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The New Horizons festival of contemporary music is being held at the Mariinsky Theatre for the fifth time and this year you are the curator. Patrick, what has changed in the festival’s concept?
- I suggested a programme to Valery Gergiev and he approved it. The maestro knows that I am very familiar with contemporary Russian music. And he thought that at the festival it would be a good idea to showcase composers who are well-known in the West but who as yet are rarely performed in Russia. The concept is for each concert to be a sensation, a new experience, a new discovery. I wanted to reach the audience on an emotional level and draw them into a very particular musical state. The time when you could run a festival as a mere series of concerts has passed. Today the audience demands a story. And I wanted to compile a programme based on a narrative principle – telling a story – and for Raskatov to be at its centre.
And what lies at the core of your history with the New Horizons festival?
- It’s an emotional journey that the audience undertakes. The first concert with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra is more intellectual and historical in terms of its character, the second is emotional and even spiritual, the third is utopian, it is the world transformed, the way it was meant to be, as Scriabin said. There will be a separate evening devoted to the panorama of contemporary American music. For that concert we have invited a group of American musicians. The next unique “story” will be a cello evening: three virtuoso cellists will be performing their favourite works by Bach and one work by a contemporary composer of their own choosing. Moreover, that concert will have certain elements of theatre in order to convey emotions on a deeper level. And lastly – at the close of the festival on 7 June – there will be a performance of works for cello by Lutosławski (this work is a real firework, a piece filled with incredible dynamism), Tüür and Korndorf as well as a monumental work by Tishchenko.
Why did you select Raskatov as the focal point for the festival and not, for example, Tishchenko?
- I consider Raskatov in particular to be a central figure in contemporary music – he has a language of his own and a clear voice that you can recognise instantly. I remember buying a recording of contemporary Russian music about twenty years ago, coming home and listening to it – and only Raskatov’s works made an indelible mark on my memory. All the composers included in this programme are people for whom I have the greatest respect. Apropos, Silvestrov also has an authentic language of his own, though his works have a different emotional idea. He is very melancholic. It’s another era – it’s like looking at old photographs where the colours have faded, they’ve become yellowed with time. The images are somewhat enshrouded in a mist.
People in St Petersburg are proud of the city’s composition school, but what do they think of our treasures in the West? Are Western audiences aware of contemporary music from St Petersburg and from Russia?
- Of course, you have something to be proud of, but at the same time I don’t like when St Petersburg composers are performed here – they should be performed abroad. So we have this little circle, wrapped up within itself – the world is immense and you have to push back the borders. The public needs new things, fresh things, otherwise there’s no interest in going to a concert. Otherwise there can be no dialogue with the rest of the world.
Which St Petersburg composers would you pick out in particular?
- To be honest, I believe that in St Petersburg there are two clear voices, two voices that are extremely polarised – there is Ustvolskaya’s dark voice and Knaifel’s light voice. It is these two that I would pick out from the current generation of the St Petersburg school whom I absolutely adore. Knaifel’s music is deeply religious. Ustvolskaya’s music is very “heavy,” it has almost no hope to it, and of course it bears the marks of her own personal story.
Do you think that the people of St Petersburg, so famed for their conservatism, need such a festival?
- The people of St Petersburg need it, as does the Mariinsky Theatre, a world-renowned institution. And as it’s an international theatre the festival, too, should be an event on the world stage.
It is on your shoulders that the task lies to expand the New Horizons festival. In Europe – and in Belgium in particular – is there any demand for contemporary music?
- I’ll give you one example – the story of how I met Gergiev. In 2007 I was directing a major festival in Belgium. We had, however, a serious problem selling tickets as Belgians are a disaster when it comes to going and listening to new music. Gergiev was one of those taking part, and we sold just two hundred tickets for his concert while we had attracted five hundred sponsors. I have to admit it was the most expensive concert in Belgian history. After the concert Gergiev and I spoke. And I decided that I had to invite him and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra to perform music by Silvestrov and Ustvolskaya. I have also included Tchaikovsky’s Cello Concerto in the new programme to tempt audiences. Gergiev had his doubts that my adventure would meet with success. But, can you imagine, not a single person left the auditorium – and that was with Silvestrov’s work lasting an hour. I then invited Gergiev a further two times, and the auditorium was always packed. Gergiev saw some striking changes and that was probably the reason why he invited me to organise the New Horizons festival. So, going by my experience, a great deal depends on how the music is served up, even if the audience knows nothing about it at all.
Speaking with Anastasia Grib
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