer, how he manages simple things like rhythm and dynamics.

Too often we don’t hear that, unfortunately, so these young people may be experiencing their first disappointment of not passing the competition and making it to the second round.

How often is the change of musicians in the “Sinfonietta Rīga” chamber orchestra? Is new blood coming in regularly?

It is not a predictable process, because it is related to whether a musician decides to end his active career after years of honorable work, or whether someone has other interests. As in other orchestras, we also largely depend on the interests of our musicians, on their liking to play with us. Sometimes places become available, sometimes not for a long time. It very often happens that a musician decides to become a new mother, and then we can invite a new artist to work for a while.

Joining a new team is never easy. How is it in the “Sinfonietta Riga” orchestra? Are there cases when it seems that the musician fits professionally, but still there is some sort of orchestral circulation that not everyone can join?

It probably is. It was especially felt at the very beginning, when for the first three years no one really knew where they had come to: gradually it all became clear – what the requirements would be, what the repertoire would be, and life proved that not everyone likes it and not everyone has it for the feather. From the beginning, the change of musicians was very large, things were quite varied, when those who realized that they could not live without big, romantic symphonies, went to the symphony orchestra, some maybe to the opera, but when the “Sinfonietta” had formed its face and that it was felt at the concerts, those musicians and friends came who really want to work here and who have this music close to their hearts – who really want to play Haydn, Mozart, Schoenberg, Magnus Lindbergh and Latvian new music. Therefore, I would not blame anyone, because everyone has their own interests. I want to emphasize once again that in life you should do what you really like and that is close to your heart, then it is good for yourself and also good for others, and the overall result is undoubtedly only gained from it.

Therefore, we have gradually found a common language and a common path with those musicians who currently work in “Sinfonietta Riga”, and in principle I can put my hand on my heart and say that they are in the right place,

they like it here, they can realize themselves, their dreams here and be happy in the music we play together.

What is currently happening with the position of concertmaster of the orchestra?

It is open and there will be a competition for this place already in the fall.

On June 3, “Sinfonietta Rīga” will close the season: in the program we see the guiding principles that have been characteristic of the orchestra and which you try to follow as a matter of principle – Viennese classics, discovery and a brilliant soloist.

Yes, you put it together well now on the shelves, because I had not imagined it at all. But well – somehow it came out that way. Of course, it is related to our possibilities and what kind of music we can play, which is a little bit beyond the boundary line of our repertoire. Not because of the red line, but simply because the big romantic pieces are absolutely not suitable for our composition. I’m particularly excited about a couple of things about this season-ending concert: first, it will be Conlon Nankarov’s Etude for Mechanical Piano. A separate program could be created about this extraordinary person and his musical language! It will be an arrangement of a piece originally written for mechanical piano, which was actually his instrument, so there are things here that are borderline – I don’t know if a living person can hardly play it… But that was his goal – to focus on music, which exceeds human physical capabilities: in terms of speed, in terms of rhythmic complexity. Here you can draw parallels with Žergis Ligeti, about whom many say that his music is unplayable – but give it a try! And it turns out: if you try hard, it really is possible.

And the second thing about this concert, which brings me real joy, is that the wonderful pianist Behzods Abduraimovs is coming back to us. We have played with many good pianists, but his playing is truly amazing.

There are so many great pianists today, but there are not many musicians who communicate without words, who have such a palette of colors. It seems he can play anything – any repertoire – on the piano. At the piano he feels like a fish in water – both in Beethoven and Prokofiev his phenomenal technique and turns are simply fantastic. What are his tempos, what is his reaction, as well as his understanding of music – I look forward to our meeting with joy and impatience.

In the concert, he will also play Prokofiev’s Second Concerto, which is not often chosen by pianists because it has very, very high technical virtuoso demands. But what about the score for this work, isn’t it for a large orchestra?

Prokofiev, of course, doesn’t show the exact composition, and it’s always a bit of a reflection moment to weigh how it will sound in our version. But I think that the Second Concerto can be with a smaller composition, we increase our strength a little in such a repertoire, to balance the string group with four horns and three trombones, which, I must say, are used very tastefully and not excessively in this work, only in such special in places where they form harmonious and strong accents. Therefore, I think this job is absolutely suitable for our strengths.

You used to play it together with Juri Žvikova.

Oh yes, we do

with Juri Žvikov in the madness of youth we played quite a lot of unusual music for those times, which was new to us and we were very interested to delve into it and see what we could do with it on stage.

I am really grateful to Juri not only for the solo performances, but also for the fact that he was an integral keyboard soul in “Riga Chamber Musicians” for a long time, and in fact, several works would not have been possible without his participation. (..) His fantastic technique and understanding of modern music was an integral part of “Riga Chamber Musicians”.

How is it now to open this score again and Prokofiev’s music in general at the moment, how do you look at it?

Prokofiev has been one of the closest composers to me since childhood.

My mother studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, because she was not accepted in Riga due to the fact that her father was exiled to Siberia, and the Latvians, of course, were afraid.

But in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, she was received without any problems, and she told and showed me a lot about Russian musical culture. Prokofiev was one of those who has a colossally interesting biography and this challenging music, which, as a small child, really stuck with me at the time and seemed very colorful and captivating. Childhood impressions last a lifetime. We can’t erase them in any way, and I’m really not afraid of the word – I love Prokofiev’s music, and it will probably be for the rest of my life. (..)

But I still want to go back to Conlon Nancarrow. We unfortunately see him too rarely on concert hall posters, and his story about his life and music is really worth digging into a little bit.

He really knew what he was doing. It is known that he never listened to his compositions half-finished, which he programmed into a mechanical instrument on a roll of paper with holes, the holes trigger the necessary keys at the specified time, and due to the fact that there were no electronic sequencers and computers in music at the time, this was effectively the only way realize really crazy and unplayable ideas for humans. His complexity looks very understandable and simple on paper. Listening, of course, it’s phenomenal. And the étude we’re going to play gradually pulls the listener in, and when all these layers meet at the end…

I listened to it just yesterday, and I really laughed hysterically because it is so exciting and so extremely impossible that a “normal” person, let’s say a pianist, really can’t do it. (..)

Nankarov, like Ligeti, was inspired a lot by jazz music, by free rhythms, by bebop, by all those experts who worked alongside them at that time, so I see a lot of parallels with jazz music.

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What will the summer of “Sinfonietta Riga” be like? Will there be a Song Festival, or will there be Pärnu?

After the end of the season, we will have two weeks of vacation, followed by the Song Festival Sacred Music Concert. Then we go to Pärnu. I can’t say that it is a traditional trip, but more or less we are expected there, we feel it – with respect and love.

This time there will be a special concert together with Nemi Jervi. We are looking forward to this meeting, because he is undoubtedly a legendary person. I had the good fortune, while still playing oboe in the orchestra, to play music with him at plus ten degrees right here in Riga Cathedral, in the performance of Bach’s Matej Passion. But my younger colleagues have not met him.

Therefore, we are really looking forward to the second week of July. After that, there will be the Early Music Festival and another two weeks off, and then August will start with chamber music at the “Zuzeum” art center, we have another proper recording process ahead of us there. And there is another project that I must not talk about. And then the opening of the season will be here. We will open it together with accordionist Ksenia Sidorova, with a work written especially for her, which will also be followed by a recording, because Ksenia has an idea for a new disc. Therefore, this concert is related to the recording project. This will be followed by a chamber music festival.

But I have to apologize that I really can’t talk about our next season right now, because basically our financial situation is extremely slippery right now, I would even like to say – like never before.

Therefore, we cannot talk much about events in the next season, which are not clear whether they will take place at all. This is the first time in our history that there are two concerts that may have to be canceled. In general, the situation is getting worse every year and our calls to revise the budget have so far resulted in zero response from our leading institutions. I don’t want to throw stones, but frankly, a fact is a fact.