On 4 November as part of the III International Organ Festival Svetlana Berezhnaya will give a recital at the Concert Hall
– You often use lighting projection in your concerts. Wouldn’t you like to use lighting effects for this concert as well? What might it look like?
– Eight years ago I started using lighting and video projection in my programmes. It wasn’t a spontaneous decision. I have a degree as a psychologist, and I am involved in rather narrow fields in this area of science; “the psychology of stage mastery”, “the psychology of the perception of art”, “relaxation and distressing through art”. Developments in the niche of perceiving music accompanied by colour, light and the rhythms combining light rays and images is my own knowhow and it requires a special view from the artist – we normally design the programme together. We’ve done about nine programmes that are different in style, concept and purpose. In many programmes there are poetic and prosaic texts. Of course, I’d like to perform programmes I’ve already developed at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre. I hope that might be a possibility in the future.
– The hidden subject of this festival is arrangements for organ. Are there many arrangements in your repertoire? Do you produce them yourself?
– There are many arrangements for organ in my repertoire. I only perform my own arrangements. My transcriptions are used by organists from various countries. I am a member of the Union of Composers of Russia, and my approach to transcriptions is exactly that – as a composer. Not so long ago in an interview on Swiss Radio I spoke about this in detail. (There there is a particular interest in my arrangements.) It especially surprised one journalist that an arrangement for each organ is done again and anew, and so knowing the composer’s idea and the process of the performer’s imagination never stop.
– You are performing works by the contemporary composer Oleg Yanchenko again. What drew you to his music? Did you know the composer?
– I really love the music of Oleg Yanchenko. And not just because we were friends for years and years, and not just because he gave me several of his works (Fantasia for Organ and Metronome and the famous Meditation). Oleg Yanchenko’s music is very special and very heartfelt, it was written with a deep veneration for the organ as a sacred instrument. His music makes the greatest possible use of the organ’s abilities, as Oleg Yanchenko was one of the most successful organists in Russia. His music is serious, filled with philosophy and melodious. You just have to open your heart when you listen and your heart and soul when it’s being performed...
– Do you consider that the instrument leaves a mark on the character of the musician? Does any knowledge of the organ form any special personal characteristics or life views? If yes, could you give us some examples from your own experience?
– Of course, the organ affects your nature, it affects an organist’s entire attitude to life. I won’t speak of trivial matters that everyone knows about: that an organist should have a strong basis as a pianist, be well-educated and have a high level of intellect – that goes without saying...
As regards curious particularities... people of our profession... are “night birds” because basically in every church and cathedral there is only spare time to rehearse at night. I wrote about one such night in one of my books – the novella Night Flight, or a Tale about the Religious Organ. If I’m being serious, an organist is first and foremost a person of faith. The profession makes him grow spiritually and develop his entire life. Because you have to approach music – and the organ in particular – with pure thoughts and a pure soul.
An organist has to be a “man of the world”, in the international sense, the national sense and in the geographical sense. In Europe the organ is a church instrument (in every sense) whereas in Russia it is a concert instrument and in Asia, Africa and America it is both. The organist has to take all of that into account.
Generally, first and foremost you have to answer the question about who an organist actually is. I believe that they are happy and giving people in a state of love – for God, for the world, for people and for themselves.
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