A duel at Rachmaninoff Festival
The international festival White Lilac named after S. Rachmaninoff, established by the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra and its principal conductor and artistic director Alexander Sladkovsky, continues in Kazan on the stage of the Saydashev State Great Concert Hall. The night gave music lovers a meeting with wonderful pianists Ekaterina Mechetina and Philipp Kopachevsky. Read the details in the material of Realnoe Vremya.
Two heroes of the night
The Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra refutes the well-established myth that summer evenings at weekends are not for performances and concerts. There was no lack of audience at the concert. The reason for that — the Tatarstan Symphony Orchestra has long had, thanks to authority of the orchestra, its own audience, who is sure of quality of the musical product. Besides, the composition of performers — two stars in one night — impressed. Artistic Director of the festival Alexander Sladkovsky took care of such a unique composition.
The owner of model appearance, Ekaterina Mechetina, is one of the most popular pianists of the younger generation. It is no coincidence that over-demanding Rodion Shchedrin entrusted her with world premiere of his piano concert. The biography of Mechetina, thanks to talent and work, is smooth.
The Central Music School in Moscow, then the Moscow State Conservatory, a class of one of the best teachers Sergei Dorensky, winning places at international competitions, participation in prestigious festivals and work with top orchestras and conductors. Among them, of course, there is Maestro Sladkovsky, with whom Mechetina has performed more than once.
Cherry on the cake: Ekaterina is the owner of one of the most authoritative Russian awards in the field of art — the independent award Triumph. Certainly, the pianist has a lot of records, and this is directly related to the festival White Lilac, in Belgium she released her solo disc with recordings of works by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Another hero of the night — Philipp Kopachevsky. He is also a graduate of the Moscow State Conservatory and pupil of Sergei Dorensky. He is the winner of many international competitions, works with the most famous orchestras of the world, he is in demand and loved by the public. Kopachevsky is especially popular in Japan, here at the offer of MNK he recorded a disc with piano works by Frederic Chopin.
At the concert, at the conductor's desk there was a lady, which happens rarely. Participant of Rachmaninoff Festival Kristiina Poska, as the press characterizes her — is the winner of the ''expressive musical hands''. She began to study conducting at the Music Academy in Tallinn and completed her education at the Music Academy in Berlin. She is the winner of many international competitions of conductors.
Fairy tales of world nations
The concert began with an Overture to Glinka's Opera Ruslan and Lyudmila, where the fairy-tale nature was overflowing over the edge, the main plot lines of the opera were rushing before the eyes. Brave Ruslan and gentle Lyudmila, their mysterious enemies who build intrigues, but in the end the forces of good win and triumph. The play of the orchestra resembled confident, pastose brushstrokes from Vasnetsov's paintings, and if to relate the music to the painting, sometimes there was the tenderness of characters of great Nesterov.
Looking ahead, we will tell that the second part of the concert was a kind of arch with the beginning of the first part. It also used a fairy-tale plot taken by Rimsky-Korsakov as a basis — his suite Scheherazade was performed. Eastern bliss was shaded by passion, sometimes the performance of the orchestra resembled the intricate Arabic ligature.
But the highlight of the night was Mendelssohn's concerto for orchestra and two pianos, when the scene was dominated by Ekaterina Mechetina and Philipp Kopachevsky. It was a passionate dialogue between two extraordinary natures, a kind of duel, where there could be no winners and losers.
...In tsarist Russia there was such a rule in the Navy. A commander of a ship received the next rank after the following procedure. He suddenly disappeared, and the crew was alone on the ship for 24 hours, continuing to perform their duties. If there were no incidents, everything went on as usual, the commander was promoted. That meant that he raised a viable team.
In the absence of Alexander Sladkovsky, the orchestra performs at the same professional level as when he is at the control. This means that the maestro has brought up a good team.
