Gidon Kremer:
Constantly on the move
Comments on an artist’s life with changing homelands
Perhaps I am mistaken, maybe I have become too close to Gidon Kremer through wonderful, stimulating phases of cooperation, perhaps I overlook some of his activities far away from his central chamber music festival in Lockenhaus (about 80 km south of Vienna) but in many respects he appears to me to have – dare I say so? – matured into a father figure.
Gidon Kremer
In civic life he is already a father several times over – by this I mean his awareness of responsibility and care for “his” orchestra, for his children of the Kremerata Baltica and I also mean his fatherly observation and encouragement of compositional creativity. (It is understandable that he is particularly concerned with encouraging gifted artists from the Baltic countries).
Violinist Gidon Kremer comes from Riga and his life has a very individual influence on various levels and dimensions of the arts. He is of course still the great, undisputed soloist in what can be provocative and then affectionate dialogue with renowned orchestras and conductors. And of course he also exposes himself in traditional recitals with pianists of his choice who are not always easy but very good for conveying the artistic message. On the one hand he likes to perform chamber music in various ensembles and take a new approach to well known works in order to reveal what may have been previously unheard. He also likes to include the orchestra in its most varied manifestations wherever there is the slightest chance of bringing the Kremerata Baltica into his programmes, the ensemble of young, spirited musicians who in recent years have matured noticeably to become a world class ensemble.
When one observes Kremer between two rehearsals, at breakfast or his reactions during a concert – indeed as a listener – one experiences him as someone who is constantly brooding, putting things into order, exploring the potential, regarding the impossible as possible.
The worries about financing his orchestra, worries about the future of all musicians who have indeed confided in him as a kind of father and travel with him from place to place, not blindly trusting but with great warmth and belief in him – all this and study of new scores, checking what he already knows and has played frequently, is reflected in Gidon’s face and is revealed in what he has to say.
He is and remains a man for whom the seriousness of an artistic existence is inevitable, even though he is always the one who offers the others – his friends and colleagues – the possibility, the platform as it were, for gaining experience, coming together and having fun and enjoyment. This is what happens when he travels with his orchestra, with special chamber music formations among whom the great star shines the brightest in the wonderful old sense of a primus inter pares.
Peter Cossé
Chamber Concerts
Tuesday, 27 July, 7. 30 p.m.Mozarteum
Valentin Silvestrov
Postludio DSCH for soprano, piano, violin and violoncello
Dmitry Shostakovich
Seven Romances for soprano and piano trio, op. 127
Sonata for Violin and Piano in G major, op. 134
Version for violin and string orchestra by
Michail Zinman and Andrei Pushkarev
Chamber Symphony, op. 110a
Instrumentation of the String Quartet No. 8 in C minor,
op. 110 by Rudolf Barschai
Directed from the violin by Gidon Kremer
Violoncello Kristine Blaumane
Piano Andrius Zlabys
Soprano Julija Korpatschewa Kremerata Baltica
Thursday, 29 July, 7.30 p.m.Mozarteum
Alfred Schnittke
Postludio in memory of Shostakovich
Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 13 in B flat minor, op. 138
Alfred Schnittke
String Trio (1985)
Dmitry Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 15 in E flat minor, op. 144
Kremerata Baltica Quartet
Directed from the violin by Gidon Kremer
Violin II Dzeraldas Bidva
Viola Ula Ulijona
Violoncello Mara Sudraba
Telephone +43 (0) 662 8045-500
Telefax +43 (0) 662 8045-555
info@salzburgfestival.at
Titel and Salzburg-Impressions © Thomas Klinger, Munich