Mission and activities of the Hans Werner Henze Foundation
I fly to Yekaterinburg via Moscow, which is already beyond the Ural Mountains, on the Asian side of Russia, for the 5th Eurasia International Music Festival, where I arrive at 10:30 at night. The press officer of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra, Yulia Grioryeva, will pick me up and look after me during my stay in the city. Beforehand, I had already written a longer article (in English) about The Raft of the Medusa and a welcome word for the festival's programme book.
On 28.11. I attend the rehearsal of The Raft of the Medusa in the morning; the orchestra is well rehearsed, seems concentrated and wide awake, although it has just completed an exhausting European tour (including the Elbphilharmonie and the Vienna Musikverein). It is supported by a number of German colleagues with instruments not covered by the orchestra itself: Heckelphon, bass clarinet and Wagner tuba.
After the rehearsal, I meet the conductor Dmitri Liss, who regrets that the choir cannot physically make the transition from the realm of the living ( on the left with the wind instruments) to the realm of the dead ( on the right with the string instruments), as the space on the podium is too small. This was the same in 2017 in Freiburg and Hamburg with the SWR Orchestra and should not be established as a standard. I will probably have to take care of that in the future.
Afterwards, I meet the orchestra's artistic director, Alexander Kolotursky, in his office and we exchange gifts. He receives various CDs of Henze's music and two books I edited about the composer, and I receive CDs of the orchestra's traditional, classical and contemporary Russian music. The artistic director presents a video animation of the planned new concert hall, designed by the Iranian architect Zaha Hadid, who died in 2016, and which is to be inaugurated in two years' time. During our conversation, we agree that culture in general and music in particular are the most suitable means of creating, cultivating and deepening understanding and friendship below the radar of political and economic conflicts of interest.
Immediately afterwards, a press conference takes place, attended by the intendant, the conductor and myself as well as Pavel Krekov, the vice governor of the Sverdlovsk oblast, Yan Dribinsky from the Karsten Witt agency as translator, the upcoming conductor Oliver Zeffman from London and the artistic director of the orchestra, Rustem Khasanov, who organised the festival.
On the morning of 29 November, the dress rehearsal takes place, followed by a meeting with the German Consul General for the Ural-Sverdlovsk Oblast, Mathias Kruse, whose office on the 28th floor of the Visotsky Business Centre can only be reached after innumerable security checks. He tells us that there will be a German-Russian Year of Culture in 2020/21 and that the Foreign Ministry would finance numerous guest performances of German musicians in Russia, preferably those away from the big cities, and does not forget to tell us that he would not be attending the concert because he had to take care of his family.
In the evening, the festival opens solemnly with the concert, beginning with Richard Wagner's Tristan extract Vorspiel und Liebestod. During the interval, interpreted by Yan Dribinsky, I give an introduction to The Raft of the Medusa, performed in the second part of the concert, leaving deeply moved, appalled listeners, and I receive many expressions of gratitude for my introduction, which was obviously widely appreciated. As always on such occasions, the post-concert reception is an important opportunity for me to discuss future projects with the artists, in this case the conductor of the evening and the guest from London. The musicians are animated and surprised by the fact that modern music can achieve such success with the audience.
On Saturday morning, I have a little spare time to look around the city and go to the Boris Yeltsin Museum (Yeltsin is from Ekaterinburg) - so I can get a new perspective on the transformations that accompanied the end of the Soviet Union.
The afternoon is filled with interviews, given to the journalist Ilya Ovchinnikov from Kommersant magazine, Moscow, and the journalist from a radio station, also from Moscow. In the evening I attend the concert of the Georgian a cappella choir Mdzlevari, which performs highly complex sacred chants and folk music, and on Sunday I fly back to Rome via Moscow.
