Interviews with Olli Mustonen, Barry Douglas, Daniil Trifonov, Rustam Muradov and Rem Urasin

Olli Mustonen (the biography)

Olli Mustonen

You are taking part in the International Piano Festival for the first time, though this will be your third performance at the Concert Hall – what do you think of the hall itself and its audiences? Do you have to make any personal alterations to suit the venue?
In my opinion the Concert Hall has the best acoustics of all the modern halls in which I have performed. Maybe that sounds rather grandiose but I’m telling you the truth. Of course, I adore performing in older venues with their centuries-old histories and their ghosts – in semidarkness if you like. But I must admit that this hall already has a spirit of its own, a unique atmosphere, its own ghosts – thanks to the incredible charisma of maestro Gergiev and the concerts and performances that have taken place in the course of the hall’s so far short but very rich and intense existence. It gives me the most immense pleasure to perform here. It’s also always a pleasure to come to St Petersburg. Finnish people and my own family in particular have a great deal in common with this city and its culture. My grandmother, for example, was from Vyborg… Right now I’m reading Prokofiev’s diaries – he describes what it was like when as a student he would go to Terijoki, Imatra and Helsinki, and all of that is close to my heart…

For you, as a pianist, composer and conductor, what does the Russian school signify?
It’s incredibly important, the piano school in particular. I studied under Eero Heinonen, who in turn studied in Moscow together with Bashkirov – I was always hearing stories about him from a very young age. Moreover, I was also greatly influenced by recordings by Horowitz, Rachmaninoff, Levin and, in particular, Gilels. Amongst my own contemporaries Grigory Sokolov is my idol.

What do you think is the common factor in the performing style of such different pianists who at times present such completely unpredictable interpretations which characterise the Russian school in particular even to this day – is it its breadth of scale, the freedom of the performances, the particular way the sounds are produced, the way the keys are touched, the way the “voice” is produced?
We could speak about the Russian school for hours; there is no separate “recipe” or rule, although if I were to try and formulate my own feelings in a single phrase it would involve the word “gravitation”, without which music cannot exist. For example, with Gilels you have a very pronounced sense of gravitation. And this is all a technique that you can learn. Gravitation exists whether we want it or not, but it is better to accept it as a friend and be able to get along with it. For me that is, arguably, one of the fundamental principals of performing.

Was the choice of the concert programme for the festival influenced by your own plans in general or did you confirm it in advance with Valery Gergiev?
I just made the proposal to the maestro and he willingly agreed. Moreover, performing Rodion Shchedrin’s music is incredibly special. I have been in regular contact with both him and his wonderful wife Maya Plisetskaya for fifteen years. Shchedrin even dedicated his Fifth Piano Concerto to me. I speak to him every week on the phone. And it’s a pleasurable worry to perform his music in his presence in this stunning venue in St Petersburg together with Gergiev.

Barry Douglas (the biography)

Barry Douglas

Barry, as a pianist, conductor and organiser of two festivals, in Ireland and Northern Ireland, what do you think of the International Piano Festival and what is it like to take part in it?
Here everything is brilliantly prepared, it’s like a well-oiled precision machine, and the participants are all from different generations, each with a character and reputation of their own. Everyone – Russian musicians and foreign ones alike – needs this kind of exchange, and of course the public does too. Moreover, the festival is very intensive. Unfortunately as yet I have not had the chance to hear the other pianists, but during breaks between rehearsals I’ve had the chance to speak with Olli Mustonen and Sergei Babayan.

This festival literally takes St Petersburg audiences by storm, over the course of several days broadening and expanding audience perceptions, while at your festivals in Ireland and Northern Ireland the emphasis seems to lie more on interactive methods…
The festivals in Ireland and Northern Ireland are aimed at discovering and supporting young talent; young musicians – under the age of twenty six – take part and then we assist them and organise concerts. There are performances and master-classes, but the most important thing is the exchanges that take place informally during coffee breaks.

In the 21^st century it’s hard to speak of national schools – German, French, Russian – and international festivals actually demonstrate international cultural influences, but yet are the fundamental principals that form the basics of training still reflected in the performing mentality?
You know, I would generally recognise a Russian pianist in most cases, although the Russian school has evolved significantly in recent years, especially since the fall of the Iron Curtain. Of course, the borders are being evened out and we are learning from one another. But the Russian school is incredibly powerful, as is the entire Russian approach to culture that has had such a stunning effect on world music. And the surprising thing is that Russian teachers teaching abroad don’t teach the way they teach in Russia… For me Russian pianists stand apart; I knew Sviatoslav Richter and I worked with Yevgeny Malinin. I am great friends with Andrei Gavrilov and was a close friend of the late Shura Cherkassky too.

And is St Petersburg a new citadel or a new friendly city for you?
In St Petersburg I have appeared as a conductor before, so I can imagine the audience! I am very familiar with the Great Hall of the Philharmonic, where I have performed with the orchestra. But this will be my first appearance at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, and as a pianist to boot! I have known Valery Gergiev for many years now. And it was just very recently that he suggested I take part in this festival. The Concert Hall is totally unique, you are amazed by the utter silence it possesses. In every other hall there is always some noise, the air conditioning, some squeaks and scrapes, but here you have the silence that is essential to focus on the music, to concentrate, to muster your energy and not be distracted by your surroundings. It’s like a bare canvas for an artist. Despite the fact that this is far from a chamber venue you have that incredibly rare sensation of intimacy… And here, in St Petersburg, I absolutely wanted to play something Russian, and so I chose Musorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition for my recital. I generally play this piece twice a year, albeit each time in a different way, looking at it from a new standpoint.

Daniil Trifonov (the biography)

Daniil Trifonov

You have just given a dazzling performance of Liszt’s First Piano Concerto; the auditorium literally burst into a frenzy of applause, and if it hadn’t been for the length of the marathon it seemed that the audience would have kept calling you back for curtain calls till morning. What are your impressions of the festival and the concert, and did you feel a response?
The&sp;International Piano Festival is an incredibly significant event in world music. Yesterday I heard an amazing performance by Nelson Freire – I think he is a phenomenal musician. I’m also under the tremendous impression of the power with which he tackled Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto. I was delighted! Regarding my own performance, it was Liszt’s concerto and despite the brief rehearsal time I believe we found the right tone. Yesterday and today the audience really inspired me; it literally seemed to take wings during the performances… The&sp;piano here is magnificent – it has a very beautiful tone indeed.

Tell us about your plans for the future.
I have a lot of work, my schedule is crazy. Right now I am working with Valery Gergiev on a recording of Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto, but I can’t yet say what the release date will be. For January 2012 I have a tour planned with the Wiener Symphoniker under Gergiev in Central Europe where we will be performing Tchaikovsky’s First Concerto once again. And I really hope to return to St Petersburg soon.

Rustam Muradov (the biography)

Rustam Muradov

Rustam, you are now a third-year student at the Moscow Conservatoire, before that you were at the St Petersburg Conservatoire and prior to that at the Ten Year School, it must be both interesting and demanding to come back to St Petersburg in a new capacity?
For me, taking part in the festival has been an amazingly positive experience. I was performing at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre for the first time, though I have made one recording there with the Chamber Ensemble, so you could say I have tried out the acoustics, but that didn’t take long and it was rather a long time ago. The&sp;acoustics are amazing here. It’s great that the auditorium is completely clad in wood. I don’t notice anything here, nothing distracts me, and even the tiniest nuances of the piano can be heard by the audience. To tell the truth I don’t often get to perform in such a venue… When you’re in the auditorium as a member of the audience you feel only emotions and when you understand that tomorrow you will be performing with this orchestra and under such a brilliant musician as Valery Gergiev, you feel very different emotions – and, of course, a sense of anticipation.

Why did you relocate to Moscow? Were you drawn by the atmosphere of the capital or a certain teacher or is it just that there are more opportunities for musicians there?
In St Petersburg I discovered real music. I have spent many years of intensive study here. I came here at the age of fourteen from Ossetia; I picked up a great deal myself and I was also assisted by Marina Wolf. Then I studied in the class of Alexander Sandler at the Conservatoire until my third year – at that time the young pianists were all of a very high standard. It’s probably not right to compare Moscow and St Petersburg – I don’t see any special difference between the two schools. The&sp;Moscow one may be more open and daring, and the ambitions there may be greater, while here it’s more modest and cultured. But everything depends on who your teacher is and the educational “stamp” they leave on you. At present I have the unique Ruvim Ostrovsky as a teacher – he is also a friend. And if it hadn’t been for him I might have gone abroad. But why would I need Paris when I’ve found a teacher, the right teacher for me, whom I never have to leave?

You have spent much of your life in St Petersburg – for a pianist is that a sign of quality, a kind of brand?
Yes; you know, when I went to Australia for a competition and began rehearsing Tchaikovsky’s concerto the first thing the Australians noticed, even without them actually saying so, was that I was a “typical Russian pianist.” Typically, Russian pianists are identifiable by their powerful playing, their mastery of the forte, by their strong hands and openness. We are not noted for Viennese modesty or French charm, although today we should have that too. But the Russian school is already in our blood and that is how we see the world.

How do pianists’ exchanges of experience occur in general and at the festival in particular?
Unfortunately on this occasion I haven’t had the opportunity to hear any of the other pianists, and anyway that’s distracting, although of course all the musicians are wonderful. I spotted Daniil Trifonov rushing past. I managed to have a chat with Olli Mustonen in the car; we talked about pianos – Italian ones, German ones, French ones, Austrian ones and so on. It was really very nice to see that some of our preferences matched up. We compared a Steinway to a Mercedes and a Fazioli to a Ferrari… On the other hand, exchanges – albeit one-sided – normally take place through recordings.

Whom do you listen to most – your contemporaries or pianists of the last century?
I love the old European pianists and those who left Russia in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, for example Vladimir Horowitz. And also Mikhail Pletnev with his individual, madly interesting interpretations as a man who thinks, a philosophising pianist. Unfortunately, however, he no longer performs. I am also very attracted by the performing style of Yuja Wang – a young pianist and, untypically for Asians, she plays with heart and soul. And, of course, Grigory Sokolov… I would love to talk to him, but then gods are never within reach.

Rem Urasin (the biography)

Rem Urasin

How are you perceived by St Petersburg audiences as opposed to audiences abroad – for example in Warsaw where you performed music by Chopin, their national hero?
I can say that it’s always a challenge to perform Chopin in Poland, but the response was very warm and they saw Chopin in my performance. With regard to St Petersburg, I find that more difficult to answer because your city has a completely different place in my heart and it’s something I can’t explain logically. Although my life has settled into its own routine, here I feel that I am where I should have been. There is an unconditional mutual understanding with the audience – the people of St Petersburg and I speak the same language and that is something I greatly value.

Is there some kind of secret key that you always use to unlock the door into the world of Chopin’s imagery?
One key is not enough. I have been playing Chopin since I was a child, and not just most but all of his works, trying to live his life from the first to the last note in this cycle with its chronological structure. Chopin was such an amazing composer on a universally psychological and emotional scale.

Don’t you get tired of Chopin?
Probably the people who featured in his life got tired of him as a man, but it is impossible to get tired of Chopin’s music!

Are there any universal rules in winning over the public?
I don’t adhere to the principle that you have to take the audience by force or storm. I believe that the most important thing is to be sincere and open with the public as well as with yourself. You have to remember why you come onstage. There has to be some reverence for the works you are performing as well as a sense of your needs as a performer. For example, thousands of people go to see Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, and the artist has direct contact with the public without any intermediaries. But composers’ works without a performer to perform them quite simply don’t exist. And you have to remember the vital mission placed on a performer’s shoulders. These geniuses need us, and that makes us very lucky. That very thought alone gives you a great deal.

And what difficulties and problems do pianists encounter today?
At present some come onstage for other reasons – it’s a time of mercantile interests and show business. There has, as yet, fortunately been no collapse, but there is a distinct feeling that the performing arts are facing critical times. I think that’s the most serious problem, and you have to start by educating yourself. I try to do what I can. I know many such musicians – musicians who do care – and that means there is still hope, and this festival confirms that. I can only envy you – there are so many brilliant events at the Mariinsky Theatre, which – speaking objectively – is defining St Petersburg’s cultural life.

Speaking with Anastasia Grib